General Motors Celebrates Its Centennial Anniversary

General Motors, one of the largest and oldest automakers in the world, celebrated its centennial anniversary on September 16, 2008.

The company was founded by William Durant, the owner of the then five year old Buick motor company who purchased Oldsmobile, an automaker which was founded in 1897. These two brands comprised the original General Motors Corporation which subsequently added new divisions and companies to its portfolio. Today, GM has 8 separate brands serving the US market in addition to several other brands for its overseas operations.

Getting to this point in its history hasn't been easy for GM. At one time, the automaker produced more than half the cars sold in America, but that number has dwindled steadily to where the automaker is barely has 20% of all production in America. Credit foreign car product inroads with fueling these changes as well as a lack in leadership in product development particularly from the 1970s through most of the 1990s.

Today, General Motors is the second largest automaker in the world, having recently been eclipsed by its arch-rival, the Toyota Motor Company. Billions of dollars in losses in 2007 which led to further bleeding in 2008 has taken its toll on GM. Yet, the company soldiers on and appears ready to launch a turn around starting in 2009.

In the midst of marking its grand centennial, General Motors is doing a number of things including: taking a look back at where they were; emphasizing new products currently in the works; and envisioning what lies ahead for transportation over the next one hundred years.

GM's past is, of course, well documented and that information can be found on its flagship site at GMNext.com

GM's present situation is currently playing out in the news but includes some near term new products including the Chevrolet Volt hybrid, its Chevrolet Camaro sport model, and the Chevy Cruze which is the company's promising new econo-car replacing the Chevrolet Cobalt. That latter model is expected to deliver an astounding 45 mpg when it is made available in 2010.

Cadillac is also seeing some changes including two new CTS models: a coupe and a wagon. In addition, the SRX crossover is being redesigned and a compact Cadillac, perhaps the BLS, will make its debut within two years time.

Other GM divisions are also getting new or updated products including the Buick LaCrosse, Pontiac G8 sport truck, Saturn Astra, and new products for Saab. GMC will get whatever Chevrolet trucks get while Hummer will likely be sold within the coming months.

As far as the company's long term future goes, expect GM to continue to expand in Asia, Europe, South America, and Africa; establish alliances with other automakers in emerging lands; and develop new or enhance existing technologies to yield cars that car run on alternate fuel sources, electric power, perhaps even hydrogen.

For a company that is one hundred years old, GM never fails to excite people, bringing to the market fresh new models and the technologies that goes with them.