Walter Marr
and
Thomas Buick
Buick’s chief engineer, Walter
L.
Marr (left), and
Thomas D. Buick, son of founder David Dunbar Buick,
drove the first
Flint
Buick in a successful Flint-Detroit
round trip in July 1904.
David Buick was building gasoline engines by 1899,
and Marr, his engineer, apparently built the first auto to
be called a Buick
in
1900. However, Buick traditionally
dates its beginnings to 1903. That was the year the
company was reorganized, refinanced and moved from
Detroit to Flint. Buick has always been a product
innovator. Buick engineers developed
the
“valve-in-head” engine, a light, powerful and reliable
engine which would eventually influence the entire
automotive industry.
William
C.
Durant was instrumental in promoting
Buicks across the country using his Durant-Dort
Carriage
Co.
outlets and salespeople as the nucleus
of
a
giant distribution system. He knew the Buick as a
“self-seller.”
If
automobiles could be this good, he
thought, maybe it was time to switch from the horse and
buggy business to automobiles.
William
C.
(Billy) Durant
At the 1905 New York
Auto Show, Durant
took
orders for 1,000 Buicks
before the company had
built
40.
On Buick’s
success, Durant created
a
holding company,
September
16,
1908. He
called it General Motors.
iv
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