The automobile industry has got ample of multinational companies to lure us with exquisite vehicles. For more than 100 years, companies like Daimler, Volkswagen, General Motors, and many more are ruling the automobile sector. Buick Motor Company is also one of them which now operates as a division of General Motors.
The history of this company dates back to Motor dates back to late 1800. And, General Motors was established a few years after that. David Dunbar Buick founded Buick Motor Company in 1902 but before that he conducted several experiments with combustion engines. The main markets of the company include China, the United States, Canada, and Mexico.
About the founder
Born in Scotland, David moved to Detroit at a very young age. He didn’t get an opportunity to complete his schooling and started working for a plumbing company. In 1882, David and a partner took over the company. And, this was his first stepping stone. David proved himself as a great inventor and was engrossed in experimenting. The partnership didn’t work out well and the company was dissolved.
Eventually, he went from just making engines to a whole car. In 1902, he founded this Manufacturing Company. But, soon he ran out of the company and he only had a single designed car to show. So, he decided to take a loan from one of his friends and finally help the company run.
The company faltered at the beginning
In 1904, the company moved from Detroit to Flint. In the meantime, David left the company in 1906 and sold his stock. There was a shortage in the capital when the company brought William C. Durant as a major investor. Durant made the company one of the leading automobile production companies during the next few years. And, in a single year, the company produced 37 Buick automobiles. The number kept increasing and reached to 8,800 in 1908.
Growth of Buick
The profit made from Buick rose exponentially which helped Durant to found the Mega Corporation, General Motors in 1908. Many new models of the company came up eventually. Some of them are Buick Model 10 Runabout (1910), Buick D-35 Roadster (1917), Buick Model 67 sedan (1932), etc. Since Durant was running both General Motors and Buick; he wanted to control the expenditure of resources. So, the company used a platform called GM A platform (a shared platform with four other companies).
By the 1920s, the company started selling 80% of its vehicles in China. Many new engines came up after World War II. The production of Buick’s vehicles resumed in 1945, after three years of contributing to the war. In 1947, the company launched a new model, Buick Super and next year it offered Dynaflow Automatic Transmission. Buick’s one of the most famous models, Buick Special received the award, Motor Trend Car of the Year in 1962. In 1966, the foundation of the Buick Club of America took place. It is a non-profit organization to preserve the vehicles of the Buick Motor Division. Both new models and sales kept escalating very fast. In 1978, the company broke its record by selling 795,316 vehicles. This number turned to 915,336 at the end of 1985. In 1988, the company became the official car of the U.S Olympic Team.
With the arrival of a new century, the production of many models discontinued. Some of them are Roadmaster sedan and wagon. In 1999, Buick was listed second among 37 international brands in the automobile industry.
A new century
The arrival of 2000 witnessed a diversified model of Buick. The company noticed that the SUV models were getting popular in the market. This gave him the idea to redesign LeSabre and started building it on GM’s G platform. In 2009, Buick came into a joint partnership with Jaguar to increase growth in the United States. Recently, Buick has replaced the Regal sedan with a new model which was especially for the North American market. Many new models are going to launch this year which include the Encore GX compact crossover, the Enclave mid-size crossover, station wagon, and many more. The main market of Buick is currently in China and North America. In 2016, Buick sold around 1.1 million vehicles in China. The other markets are Mexico, South Korea, Israel, and New Zealand.
Annasha Dey is an NIT student, who apart from studying engineering is also a content writer. She has a great interest in photography, writing, reading novels, and travelling as well. She is a foodie who loves socializing and hanging out with her friends. She is also a trained Kathak dancer and a big fashion enthusiast. Dey also loves watching TV series, which includes F.R.I.E.N.D.S. and Big Bang Theory. To be a better writer she prefers to read more