Maxwell is one of those early car brands that evokes imagined memories of American life a century ago, when women wore bustles and men wore spats, and the machine age was cranking up.
The Pick of the Day is a 1913 Maxwell Model 25, a 106-year-old car that is “a wonderful survivor with believed 14,486 miles on odometer with all original components,” according to the Volo, Illinois, dealer advertising the antique on ClassicCars.com.
The Maxwell is a handsome five-seat touring car with a folding top for clear weather and side curtains for foul, nickel-bezel headlights, diamond-tuft leather seats stuffed with horse hair and a rear-mounted spare tire.
The body is in excellent condition with good panel fit, the seller says, repainted red and black in the 1950s and with some recent touch up. The radiator is new and the wood-spoke wheels look recent, the seller adds.
The hand-cranked engine starts easily, according to the seller, and the car runs and drives very well.
The Maxwell-Briscoe Company was founded in 1904 in Tarrytown, New York, and was successful enough to be considered part of the Big 3, along with Ford and General Motors. In 1913, the year this car was built, the company was reorganized as the Maxwell Motor Co., and moved to Highland Park, Michigan.
The company focused on producing high-volume everyday cars, and the Model 25 was introduced as its low-price entry to compete against bargain-basement vehicles from Ford, Oldsmobile and Brush. The Model 25 had a base price of $695.
Maxwell faded out after the First World War and in 1925, was acquired by Walter P. Chrysler to become part of his new Chrysler Corporation, and thus remaining a member of the Big 3.
This interesting piece of automotive antiquity is offered for $21,998.
To view this listing on ClassicCars.com, see Pick of the Day.
