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When did GM buy Cadillac?
I didn’t know Cadillac was owned by GM! Could you tell me a bit about the history of Cadillac—specifically when GM bought Cadillac?
Jacqulyn Graber · Updated on
Reviewed by Shannon Martin, Licensed Insurance Agent.
The General Motors Corporation (GM or GMC) bought
Cadillac
—the country’s leading luxury automaker at the time—on July 29, 1909.Cadillac was founded out of the ruins of famed automaker Henry Ford’s second failed company. (His third effort, Ford Motor Company, would be a huge success, of course.) Shareholders of the defunct Henry Ford Company called in Detroit machinist Henry Leland to assess the company’s assets for sale, but he convinced them to stay in business.
Leland came up with the idea to combine Ford’s latest chassis with a single-cylinder engine developed by Oldsmobile. The result was the first Cadillac, which was conceived of in August of 1902 and introduced at the New York Auto Show a year later.
Cadillac put out an impressive 2,500 vehicles in its first year of production, and the brand continued to be successful in the following years.
By 1909, William Durant had established
Buick
and Oldsmobile
as successful vehicles produced by the then-new General Motors Corporation and convinced Wilfred Leland (Henry’s son) to sell Cadillac for $45 million in GM stock. View full answer
- Gregory R.
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