Gordon Buehrig crossed paths with E.L. Cord in the summer of 1929 when Buehrig was hired as chief stylist at Duesenberg. Only 25 years old at the time, he had accumulated design and coachbuilding experience at a variety of body and auto companies, including Harley Earl's newly-created Art & Colour Section at General Motors. Between 1929 and 1933 Buehrig created many of the striking body designs for which Duesenberg became famous. In 1933, with the Depression taking its toll on super luxury cars like Duesenberg, Buehrig returned to General Motors. Here he participated in one of the design competitions Harley Earl periodically held to stimulate the creativity of his stylists.

Far different from the standard look of the time, Buehrig's design had a coffin-shaped nose and horizontal hood louvers that contrasted sharply with the upright grilles that were then typical. The hood, coupled with flowing pontoon fenders and hidden headlights, put the car on the cutting edge of the streamlined look. Buehrig's fellow stylists thought his design the winner, but Earl and the other GM executives placed Buehrig's radical car last. Later in 1933 Duesenberg president Harold Ames invited Buehrig back to style a "baby Duesenberg" intended to fill the price gap between the awesomely expensive Model J Duesenberg and the middle-priced Auburn. Buehrig's GM design contest entry became the basis of the "baby Duesenberg" design.

Cord Lycoming engine

The running prototype of the new Duesenberg was finished by April of 1934. But in July, the parameters changed. The new car would not be a Duesenberg but a Cord. In keeping with the legacy of the L-29 it would be front wheel drive and powered by a newly designed V8 engine from Lycoming. Working furiously, Buehrig's small team completed the design by December. The next six months would demonstrate just how close to disaster the Cord Corporation actually was. Lack of money caused the new car to be shelved again, but by July of 1935 the sale of kitchen cabinets made by one of Cord Corporation's divisions provided just enough cash flow to revive the project. The bad news was that E.L. Cord wanted the car introduced at the New York Auto Show on November 2, 1935. Buehrig himself later summed up the consequences of this decision:

"This left three months and 26 days to pick up the Cord program where it had been stopped the first of January and to build and test a prototype, complete tooling and have production cars ready for the show. It was an impossible task, and although it was accomplished (after a fashion) it was not done well and the results were so financially crippling that it eventually put the company out of business.

 The cars that went to the auto show were hand-built but not drivable because the tooling for the new four-speed transmissions was not ready. Nevertheless, the stunning styling was the hit of the show, and Cord salesmen took numerous orders. Alas, the factory was not ready to fill them. New Cords did not come off the line until February 15, 1936, and even these had numerous bugs. Transmissions unexpectedly popped out of gear; engines overheated; front universal joints were excessively noisy. Eventually these problems were worked out, but the damage had been done. The fabulous Cord never made a profit, and production ended in August 1937. Auburn itself filed for bankruptcy in December, and it was all over.

In the end the everything conspired against the success of the Cord. The long delay between introduction and production, the early mechanical problems, the precarious financial state of Auburn itself all made potential buyers leery. The Cord's price further reduced the pool of potential customers. A good $500 more than Cadillac's most popular series, and it was in the vicinity of Packard's Super 8. But even that market was shrinking. Buehrig's Cord could not save E.L.'s empire, but automotive enthusiasts would come to regard it as one of the great classics of all time.