1996 Buick Roadmaster Owner's Manual - Page 6

"valve-in-head" engine, a light, powerful and reliable engine which would eventually influence entire the automotive industry. William C. Durant was instrumental in promoting his Buicks across the country using Durant-Dort Carriage Co. outlets and salespeople as nucleus of a the giant distribution system. knew the Buick as a He "self-seller." If automobiles could be this good, he thought, maybeit was timeto switch from the horse and buggy business to automobiles. At the 1905 New York Auto Show, Durant took orders for 1,000 Buicks before the company had 'built 40. On Buick's success, Durant created a holding company, September 16, 1908.He called it General Motors. Walter Marr and Thomas Buick Buick's chief engineer, Walter Marr (left), and L. Thomas D. Buick, sonof founder David Dunbar Buick, drove the first Flint Buick a successful Flint-Detroit in round tripin July 1904. David Buick was building gasoline engines by 1899, and Man, 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 moved frgm and Detroit to Flint. Buick has always been a product innovator. Buick engineers developed the iv