• Skip to primary navigation
  • Skip to main content
  • Skip to footer
Zippy Facts Logo

Zippy Facts

Interesting Random Facts

  • Animals
  • Culture
  • Firsts
  • Food
  • Geography
  • Health
  • History
  • Inventions
  • Language
  • Mythology
  • Odds
  • People
  • Religion
  • Science
  • Space
  • Universe
  • World
You are here: Home / Culture / Who Was the Buick Motor Company Named After and How Did the Buick Get Its Name?

Who Was the Buick Motor Company Named After and How Did the Buick Get Its Name?

July 18, 2020 by Karen Hill

The Buick Motor Company originated as the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company in 1899, and was named after David Buick.

old rusty buick sitting outside

He had the bad luck and poor business sense to found two successful companies and sell them both before reaping the rewards.

By the end of his life, he couldn’t even afford a telephone in his home, much less one of the cars that bears his name.

When he was a young apprentice at a foundry, Buick invented a breakthrough process to bond porcelain to iron, a method still in use for bathtubs, sinks, and other household fixtures.

In 1899, just as his business began taking off, Buick sold out to Standard Sanitary for $100,000.

He used the money to hire a French engineer, who invented the valve-in-head engine design still used in cars today, and started an auto company.

Perpetually strapped for cash, Buick made some unfortunate partnership deals, owning less of his own company with each of them.

In 1908, he was forced out of a management position in the company by its new owner, William C. Durant.

Buick sold his remaining shares for $100,000, shares that would have been worth $115 million if he had waited another year, and invested it in some bad oil and land deals.

He lost it all.

In the last years of his life, Buick worked at a low-paying job as an information clerk at the Detroit School of Trades. He died at age 75 in 1929.

Louis Chevrolet had a similar sad story but managed to live long enough to became a public-relations problem.

In 1934, General Motors, embarrassed at the poverty of its bestselling automobile’s namesake, put Mr. Chevrolet back on its payroll.

Related Facts

  • Who Invented the First Car and Where Did Cars Come From?
  • Top 25 Inventions That Changed Our Lives Forever
  • Top 25 Inventions That Changed the World
  • The Best 20 Inventions Ever Invented
  • 15 Inventions You Wish You Invented
  • How did factory workers unionize the Ford Motor Company and When?

Filed Under: Culture

About Karen Hill

Karen Hill is a freelance writer, editor, and columnist. Born in New York, her work has appeared in the Examiner, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, among others.

Previous Post: « Why Did the Ford Company Turn Down the Offer of the Volkswagen Plant For Free After World War II?
Next Post: Which Famous Artist Painted the Most Self Portraits and Why? »

Footer

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Flickr
  • GitHub
  • Google+
  • Instagram
  • LinkedIn
  • Medium
  • Pinterest
  • StumbleUpon
  • Tumblr
  • Twitter
  • YouTube

Categories

Accomplishments Animals Culture Firsts Food Geography Health History Inventions Language Mythology Odds People Religion Science Space Universe World Your Body

About

Zippy Facts empowers the world by serving educational content that is accessible to everyone.

A tribute to growing up, zippyfacts.com showcases interesting and unusual facts about the world.

Our mission is to use technology to facilitate knowledge transfer and sharing.

Copyright © 2020 Zippy Facts

  • About Us
  • Contact
  • Privacy Policy