General Motors as it exists today is the world's foremost automobile maker. It all started almost 100 years ago when William Durant formed General Motors of New Jersey on September 16, 1908 with $2000. In under two weeks, the company sold stocks totalling $12 million, giving Durant enough captial to buy the Buick Motor Company, then one of the largest in America. Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Oakland (later renamed Pontiac) were later bought. Durant lost control of the company in 1910, only to regain it five years later and ultimatly forced out in 1920.
During the War Years, GM switched all auto production to build materiel and equipment for the US military. Cadillac engines were fitted in Stuart tanks and F4F Wildcat fighters flew from GM plants across the nation.
The 50s and 60s were true boom times for GM. Outselling all its rivals by wide margins, at one point nearly half of all cars sold in America were General Motors products. The gas crissies of the 1970s and changing tastes among the young led to European and Japanese marques being able to capture parts of the domestic market. With cheap, efficient compacts at the bottom and ultra-luxury sedans and coupes at the top, imports began to squeeze the Big Three's market share to its current level.
However, General Motors today is in the midst of a product revolution begun in the early 90s. New benchmark-setting cars and trucks of today like DeVille, Corvette, Suburban, Escalade, LeSabre, Impala, and Bonneville lead the way for even greater vehicles of tomorrow. With new leadership that focuses on cars more than budgets, the concepts of now will become the awesome GM cars of the future. |
