[Vwdiesel] Nice Audi

[William J Toensing]

I have been an auto buff & amateur auto historian almost all my 76 years of my life. I was told I could tell almost every car on the road at age 3 & never lost interest since. There are interesting parallels with Olds & Henry Ford. Also, how many of you knew Henry Ford founded Cadillac? As Paul Harvey used to say, here is the rest of the story. 
Here is a rough timeline. In 1770, the French build the world's first known self propelled motor vehicle while the USA was still a colony of Britton. The Cugnot steam wagon, actually a self propelled tractor to pull cannons for the French Army. It still exists & is on display at the Museum of Arts & Meters in Paris, France & I have seen it & actually  touched it. 1886, Gotleb Daimler builds the first gasoline powered self propelled. In 1891, Panhard is the first to start the serial production of a motor vehicle, that is, build a car before it is sold. Peugeot starts production shortly afterwards. Note, what became Mercedes Benz did not start serial production of autos till 1902. Prior Daimler Benz cars prior to then were all custom built pre-ordered vehicles. Stories about these horseless carriages or automobiles as they were named in France were carried in in an American publication, The Scientific American. The first production automobile in the USA was from the Duryea shortly followed  by a number of others including Winton which soon became a leading producer of automobiles by the turn of the 20th century. In 1896, Henry Ford his first car while an employee of the Detroit Edison Co. A big problem then as now, in starting a business was to find financial backers. In 1899, Ford founded the Detroit Auto Co but wasn't very successful. In 1901 or '02, Henry Ford built a race car & beat Alexander Winton in a car race. This enabled Henry Ford to form his second auto venture, the Henry Ford Co. Henry designed a car but his investors didn't like the 2 cylinder engine Ford designed nor Henry's wanting to use corporate funds to continue racing to promote the company, & in general, didn't get along with his investors, so they brought in Henry Leland to build a better engine, fired Ford giving him $900 in severance pay. Ford then went on to incorporate the Ford Motor Co. on 16 June 1903, & started production of the Model A Fordmobile, taking with him the plans or copies of the planed Ford at the Henry Ford Co, which still had the plans that Henry designed. As a result,  Henry Leland & the investors had to find a new name for their company so they renamed it Cadillac, after the French explorer who founded Detroit. 
Ransom E Olds & his father had started a steam engine business & in 1897, decided to start building automobiles, but didn't get his assembly line going till 1901 & rapidly became the volume producer of cars in the USA. However, in 1904, Olds couldn't get along with his investors, who bought Olds out but from what happened at the Henry Ford Co, paid Olds a considerable amount of money, not the $900 Ford got, but in the sale contract said Olds could not use the name Olds or Oldsmobile in any further automotive venture.
Reo built autos thru 1936, then gave up auto production to concentrate on truck production. An interesting note, in 1934 Reo introduced the first automatic or at least semi-automatic gear box, the Reo "Self Shifter".
Bill Toensing, Nevada City, CA