Detailed GM Historical
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One of the World’s largest automobile manufacturing companies was founded on September 16, 1908. Its
creator, William Durant, was a man who just five years before had known nothing about automobiles yet
was convinced of their future importance. Once he became an automaker, Durant - energetic, ingenious,
farsighted, and a natural salesman - began to assemble a group of companies intended to build a range of
cars in every style and price group. It was primarily because of his ability that General Motors grew to be
the complex and highly successful organization it is today.
We invite you to peruse our Timeline to get an overview of our company’s corporate milestones, our
accomplishments and our industry firsts.
Detailed GM Historical
Timeline
1893-1907 • Little Buick Becomes a Big Success
In 1899, Scottish-born David Buick turned from plumbing to making engines
and went into business as an automobile manufacturer. By 1903, though,
his Buick Motor Company was in financial trouble. In an effort to locate new
investors, he dispatched Buick engineer Walter Marr to the little town of Flint,
Michigan to see if he could persuade the partners of a prosperous carriage
and wagon maker there to take a stake in the company.
The first Buick: David Dunbar Buick, incorporated the
BuickMotor Copmany and built his first car in Flint, MI.
While one of the carriage makers went for a ride with Marr in his car
and immediately learned to drive it himself, the other partner, Billy
Durant,wouldn’t so much as look at it. Undaunted, Marr drove the car back
and forth in front of Durant’s house that evening, and the next morning he
returned. Impressed by Marr’s persistence, Durant this time agreed to go for
a ride. Only then did Durant realize that Marr wasn’t trying to sell him the car
– he was trying to sell him the company.
Durant was never one to pass up a business opportunity – he collected companies the way somebody’s pack-rat uncle
might collect broken lawn mowers and obscure gadgets. He borrowed a Buick for three months, tested it exhaustively,
and then took over the company and set it back on its feet. Although he had no engineering experience, within three
years Durant had raised annual production from 37 cars to 8,000.
Part of the explosion in production came from the McLaughlin Motor Car Company in Ontario, which began designing
and building cars with Buick engines in 1907.
Detailed GM Historical
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1908 • Genesis of a Giant
In the early days of auto manufacturing, car makers were going in
and out of business almost as fast as the seasons changed, and
Buick’s Billy Durant had doubts about the staying power of any
manufacturer producing only one model line. All it would take to put
such a company under was one year of poor sales. Durant reasoned
that a consortium would buffer companies against the vagaries of
the market. Also, a consortium’s production volume would mean
members could manufacture their own parts, ensuring an adequate
supply at the right price.
Durant’s plan was to exchange stock in a holding company for stock
in the three other major manufacturing companies, but he had no luck
in selling his idea – Henry Ford and Ransom Olds wanted cash, not
stock. Durant, however, soon found that the Olds Motor Company, which had sold up to 6,500 Oldsmobiles a year
since 1901, was in trouble. After buying 75 percent of Olds stock, Durant incorporated the General Motors Company by
exchanging GM stock for stock from Olds and Buick.and building cars with Buick engines in 1907.
The Oldsmobile 20: With Oldsmobile profits dropping Ransom
Olds sold his company to GM on November 12, 1908.
Detailed GM Historical
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1
909-1918 • GM’s Parts in Place
GM Export, Shanghai: GM established an office to handle vehicle exports
in 1911. Exports grew from 1,200 units in 1912 to 3,000 the next year.
GM founder Billy Durant’s prediction that people would
someday buy a half-million motor cars a year prompted
a famous banker to say, “If he has any sense, he’ll
keep those notions to himself if he ever tries to borrow
money.” Durant, on the other hand, thought he was
playing it safe by bringing the manufacture of every
kind of vehicle and automotive product within
GM’s orbit. In 1909, Durant brought in the Oakland
Motor Car Company.
Though the purchase made bankers nervous – its cash price was bigger than the price GM had put out for Buick
and Olds combined - it paid off when Oakland production reached 4,500 the next year. Hill-climbing was a sport that
attracted a lot of attention then, and one Oakland model, the Pontiac, later became so famous for its climbing ability
that the division was renamed for it.
Another company Durant had his eye on was Cadillac. Led by a perfectionist who set a standard for quality for which
Cadillacs are still famous, the company was the first car manufacturer to build cars without having to resort to hand
work to fit parts together. After several attempts, Durant found a way to finance Cadillac’s $4.5 million asking price
in 1909.
As car sales fell off in 1910 and 18 established automakers went out of business, GM had to sell off some of its
companies at a loss, and Durant was forced out. He promptly founded another company, with backing from business
people anxious to leave the expiring wagon and buggy industry. A former Buick racing driver, Swiss-born Louis
Chevrolet, was his designer. By 1916, Durant was able to trade Chevrolet for a majority share of GM stock, putting
himself back in the driver’s seat at the company he founded.
By its 10th anniversary, GM had changed from a holding company to an operating company, with all divisions (but
Saturn) already in place. In the same year, GM also incorporated General Motors of Canada Limited.
Detailed GM Historical
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1919 • Postwar Buying Sprees
During World War I, the auto industry halved domestic production in favour
of an outpouring of weaponry and military vehicles. The new Cadillac V-8
became the standard military vehicle in the U.S. army, and GM delivered 90
percent of its trucks, along with many armoured cars and other specialized
military vehicles, for war use.
General Pershing and his command car. Cadillac
was the official U.S. Army staff car on World War I
In 1919, in response to pent-up postwar demand, GM set up a financing arm
that would help buyers purchase cars in instalments. By 1920, the General
Motors Acceptance Corporation’s instalment plan helped two million people
buy new vehicles. The question was no longer whether motorcars would
catch on but what kinds of cars people would buy.
The same year, GM acquired dozens of automobile and supplier companies now lost to the past. However, most
of GM’s many acquisitions have successful lives within the company, and 1919 saw some that turned out to be
crucial investments – such as the Delco Light Company, the Fisher Body Company, Dayton Metal Products, the
Dayton-Wright Airplane Company, and the T.W. Warner Company (a gear manufacturer). In 1919, GM also set
up its export division and turned out its first Chevrolet trucks.
Detailed GM Historical
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1920 • Say Goodbye, Billy
Thanks largely to Durant, GM had grown to eight times its 1916 size in just
four years. Durant’s accomplishments included one of the most spectacular
successes
in business history, and his charisma and ideas attracted an intensely loyal
following. Still, he had his critics.
After being ousted from GM in 1910,
Billy Durantstarted a car company with
the most famous of his former racecar
drivers, Louis Chevrolet.
Detailed GM Historical
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After losing control of GM to bankers in 1910 and then regaining the upper hand
in 1916 through his success with Chevrolet, Durant had again lost financial
control in 1917. It was others on the board who led the company-buying spree
of 1919, but when the value of GM shares slid from $400 to $12 in a postwar
recession, GM’s financial backers forced Durant out for good.
1921-1929 • Booming Market Propels GM to New Heights
Alfred Sloan, who had come to GM with the Hyatt Roller Bearing Company, took
the raw material that Durant had assembled and made it run. Clearing the way for
a decade of expansion and technical innovation, Sloan replaced Durant’s erratic,
one-man leadership with clearly formulated policy and talented executives. Some
GM cars had competed for the same markets; to prevent that, Sloan gave each
car division its own price and style categories. He also introduced annual model
changes, creating a market for used cars. Sloan took over from Pierre Dupont in
1923 and led the company for 23 years, until 1946.
Alfred Sloan took the helm of GM after
a business crash in 1920 forced Billy Durant
out for the last time.
1923 Buick’s four-wheel brakes, the 1926 Cadillac’s shatter-resistant safety glass,
chromium plating, automatic engine temperature control, hydraulic shock absorbers,
automatic choking, adjustable front seats, and numerous advances in performance,
dependability, and manufacturing technology. Costs fell as volume increased.
GM engineer Charles Kettering developed Duco lacquer, an exterior body paint that not only gave richer, longer-lasting
colors but reduced drying time – erasing a huge limitation on production capacity. Before Duco lacquer, an automaker
producing 1,000 cars per day needed 21 acres of covered space to hold 18,000 cars while they were undergoing drying
and finishing, which took three weeks. Duco reduced drying time from 336 hours to 13 ½ hours (and eventually to minutes).
Purchases and investments in new plants in Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and South America made GM a prominent
international company. New plants included Vauxhall in England, Opel in Germany, and Holden in Australia.
Detailed GM Historical
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Until the late 1920s, car design had been fairly well dictated by function, but GM’s Harley Earl turned it from an
engineering feat into an art. GM President Sloan, impressed with Earl’s streamlined clay model of the 1927 Cadillac
LaSalle, hired him as the industry’s first designer. Earl reasoned that since cars were motion machines, their styling
should suggest their speed and power.
But styling didn’t mean GM abandoned practicality. Its trucks and buses were popular, and the K Series trucks of the
1920s gave GM its lasting reputation in the heavy-duty truck field.
The 1 millionth Buick was built in 1923; the 5 millionth GM car was a 1926 Pontiac. In 1927, GM vehicles outsold Fords
for the first time.
Detailed GM Historical
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1930-1939 • Pitfalls and Progress
By 1931, Oldsmobile’s new 85-acre complex in Lansing, Michigan
could send a new car off the line every 41 seconds, shipping 800
cars a day. When the Depression put the brakes on car sales
in the early 1930s, many carmakers went under. GM, though,
not only survived – it continued making progress in design and
manufacturing, giving buyers sleeker-looking, better running,
more convenient cars. With the slump in car sales, GM turned its
attention to other ventures, including radio and aircraft. In 1935,
GM created its Electro-Motive division, which converted North
America’s railroads from steam to diesel power. The most
popular exhibit of the Chicago World’s Fair was GM’s Science
GM creates its Electro-Motive division converting North America’s
railroads from steam to diesel power
and Technology display: it gave Depression-weary audiences a
bright look into the future. After the fair, GM’s Parade of Progress
took the show on the road. People in hundreds of small towns in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and Cuba
experienced “marvels”, including a Ping-Pong game in stereophonic sound and a microwave oven that could fry an
egg but did not burn a newspaper. Eventually, in 1956, the parade was replaced by the future it foretold – as television
brought shows right into people’s living rooms.
All through the 1930s, GM engineers and designers made continual improvements in car frames, bodies, engines,
and transmissions. In 1933, GM added no-draft ventilation to all its cars and developed independent front-wheel
suspension. In 1936, Knee-Action suspension made Chevrolets an even smoother ride. All 1937 GM makes featured
an all-steel body and optional windshield defrosters. In 1938, a car radio was introduced as an option on Buicks, and
GM’s Harley Earl designed a historic one-off: the Buick Y-Job. The world’s first “concept car” prefaced a generation
of dream cars and anticipated the styling of the 1940s. Featuring a revolutionary flowing look, it had power windows,
a power convertible top, power door locks, and power steering. In the late 1930s GM changed the economy of trucks
and trains by perfecting the 2-cycle diesel engine, and in 1939 the first standard turn signals blinked on GM cars.
Detailed GM Historical
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1940-1949 • From Phaetons to Fighter Planes
Early 1940s Cadillacs – including the last of the V-16s - were some of the
most beautiful models ever built, and they inspired “torpedo” styling throughout
GM’s model lines. Headlights merged into fenders, and running boards and
hinges disappeared. Improvements didn’t stop with looks, either. The 1940
Oldsmobile’s new Hydra-Matic was the first fully automatic transmission.
Cadillacs had air conditioning and automatic heating, and all GM makes
were getting the turn signals that Buick had introduced to car design in 1939.
Convertibles were popular.
General Motors and World War II
GM’s 25 millionth car – a silver Chevrolet - left the assembly line on January 11,
1940. But just as people were adjusting to prosperity after the Depression, auto production hit another roadblock. Early
in 1942, a few weeks after the United States entered World War II, the U.S. government halted civilian car production.
(The last cars produced before production stopped included chromeless “blackout” models). GM turned all its
operations, from Canada to Australia, into a vast international network of military plants, suppliers and subcontractors.
For a few years, GM was no longer the world’s largest maker of cars but the foremost producer of all kinds of Allied war
supplies, from airplanes to tanks to ball bearings.
In 1948, GM rebuilt from rubble the German Opel operation it had been forced to abandon in 1940, and it finally caught
up with a postwar surge in demand after 1945-46 strikes that blunted production.
Detailed GM Historical
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1950-1959 • An Automobile Extravaganza
Cadillac produced its one millionth car in 1949; just three years later, by
its 50th birthday, it had doubled that total. The 1955 Chevrolet –designed
by GM’s chief World War II tank engineer - changed Chevrolet’s image
overnight, and by the end of the year Chevrolets made up nearly a quarter
of the cars sold in the United States. For GM, the 1950s were a series of
celebrations, sales records, anniversaries, and styling and engineering
innovations.
Decades of engineering and styling improvements crescendoed in flashy
gas-guzzlers. Flamboyant fins and high-compression V-8 engines were
1952 Corvette
the order of the day. Interest in road racing went into high gear. People
got serious about collecting and restoring automobiles. Cars acquired an entirely new look through advances in glass
manufacturing, which made features like wraparound windows possible. The car world’s original designer, GM’s Harley
Earl, had drawn his inspiration for tailfins from World War II fighter planes; in the 1959 Cadillac Eldorado Seville, fins
reached their controversial peak. Earl also designed a concept car that attracted so much attention that it was put into
production. The Corvette remained America’s premier sports car for decades. In 1957 Chevrolet gave some of its V-8s
fuel injection technology and enlarged their engines to a 283-cubic-inch displacement. At 283 horsepower, with its long,
smooth-sided look, the ’57 Chevrolet was a dream come true. GM showed off its accomplishments to millions at its
Motoramas. These were elaborate car shows, enhanced with music and dance troupes, which traveled to cities around
the United States. Some of the novelties showcased at the Motoramas, such as cruise control, eventually became
everyday features. Others – like a rear-mounted TV camera in place of a rearview mirror - have yet to find their way
into production cars.
At the same time that automobile design was coming to embody extravagance, cars like the Chevrolet and the
Pontiac were also making performance affordable. The wide availability of cars with powerful, reliable engines set
a high standard for the next generation of cars.
Detailed GM Historical
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1960-1979 • Car Design Gets a Workout
Drivers followed the exuberance of the 1950s by demanding trimmer, leaner
cars. The Chevrolet Corvair, GM’s first compact, satisfied people looking for
a sturdy, practical car. (The Corvair’s sports car cousin, the Corvair Monza,
was the basis of a series of exalted prototypes.)
1970 Chevelle SS
Other buyers found their appetites whetted for muscle cars like the Chevrolet
Camaro and the Pontiac GTO. Combining lightweight bodies with powerful
engines, muscle cars made speed and power available for a modest price.
The Camaro – brought out in 1967 - was partly computer designed.
The 1963 Buick Riviera, the first personal luxury car, was a styling inspiration to the entire industry throughout the
1960s. Opel, Holden and Vauxhall experimented with sports cars and luxury sports cars. GM built its 100 millionth
automobile in 1967. Meanwhile, GM was developing guidance and navigation systems that would take the Apollo II
astronauts to the moon and back in 1969, the year the company celebrated its 50th anniversary.
Midsize cars with big engines gathered momentum until, in 1970, every GM division but Cadillac offered them. But by
1971, public and government concern about exhaust emissions cast a shadow over the demand for high performance.
New regulations, which required cars to run on unleaded gasoline, flattened compression ratios. Horsepower began to
drop. The number of foreign imports began to rise, reaching 2 million in 1977. (In 1950 imports made up barely 21,000
vehicles.) The 1970s also saw a new concern over safety features. GM pioneered advances in crash testing, and it
was the first automaker to offer factory-installed airbags.
The oil embargo of 1974 accelerated the demand for fuel efficiency, and the results at GM spanned everything from
the new, fuel-efficient Chevrolet Chevette to Cadillac’s first “small” car, the 1975 Seville. Carefree cars like the 1976
Cadillac Eldorado – the last convertible for a decade – didn’t seem to have a place anymore in a market with its mind
set on practicality.
Detailed GM Historical
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1980-1989 • New Designs For a New
Kind of Market
The 1984-model year Corvette was completely re-styled
for thefirst time in 15 years.
Trimming over 900 pounds from its full-size 1977 car line wasn’t
enough to match foreign competition or turn the tables on North
America’s economic downturn. In 1980, GM embarked on a
multimillion-dollar revamping to design new, more competitive
cars from the ground up. By 1982, a third of GM’s models were
brand new. They combined compact exterior dimensions and
clean, aerodynamic lines with spacious interiors. The company’s
overhaul included an ambitious, multimillion-dollar expansion
program that outstripped even the exploits of GM founder
Billy Durant. Acquisitions, joint ventures, and new ventures included Saab, Geo, Volvo, GM Heavy Truck, and Saturn
(the first GM division to be started from scratch), as well as Electronic Data Systems and Hughes Aircraft. In the 1970s,
the Chevrolet Vega had been the first American car to be manufactured using robots. Now computer technology began
to make more of an impact on car design. GM tested computer models of cars to see what areas of the body were
under stress and adjusted the type of body material accordingly. Its Computer Command Control system went standard
on all gasoline-powered models. The system’s heart was an on-board computer that continuously monitored and
adjusted the air-to-fuel ratio and spark timing, controlling exhaust emissions and improving fuel economy.
In the mid `80s, the North American economy made a comeback, and so did convertibles. As gasoline prices stabilized
and fuel supplies seemed assured, consumers put performance and luxury back on their shopping lists –though
without scratching off fuel efficiency.
Detailed GM Historical
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1990 and Beyond
At GM, the car of the future isn’t science fiction. We’ve always been a leader in state-of-the-art technology. GM design
engineers use the world’s most advanced computers, and assembly plants operate on the latest robotics technology.
We’ve put many of our advanced technologies into use in GM cars and trucks.
Detailed GM Historical
Timeline