Most automobile manufacturers were still in clover in 1928, which was the calm before the Great Depression’s storm. Pierce-Arrow, of Buffalo, New York, was not, and it remained in poor financial health. Clearly, new models were needed, but with little money available for their development, the short-term solution was a “business alliance” with cash-rich Studebaker, whose president, Albert Erskine, had long desired to offer a true luxury model.

Officially called a “merger,” the deal that the two firms worked out was actually more of an acquisition of Pierce-Arrow by Studebaker. Nonetheless, Studebaker put its money fully behind a new Pierce-Arrow model, enabling the development of the company’s first eight-cylinder engine, a replacement for its long-lived six, in the process.

The new engine, which debuted in 1929, was a breakthrough, as it weighed some 100 pounds less than the big T-head six that it replaced, and it offered 25 percent more power from a 12 percent smaller displacement. It was even less expensive, with prices beginning at $2,775; this allowed for Pierce-Arrow quality to be offered to a broader market in no fewer than 12 body styles. Sales of the company’s cars reached 8,000 units in 1929; sadly, that was an accomplishment never to be repeated.

The Model 125 Coupe offered here, a rarely seen style from the first year of the Pierce eight, is a very nice older restoration in mint green, with black fenders and moldings, a black vinyl top with landau bars, and a button-tufted tan cloth interior. Apparently driven and enjoyed with regular maintenance since, it is still filled with fine details, including the wind wings, a golf bag door on the passenger side, nickel-finished door handles and window cracker, and a sun visor and windshield wiper. Body-color wire wheels shod in blackwall tires provide a subtle period-correct accent. Mileage shown is 87,059, which may well be from new.

Acquired by Mr. Miller several years ago, this Pierce would be an ideal choice for CCCA CARavans and tours with the AACA and VMCCA, to which it would no doubt add a welcome touch of class, as only a Pierce-Arrow can.