About Buick Cars
 The Buick motor company was founded in 1903 by David Dunbar Buick, who had been born in Scotland, and emigrated to America with his parents when he was two years old. He had a flair for invention, and although he had many innovative ideas, such as the over head valve engine, finance was always a problem, and when the money ran out after the production of only one car, he was forced to sell the company before it was even one year old. The new owner moved production to Flint, Michegan.
In 1904 a further prototype was built, which was soon followed by the first commercially available production model, the Model B. This had a two cylinder engine and the revolutionary over head valve cylinder design. There were 37 Buicks made in that first year, but sadly none of them have survived.
It wasn't long before Buick was the biggest car maker in America. This success, along with astute business acquisitions by the board, headed by William Durant, lead to the birth in 1908 of the now world famous General Motors. At first the various car makers within the new group competed with each other, but that didn't last long and soon each division was targetting a specific class of buyer.
Buick was aimed at luxury car buyers and only the Cadillac brand had more prestige in the new General Motors pecking order. Because Buick tended to put emphasis on ride and comfort rather than speed and performance, it was a great hit with America's older generation. Not a bad thing really, as they often had most money to spend on such luxuries.
In 1911 Buick launched it's first closed-body car, a full four years before Ford, and by 1914 all models had six cylinder engines. Then in the 1920's a four-wheel brake system was introduced, the first time this braking system had been used on mass produced cars. In the 1930's their new eight cylinder cars became very popular and in the 1940's and 1950's the Estate Wagon and the popular Roadmaster kept Buick at the top of the automotive tree.
Thanks to their constant improvements and motoring innovations Buick went from strength to strength and sales peaked in 1984, but changing views on motoring and it's impact on the environment meant that production had to be cut back and there was even speculation that GM might dispense with the Buick brand altogether. However, this seems unlikely now, partly due to Buicks success in China, but it is possible the brand could be sold to help GM through the financial crisis of 2008/2009.
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