This is the potted history of Pontiac, who sadly were discontinued in 2009 – which was a pity because Pontiac were helping to keep the Australian car industry going and it was the true sports brand in the General Motors group. The history though, starts in two places - not uncommon for the early years of the industry. We need to go back to 1907 when Edward Murphy founded the … [Read more...]
Cunningham
This article is about a specialist car company that developed pure racing machines and was a huge success in the States. The company is Cunningham – the creator of the racing stripe at a time when teams used national racing colours. This Cunningham is not related to the luxury Cunningham cars of the 1920s and 1930s. The company was founded by Briggs Cunningham II in the US … [Read more...]
American Motors
American Motors (AMC) was formed in 1954 by the merger of Nash-Kelvinator and the Hudson Motor Car Company. Nash had recognised that the Big 3 being General Motors, Ford and Chrysler were going to be hard to beat without economies of scale and they found Hudson to be a willing partner to start the process. With the completion of the merger, the new AMC was able to reduce the … [Read more...]
Plymouth
Plymouth was one of the first engineered brands – similar to the Acura, Infiniti, Eunos and Lexus brands of more recent years. A brand created by Walter P. Chrysler. Unlike the recent Japanese brands that wanted to take the base vehicles upmarket, the 1920s was full of manufacturers trying to capture the lower end of the market. It was a time when motoring was still a luxury … [Read more...]
Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was one of the longest running car companies in the world when General Motors decided to close the brand completely. It was 107 years old when the final cars came off the production line. Ransom Eli Olds formed the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in Michigan in 1897 and was one of the first high volume manufacturers. He sold the company to a lumber magnate in 1899 … [Read more...]
