Buick Unveils State Historical Marker, Announces Plans For Centennial Events

[NTX5467]

Thanks for posting that article here, Roberta!<P>NTX5467

[Centurion]

Thanks, Roberta. I always enjoy forwarding these articles along to all who are participating in our caravan to Flint next year.

[BUICK RACER]

May 23, 2002 <P>Buick Unveils State Historical Marker, Announces Plans For Centennial Events<P>DETROIT - Buick announced plans today (Thursday, May 23, 2002) for a year-long celebration of its centennial as Buick General Manager Roger W. Adams unveiled a Michigan historical marker at Detroit's the Renaissance Center.<P>The marker points out that David Dunbar Buick began building automobile engines and experimental cars in Detroit before Buick's move in 1903 to Flint. There, Buick Motor Co. became the financial foundation for the creation of General Motors. Today both GM headquarters and Buick's central offices are in the Renaissance Center.<P>Discussing Buick's future, Adams confirmed Buick will offer a new sport utility vehicle named Rainier in the fall of 2003 and that Buick "will introduce an either all-new or totally redesigned product in each of the next four years."<P>He noted Buick sales were up more than 48 percent in April from the previous April and that sales for the first four months of the calendar year were up 8.2 percent. Buick's Rendezvous crossover vehicle, the first truck-based Buick in nearly 80 years, is on track for a 60,000-unit sales year, he said. "We're even running short of (Rendezvous) inventory in some hot markets in the north central and northeast regions of the country," he said. <P>Major centennial events will include the Detroit opening of a Buick "heritage tour" exhibit of some 20 vintage Buicks on May 19, 2003, Buick's official 100th birthday. The tour began at the Petersen Automotive Museum in Los Angeles in February of this year and is traveling across the country. The exhibit will be on display at GM World in the Renaissance Center until early July of 2003.<P>Then the touring cars will join a huge collection of more than 2,000 vintage Buicks at the Buick centennial celebration in Flint, July 23-27, 2003. That event will be hosted by Buick and the Buicktown Chapter of the Buick Club of America.<P>The state marker was unveiled today at a ceremony inside the Renaissance Center's Wintergarden. Once construction on the site is near completion, the marker will be installed outside that complex -probably on a site near Beaubien Street (which runs through the RenCen) and the Detroit River. Both the street and the river are tied to Buick history. <P>Although Buick was headquartered in Flint for 95 years until it returned to Detroit in 1998, the company's beginnings were in Detroit in the late 19th and early 20th centuries.<P>David Dunbar Buick, a Detroit plumbing inventor and executive who was born in Scotland, turned to building gasoline engines late in the 19th century. In 1899 or 1900, David Buick opened his first motor shop, Buick Auto-Vim and Power Co. About the same time, his engineer, Walter L. Marr, built the first experimental automobile for the Buick firm.<P>Buick Auto-Vim and Power Co. was housed in 1900 in the Boydell Building at the southwest corner of Beaubien and Lafayette Streets, according to local historians. The building is still standing and is visible from Buick's new headquarters in the Renaissance Center. The river is tied to Buick's beginnings because David Buick was building engines for use in power boats on the Detroit River before he turned to building automobiles.<P>Buick claims one of the most important and dramatic histories of any automaker. The directors of the Flint Wagon Works moved Buick to Flint in 1903. In 1904, William C. Durant, another Flint carriage maker, took control of Buick. By 1908 Durant could claim Buick was the leader in automobile production - with more than 8,000 cars built that year. With Buick as the financial foundation, Durant founded General Motors that year.<P>Some of the U.S. auto industry's most illustrious early figures are part of the Buick story - including Louis Chevrolet, Charles W. Nash and Walter P. Chrysler. By the time Buick headquarters returned from Flint to Detroit in 1998, nearly 35 million Buicks had been built. <P>###

[Centurion]

Bringing this item to the top, since there has been a request for more information about the Centennial.