In the United States in the 1920s, automobile manufacturers, including Chandler, Marmon, Gardner, and Auburn, began using straight-eight engines in cars targeted at the middle class. Engine manufacturer Lycoming built straight-eight engines for sale to automobile manufacturers, including Gardner, Auburn, and Locomobile. Lycoming was purchased by Auburn owner Errett Lobban Cord, who used a Lycoming straight-eight in his front-drive Cord L-29 automobile, and had Lycoming build the straight-eight engine for the Duesenberg Model J, which had been designed by the Duesenberg brothers for the Cord-owned Duesenberg Inc. The automobile manufacturers within the Cord Corporation, comprising Auburn, Cord, and Duesenberg, were shut down in 1937. Lycoming continues to this day as an aircraft engine manufacturer.