Profile America: GM Founded

GM FOUNDED

Profile America – Friday, September 16th.  One of the nation’s largest corporations is 108 years old today, although in common with other centenarians, it has its ailments.  General Motors was launched by high school dropout William Durant of Flint, Michigan.  Durant co-founded Chevrolet – named after noted racing car drivers Louis and Gaston Chevrolet, originally from Switzerland – and promoted Buick to prominence on early racetracks.  Over the next dozen years, Durant headed, and then lost control of General Motors not once, but twice–the last time in 1920.  In 1908, when GM was founded, there were just 198,000 cars, trucks and busses in the U.S.  Today, there are over 255-million.  Assembling motor vehicles is a $307-billion a year business for 336 manufacturers across the country. 

Profile America is in its 20th year as a public service of the U.S. Census Bureau.

Print Friendly, PDF & Email