William Durant was the man who designed and built General Motors. About 1908, Durant began to buy small, successful automobile companies – Buick, Oldsmobile, Cadillac, and Chevrolet – and merged them into his new General Motors Corporation.
In an era of fierce competition among numerous small, fledging automakers, the idea of grouping together different automobile companies had been discussed by numerous investors in the early 1900s. After Durant, a major shareholder in Buick Motor Car Company, failed to convince Henry Ford and Ransom E. Olds to join him in such an organization, Durant decided to form his own holding company, General Motors in the fall 1908.In 1916, he set up a separate subsidiary called United Motors to buy small, successful parts companies. His first acquisitions included Delco, which held Charles Kettering’s patents to the automotive self starter.
Durant ultimately bought about 20 supplier companies; his last acquisitions – in 1919, the year before he was ousted as GM’s CEO – was Fisher Body.
General Motors ushered in the age of mass consumerism with its installment buying and credit programs for car buyers in the 1920s. Coupled with its expansive lineup of cars – from humble Chevrolet to the mighty Cadillac – and yearly style changes, GM’s approach to selling cars was adapted throughout the industry as the standard for mass marketing durable goods to the U.S consumer.
From the start, Durant’s vision was clear: in contrast to Henry Ford’s approach of developing one leading automobile, GM would offer a spectrum of cars at different price levels.
Although GM suffered a downturn during the Great depression, it nevertheless enlarged its market share and after 1930 was ranked as the nation’s largest car maker, ahead of rival Ford Motor Company and the Chrysler Corporation.
General Motors
