- Buick has emerged as an independent automobile manufacturer, the 'Buick Motor Company', incorporated in May 19, 1903 by the Scottish-American David Dunbar Buick (who invented the overhead valve engine in the company's success was based), in Detroit, Michigan. Later that year, the struggling company was taken over by James H. Whiting (1842-1919), one who moved it to his hometown of Flint, Michigan, and brought in William C. Durant in 1904 to manage his new acquisition . Buick sold his stock for a small sum upon departure, and died in modest circumstances twenty-five years later.
Durant after the acquisition of Buick soon became the largest car maker in America. Using the profits from this, Durant embarked on a series of corporate acquisitions, calling the new mega-corporation General Motors.