Buick Marquette

The Buick Marquette was a series of passenger cars that Buick built in the United States for the 1930 model year only. Because every model number in the series began with a 3, the cars are informally also called the Series 30. The Marquette was the entry-level Buick of its year. Its side-valve inline six-cylinder engine, which came from sister company Oldsmobile, displaced 3,488 cubic centimetres and produced 67.5 horsepower (50 kilowatts), smaller than the engines in the larger Series 40, and its wheelbase was four inches shorter. Prices ran from 990 to 1,060 US dollars, about 270 dollars below the Series 40. Power reached the rear wheels through a single-plate dry clutch and a three-speed gearbox with a centre shift lever, and all four wood-spoke wheels had mechanical brakes. Body styles included a two-door roadster, a four-door phaeton, a business coupe, a sport coupe and two- and four-door sedans. When Buick moved to eight-cylinder engines across its range in 1931 the Marquette no longer fit, and it was dropped after one model year and 30,570 cars, half of them four-door sedans.