The Auburn Automobile Company was an American automotive manufacturer that traces its roots to 1900. Auburn was created by Frank and Morris Eckhart, the sons of the founder of the Eckhart Carriage Company. With their father's blessing, the Eckhart brothers founded Auburn, and began to build small qualities of single and double cylinder cars such as the Model C. WWI negatively affected Auburn, and in 1919, the company was bought by a Chicago based investment group. Models such as the Auburn Six were unable to turn the company's fortunes, and it was sold again in 1925, this time to E.L. Cord who turned to company around and created highly regarded models such as the Auburn Eight and Auburn Twelve. The success was short lived, with the Great Depression eventually causing Auburn to close in 1937.