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.