In 1911, after William C. Durant had been ousted from General Motors, he joined forces with Swiss-born racecar driver Louis Chevrolet to found the Chevrolet Motor Car Company. After the introduction of the first and only vehicle designed by Chevrolet, the Six Type C Classic, Durant gained complete control of the company. Early Chevys touted spacious interiors and reasonable prices. By 1915, Durant had made Chevrolet extremely profitable and had bought enough shares in GM that he was once again in control of it. Chevrolet quickly became another division of GM, earning honors as GM's largest volume division by the mid-1920s — and has kept that rank ever since
Two brothers, Horace and John Dodge, began Dodge Brothers car company in 1914 after having manufactured engines for Ford. Initially, the Dodge car had a 3.5-liter four-cylinder engine with a dynastarter, which worked automatically when the engine stalled. Dodge cars soon earned a reputation for ruggedness and were used as staff vehicles and ambulances in World War I. The marque was America's fourth largest by 1916, was second only to Ford by 1920 and was purchased by Chrysler in 1928. Selling both cars and trucks, Dodge is currently positioned as Chrysler's performance division, offering unique vehicles like the exotic Viper.
Back in 1903, Henry Ford dreamed of building a car for the great multitude, and that's precisely what he did. Perhaps the best-known Ford to date is the immortal Model T of 1908-1927, which was bought by 16.5 million Americans during its 19-year life and was affordable enough for Ford's own factory workers to purchase. Based in Dearborn, Mich., the Ford Motor Company went international in 1911 and was known as one of the Big Three American automakers, along with GM and Chrysler. After buying Lincoln in 1920, offering a low-priced V8 engine in 1932, introducing Mercury in 1939 and having a brief disaster with the medium-priced Edsel in the late 1950s, Ford's expansion leveled out. Today, Ford sells both cars and trucks and is made up of three divisions: Ford, Lincoln-Mercury and the Premier Auto Group.
Pontiac is now known as the "driving excitement" division of GM, but the marque originated as the Oakland Car Company of Pontiac, Mich., in 1907. Acquired by General Motors in 1909, Oakland introduced the first Pontiac vehicle in 1926; it was so successful that the Oakland name was phased out in favor of Pontiac, the name of an 18th century chief of the Ottawa Indians. Standouts for Pontiac include the 1964 GTO and the Firebird Trans-Am of the early and mid-1970s, a dark era for most "performance" cars.
"From Edmunds.com"
