The history of General Motors (GM), one of the world's largest car and truck manufacturers, reaches back more than a century and involves a vast scope of industrial activity around the world, mostly focused on motorized transportation and the engineering and manufacturing that make it possible. Founded in 1908, in Flint, Michigan, as of 2012 it employs approximately 202,000 people around the world. With global headquarters at the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan, United States, GM manufactures its cars and trucks in 35 countries. In 2008, 8.35 million GM cars and trucks were sold globally under various brands. The GM automotive brands today are Vauxhall, Daewoo, Buick, Cadillac, Chevrolet, GMC, Holden, Opel, and Wuling. Former GM automotive brands include Oakland, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, and Saturn.
In addition to these brands selling assembled vehicles, GM also has had various automotive-component and non-automotive brands, many of which it divested in the 1980s through 2000s. These have included Electro-Motive Diesel (locomotive, marine, and industrial diesel engines); Detroit Diesel (automotive and industrial diesel engines); Allison (transmissions, gas turbine engines); Frigidaire (refrigeration and air conditioning); New Departure (bearings); Delco Electronics and ACDelco (electrical and electronic components); GMAC (finance); GM Defense (military vehicles) and Electronic Data Systems (information technology).
Read more about History Of General Motors: 1908–1932, 1933–1958, 1958–1980, 1981–present
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—Alistair Cooke (b. 1908)
“When General Motors has to go to the bathroom ten times a day, the whole country’s ready to let go. You heard of that market crash in ‘29? I predicted that.... I was nursing a director of General Motors. Kidney ailment, they said; nerves, I said. Then I asked myself, “What’s General Motors got to be nervous about?” “Overproduction,” I says. “Collapse.””
—John Michael Hayes (b. 1919)