Menu
Home
People
Places
Arts
History
Plants & Animals
Science
Life & Culture
Technology
Reference.org
General Motors companion make program
open-in-new
<p>In the late 1920s, American automotive company <a href="/facts/General_Motors/rBgP3IRK">General Motors</a> (GM) launched four companion makes to supplement its existing lineup of five-passenger car <a href="/facts/Brand/hP6SnDWU">brands</a>, or <i>makes</i>. The companion makes were <a href="/facts/LaSalle_(automobile)/tlmbS5j5">LaSalle</a>, introduced for the 1927 <a href="/facts/Model_year/z5RUIEK2">model year</a> to supplement <a href="/facts/Cadillac/XIwEf3TI">Cadillac</a>; <a href="/facts/Marquette_(automobile)/xIuwzlLz">Marquette</a>, introduced in 1929 for 1930 to supplement <a href="/facts/Buick/MV4z0rU6">Buick</a>; <a href="/facts/Pontiac_(automobile)/xuyM6f5Q">Pontiac</a>, introduced for 1926 to supplement <a href="/facts/Oakland_(automobile)/06bQqk9Y">Oakland</a>; and <a href="/facts/Viking_(automobile)/R49q4vxX">Viking</a>, introduced for 1929 to supplement <a href="/facts/Oldsmobile/TIfEKkaz">Oldsmobile</a>. GM's fifth existing brand, <a href="/facts/Chevrolet/lp04IP4m">Chevrolet</a>, did not receive a companion make. With the exception of Viking, each of the companion makes were slotted below their "parent make" in GM's pricing hierarchy. </p><p>GM had pioneered the idea of having a ladder of brands, arranged in order by price, to appeal to consumers with different incomes. This contributed to GM's rise to automotive dominance in the 1920s at the expense of <a href="/facts/Ford_Motor_Company/lY6Wcwty">Ford</a>. By the late 1920s, GM felt that there were excessive gaps in this ladder. President <a href="/facts/Alfred_P._Sloan/JWvz2fGe">Alfred P. Sloan</a> devised the companion makes in order to fill those gaps. The companion makes were also intended to increase the sales of their respective divisions by selling cars that cost less to produce. </p><p>The program is generally considered a failure. Sales of Vikings and Marquettes were low during the <a href="/facts/Great_Depression/5K13wcg0">Great Depression</a> and the brands were discontinued by 1931. LaSalle lasted longer, weathering the Depression until it too ceased production after 1940. Pontiac had a different fate; its popularity led to the discontinuation of Oakland after 1931. Pontiac was the only GM marque produced for a significant amount of time that was not an outside acquisition; it was discontinued in 2010 in the aftermath of the <a href="/facts/Great_Recession/9LoVUhLf">Great Recession</a>. </p>