1997 Buick Park Avenue Owner's Manual - Page 6

"valve-in-head" engine,a light, powerful and reliable engine which would eventually influence the entire automotive industry. William C. Durant was instrumental in promoting Buicks across the country using his Durant-Dort of a Carriage Co. outlets and salespeople as the nucleus giant distribution system. He knew the Buick as a this "self-seller." If automobiles could be good, he thought, maybe it was time to switch from the horse and buggy business to automobiles. At the 1905 New York Auto Show, Durant took orders for1,000 Buicks before the company had built 40. On Buick's success, Durant created a holding company, September 16, 1908. He called it General Motors. WalterMarr and Thomas Buick Buick's chief engineer, Walter Marr (left), and L. Thomas D. Buick, son of founder David Dunbar Buick, drove the first Flint Buick in a successful Flint-Detroit round trip in July 1904. David Buick was building gasoline engines by 1899, and Marr, his engineer, apparently built the first auto to be called a Buick in 1900. However, Buick traditionally dates its beginnings to 1903. That was the year the William C. (Billy) Durant company was reorganized, refinanced and moved from Detroit to Flint. Buick has always been a product innovator. Buick engineers developed the iv