Established in 1902, Cadillac is the fourth-oldest U.S. car brand, and history tells us Henry Ford was connected to what became Cadillac Motor Co.
Ford and his investors seem to have had a financial dispute, so he left company along with partners to form a new one. The remaining partners, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen, hired an engineer, Henry Leland, to liquidate the company, but instead he persuaded the pair to form a new company and build cars. The company was named after Antoine Laumet de La Mothe, sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701.
The Cadillac company’s intention was to build a car based on precision engineering and stylish luxury finishes, and from the beginning its cars were consistently ranked among the finest in the United States. Cadillac was the first volume manufacturer of a fully enclosed car in 1906 and won the Dewar Trophy in 1908 for the most important advancement in interchangeable parts. Other notable achievements involve the synchromesh manual transmission, the V6, V8 and V12 engines and the later V8 engine with overhead valves.
Cadillac was well on its way to become “The Standard of the World.” After World War II, Cadillac became the design leader with tail fins and wraparound windshields. After the war, Cadillac made front bumper guards that originally were to represent a pair of artillery shells, but as time passed and the war memories faded during the 1950s, these bumper guards became known as Dagmar bumpers because of perceived si.