GM - The Early Years

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Pre – 1908 Origin Of GM, Carriage Makers, Engine Builders and Component Suppliers

The taproots of General Motors Their taproots reach down to carriage- and wagon-building, to firearms, stationary and marine gasoline engines, milling machinery, roller bearings, bicycle gears, lathes, and even door-bells. Their branch roots stretch back to the beginnings of scientific experiment, since the self-propelled vehicle is the child of physics and chemistry.

David Dunbar Buick, a skilled machinist, inventor and business owner in Detroit, Michigan, began producing gasoline engines around 1895. He completed two experimental automobiles before moving to Flint. Michigan and incorporating the Buick Motor Company in 1903.

Raised in Flint, Michigan, William C. "Billy" Durant was a marketing genius and known as the “king of carriage makers” for building America’s most successful horse-drawn vehicle empire beginning in 1886. Originally skeptical of automobiles, he became smitten with the Buick after the company’s investors approached him to take charge of it. He took the reins in late 1904 and by 1908 had turned it into the largest automobile producer in America.

Already engaged in the machining and manufacturing business, Henry Leland founded the Cadillac Automobile Company in honor of the city of Detroit’s founder, French explorer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac in 1902. His focus on precision manufacturing led to Cadillac's reputation as Standard of the World.

Engineer and industrialist Charles Stewart Mott's Weston-Mott Axle Co., which already produced axles for Buick, moved to Flint at the invitation of Billy Durant in 1907, the start of relationship that culminated in Mott's leadership on GM's board of directors for 60 years.

1908 GM is Founded and Establishes a Home in Detroit

Billy Durant incorporated General Motors in 1908 "to manufacture, purchase, sell, hire, let, use, repair, maintain, care for and deal in cars, carriages, wagons, boats, flying-machines and vehicles of every sort or description for the transportation of passengers or goods, whether the same be propelled by motors engines, machines or other contrivances operated by means of steam, electricity, gasoline, kerosene, alcohol, or other forms of power now known, or which may hereafter be discovered." Its initial holdings included only the Buick Motor Company but would grow to include many more in the ensuing years.

1908 – 1909 Assembling the General One Company at a Time

General Motors growth began almost immediately after the company's founding. Oldsmobile followed Buick into the fold in November 1908 becoming one of 25 different companies acquired during GM's first few years. Among the notable brands added were Cadillac, Oakland (the predecessor of Pontiac), the future AC Spark Plug and three brands that would form the basis of GMC: Rapid, Reliance and Randolph.

With an unprecedented number of acquisitions in a period of just two years, GM was financially over-extended and burdened with excess production capacity when the U.S. economy and vehicle market slumped unexpectedly in 1910. Although the economy and the industry quickly recovered, GM’s bankers forced founder Billy Durant’s exit and assumed management control of the company in exchange for providing new loans to keep it afloat.

1911 General Motors Export Company - The Beginning of a Global Enterprise

In 1911, General Motors Export Company was established in New York to centralize and coordinate all North American exports under a single staff, the first consolidation of staffs and functions since the company’s founding. With initial staff of just three people and capital of $10,000, worldwide vehicle exports increased from 1,200 units in 1912 to 3,000 the following year. This was a modest start for General Motors as a global enterprise.

GM established its first assembly plant outside North America in Copenhagen in 1923. Later that decade, it added new brands such as Vauxhall, Opel and Holden to strengthen its position and manufacturing base in the global market. By the time GM marked its silver anniversary in 1933, it had operations in more than 17 countries on six continents and would continue to grow throughout the 20th Century.

1916 Durant Returns

After losing control of GM in 1910, Durant began immediately assembling a team of industry associates to form "a new GM:" the Republic Motor Company. Its centerpiece was the Chevrolet Motor Company, which Durant founded with famed Buick auto racer Louis Chevrolet on November 11, 1911. They first came to the market with a powerful six-cylinder luxury car but quickly changed directions to build more economical transportation, a decision that caused Louis to leave his namesake company. This new strategy proved wise. Durant used Chevrolet's success to intensify his personal campaign to regain control of GM. By 1916, he was able to boldly declare to the GM Board of Directors that his Chevrolet Motor Company held a majority stake in GM thus giving him control of the company.

1916-1920 A Second Expansion

With the return of Durant, GM's brand portfolio began to grow once again, adding 14 more companies between 1917 and 1920. These included Chevrolet; United Motors Corporation, GM's service arm that would one day be known as ACDelco; automotive body manufacturer Fisher Body; and Frigidaire, which would go on to manufacture consumer and commercial appliances including refrigerators, ranges, washers and dryers as well as bring air conditioning to both households and automobiles worldwide. Additionally, General Motors Acceptance Corporation (GMAC) was established to finance the sale of GM cars and trucks. Prior to this, consumers had to either pay cash or secure their own loans from banks, most of which were reluctant to issue loans for automobiles. With GMAC’s success and popularity, other companies soon created their own in-house financing operations.

1920 General Motors Research Corporation is Born

When GM acquired Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co. in 1916, it also gained the services of its founder Charles F. Kettering, scientist and inventor of the electric self-starter. Kettering later founded General Motors Research Corporation in Moraine City, Ohio in 1920.

GM Research would become the primary birthplace of technological innovation at General Motors, performing basic research in all areas that might later prove useful. Some of the major innovations it developed during its earliest years included anti-knock compounds for gasoline, fast-drying lacquer paint, automotive safety glass, hydraulic valve lifters and chrome plating.

Innovation at GM Research was not confined solely to the automotive industry over the years. It also made important advances in commercial and household refrigeration; developed a mechanical heart pump that made the world’s first open-heart surgery possible; conceived of the Centri-Filmer for sterilizing blood and vaccines which found wide application in the manufacturing of vaccines, such as the Salk polio vaccine; and partnered with North American Aviation to develop the world’s first operating system for automatically controlling workflow, the forerunner of all computer operating systems used today.



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1924 Putting the Cars to the Test

GM’s Milford Proving Ground, in Milford, Michigan, was the first facility of its kind in the entire auto industry, testing vehicles for safety and performance in a variety of weather and road conditions. Prior to its opening, all testing was done on public roads. The Proving Ground began with 1,125 acres of land, one building and seven miles of test roads. More than one and half million test miles were driven during its first full year of operation. Engineering and test operations at Milford have contributed to several industry firsts including the development of crash test dummies, rollover test facilities, front center airbags and the safety belt assurance system.

1924-1930 A Car for Every Purse and Purpose

Alfred Sloan led GM into the market with a new strategy which he outlined as “a car for every purse and purpose” in the 1924 annual report to shareholders. He divided the U.S. vehicle market into segments by price range. Each GM brand’s products was to be focused on one segment, with Chevrolet at the low end of the market and Cadillac at the high end. This plan helped GM push past its competitors and achieve industry sales leadership in the U.S. market during the 20th Century.

In keeping with “a car for every purse and purpose,” GM filled the price gaps between its brands in the mid-1920s by pairing each of its US passenger car brands, except Chevrolet, with a companion car. Pontiac came first as a companion for Oakland. LaSalle, came next as a sporty counterpart to Cadillac. Buick and Oldsmobile were paired with Marquette and Viking, respectively, though these brands were short-lived and didn't make the same impact on the industry as the Pontiac or LaSalle did.

1927 GM Brings Design to the Industry

Automotive design as we know it today began at General Motors. In 1927, GM leadership tapped young coachbuilder Harley Earl to lead a new department to “study the question of art and color combinations in General Motors products,” making GM the first OEM to create a department devoted solely to automobile design. Earl earned a reputation customizing Cadillacs for the Hollywood elite. He recently designed the 1927 LaSalle for GM, the first mass-produced American car designed by an automotive stylist. Its success led directly to the formation of GM Design, originally known as Art and Colour Section.

GM emerged as the industry leader in design technique and innovation, pioneering methods and tools still widely used today including: the use clay models to shape design ideas; the practice of shared body platforms; and the introduction of concept cars to gauge the public’s interest in new forms and technology. Perhaps most importantly, GM was the first training ground for many aspiring designers at a time when no formal automotive design schools existed.

1933 Celebrating a Milestone at the Chicago World's Fair

GM demonstrated its vision of industrial progress with its exhibit at the 1933 Century of Progress in Chicago. GM’s pavilion was one of the show’s biggest and most popular with more than 10 million people visiting during its first season. Its centerpiece was a complete manufacturing and assembly line staffed by factory workers from Chevrolet and Fisher Body plants in nearby Janesville, Wisconsin who demonstrated their quality of work by building new Chevrolet passenger cars from the ground up each day for the pleasure of thousands of spectators.

Coinciding with GM's Silver Anniversary, the company showcased a quarter-century’s worth of innovations including electric headlights, four-wheel brakes, fast-drying lacquer paint that broadened the automobile’s color palette, the electric self-starter which democratized the automobile and GM Research Laboratory’s new two-stroke diesel engine which would soon revolutionize the commercial trucking, marine shipping and railroad locomotive industries.

1940 Introducing the Automatic Transmission​

GM introduced the industry’s first fully automatic transmission, the Hydra-Matic, as a $57 option for the 1940 Oldsmobile. Cadillac added it the very next year. At the time, it was hailed as the greatest innovation since the electric self-starter. Like many prior GM innovations, it was soon adopted across the industry.

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1942 Arsenal of Democracy
General Motors changed gears to support the Allied Forces when the US entered World War II at the end of 1941. Civilian production ended as GM converted all of its plants to build more than $12 billion worth of defense goods, ranging from airplanes, tanks and trucks to rifles, machine guns and artillery shells. No other manufacturer delivered as much material to the Allied forces.

GM President and manufacturing wunderkind William S. Knudsen was tapped by United States President Franklin Delano Roosevelt to direct the country’s National Defense Program and lead the industry's Arsenal of Democracy. During this period, GM hired and trained 750,000 new employees, 30% of which were women, as vast numbers of their previous employees joined the Armed Services.

1947-1952 Post-War Technology and Styling Innovation

General Motors resumed civilian production in the Fall of 1945 and soon thereafter brought a new crop of trend-setting innovations to the market. The now iconic Cadillac tailfin bowed for 1948 setting the direction toward aircraft-influenced design that would be imitated throughout the industry.
The 1949 Buick Roadmaster offered the industry’s first hardtop, with the sleek look of a convertible. Cadillac and Oldsmobile brought out their own “hardtops” that same year as well. Oldsmobile’s “Rocket” V-8 launched in tandem with Cadillac’s first high-compression overhead valve V-8 in 1949, leveraging both the plentiful high-octane gasoline of the post-war era and research conducted by Charles Kettering's team at GM Research Laboratories that suggested a higher compression ratio could boost power and fuel economy by nearly 30%.
Buick introduced its own design for an automatic transmission on some 1948 models, Dynaflow, and GM introduced its first power steering system on the 1952 Cadillac, Oldsmobile, and Buick lineups, making steering easier than ever before.

1953-1961 The Motorama Era

The 1950s were a time of grand spectacle for General Motors as it announced a series of new products and innovations to the public. The centerpiece of these announcements was the GM Motorama, a traveling auto show that incorporated current products with dream cars and lavish musical numbers.
The Motorama era began modestly in 1949 with Transportation Unlimite, butt when the curtain dropped for the final time in 1961, over ten million people in more than a dozen cities had seen the show.

GM introduced dozens of dream cars during the Motorama era beginning with the LeSabre in 1951, an "experimental laboratory on wheels" that featured jet aircraft styling cues and a supercharged V-8 engine. The series of gas-turbine powered Firebirds took jet age design to the next level and forecast self-driving with automatic guidance and the “electronic highway of the future".

However, none had a more lasting impact than Corvette.
Visionary Harley Earl introduced the E24 Corvette in January 1953 to great public acclaim, moving GM President Harlow Curtice to announce a limited production run that beginning rolling off the assembly line that same year.

1956 GM Opens its U.S. Technical Center

The GM Technical Center in Warren was dedicated on May 16, 1956, in spectacular fashion, with a ceremony that included an address by US President Dwight D. Eisenhower. The Tech Center was conceived by Alfred Sloan and Charles Kettering in 1944 as a home for GM’s ever-growing research, engineering and design activities. Harley Earl was instrumental in choosing architect Eero Saarinen to design the modern campus, which was hailed as a “Versailles of Industry” upon its completion.

This icon of midcentury design set the standard for the modern American corporate campus and its dedication was a farewell of sorts to a generation of leaders including Alfred Sloan, Charles Kettering and Harlow Curtice who had built General Motors into the largest and most successful industrial company in the world.

1964 Birth of the Muscle Car

Power and performance became more significant as the 1950s gave way to the ‘60s and larger, more powerful V-8 engines gave GM cars and trucks the meansto travell quickly and safely along America's nascent interstate highways.
In 1964, Pontiac introduced the GTO, a mid-sized car featuring a 325-horsepower version of its V-8 that set a new standard for street power. The muscle car was born.

Each of GM’s car divisions would add a muscle car of their own built on the new, smaller and lighter intermediate body platform. Chevrolet had the Chevelle Malibu SS, Oldsmobile the 4-4-2 and Buick the GSX.
Each made a mark on the street as well as the bottom line for their respective divisions. These cars were updated yearly through the ‘60s and early ‘70s. Chevrolet and Pontiac would also bring additional muscle to the stable with the Camaro and Firebird "pony cars" debuting for the 1967 model year.

1971 GM, NASA and the birth of the Modern Electric Vehicle

GM played an important role in the space race that began in the 1960s. Scientists and engineers at GM’s AC Spark Plug Division had been developing inertial guidance systems for more than two decades when it won two NASA contracts in 1962 that led to the development and manufacture of systems for the Apollo spacecraft that brought man to the moon in 1969.
GM guidance and navigation systems were used on 15 manned space missions including nine flights to the moon, six lunar landings, three Skylab missions and the Apollo-Soyuz test fight in 1975.

In 1971, Apollo 15 astronauts navigated the moon’s surface in the Lunar Roving Vehicle (LRV) powered by a mobility system designed and manufactured by GM. Experimentation with mobility for the lunar surface began in 1960 with concurrent research and development for an electric drive system, mesh wire wheels, suspension, and drive controls.
The electric drive unit pioneered by GM Research Laboratories also propelled several earthbound EVs, Electrovair I and Electrovair II as well as the world’s first fuel cell vehicle known as the Electrovan.