Home Part 2: The Last 100 years 8: Car Manufacturers by Country 8.15 United States 8.15.5. General Motors History of General Motors Motor Cars / Automobiles 8.15.5. General Motors General Motors was founded in 1908 as a holding company for the Buick Motor Company. William C Durant, who controlled Buick in 1908, quickly expanded General Motors by acquiring other vehicle manufacturers. Oldsmobile (1897) became part of GM in 1908. The following year, in 1909, General Motors acquired Cadillac (1902), Elmore (1893), Oakland (1907), plus some others. Note: The date in brackets indicating when the company was formed. Durant left GM in 1910 and joined up with Louis Chevrolet, founding the Chevrolet company in 1911. In 1916 Durant bought a majority share holding in GM and rejoined the company as its president in 1917. Chevrolet become part of GM that year. Other companies that became part of GM in the 1920s include Vauxhall (1903) in 1925 and Opel (1902) in 1929. To overcome competition by the various manufacturers that now made up General Motors, Durant designated each to produce a different class of car. The Oakland name was dropped in 1931 and the Oldsmobile name in 2004. In 1953 GM produced its fifty millionth car; a Chevrolet BelAir model. In 2007 GM consisted of: Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Hummer, Opel, Pontiac, Saab, Saturn and Vauxhall. It was also affiliated with GM Daewood, Suzuki and Wuling.   [ Back ]