Hudson-Terraplane's Ruggedness Runs

Back in the first decades of the automotive industry, carmakers used their vehicles for all sorts of publicity stunts to get customers into the showrooms.  In addition to racing, endurance runs demonstrating the reliability of the cars were popular.  The Hemmings blog posted an interesting item about the Hudson-Terraplane Ruggedness Runs from the 1930's, explaining the concept and noting their apparent effectiveness. 

As we see in a few contemporary newspaper articles, Hudson planned about 20 such Ruggedness Runs across the country, each using a 1934 Terraplane already in the hands of a customer, sent out for two weeks straight on pre-selected circuits (or “Ruggedness Routes”) of 1,500 to 1,800 miles. . . .

The Ruggedness Runs certainly worked in attracting newspaper coverage as well as in selling newspaper ads right underneath the coverage and in attracting customers to Hudson-Terraplane showrooms. They very well could have also been instrumental in causing Terraplane sales to jump from 56,804 in 1934 to 70,323 in 1935.