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N0KFQ > TODAY 29.07.14 15:59l 58 Lines 2651 Bytes #999 (0) @ WW
BID : 32129_N0KFQ
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Subj: Today in History - Jul 29
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Sent: 140729/1456Z 32129@N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA BPQK1.4.60
Jul 29, 1909:
General Motors buys Cadillac
On July 29, 1909, the newly formed General Motors Corporation
(GM) acquires the country's leading luxury automaker, the
Cadillac Automobile Company, for $4.5 million.
Cadillac was founded out of the ruins of automotive pioneer Henry
Ford's second failed company (his third effort, the Ford Motor
Company, finally succeeded). When the shareholders of the defunct
Henry Ford Company called in Detroit machinist Henry Leland to
assess the company's assets for their planned sale, Leland
convinced them to stay in business. His idea was to combine
Ford's latest chassis (frame) with a single-cylinder engine
developed by Oldsmobile, another early automaker. To that end,
the Cadillac Car Company (named for the French explorer Antoine
Laumet de La Mothe Cadillac, who founded the city of Detroit in
1701) was founded in August 1902. Leland introduced the first
Cadillac--priced at $850--at the New York Auto Show the following
year.
In its first year of production, Cadillac put out nearly 2500
cars, a huge number at the time. Leland, who was reportedly
motivated by an intense competition with Henry Ford, assumed full
leadership of Cadillac in 1904, and with his son Wilfred by his
side he firmly established the brand's reputation for quality.
Among the excellent luxury cars being produced in America at the
time--including Packard, Lozier, McFarland and
Pierce-Arrow--Cadillac led the field, making the top 10 in
overall U.S. auto sales every year from 1904 to 1915.
By 1909, William C. Durant had assembled Buick and Oldsmobile as
cornerstones of his new General Motors Corporation, founded the
year before. By the end of July, he had persuaded Wilfred Leland
to sell Cadillac for $4.5 million in GM stock. Durant kept the
Lelands on in their management position, however, giving them
full responsibility for automotive production. Three years later,
Cadillac introduced the world's first successful electric
self-starter, developed by Charles F. Kettering; its pioneering
V-8 engine was installed in all Cadillac models in 1915.
Over the years, Cadillac maintained its reputation for luxury and
innovation: In 1954, for example, it was the first automaker to
provide power steering and automatic windshield washers as
standard equipment on all its vehicles. Though the brand was
knocked out of its top-of-the-market position in the 1980s by the
German luxury automaker Mercedes-Benz, it sought to reestablish
itself during the following decades, and remains a leader in the
luxury car market.
73, K.O. n0kfq
N0KFQ @ N0KFQ.#SWMO.MO.USA.NA
E-mail: kohiggs@gmail.com
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