Buick is a marque of automobile sold in the United States, Canada, China, Taiwan,
and Israel by General Motors Corporation. Since the demise of Oldsmobile in 2004,
it is GM's only North America-based entry-level luxury brand.
Buick
originated as an independent motor car manufacturer, the Buick Motor Company,
incorporated on May 19, 1903 by the Scottish-American David Dunbar Buick (who
invented the overhead valve engine on which the company's success was based)
in Detroit, Michigan. Later that year, the struggling company was taken over by
James H. Whiting (1842-1919), who moved it to his hometown of Flint, Michigan
and brought in William C. Durant in 1904 to manage his new acquisition. Buick sold
his stock for a small sum upon departure, and died in modest circumstances
twenty-five years later.
Durant was a natural, and Buick soon became
the largest car maker in America. Using the profits from this, Durant embarked
on a series of corporate acquisitions, calling the new mega-corporation General
Motors. |
