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How Durant Started
In 1904, Mr. David Dunbar Buick had trouble making money building and selling Buick's, so William Durant bought Buick and hired Louis Chevrolet and his brothers to race Buick's. In 1908 Durant started General Motors, with Buick as the cornerstone car. Later he bought Oldsmobile and Cadillac, and incorporated them into General Motors, along with the Oakland car, which he rebadged as the Pontiac. |
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Durant Makes History
After the bankers forced Durant out of the CEO position in 1910, he bought the rights to Louis Chevrolet's name, founded the Chevrolet Motor Car Company, and took General Motors back over with his Chevrolet car stock in 1915. The bankers forced him out of the CEO position of General Motors in 1920, so he restarted with his own Durant Motors, which he ran from 1921 to 1932, when it ended in bankruptcy. Durant built over 550,000 cars in his Durant Company line of cars and once was the 5th largest car manufacturing company in the world. He made and sold Durant's, Stars, Flints, Locomobiles and Rugbys. He was married twice, had a son and a daughter, and died penniless in New York in 1947, the same year that Henry Ford died. |
