---

The man who put the world on wheels was Henry Ford. In the beginning he found it difficult to find buyers for his cars, no money came in and several companies had to be reorganized after going bankrupt. One of these companies became Cadillac (see below). In 1903 things started to change and in 1908 the T model came. The rest, as they say, is history.

Henry Leland took over Detroit Automobile Company after Henry Ford in 1902 and formed Cadillac. The name Cadillac comes from the pioneer Antoine de la Mothe Cadillac who founded Detroit in 1701. In 1908 the factory was purchased by William Durant who started GM.  A dispute arouse in 1917 between Leland and Durant. Leland started a new factory called Lincoln, named after Abraham Lincoln, a president Leland greatly admired. Five years later Lincoln was purchased by Henry Ford. More Cadillac links below.

David Dunbar Buick made his fortune in manufacturing sanitary products and wanted to make cars. He didn't do so good, but the cars had better luck when they started to be manufactured by GM. The first car was made in 1903.

Walter P Chrysler started off making locomotives, he later became interested in cars and started working at the Buick division of GM. He retired in 1919, but in the early 20's he reorganized a struggling car company which he later renamed to Chrysler Corporation. The first Chrysler came in 1924.

Louis Chevrolet got famous when he drove racing cars for Buick. Together with Durrant he made the car that later became Ford's worst competitor. Their first car came in 1909.

The Dodge brothers, John (1864-1920) and Horace (1868-1920) was raised in poverty but when they died they were among the wealthiest in America. This was largely due to the fact that they had received Ford shares as payment when they made engines at Ford. In 1914 they started to make their own cars. In 1927 Dodge was purchased by Chrysler. The price was 170 million dollars. The Dodge brothers' widows where among the wealthiest in the world when they died (in 1967 respectively 1970).