Who's (on) First?

It seems there's a minor collective historical shift going on.

The Buick Motor Company was incorporated May 19, 1903.

The Cadillac Automobile Company was incorporated August 22, 1902.

With the demise of Oldsmobile, the previous longest manufacturer in the U.S., Wikipedia (and other) sources have reshuffled the criteria a bit.

Wikipedia currently says this in the Cadillac entry :

>>"Cadillac is currently the second oldest American automobile manufacturer behind Buick and among the oldest automobile brands in the world. Depending on how one chooses to measure, Cadillac is arguably older than Buick. Since GM has discontinued offering Oldsmobile, Buick has the distinction as the oldest American make."<<

Wikipedia currently says this in the Buick entry :

>>"Buick is currently the oldest American automobile manufacturer, and among the oldest automobile brands in the world. It originated as the Buick Auto-Vim and Power Company in 1899, an independent internal combustion engine and motor-car manufacturer, and was later incorporated as the Buick Motor Company on May 19, 1903"<<

This is the same sort of thing, apparently, that many people do with "Mercedes-Benz", calling it the oldest manufacturer, when in fact these were 2 separate & unrelated companies that did not merge until 1926.

Here, people are 'reverse-engineering' Buick's history to include previous commercial entities such as the Buick Manufacturing Company of Detroit (1902) and the Buick Auto-Vim & Power Co (1899).

In all my time spent reading up on early history, this inclusion of earlier efforts in the time-line of Buick is a first. It's basically been within the last year or 2.

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So in keeping things fair, it should be noted that the Cadillac people (the Lelands) began with the manufacturing of internal combustion engines for trolleys & power boats in 1896, and this was an outgrowth from the Leland, Faulconer & Norton Machine Co, which was incorporated on 09-19-1890.

If we're going to include Buick's roots, we should do so with Cadillac's, IMO, and this would solidly reestablish Cadillac as the oldest American marque.

I'm all for including the earliest rumblings of a company, the roots, the catalyst... yet at the same time, it's pertinent to mention the present-day company's start date, too.

Anyway- I found it interesting (and in need of full disclosure).

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BTW- R. E. Olds built his first vehicle in 1887, and started his first company in 1890 (haven't located the exact date on that one yet).

the first car was the Benz motorwagen of 1886, Daimler's motor carriage followed soon after the same year. Granted they both are "Mercedes-Benz" today, but back then there was no such thing.

But yes, I was always under the understanding that Cadillac was in fact the second-oldest American automobile company behind Oldsmobile. I didn't even know anything bearing Buick's name was around back then; in fact, I thought Ford was older as well (1901).

Ford built his first car in 1896, and 2 other Ford car companies failed (1899-1901 & 1901-02) before the Ford Motor Company started in 1903.