Sales of Duesenberg automobiles declined during the Great Depression due to dwindling numbers of buyers for luxury cars. The last Model J car was produced in 1937, five years after Fred Duesenberg's death. Only 481 of the cars had been built by the time the Duesenberg company ceased production. Fred's brother and business partner, Augie Duesenberg, continued in the automobile business as a consultant to the Auburn Automobile Company and developing racecars with Ab Jenkins. Augie Duesenberg died on January 18, 1955, at the age of seventy-six.