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GM Historical Subsidiaries

Started by Jeff Maltby 4194, April 19, 2008, 02:34:38 PM

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Jeff Maltby 4194

Jeffo 49er chapter

CLC 1985
Honda Gold Wing GL1500

eam

Quote from: Jeff Maltby 4194 on April 19, 2008, 02:34:38 PM
http://doonan.home.mindspring.com/history.html
JEFF:  This link you posted was one of the most informative bits of information I have ever seen on this forum concerning GM.  Everyone should print out a copy for themselves and learn the history of a great company and how it developed to where it is today.  This is what I call quality information.  THANKS JEFF! - EAM

cadillacs

Best of all...it's a Cadillac.

Glen

It needs a little tweaking.  It says:

Quote1895-Henry M. Leland forms the Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company, predecessor of Cadillac, in Detroit.
The history I read about Cadillac was that it was originally formed by Henry Ford and a group of investors.  After Ford left, the company was reorganized and Leland put in charge. 

Glen
Glen Houlton CLC #727 
CLCMRC benefactor #104

Tom Hall 7485

The early history of Cadillac is a little complicated. 

I don't think I would have called Leland & Faulconer the predecessor of Cadillac for
two reasons.  The first is that Leland & Faulconer was the engine supplier to
Cadillac Automobile Company.  The second is that, if we can say there was a
predecessor to Cadillac Automobile Company, it was Henry Ford's second automobile
company, which was insignificant as a producer of motorcars.

Cadillac Automobile Company was not formed by Henry Ford.  Nor was it formed by
Henry Leland.  It was formed by investors, who included William Murphy and Lemuel
Bowen.  They brought in Henry Leland initially as a consultant to look at the Ford factory,
which they had financed and wanted appraised now that Ford's second car company was
failing. 

Leland pointed out to the investors that his company, Leland & Faulconer, could make
high quality auto engines and that Ford's failure need not be the end of the investors'
involvement in the auto business.  (Murphy was a lumber baron who presumably saw the
connection between cars with wood bodies and the lumber business.  The investors
could also see by 1902 that this new car business wasn't going to fade away soon.) 

The investors wisely decided to keep the factory they had financed to make another kind
of car and they got rid of Mr. Ford.  They formed Cadillac Automobile Company.  The
factory was big and gave the new company the production capacity it needed to be a
major player in the industry right from the start.

Henry Ford probably was not an investor in Cadillac Automobile Company.  He needed his
money to start his third car manufacturing company, which was successful.  Ford was
probably pretty ticked off at the investors for dumping him and bringing in Leland as a
consultant, because Leland advised the investors to compete with Ford.  (It's likely that
Ford, who was sort of a sour man, had annoyed the investors at some point in their brief
relationship.)

Leland was not particularly involved in the day-to-day management of Cadillac Automobile
Company.  He was busy making engines at Leland & Faulconer. 

The investors realized that Cadillac Automobile Company had major management problems,
which included a big fire at the plant 104 years ago this month.  They put the touch on
Henry Leland to come to work for them.  He was not keen on the idea at first and did not
become their employee until 1905, at which point he was an old man.  Leland & Faulconer
and Cadillac Automobile Company merged to form a new company, Cadillac Motor Car
Company, which was acquired by General Motors some years later. 
Tom Hall, CLC Member 7485, Lifetime member since the mid-1990s.

homeonprunehill

Quote from: EAM- clc 17806 on April 19, 2008, 08:39:57 PM
Quote from: Jeff Maltby 4194 on April 19, 2008, 02:34:38 PM
http://doonan.home.mindspring.com/history.html
JEFF:  This link you posted was one of the most informative bits of information I have ever seen on this forum concerning GM.  Everyone should print out a copy for themselves and learn the history of a great company and how it developed to where it is today.  This is what I call quality information.  THANKS JEFF! - EAM
05-02-08
Jeff, add me to the list of "DITO" heads that think this is a good post, good post, BUT, not complete! A day or so later, I was looking up something in "google"(search-engine) and ran across the begining of the GMC truck company. It got it's start when WILLIAM DURENT purchased the "RELIANCE" motor truck  company and started the GMC trucking company.  Good Luck,JIM
USED,ABUSED AND MISUSED CADILLACS AND LA SALLES

Whit Otis, 1188

Actually, I believe that Henry Ford had formed two companies prior to this one.  In all three cases, he sold the investors on the idea of a car for the masses.  When they backed him with money, Henry went back to tinkering and building race cars, which hacked off the investors since they received no return on their money.  After Ford was booted out of the last company that was to become Cadillac, he found new investors, started the Ford Motor Company and then got down to business of producing automobiles in quantity, finally producing the T Model in 1908.  Henry was always quite contrary about things, and hated Wall Street Investment Bankers, the likes of JP Morgan, et. al.  A study of these times at the turn of the century reveals that many entreprenuers worked for the same companies before starting there own businesses or becoming executives for others.... Walter Chrysler, William S. Knudsen, Alfred P. Sloan, Henry Ford, C.S. Mott, etc., etc.
Those were fascinating times.
Whit Otis
Whit Otis -
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Doug Houston

This doesn't exactly contribute to the historical thing, but there was a General  Motors Radio Corporation around 1929-1930. It was a joint venture between RCA and Kettering. Its ownership was kept under wraps, but the stock ownership was about 50-50. In 1930, RCA was on the gruddle in an anti-trust suit, and decided to bug out while the buggin' was good.  While it lasted, they made some very good household radios.

General Motors made no more radios again until Delco Radio bought the Crosley  Kokomo plant in 1936.
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