Which Is The Oldest American Car Brand?
American car culture started with the Duryea Motor Wagon Company, founded in 1896 in Springfield, Massachusetts by brothers Charles and Frank Duryea. The following year, Oldsmobile appeared after being established by Ransom E. Olds as the Olds Motor Vehicle Company. Since then, hundreds of carmakers have come and gone, with Buick among the earliest to launch, joining the ranks of American car brands in 1899 as the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company. More than a century after it was formed, Buick is still going strong, while Duryea (1917) and Oldsmobile (2004) are long gone, leaving it as the oldest surviving American car brand.
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Initially, founder David Dunbar Buick, a Scottish American inventor, was more interested in building internal combustion engines than in automobiles. But he pivoted toward car manufacturing in 1903, when the company’s name was changed from Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company to Buick Motor Company, with series production starting in 1904. Meanwhile, Benjamin Briscoe, David Buick’s friend who bankrolled the brand’s early days, decided to sell his stake in the company to James H. Whiting, who then moved operations from Detroit to Flint.
When Whiting fell on hard times, he handed control of Buick to William Crapo “Billy” Durant in 1904. Four years later, Durant brought Buick and several other carmakers together under one umbrella to create General Motors. Buick is still owned by GM and sells passenger vehicles as a GM brand.
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What cars does Buick currently build?
Buick has wooed buyers with some iconic cars over the course of its 100-plus-year history. These range from the Buick Skylark to the GNX, GSX, and Riviera. But while its U.S. lineup used to be dominated by car models, Buick’s output in recent years is made up entirely of crossover SUVs. This has been the case since the long-lived automaker discontinued the Buick Regal and LaCrosse after the 2019 model year. Now, the cheap crossover Buick Envista (a SlashGear Editor’s Choice) serves as the entry-level Buick, with suggested pricing starting at $25,195 for the base Preferred grade; the range-topping Avenir trim costs at least $29,995.
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The next step up in the current Buick range is the Buick Encore GX, at $27,395 for the base-spec Preferred and $32,895 for the Avenir. Another Buick you can currently buy is the Buick Envision. It starts at $37,895 in entry-level Preferred trim and reaches $47,595 for the highest-spec Avenir. That leaves the comfy, uncomplicated Buick Enclave (another SlashGear Editor’s Choice) as the most expensive Buick on sale in America, with a starting price of $46,595. Buick charges an additional $13,100 to move up to the top-spec Enclave Avenir.
