GM: A Mighty Icon's Reinvention

In 1904, William “Billy” Durant, a 43-year-old high-school dropout, former cigar salesman and manufacturer of horse-drawn vehicles in Flint, Mich., took over the struggling Buick Motor Company. Within three years, Durant had made Buick the No. 1 car in America despite never having driven a horseless carriage himself, according to William Pelfrey, a retired director of executive communications at GM and author of the book “Billy, Alfred and General Motors.” On Sept. 16, 1908, Durant registered the name “General Motors,” a nod to his longer-term goal of creating a corporate parent that would oversee smaller brands. Within a few years, Durant had added Oldsmobile, Oakland (which later became Pontiac) and GMC to the GM family.