Short history of Cadillac

Cadillac was born out of the closure of Henry Ford when Henry Ford left with some of his key partners and the company was dissolved. 

With the intention of liquidating the company's assets, financiers left over from Ford's departure, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen, called on engineer Henry M. Leland of the Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to evaluate the plant and equipment before selling them. Instead, Leland convinced them to continue their car manufacturing business by equipping them with a single-cylinder engine designed by Leland. 

The company needed a new name after Henry Ford left. On August 22, 1902, the company was renamed the Cadillac Automobile Company. Leland & Faulconer Production and the Cadillac Automobile Company merged in 1905. The Cadillac Automobile Company was named after seventeenth-century French explorer Antoine Laumet de la Mothe, Sieur de Cadillac, who founded Detroit in 1701. 

The first Cadillac automobile, The "Cadillac Runabout and Tonneau" was completed in October 1902. It was a two-seater car with 10 horsepower (7 kW) and a single-cylinder engine. It was practically identical to the Ford Model A from 1903. The first car seems to have left the factory in mid-October. The new Cadillac was unveiled at the New York Motor Show in January the following year and impressed the crowd enough to garner over 2,000 firm orders. 

From its earliest years, Cadillac has focused on high-quality technology and luxury finishes, ranking its cars among the best and most elegant in the United States. The use of interchangeable parts was an important innovation of the company in 1908. Cadillac was also the first manufacturer of a fully enclosed car in 1906, and in 1912 was the first to incorporate in its cars an electrical system to start, ignition and lighting. În 1909 the brand become part from General Motors.

Becoming the first american luxury car, Cadillac was for decades a glamourous brand. Cars was produced in United States, Asia and Europe. A special market was France, with special models designed for this market realized by French designers.

In the face of Japanese and German competition, Cadillac lost its market position in the years 1980-1990. Today, the brand's prestige is predominantly defended by the concept cars that the Cadillac Team has launched in the last decade.