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The 2004 Buick Rainier is the vehicle the famed golfer touts in
television commercials
Earlier, the Buick company had been in almost constant trouble financially. David Buick was more the visionary dreamer than the effective businessman. But with the help of two fine engineers, Eugene Richard and Walter Marr, Buick created the engine that would carry the firm to success. Concerning the development of this revolutionary overhead valve engine, General Motors publicity literature tells us that Richard probably developed the principle for Buick, and that Marr got the credit for perfecting it. David Buick had experienced a rough first few years of operation. The first Buick automobile was created between 1899 and 1900. In the ensuing three years, only one additional car was built.
It is little wonder that in 1903, the company’s financial backer, Benjamin Briscoe, Jr., sold his interest in Buick to the Flint Wagon Works in Flint, Mich., managed by James H. Whiting. The little automobile company was moved from its original home in Detroit, to Flint. On January 30, 1904, Buick Motor Co. Of Flint was incorporated. This is the date the current Buick Motor Division uses to mark its inception. The three company names that came and went in the first three years of David Buick’s attempts to make a car company, are generally ignored. With only two cars to show for its efforts, the exclusion of this period is understandable.
Whiting wanted to build cars almost as badly as did David Buick, and in the first year of operation in Flint, the company produced 37 automobiles. But this company, too, experienced financial difficulties. Whiting then did something quite rare today. He consulted one of his wagon-making competitors to see if he was interested in taking over the young automobile company. That competitor was Billy Durant, a man well known as a primary mover and shaker in the wagon business.
Durant had a reputation for never doing anything in a small way. Once he set out to accomplish something it usually developed as he had envisioned it. In stark contrast to David Buick, Durant was a businessman first and foremost. As a result of his exceptional promotional skills, when Durant opted into the company, its success was all but assured.
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