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 Man, 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 frgm
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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