OLDSMOBILE

Oldsmobile was established as the Olds Motor Vehicle Company by Ransom E. Olds in 1897 and produced over 35 million vehicles, at least 14 million of them in Lansing, Michigan. General Motors bought the company on 12 November 1908.

The brand sat in the middle of GM's five passenger car divisions, above Chevrolet and Pontiac and below Buick and Cadillac. Sales peaked above one million a year from 1983 to 1986 and then declined; at its shutdown in 2004 Oldsmobile was the oldest surviving American automobile brand.