1911 Chevrolet

The Oldsmobile "curved Dash" runabout was built from 1901 - 1903.

Wayne's Garage serving Eugene and Springfield, Oregon has been performing GM repair and service since the 1990's.  We have experienced technicians to properly service and repair your General Motors Car or Truck

A Brief History of General Motors

  General Motors (GM) was founded on September 27, 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for Buick, then controlled by William (Billy) C. Durant. Durant had partnered in the mid 1880's with Josiah Dort to create the Coldwater Road Cart Company. By 1890 the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, based in Flint, Michigan, had become a leading manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles.

Shortly after its founding GM acquired Oldsmobile. In 1909 Durant brought in Cadillac, Elmore, Oakland (later known as Pontiac) and several others. In 1909, General Motors acquired the Reliance Motor Truck Company of Owosso, Michigan, and the Rapid Motor Vehicle Company of Pontiac, Michigan, the predecessors of GMC Truck. In 18 months, Durant acquired a substantial interest in almost 30 automakers. Durant probably made more bad deals than good - many of those companies were subsequently closed. Durant lost control of GM in 1910 because of the large amount of debt taken on in its acquisitions coupled with a collapse in new vehicle sales.

In 1911 Durant partnered with race car driver Louis Chevrolet to form Chevrolet Motor Company and then he started purchasing a controlling interest in GM in 1915. In 1917, Durant was president of General Motors again, and Chevrolet was merged into GM, becoming a separate division. Shortly after, he again lost control, this time for good, after the new vehicle market collapsed.

Alfred Sloan was picked to take charge of the corporation at that time and led it to its post war global dominance.

Buick 1903-
Buick Motor Company, incorporated in 1903 by David Dunbar Buick, a Scottish industrialist in Detroit, Michigan. Later that year, the struggling company was taken over by James H. Whiting who moved it to his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and brought in William C. Durant in 1904 to manage his new acquisition. In 1908 Buick Motor Company was bought by General Motors.
In the 1920s Buick was the first to figure out how to successfully introduce four-wheel brakes to mass-produced vehicles.

Cadillac 1902-
The Cadillac Automobile Company formed in 1902 by Henry Leland after re-organization from the ashes of the Henry Ford Company, a business organized by William Murphy to produce a car by Henry Ford. The company was named after Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac, who led a French army into the Great Lakes region and founded the city of Detroit in 1701.
Leland sold Cadillac to General Motors in 1909, but remained as an executive until 1917 when he formed the Lincoln Motor Company.

Chevrolet 1911-
In 1911 a well-known race car driver, Louis Chevrolet backed by William Durant started designing a new car. Louis Chevrolet hired a French engineer to help him,and also to assist was mechanic and machinist Henry Winterholf who Louis Chevrolet met while working with the Buick Racing Team.
In 1917 when Durant became president of General Motors again, Chevrolet was merged into GM, becoming a separate division.

Oldsmobile 1897-2004
In 1893, Olds Motor Works, the predecessor of Olds Motor Vehicle was the first American car company to export an automobile. It was a four-wheeled steam-powered vehicle sold to a citizen of India.
In 1896 Ransom E. Olds built his first gasoline car and in 1897 he formed the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Lansing, Michigan to manufacture them.
In 1901 Olds became the top selling car company in the United States for a few years with the "Curved Dash Oldsmobile".  Officially, the cars were called "Olds automobiles," colloquially referred to as "Oldsmobiles."  General Motors purchased the company in 1908. The transmissions in the Olds automobiles were made by the Dodge Brothers.
The oldest car company in the GM line was phased out between 2000-2004.

Pontiac 1926 -
Unlike the other GM car lines, Pontiac did not start out as its own company.
In 1909 General Motors bought the Oakland Motor Car Company of Pontiac, Michigan which had been in business since 1907.
In the mid 1920s however a huge price gap had been created between the makes of Chevrolet, Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac. To solve this, General Motors authorized the introduction of four companion models priced and designed to fill the gaps. Cadillac would introduce the LaSalle, Buick the Marquette, Oldsmobile the Viking, and Oakland the Pontiac. All of the companion makes failed with the exception of Pontiac which came out in 1926 and outlived its parent Oakland and continued as a GM make.
Oaklands were discontinued in 1931.

Saturn 1985-


                                                               

1926 Pontiac	1903 Cadillac	1921 Oldsmobile
	1953 Corvette (1st year made)
1930 Cadillac V-16 convertible coupe.		1930 LaSalle