Cadillac

About Cadillac

Cadillac is the second oldest car manufacturing company in the United States, only a few years behind Buick (which started in 1899). Since its early incarnations the company has been the progenitor of high class, premium luxury vehicles and has been one of the industry’s leading innovators. Many of the common designs used in cars today came from Cadillac and some of the most expensive production cars come from the brand as well.

History

Cadillac was born from the remnants of the original Henry Ford Corporation. Henry Ford left his own company – which he would later return to in later years – and initiated the founding of Cadillac along with founders Henry M. Leland, Lemuel Brown, and William Murphy. The name and logo is derived and inspired by the founder of Detroit City, Antoine Laumet de La Monthe sieur de Cadillac.

The company was then incorporated along with Buick in General Motors (GM) in 1909, the same umbrella company that would also own Chevrolet, Saturn, and others.

One major milestone in the history of the company was in 1908 when the company became the first American manufacturing firm to win the prestigious Dewar Trophy, given by the Royal Automobile Club of England. The company would again with the award in 1912.

Since the turn of the 2000s Cadillac has focused on producing cars that exhibit a fusion of art and science, which has become the new slogan of the company. They were among the first luxury cars to exhibit use of renewable energy as well as new, innovative technology that has yet to been seen in the automobile industry.

Iconic Cars

The 1908 Cadillac is known for winning the first Dewar Trophy in the United States and this is because of its innovative feature of interchangeable standardized parts. This car would also bring about the slogan “The Standard of the World”. Another popular car is the 1953 El Dorado, one of the most expensive cars of the 1950s. No more than 532 vehicles were ever produced.

Recently, however, one of the most iconic cars from Cadillac is the CTS-V. With a supercharged 556 horsepower it is one of the quickest Cadillac productions ever made, even faster than its competitors from BMW and Porsche.

Innovations

There are a lot of innovations that came from the Cadillac brand. It was the brand that introduced interchangeable standardized parts, the first to introduce the electric ignition starter, and the first to introduce metal roofs. Most notably, however, was Cadillac’s V8 engine which became the standard motorized engine for all vehicles to this date.