Additional info: Abbott was a victim of over-enthusiasm and overreach. Established in Detroit in 1909, the Abbott Motor Car Company produced cars combining both the company name and city of manufacture for seven years. The car was completely conventional, but some of the things it did were not. Among these was the 100,000 mile trek of the Abbott-Detroit “Bull Dog” that Dr. Charles G. Percival, editor of Health Magazine, drove around the borders of the United States and from coast to coast three times “over the vilest roads this country possesses.” The company entered numerous events in the stock category, taking the Philadelphia Trophy at Fairmont Park in 1910, and winning the Algonquin (Illinois) hill climb in 1911. In 1916 the decision was made to consolidate manufacture in an expensive plant in Cleveland that was leased for 10 years. Most cars built there were simply called Abbotts, though the name Abbott-Detroit continued to be used occasionally.
