Top row: Charles Stewart Rolls, Frederick Henry Royce, Louis Chevrolet, Wilhelm Maybach, Karl Maybach, John and Horace Dodge. Center: David Dunbar Buick. Bottom row: Henry Ford, Ransom E. Olds, Kiichiro Toyoda.
We see their names every day -- Ford, Dodge, Chevrolet, Chrysler, Honda -- but rarely do we think of them as more than chrome letters on your car. They are, though, the names of actual people. Here are some of those whose family name graces your car.
David Dunbar Buick: America's oldest surviving marque was founded in 1899 by David Dunbar Buick, who developed the process for affixing porcelain to cast iron, giving the world the white porcelain bathtub. His company was the first to join General Motors in 1908. Buick left the company that year and never created another successful car brand. He died impoverished in 1929.
Louis Chevrolet: William C. Durant created GM in 1908 and lost the company to bankers in 1910. To get back in the game, Durant had a member of Buick's racing team create a new car. Louis Chevrolet obliged but left the company shortly after the car was launched in 1912.
Walter P. Chrysler.
Walter P. Chrysler: Walter Percy Chrysler rose through the ranks of GM until 1919, when he quit his job as Buick's president. Walking out with $10 million, he landed at Willys-Overland before taking over Maxwell Motors. There, in 1924, he launched the Chrysler.
John and Horace Dodge: The Dodge brothers had made a fortune producing engines and transmissions for Oldsmobile and Ford. As Henry Ford moved production in-house, John and Horace decided to build their own car, which debuted in 1914.
Edsel Ford: Henry Ford's only son, Edsel, imbued Fords of the '20s and '30s with a sense of style that his father, Henry, lacked. Edsel died of cancer and undulant fever in 1943. His son, Henry Ford II, named a line of cars in his memory in 1958.
Henry Ford: Until Henry Ford gave the world its first affordable car, the Model T, automobiles were playthings for the wealthy. The T changed that. Fifteen million were built from 1908 to 1927. Prices dropped to $290 in 1924 from $850 in 1909.
Soichiro Honda looks at plans for an auto plant.
Soichiro Honda: Soichiro Honda started as an auto mechanic in the 1920s, and he built engines for bicycles before manufacturing motorcycles. The first bikes hit the U.S. market in 1959. Car production started in 1963 with the S500, a two-seat roadster.
Wilhelm and Karl Maybach: Wilhelm Maybach engineered the first Mercedes. Son Karl topped him, producing a series of more exclusive, more expensive Maybach luxury cars. Production ended in the 1930s. Mercedes-Benz revived the brand in 2004.
Mercedes Jellinek and Karl Benz: The world's oldest car company dates to 1886, when Karl Benz produced the first modern car -- the Benz Patent Motorwagen. A separate company, Daimler, introduced the Mercedes in 1901, named for the daughter of Daimler dealer Emil Jellinek. The companies merged in 1926.
Ransom E. Olds: Ransom Eli Olds' future was assured when a fire ripped through the Olds Motor Works in 1901. The only car rescued -- the 7-horsepower Curved Dash Oldsmobile -- was a huge hit and became the first mass-produced car in America. Olds left Oldsmobile in 1904 to start Reo, builder of the Reo Speedwagon truck.
Charles Stewart Rolls and Frederick Henry Royce: When a Decauville automobile he had bought proved unreliable, Henry Royce decided to build a better one. By spring 1904, he produced his first car, which caught the attention of Charles Rolls, who locked up the rights to sell it.
Kiichiro Toyoda: The success of the Toyoda Automatic Loom Works led Sakichi Toyoda to nurture son Kiichiro in a different line of business. Kiichiro decided to build automobiles in the 1930s under the name Toyota. Why the name change? Toyota in Japanese takes eight brush strokes; Toyoda requires 10. Eight is considered lucky; 10 is not.
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