The Locomobile Company of America was a pioneering American automobile manufacturer founded in 1899. It was one of the earliest car manufacturers in the advent of the automobile age. For the first two years after its founding, the company was located in Watertown, Massachusetts. Production was transferred to Bridgeport, Connecticut, in 1900, where it remained until the company’s demise in 1929. The company manufactured affordable, small steam cars until 1903, when production switched entirely to internal combustion-powered luxury automobiles. Locomobile was taken over in 1922 by Durant Motors and eventually went out of business in 1929. All cars ever produced by the original company were always sold under the brand name Locomobile.
Locomobile began by producing steam cars. The steam Locomobiles were unreliable, finicky to operate, prone to kerosene fires, had small water tanks (getting only 20 mi {32 km} per tank), and took time to raise steam; Rudyard Kipling described one example as a “nickel-plated fraud”. Initially, they were offered with a single body style only, an inexpensive runabout at $600*.
The 1904 internal combustion Locomobile Touring Car had a tonneau, space for five passengers, and sold for $4500**, quite a change from the low-priced steam buggies.
The most important model for the marque became the impressive Model 48. Introduced in 1919, it had a very conservative, perhaps dated, concept. It had a conventional but huge chassis with a wheelbase of 142 in. Its engine was a straight-six with side valves; cylinders were still cast in pairs and it featured a nonremovable cylinder head. Displacement was 525 in3, giving it a 48.6-hp tax rating by North American Chamber of Commerce. Quality of materials and workmanship were impeccable and among the best in the world. Such was its pricing: A typical open-body cost about $10,000*** when the average Model T Ford Phaeton cost about $300.
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