General Motors Company (GM), Ford Motor Company (F): The Origins of America’s Oldest Auto Pioneer

By the end of the 1910s, Oldsmobile was firmly established as General Motors Company (NYSE:GM)’s mid-market marquee, between the mass-market Chevrolet and the luxury-branded Cadillac. Oldsmobile helped General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) become the first automaker to join the Dow Jones Industrial Average in 1915. The brand also served as GM’s most experimental marquee: It was the first to offer an automatic transmission in 1940, and it helped advance true hardtops and wraparound windshields as stylistic standards. In the 1960s Oldsmobile also pioneered the modern front-wheel drive. The marquee crested 1 million sales for the first time in the 1980s, and for a brief while Oldsmobile was the third-most popular marquee, behind only Chevrolet and Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F).

During its lifetime as a General Motors Company (NYSE:GM) marquee, Oldsmobile produced more than 35 million cars. In the 1990s, a flood of mid-market cars ultimately pushed Oldsmobile out of the market, and GM shut down the marquee in 2004. At 106 years of age, Oldsmobile was the oldest American auto marquee before its 2004 shutdown. That honor now belongs to Cadillac, which was formed in 1902 out of the remnants of Henry Ford Motor Company (NYSE:F)’s failed pre-Ford-Motor automotive endeavor.

The article The Origins of America’s Oldest Auto Pioneer originally appeared on Fool.com and is written by Alex Planes.

Fool contributor Alex Planes holds no financial position in any company mentioned here. Add him on Google+ or follow him on Twitter @TMFBiggles for more insight into markets, history, and technology.The Motley Fool recommends Ford and General Motors. The Motley Fool owns shares of Ford.

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