History of Famous Car Brands
08-01-07, 07:28 PM
#1
History of Famous Car Brands
History of Famous Car Brands
By GARY HOFFMAN, AOL AUTOS
" But behind every brand-name, there is a flesh-and-blood inventor, entrepreneur or industrialist. "
Names like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota and Porsche dominate our cars and the auto industry today. They call to mind the huge corporate successes of the past and the great automotive families that survive today.
But behind every brand name, there is a flesh-and-blood inventor, entrepreneur or industrialist. Most of the time, they gave their name to the companies. And that fame was often about all they ended up with.
David Buick, who invented the overhead valve engine, founded the Buick Motor Car Co. in 1903. William C. Durant, the industrialist who would eventually found GM, took over the company in 1904, when it ran into financial trouble.
Buick stayed on as a director, but left in 1908, never making much money from the enterprise. He died in 1929 reportedly, unable to afford one of his cars.
Durant kept the name for one of his company divisions and for the car, even though he worried that people might pronounce it "Boo-ick," according to one author. Strangely enough, the man who practically created General Motors single-handedly never really liked the idea of a "Durant" car.
Did You Know?
• Ferdinand Piech, the namesake and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, is the [Porsche] supervisory board chairman?
• Ferdinand Porsche was a main engineering force behind the development of the Volkswagen in the 1930s?
• Car makes named Famous, Hobbie, St. Joe, Sharp Arrow and Sultan were introduced in 1908?
• Ford Motor Co. was one of the early manufacturers of jeeps for the U.S. military?
• The Edsel hood ornament was designed so the "E" would be visible from both front and back without being a reverse image in either direction?
• The steam-powered cars produced at the turn of the 20th Century was called the Locomobile?
• David Buick, founder of the car company bearing his name, was an all-around mechanical genius who also received a patent for a lawn sprinkler?
• The early Reo Motor Car Co. of Lansing was named after the initials of auto pioneer Ransom E. Olds, who also gave his name to the Oldsmobile?
• The Delco, the GM parts division, took its name from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., founded by Charles Kettering, the inventor of the self-starter?
In another example, Robert Hupp invented the Hupmobile, a two-seat runabout, in 1908. But he sold his stock in his Hupp Motor Car Company in 1911. He turned around and founded the Hupp Corp. that same year. Investors in his first firm took him to court to make him drop the "Hupp" from his new company's name and it won. His own automotive glory quickly faded, although the Hupmobile survived until the 1940s.
Swiss-born Louis Chevrolet's experience was similar. Durant brought him into a new car-building venture in 1911, hoping to trade on his fame as an absolutely fearless race driver. Chevrolet left the company in 1913, apparently unable to make the adjustment from racing to building production vehicles. But its name stuck to the new Chevrolet vehicles; Durant reportedly liked its musical lilt.
It could also work the other way around. In 1925, Walter P. Chrysler got the naming rights to the Maxwell Motor Co. after he and another industrialist steadily bought up shares in the firm over a two-year period.
Things turned out a little differently for Henry Ford. He suffered the ignominy of being booted from an early auto company that bore his own name. But his revenge was sweet. The Henry Ford Company, which traded freely on Ford's early fame as an inventor, fired him in 1902 "because he was spending all his time developing a race car, not a passenger car," according to the Encyclopedia of American Business and Biography.
After Ford was gone, the company was renamed Cadillac, after Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, the French nobleman who founded Detroit in 1703; his heraldry became the model's badge and the company became a part of General Motors in 1909.
After his firing, Ford quickly found investors to help him found his own firm, the Ford Motor Co., in 1903. He introduced the company's first new vehicle, the Model A that year, and followed it up with other low-cost vehicles, including his greatest achievement that decade, the Model T, in 1908. Its price tag started at $850 and fell steadily as Ford introduced more production innovations. The young firm became phenomenally successful.
In the 1920s, he got the chance to buy the five-year-old Lincoln Motor Co. out of bankruptcy. It was then owned by Henry Leland, who fired him in 1902 -- one of the very few to do so. Then he used the former aircraft company to launch his own line of luxury cars bearing the Lincoln name.
For its part, "General Motors" almost didn't get the name it bears today. Durant actually incorporated his company under the name International Motors Co., in New Jersey in 1908. But his attorney advised him that it would be easier to raise capital under a new name.
"We might use 'United Motors Company' were it not for the fact that there is already a United Motor Car Company in that state," the attorney wrote. "We suggest the name General Motors Company, as we have ascertained it can be used."
A newly coined French word, auto-mobile, inspired many vehicle names of the early years. Inventor Ransom E. Olds filed a patent for an "auto-mobile" during the mid-1890s. Names like Bugmobile, Locomobile, Hupmobile, and of course, the Oldsmobile, could not have come along without it.
The origins of some names can be tricky to trace. The first use of "jeep," for instance is shrouded in mist. Jim Allen, the author of a book called 'Jeep,' concludes that it's based on early World War II slang for "a new unproven recruit or a new unproven vehicle." It wasn't until 1950 that Toledo-based ******-Overland, Inc., one of the producers of the early four-wheel-drive vehicle, trademarked the term.
Many of the names were not originally associated with the auto industry. The Toyota name came from the Toyoda loom works in Kariya, Japan; When it turned to car production, the Toyoda family changed the "d" to a "t" to make it simpler and more elegant in Japanese script.
There's little doubt about other brand names. Pontiac was an offshoot of the Pontiac Buggy Co., a horseless carriage manufacturer named after a renowned Indian chief. Mechanic Soichiro Honda started producing motorized bicycles after the devastation of World War II and eventually graduated to cars.
Volkswagen, a response to Adolf Hitler's call for a car for the common folk, means people's car in German, evidently beating out the prototype's name, "Strength Through Joy," for the honors.
In 1917, the Rapp Engine Works became known as the Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH, or Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) as the four-year-old airplane engine firm diversified into motorcycle engines, with a stylized white propeller against a blue sky as its logo, according to some authorities. The first BMW cars were produced 11 years later.
The legendary Jaguar name is considered one of the best sports car names of all time. It beat out a long list of lackluster animal names compiled by a British ad agency in 1935. In 1939, Ford struck gold with Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. It tapped into Greek and Roman mythology for the name, just as it did for the similarly styled Lincoln Zephyr, the god of the wind, three years earlier.
Some other storied automotive brands are based on acronyms. Fiat stands for Fabbrica Italiani Automobili Torino, or Italian Automotive Works Turin. Similarly, Saab stands for Svenska Aeroplanaktiebolaget, or Swedish Aeroplane Ltd., hearkening back to the automaker's origins as an aircraft company.
Ford might have done better with an acronym in 1958. The Edsel was conceived as a new, distinct Ford Motor Co. brand, with its own models, badge and division. The mission was to take on GM's Oldsmobile.
After considering thousands of suggestions, Ford named the new brand after Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. He had been a major styling influence within the company and was its president at his fathers death in 1943.
The name Edsel was an immediate letdown. Ford stock fell 10 points on the day it was announced. One disenchanted executive predicted that the name alone would cost the new vehicle 200,000 units in sales.
Its name wasn't the sole reason for its failure. It didn't help that the country was in recession or that the new car seemed based on Ford and Mercury models. But all that didn't stop "Edsel" from entering the vocabulary as an idea or project fated to failure.
By GARY HOFFMAN, AOL AUTOS
" But behind every brand-name, there is a flesh-and-blood inventor, entrepreneur or industrialist. "
Names like Ford, General Motors, Chrysler, Toyota and Porsche dominate our cars and the auto industry today. They call to mind the huge corporate successes of the past and the great automotive families that survive today.
But behind every brand name, there is a flesh-and-blood inventor, entrepreneur or industrialist. Most of the time, they gave their name to the companies. And that fame was often about all they ended up with.
David Buick, who invented the overhead valve engine, founded the Buick Motor Car Co. in 1903. William C. Durant, the industrialist who would eventually found GM, took over the company in 1904, when it ran into financial trouble.
Buick stayed on as a director, but left in 1908, never making much money from the enterprise. He died in 1929 reportedly, unable to afford one of his cars.
Durant kept the name for one of his company divisions and for the car, even though he worried that people might pronounce it "Boo-ick," according to one author. Strangely enough, the man who practically created General Motors single-handedly never really liked the idea of a "Durant" car.
Did You Know?
• Ferdinand Piech, the namesake and grandson of Ferdinand Porsche, is the [Porsche] supervisory board chairman?
• Ferdinand Porsche was a main engineering force behind the development of the Volkswagen in the 1930s?
• Car makes named Famous, Hobbie, St. Joe, Sharp Arrow and Sultan were introduced in 1908?
• Ford Motor Co. was one of the early manufacturers of jeeps for the U.S. military?
• The Edsel hood ornament was designed so the "E" would be visible from both front and back without being a reverse image in either direction?
• The steam-powered cars produced at the turn of the 20th Century was called the Locomobile?
• David Buick, founder of the car company bearing his name, was an all-around mechanical genius who also received a patent for a lawn sprinkler?
• The early Reo Motor Car Co. of Lansing was named after the initials of auto pioneer Ransom E. Olds, who also gave his name to the Oldsmobile?
• The Delco, the GM parts division, took its name from the Dayton Engineering Laboratories Co., founded by Charles Kettering, the inventor of the self-starter?
In another example, Robert Hupp invented the Hupmobile, a two-seat runabout, in 1908. But he sold his stock in his Hupp Motor Car Company in 1911. He turned around and founded the Hupp Corp. that same year. Investors in his first firm took him to court to make him drop the "Hupp" from his new company's name and it won. His own automotive glory quickly faded, although the Hupmobile survived until the 1940s.
Swiss-born Louis Chevrolet's experience was similar. Durant brought him into a new car-building venture in 1911, hoping to trade on his fame as an absolutely fearless race driver. Chevrolet left the company in 1913, apparently unable to make the adjustment from racing to building production vehicles. But its name stuck to the new Chevrolet vehicles; Durant reportedly liked its musical lilt.
It could also work the other way around. In 1925, Walter P. Chrysler got the naming rights to the Maxwell Motor Co. after he and another industrialist steadily bought up shares in the firm over a two-year period.
Things turned out a little differently for Henry Ford. He suffered the ignominy of being booted from an early auto company that bore his own name. But his revenge was sweet. The Henry Ford Company, which traded freely on Ford's early fame as an inventor, fired him in 1902 "because he was spending all his time developing a race car, not a passenger car," according to the Encyclopedia of American Business and Biography.
After Ford was gone, the company was renamed Cadillac, after Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, the French nobleman who founded Detroit in 1703; his heraldry became the model's badge and the company became a part of General Motors in 1909.
After his firing, Ford quickly found investors to help him found his own firm, the Ford Motor Co., in 1903. He introduced the company's first new vehicle, the Model A that year, and followed it up with other low-cost vehicles, including his greatest achievement that decade, the Model T, in 1908. Its price tag started at $850 and fell steadily as Ford introduced more production innovations. The young firm became phenomenally successful.
In the 1920s, he got the chance to buy the five-year-old Lincoln Motor Co. out of bankruptcy. It was then owned by Henry Leland, who fired him in 1902 -- one of the very few to do so. Then he used the former aircraft company to launch his own line of luxury cars bearing the Lincoln name.
For its part, "General Motors" almost didn't get the name it bears today. Durant actually incorporated his company under the name International Motors Co., in New Jersey in 1908. But his attorney advised him that it would be easier to raise capital under a new name.
"We might use 'United Motors Company' were it not for the fact that there is already a United Motor Car Company in that state," the attorney wrote. "We suggest the name General Motors Company, as we have ascertained it can be used."
A newly coined French word, auto-mobile, inspired many vehicle names of the early years. Inventor Ransom E. Olds filed a patent for an "auto-mobile" during the mid-1890s. Names like Bugmobile, Locomobile, Hupmobile, and of course, the Oldsmobile, could not have come along without it.
The origins of some names can be tricky to trace. The first use of "jeep," for instance is shrouded in mist. Jim Allen, the author of a book called 'Jeep,' concludes that it's based on early World War II slang for "a new unproven recruit or a new unproven vehicle." It wasn't until 1950 that Toledo-based ******-Overland, Inc., one of the producers of the early four-wheel-drive vehicle, trademarked the term.
Many of the names were not originally associated with the auto industry. The Toyota name came from the Toyoda loom works in Kariya, Japan; When it turned to car production, the Toyoda family changed the "d" to a "t" to make it simpler and more elegant in Japanese script.
There's little doubt about other brand names. Pontiac was an offshoot of the Pontiac Buggy Co., a horseless carriage manufacturer named after a renowned Indian chief. Mechanic Soichiro Honda started producing motorized bicycles after the devastation of World War II and eventually graduated to cars.
Volkswagen, a response to Adolf Hitler's call for a car for the common folk, means people's car in German, evidently beating out the prototype's name, "Strength Through Joy," for the honors.
In 1917, the Rapp Engine Works became known as the Bayerische Motoren Werke GmbH, or Bavarian Motor Works (BMW) as the four-year-old airplane engine firm diversified into motorcycle engines, with a stylized white propeller against a blue sky as its logo, according to some authorities. The first BMW cars were produced 11 years later.
The legendary Jaguar name is considered one of the best sports car names of all time. It beat out a long list of lackluster animal names compiled by a British ad agency in 1935. In 1939, Ford struck gold with Mercury, the fleet-footed messenger of the gods. It tapped into Greek and Roman mythology for the name, just as it did for the similarly styled Lincoln Zephyr, the god of the wind, three years earlier.
Some other storied automotive brands are based on acronyms. Fiat stands for Fabbrica Italiani Automobili Torino, or Italian Automotive Works Turin. Similarly, Saab stands for Svenska Aeroplanaktiebolaget, or Swedish Aeroplane Ltd., hearkening back to the automaker's origins as an aircraft company.
Ford might have done better with an acronym in 1958. The Edsel was conceived as a new, distinct Ford Motor Co. brand, with its own models, badge and division. The mission was to take on GM's Oldsmobile.
After considering thousands of suggestions, Ford named the new brand after Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. He had been a major styling influence within the company and was its president at his fathers death in 1943.
The name Edsel was an immediate letdown. Ford stock fell 10 points on the day it was announced. One disenchanted executive predicted that the name alone would cost the new vehicle 200,000 units in sales.
Its name wasn't the sole reason for its failure. It didn't help that the country was in recession or that the new car seemed based on Ford and Mercury models. But all that didn't stop "Edsel" from entering the vocabulary as an idea or project fated to failure.
08-02-07, 05:35 AM
#3
Lexus Fanatic
William C. Durant, the industrialist who would eventually found GM, took over the company in 1904, when it ran into financial trouble.
Ferdinand Porsche was a main engineering force behind the development of the Volkswagen in the 1930s?
• Ford Motor Co. was one of the early manufacturers of jeeps for the U.S. military?
• The steam-powered cars produced at the turn of the 20th Century was called the Locomobile?
• The early Reo Motor Car Co. of Lansing was named after the initials of auto pioneer Ransom E. Olds, who also gave his name to the Oldsmobile?
Swiss-born Louis Chevrolet's experience was similar. Durant brought him into a new car-building venture in 1911, hoping to trade on his fame as an absolutely fearless race driver. Chevrolet left the company in 1913, apparently unable to make the adjustment from racing to building production vehicles. But its name stuck to the new Chevrolet vehicles; Durant reportedly liked its musical lilt.
After Ford was gone, the company was renamed Cadillac, after Antoine Laumet de la Mothe Cadillac, the French nobleman who founded Detroit in 1703; his heraldry became the model's badge and the company became a part of General Motors in 1909.
After his firing, Ford quickly found investors to help him found his own firm, the Ford Motor Co., in 1903. He introduced the company's first new vehicle, the Model A that year, and followed it up with other low-cost vehicles, including his greatest achievement that decade, the Model T, in 1908. Its price tag started at $850 and fell steadily as Ford introduced more production innovations. The young firm became phenomenally successful.
The origins of some names can be tricky to trace. The first use of "jeep," for instance is shrouded in mist. Jim Allen, the author of a book called 'Jeep,' concludes that it's based on early World War II slang for "a new unproven recruit or a new unproven vehicle." It wasn't until 1950 that Toledo-based ******-Overland, Inc., one of the producers of the early four-wheel-drive vehicle, trademarked the term.
There's little doubt about other brand names. Pontiac was an offshoot of the Pontiac Buggy Co., a horseless carriage manufacturer named after a renowned Indian chief. Mechanic Soichiro Honda started producing motorized bicycles after the devastation of World War II and eventually graduated to cars.
Volkswagen, a response to Adolf Hitler's call for a car for the common folk, means people's car in German, evidently beating out the prototype's name, "Strength Through Joy," for the honors.
Ford might have done better with an acronym in 1958. The Edsel was conceived as a new, distinct Ford Motor Co. brand, with its own models, badge and division. The mission was to take on GM's Oldsmobile.
After considering thousands of suggestions, Ford named the new brand after Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. He had been a major styling influence within the company and was its president at his fathers death in 1943.
The name Edsel was an immediate letdown. Ford stock fell 10 points on the day it was announced. One disenchanted executive predicted that the name alone would cost the new vehicle 200,000 units in sales.
After considering thousands of suggestions, Ford named the new brand after Edsel Ford, Henry Ford's only child. He had been a major styling influence within the company and was its president at his fathers death in 1943.
The name Edsel was an immediate letdown. Ford stock fell 10 points on the day it was announced. One disenchanted executive predicted that the name alone would cost the new vehicle 200,000 units in sales.
Last edited by mmarshall; 08-02-07 at 08:17 AM.
08-02-07, 06:20 AM
#4
Durant was reckless, a terrible buisnessman....and even worse with his own finances. Twice he personally went bankrupt.
The Beetle was developed by Dr. Porsche and his staff specifically on Hitler's orders. Hitler was impressed with the way that Henry Ford had put America on wheels with the Model T and Model A, and wanted a cheap, simple, economical, and easy-to-mantain car for the German people.....and a modern highway system to support it that became the famous Autobahns. He wrote about his desire for this in his book, Mein Kampf. As Germany was busy rearming during this period, military vehicles based off the Beetle's chassis and drivetrain were, of course, co-developed along with it.
Yes.....along with the Kaiser and ******-Overland companies. ****** and Kaiser both produced both military and civilian versions after the war.
Correct......but the Locomobile never enjoyed the popularity or reputation of the steamers from the rival Stanley company.
Olds was the oldest of the GM divisions.....older than Cadillac. That's why it was such a shame to see it so poorly managed in the 80's and 90's and finally axed.
Chevies were not particularly popular at first.........it took them some years to catch up with Ford, but, once they did, they became (except for Ford F-series trucks), the country's best-selling nameplate for decades. Even today, the Impala, in general, trails only the Camry and Accord in passenger-car sales.....and the Silverado is catching up to the F-series.
Little-known is the fact that Cadillac first produced an automotive device of tremendous importance....the battery-operated self-starter. It eliminated the daily grind of fooling with hand cranks, which were not only inconvienent and unpleasant but sometimes dangerous as well...the crank could snap back under pressure and cause serious injuries. A number of broken arms and shoulders resulted from this.
This car....and the assembly-line process which built it, which other companies did not yet have......was so efficient and profitable that Henry Ford was able, voluntarily, to pay his workers (who had no union to represent them) substantially more than the going factory rates than. As a result, he was well-liked by his employees, and every job opening in a Ford plant had FAR more applicants lined up than positions available....even more so in the Depression-ridden 1930's when jobs and money were scarce.
Incorrect....or probably incorrect. Most automotive historians trace the name "Jeep" to the military initials "G.P.", or "General-Purpose" vehicle, developed in 1940 at military request.
The actual word "Pontiac" came from the name of a tribe of Native Americans.
Yes.....See my response above to Dr. Porsche.
The problem with the Edsel was that instead of being a unique car, the various Edsel mdels were, in essence, just restyled Mercurys with odd-looking grilles and unconventional, hard-to-use push-button transmission controls in the middle of the steering wheel, not easy-to-use paddles like we have today. The public was not impressed.
The Beetle was developed by Dr. Porsche and his staff specifically on Hitler's orders. Hitler was impressed with the way that Henry Ford had put America on wheels with the Model T and Model A, and wanted a cheap, simple, economical, and easy-to-mantain car for the German people.....and a modern highway system to support it that became the famous Autobahns. He wrote about his desire for this in his book, Mein Kampf. As Germany was busy rearming during this period, military vehicles based off the Beetle's chassis and drivetrain were, of course, co-developed along with it.
Yes.....along with the Kaiser and ******-Overland companies. ****** and Kaiser both produced both military and civilian versions after the war.
Correct......but the Locomobile never enjoyed the popularity or reputation of the steamers from the rival Stanley company.
Olds was the oldest of the GM divisions.....older than Cadillac. That's why it was such a shame to see it so poorly managed in the 80's and 90's and finally axed.
Chevies were not particularly popular at first.........it took them some years to catch up with Ford, but, once they did, they became (except for Ford F-series trucks), the country's best-selling nameplate for decades. Even today, the Impala, in general, trails only the Camry and Accord in passenger-car sales.....and the Silverado is catching up to the F-series.
Little-known is the fact that Cadillac first produced an automotive device of tremendous importance....the battery-operated self-starter. It eliminated the daily grind of fooling with hand cranks, which were not only inconvienent and unpleasant but sometimes dangerous as well...the crank could snap back under pressure and cause serious injuries. A number of broken arms and shoulders resulted from this.
This car....and the assembly-line process which built it, which other companies did not yet have......was so efficient and profitable that Henry Ford was able, voluntarily, to pay his workers (who had no union to represent them) substantially more than the going factory rates than. As a result, he was well-liked by his employees, and every job opening in a Ford plant had FAR more applicants lined up than positions available....even more so in the Depression-ridden 1930's when jobs and money were scarce.
Incorrect....or probably incorrect. Most automotive historians trace the name "Jeep" to the military initials "G.P.", or "General-Purpose" vehicle, developed in 1940 at military request.
The actual word "Pontiac" came from the name of a tribe of Native Americans.
Yes.....See my response above to Dr. Porsche.
The problem with the Edsel was that instead of being a unique car, the various Edsel mdels were, in essence, just restyled Mercurys with odd-looking grilles and unconventional, hard-to-use push-button transmission controls in the middle of the steering wheel, not easy-to-use paddles like we have today. The public was not impressed.
Marshall - your knowlege of cars never ceases to amaze me
Jonny
08-02-07, 06:58 AM
#5
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Durant was reckless, a terrible Chevies were not particularly popular at first.........it took them some years to catch up with Ford, but, once they did, they became (except for Ford F-series trucks), the country's best-selling nameplate for decades. Even today, the Impala, in general, trails only the Camry and Accord in passenger-car sales.....and the Silverado is catching up to the F-series.
08-02-07, 07:18 AM
#6
Lexus Fanatic
Both GM trucks, together, are gaining on the F-series in sales primarily because they offer features that Ford is still dragging their feet on with the F-series; things like full-time 4WD/AWD, rear-wheel steering, and a partial engine-stop "hybrid" feature......and because the dash trim is MUCH better on the 2007 models than on the 2006's.
08-02-07, 07:29 AM
#7
Lexus Fanatic
Thanks.
I've had my drivers' license and have been reviewing new cars (even as a teen-ager) for some 40 years. I also do a lot of auto consulting and shopping with people. It is an major part of my life. I once did minor repairs and adjustments, but was never really a mechanic or technician per se. And, today, the age of the shade-tree mechanic is pretty much gone.....being an auto technician is a major field of study, roughly equivalent to a college degree. Most service and repair shops will not hire you for any real automotive repair work, outside of minor oil changes, wheel balancing, etc..... unless you are either ASE-certified or have factory training with that particular automaker.
Last edited by mmarshall; 08-02-07 at 07:33 AM.
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