Oakland Motor Car Company

The Oakland Motor Car Company was an American automobile manufacturer and later division of General Motors in operation from 1907 to 1931. Located in Pontiac, Michigan, it was purchased by General Motors in 1909 and continued to produce modestly priced automobiles until 1931 when the brand was dropped in favor of the division's Pontiac brand.

Beginning

The Oakland Motor Company was created by Edward Murphy, who owned the Pontiac Buggy Company, and Alanson Brush, inventor of the single-cylinder Cadillac and Brush Runabout, who was working as a consultant in Detroit after leaving Cadillac. It was named for Oakland County, Michigan, in which it was based. As originally conceived and introduced, the first Oakland used a design created by Brush and presented to Murphy, who liked the idea and decided to go into business. It included a vertical two-cylinder engine that rotated counterclockwise, originally presented to Cadillac and rejected,[1] and a planetary transmission.[1]

GM Division

After one year of production, Oakland's principal founder, Edward Murphy, sold half of the company to William C. Durant's General Motors Corporation in early 1909.[2] When Murphy died in the summer of 1909, GM acquired the remaining rights to Oakland. Within General Motors, Oakland was later slotted as their entry-level brand below the more expensive Oldsmobile, Buick, and Cadillac cars. Conventional four-cylinder engined models were introduced shortly after the GM takeover, and GM didn't acquire the volume-priced Chevrolet until 1917, and Oakland found itself competing with the Ford Model T introduced in October 1908.[1] Once GM assumed operations of Oakland, production was moved to the factory that manufactured Cartercar in Pontiac, Michigan, another Durant acquisition that was cancelled while the resources were newly utilized, and the Oakland Model 40 was introduced.[3] Starting with 1910 Oakland was exclusively offering 4-cylinder flathead engines with five different wheelbases and their advertising slogan was "The Car with a Conscience".[3] By early 1920, however, production and quality control problems began to plague the division. In 1921, under new general manager Fred Hannum, a consistent production schedule was underway and the quality of the cars improved, and Oakland vehicles shared the GM A platform used by Chevrolet. One marketing tactic was the employment of a quick-drying bright blue automotive lacquer by Duco (a DuPont brand product), leading to the slogan "True Blue Oakland Six".[3] The Oakland was built only in Pontiac, Michigan, which is the county seat of Oakland County. The name antedates any GM association with an automobile manufacturing facility in Oakland, California, that built Chevrolet vehicles before Chevrolet joined GM called Oakland Assembly.

Oakland Six and V8

In 1913 the Oakland Six was introduced followed in 1916 by the Model 50 365 cuin flathead V8 engine sourced from Northway Motor and Manufacturing company,[4][5] and production soared to 35,000 in 1917.[1] The Series 50 V8 used a flathead design shared with the Oldsmobile Light Eight and the Cadillac Type 51.[6] The Model 50 was only available from 1915 to 1917 as a seven-passenger touring sedan on a 127" wheelbase and was listed at US$1,600 ($0 in dollars ).[3] The Oakland 34-C of 1921 and 1922 used a six-cylinder engine with 4894 cc with a 71.4 mm bore and 120.6 mm stroke. The wheelbase was 2920 mm. The petrol tank held 50 litres.[7]

type	Private (1907–09) Division (1909–31)
fate	Acquired by General Motors in 1909, became a brand, then replaced by Pontiac
genre	Touring cars Automobile engines
foundation	1907
defunct	1931
location city	Pontiac, Michigan
location country	United States
key people	Edward Murphy, President Alanson Brush, Chief Engineer
area served	United States
industry	Automotive
products	Automobiles Automotive parts
parent	General Motors

Oakland Motor Car Company

Beginning

GM Division

Oakland Six and V8

Pontiac joins Oakland then replaces Oakland

External links

References