Year of the Car Part 3: Auto Tourism Mecca

Eleven days apart, both General Motors and the Model T Ford were born in September 1908. When Detroit auto enthusiasts at MotorCities National Heritage Area looked at the calendar two years ago, they began planning for a series of summer-long “auto tourism” festivities for visitors to Michigan that is being billed as the “Year of the Car.”

“The objective is to provide cross promotion and audience building for all of the major events and honor GM and the Model T,” said William Chapin, consultant to MotorCities and grandson of Roy Chapin Sr., the founder of Hudson Motor Co. which eventually became part of AMC.

The world’s automotive sales leader for 76 years, General Motors was founded in Flint thanks to the creative genius of William Crapo Durant. A Flint businessman who made his millions producing horse-drawn buggies, he brought together Buick, Oldsmobile and Cadillac and purchased dozens of other automakers and parts suppliers to form GM.

The automaker grew beyond Durant – who had a penchant for stock market wheeling and dealing that led GM to the brink of financial disaster twice – but many of the corporation’s early (and later) executives made a major impact on the development of automobiles, aircraft, road construction, safety equipment, and more. Some of its early executives, including Charles Nash and Walter P. Chrysler built their own car companies out of nearly bankrupt firms.

“Over the years, a whole lot of car companies that started when GM did have bitten the dust,” noted Katie Kerwin, editor of AutoBeat Daily and president of the Detroit Automotive Press Association. “Who today remembers Studebaker, Packard and other long-lost brands? Being able to survive for 100 years is a significant accomplishment.”