Oakland Motor Car Company

The Oakland Motor Car Company of Pontiac, Michigan, was an American automobile manufacturer and division of General Motors. Purchased by General Motors in 1909, the company continued to produce modestly priced automobiles until 1931 when the brand was dropped in favor of the division's Pontiac make.^[1]

Beginning

The company was created by Edward Murphy who owned the Pontiac Buggy Company and Alanson Brush who was working as a consultant in Detroit after leaving the Cadillac Motor Company. Oakland Motor Company was named for

planetary transmission.^[2] The 1908 Oakland came in five body styles, designated Model A–E, varing from a runabout to a landaulet.^[3] The first year of Oakland production, 1908, had 278 vehicles roll off the line.^[3]

GM Division

After one year of production, Oakland's principal founder, Edward Murphy, sold half of the company to

GM A platform used by Chevrolet. One marketing tactic was the employment of a quick-drying bright blue automotive lacquer by Duco (a DuPont brand product), leading to the slogan "True Blue Oakland Six".^[1] The Oakland was built only in Pontiac, Michigan, which is the county seat of Oakland County. The name antedates any GM association with an automobile manufacturing facility in Oakland, California, that built Chevrolet vehicles before Chevrolet joined GM called Oakland Assembly

.

Oakland Six and V8

In 1913 the Oakland Six was introduced followed in 1916 by the Model 50 365 cu in (6.0 L) flathead V8 engine sourced from Northway Motor and Manufacturing company,^[4]^[5] and production soared to 35,000 in 1917.^[2] The Series 50 V8 used a flathead design shared with the Oldsmobile Light Eight and the Cadillac Type 51.^[6] The Model 50 was only available from 1915 to 1917 as a seven-passenger touring sedan on a 127" wheelbase and was listed at US$1,600 ($44,800 in 2023 dollars ^[7]).^[1]

In 1930, Oakland reintroduced the Model 101 V8, again using a flathead architecture, on a 117" wheelbase and offered it as a roadster, phaeton, coupe, closed body sedan and sport coupe. Prices were listed at US$895 ($16,324 in 2023 dollars

oversquare bore and stroke of 3.4375 in (87.3 mm) x 3.375 in (85.7 mm) displacing 251 cu in (4.1 L) with a compression ratio of 5.2:1. Horsepower was rated at 85 @3200 RPM using three main bearings, solid valve lifters and a Marvel one barrel carburetor.^[1] Unusually, Pontiac switched to the straight-eight for 1933 until it was replaced in 1954.^[1]

Pontiac joins Oakland then replaces Oakland

As General Motors entered the 1920s, the product ladder started with the price-leading Chevrolet marque, and then progressed upward in price, power, and luxury to Oakland, Oldsmobile, Buick, and ultimately Cadillac. By the mid-1920s, a sizable price gap existed between Chevrolet and Oakland, as well as a wide gap between Oldsmobile and Buick. Also, a product gap existed between Buick and Cadillac. General Motors pioneered the idea that consumers would aspire to buy up an automotive product ladder if a company met certain price points-called the

Viking

, which took care of the lower end of the same gap.

Oakland's part in this plan was the 1926

four-cylinder car's price point, but still above Chevrolet. Pontiac was the first of the companion marques introduced, and in its first year sold 49,875 units.^[3] By 1929, GM sold 163,000 more Pontiacs than Oaklands. The discontinuation of Oakland was announced with the onset of the Great Depression

in 1931. Pontiac was the only companion make to survive beyond 1940, or to survive its "parent" make.