The White Saga Auto Review

Here we have the story of an American family which began its industrial life as a successful manufacturer of sewing machines. At the end of the 19th century the three sons of the White family branched out into the new and exciting world of motor vehicles. Their chosen method of propulsion was steam, and White sold more steam cars and vans than any other US maker. White was equally successful after turning to internal combustion engined vehicles from 1910 onwards, and car production soon ceased, replaced by trucks and buses. Rollin White, the inventor among the three brothers, left to set up his own company, making Cletrac crawler tractors and Rollin cars, also described here. In 1932 White took over the Indiana Truck Corporation, and moved its operations to White’s home city of Cleveland, Ohio. Sterling was the next acquisition, in 1934, after which White concentrated on developing its ranges and contributing to the US war effort. In 1951 White took over sales and service for the Freightliner truck range, then went on the acquisition trail again, taking over leading US truck brands Autocar (1953), Reo (1957) and Diamond T (1958). The latter two marques were combined as Diamond Reo in 1967. 

In the same year White created a new brand, Western Star, aimed at ‘West coast’ truck buyers and took over Euclid from General Motors, in an effort to boost White’s share of the dump truck market. All of this activity proved to be unmanageable, and White began to divest some of these divisions, selling Diamond Reo in 1971, and ending the Freightliner agreement in 1974. 

It was not enough, however, and by 1981 White was bankrupt; Volvo AB acquired most of the US assets of White Motor Corporation, but the Canadian assets, including Western Star, went to Canadian buyers. Volvo continued to market White and Autocar badged vehicles in the 1980s, but thereafter everything was badged as a Volvo. 

All of the interlocking stories of the vehicle marques mentioned above are described in the retelling of ‘The White Saga’ in this publication.