August
26, 1950
Your
Grandfather's Oldsmobile founder Dies
Ransom
E. Olds, 86, American automotive pioneer who founded the Oldsmobile
and REO Motor Car Company.
Oldsmobiles were first
manufactured by the Olds Motor Vehicle Co. in Lansing,
Michigan, a company founded by Ransom
E. Olds in 1897. In 1901, the company produced 425 cars, making it the
first high-volume gasoline-powered automobile manufacturer. Oldsmobile became
the top selling car company in the United States for a few years; Ransom Olds
left the company in 1904 because of a dispute and formed the REO Motor Car Company.
Originally the company was
to be called "R. E. Olds Motor Car Company," but the owner of Olds'
previous company, then called Olds Motor Works, objected and threatened legal action on
the grounds of likely confusion of names by consumers. Olds then changed the
name to his initials. Olds Motor Works soon adopted the popular name of its
vehicles, Oldsmobile
(which, along with Buick
and Cadillac, became founding divisions of General Motors Corporation)
Born in 1950?
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