To set the scene, let me divide the history of the automobile, from a commercial standpoint, into three periods. There was the period before 1908, which with its expensive cars was entirely that of a class market; then the period from 1908 to the mid-twenties, which was dominantly that of a mass market, ruled by Ford and his concept of basic transp

So strongly did I feel about the situation that, when someone proposed making changes in Buick’s management, where Harry Bassett was successfully carrying on Walter Chrysler’s old policy, I wrote to Mr. du Pont: “It is far better that the rest of General Motors be scrapped than any chances taken with Buick’s earning power.”

With Ford in almost complete possession of the low-price field, it would have been suicidal to compete with him head on. No conceivable amount of capital short of the United States Treasury could have sustained the losses required to take volume away from him at his own game. The strategy we devised was to take a bite from the top of his position,

By various means, mainly exchanges of stock, Mr. Durant between 1908 and 1910 brought into General Motors about twenty-five companies. Eleven were automobile companies; two were electrical-lamp companies, and the remainder were auto parts and accessory manufacturers. Of the automobile companies, only four, Buick, Olds (now Oldsmobile), Oakland (now