Professional Documents
Culture Documents
after the argument, it was a laconic comment made by Durant which caused the break-up of
the partnership. Durant had suggested that Chevrolet, now an executive in the automotive
industry, should change from smoking his cheap "blue collar" cigarettes to more exclusive
cigars.
Catherine Durant later said that her
husband did not so much dislike the brand
of the cigarettes, but the way in which
Chevrolet stuck them in the corner of his
mouth. In any case, this suggestion must
have hurt Louis Chevrolet so much that he
countered: "I sold you my automobile, I
sold you my name, but I shall not sell my
personality to you." He then packed up his
cigarettes and left the company.
Durant had made a fundamental decision
which has influenced the Chevrolet brand
to this day. He institutionalized the brand
as a synonym for good quality yet affordable Production milestone
automobiles.
While the Chevrolet brand developed quickly along the lines established by Durant, Louis
Chevrolet returned to his passion.
His motto was to design modern automobiles and participate in races. In fulfillment of this
goal he founded the "Frontenac Motor Corporation" in 1914. In a difficult economic
environment he manufactured the first serially produced Frontenac - the showpiece of the
American automobile industry in the 1920s. In 1926, he and his brother Arthur established a
new company, "Chevrolair 333", and began developing a light aircraft
engine. The company was liquidated after a fight between the two
brothers.
Without further ado, Louis then founded the "Chevrolet Air Car
Company" in Indianapolis, which had to close shortly thereafter as a
result of the ensuing economic crisis. His last major engineering coup
took place in 1932 when he developed a 10-cylinder star engine.
Chevrolet applied for a patent for the engine, but by the time the
patent registration came through in 1935, Louis Chevrolet no longer
had the strength to build up another company. Instead, he again
worked as a mechanic, just as he did at the beginning of his career,
in the Chevrolet production plant in Detroit.
He died on June 6, 1941, at the age of 63 at his home in Lakewood,
east of Detroit – years after he had fallen seriously ill with a brain
Louis Chevrolet
hemorrhage.
In 1916, he pulled off a coup: he announced that Chevrolet owned a 54.5% shareholding in
GM, and he took over the chairmanship of the company from Charles W. Nash, who had
served at the helm of GM since 1912.
In May 1918, Durant bought up the assets of the Chevrolet Motor Company and integrated
the brand into the General Motors Corporation.
The name Chevrolet had become inseparable from its bowtie logo, even if the origin of the
bowtie has never been clear. In one version of the story, Chevrolet had been inspired by the
pattern of the wallpaper in a Paris hotel room. His own family has always disputed this.
Durant's wife apparently saw how her husband in 1911 discovered the sign in a newspaper
advertisement for a coal company. His daughter wrote in the Durant biography that her
father had drawn up the logo during dinner one evening. However, it is confirmed that the
bowtie logo – one of the best known logos in the U.S.A. and around the world – appeared for
the first time on a vehicle in 1914.
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1939 Suburban, 1974 Suburban, 2013 Trax, 2002 Suburban (clockwise from top left)
Chevrolet's second overseas assembly plant was named "General Motors Continental" and
was established in Belgium. The company was set up in an old abbey in Antwerp. The first
Chevrolet to be assembled there left the plant on April 2, 1925. Soon, demand grew faster
than the daily production of 25 vehicles could supply. In July 1926, the assembly was
relocated to the Antwerp cycle stadium. It is unsure how many of the 178,072 vehicles
assembled in Antwerp between 1925 and 1940 actually carried the bowtie logo. However,
the exact number of Chevrolets produced there after the war was recorded at 78,162
vehicles.
In the fall of 1934, the establishment of the General
Motors assembly plant in Switzerland started with a
scene fit for the stage: with a handful of mud and the
words "Here I bring to you the earth on which we shall
build our factory", Alfred P. Sloan (1875-1966), GM's
chairman at the time, signaled to Swiss President Guido
Müller his agreement to establishing a plant in Biel.
Between 1936 and 1968, a total of 26,858 vehicles were
assembled in Switzerland for sale in Switzerland,
First Chevrolet built in Biel, Switzerland Germany and Austria, adorned with a logo depicting
Switzerland's three most famous mountains, Eiger, Mönch and Jungfrau, and the slogan
"Montage Suisse".
In Poland, General Motors manufactured Chevrolet models at two locations: from the fall of
1929 in a plant at 103 Wolska Street in Warsaw and from 1937 in a second plant in the Wola
district of Warsaw. In 1936, General Motors signed an agreement with a local company,
Lilop Rau & Loewenstein S.A., concerning the production of Cadillac, La Salle, Buick,
Oakland, Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Chevrolet, GMC, Opel and Vauxhall brand automobiles.
Before start of production, the local employees were trained at General Motors International
A/S in Copenhagen. The Chevrolet models produced in Wola included the four-door Master
Sedan, Master De Luxe, Master Touring Sedan and the Imperial limousine.
Increasingly, parts were no longer imported but rather manufactured locally. The start was
made with paint colors from Wloclawek, batteries from the "Tudor" plant in Piastów and
Stomil brand tires from Poznán. At the same time, the company cooperated with other Polish
manufacturers such as headlamp manufacturers "A. Marciniak" and the transmission
specialist "John" from Lódz. The Lublin engine plant which opened in 1938 supplied six-
cylinder engines for the Chevrolet production. In 1939, a total of 159 parts of Polish origin
were used in production. With the start of World War II, production in Poland was stopped.
In Germany, Chevrolets were manufactured
in plants in Berlin-Wittenau and in Berlin-
Borsigwalde. In September 1927, the
5,000th Chevrolet assembled in Germany
left the plant. Capacity was increased to
some 2,000 vehicles per month in 1929.
Unfortunately, the demand for Chevrolet
models 11/30 and 6 was unstable. With the
onset of the Depression, sales declined and
the plant was closed effective October 31,
1931.
In the United Kingdom, General Motors
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cooperated with Vauxhall Motors Ltd. from 1925 onward. GM considered the deal
(£650,000) to be a favorable overseas investment to avoid high import duties which in the
UK depended on the weight of the vehicles. At the beginning, the 10cwt and 1-ton vehicles
were manufactured in Hendon. When demand rose in 1928 and Chevrolet had already
become a serious competitor for Ford, production was transferred to a factory in Luton.
When the truck boom collapsed, Chevrolet largely withdrew from the UK. Only a small
number of vehicles made in the U.S.A. were sold via specialists.
Until the early 1970s the company experienced a wave of success which brought to market
such innovations as the gasoline injected engine (1957) and the four-wheel independent
suspension (1959). In 1958, Chevrolet combined the functions of a pick-up with the comfort
of a large passenger car in the El Camino model. In 1962, Chevrolet introduced a new line of
smaller vehicles, the Chevy II models. The Malibu and Camaro models, considered classic
cars today, were launched in 1963 and 1966 respectively.
Chevrolet's bestselling models in Europe in 2013: Spark, Cruze, Aveo, Trax (clockwise
from top left)
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