Cadillac automobile
Cadillac is a luxury brand of automobile, part of the General Motors empire since 1909, produced and mostly sold in the USA; outside of North America, they have not done well.
1941 Cadillac Series 62
In the USA, the name has become a watchword for high quality, similarly to the status of Rolls-Royce, in phrases such as "the Cadillac of lacrosse sticks".
Cadillac was founded after Henry Ford left his second company, the Henry Ford Company. His financial backers, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen, called in the engineer Henry Leland, initially to appraise the plant and equipment for sale. Leland persuaded them instead to continue in the automobile business. Henry Ford's departure required a new name, and on on August 22, 1902, the company reformed as the Cadillac Automobile Company.
Cadillac was named after 18th century French explorer Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who had founded Detroit, Michigan. Detroit had just celebrated the 200th anniversary of its founding the year before Cadillac debuted.
The first Cadillac car was completed on October 7, 1902 and in the following January it attended the New York Automobile Show, where it impressed the crowds enough to garner over two thousand firm orders. The selling point was Cadillac's refinement; they were simply better made than their competition.
Cadillacs were sent to England, where they impressed, winning awards for reliability and build quality.
Cadillac was purchased by the General Motors conglomerate in 1909.
Cadillac became General Motors' luxury division, producing large, ostentatious vehicles.
The Cadillac was the first gasoline internal combustion engine auto to incorporate electric self-starters (as opposed to earlier crank start) in 1911.
Pre-World War II Cadillacs were well-built powerfull mass produced luxury cars, aiming at an upper class market below that of the more expensive lines such as Pierce-Arrow and Duesenberg for the very rich. In the 1930s Cadillacs had 12 cylinder and even 16 cylinder engines, remarkable at the time for delivering high horsepower while running very quietly when properly tuned.
Post-War Cadillacs, under the guidance of General Motors styling chief Harley Earl, introduced many of the styling features that came to be synonymous with the classic American automobile, especially tailfins. Cadillac's tailfins were among the first, and certainly the biggest; the 1959 Cadillac was the peak of the tailfin craze, its huge fins each bearing a pod holding twin bullet-shaped tail lights. Huge, chromed, bulleted bumpers, gaping front grilles, and all the ostentatious styling one could think of were also featured. Indeed, the 1959 Cadillac was too much, too extreme, for most Cadillac buyers, and the excess was toned down in subsequent years.
Founding
Early Vehicles
General Motors
Postwar
External Links
