Ford Motor Company (AKA Ford) is an American multinational automobile manufacturer headquartered in Dearborn, Michigan, USA. It was founded by Henry Ford and incorporated on June 16, 1903. Cars and trucks are sold under the Ford brand. Luxury cars under the Lincoln brand. By 1914, the moving assembly line and manufacturing philosophy of Henry Ford were known around the world as Fordism. The company is listed on the New York Stock Exchange and is controlled by the Ford family.

UK subsidiaries Jaguar and Land Rover, were acquired in 1989 and 2000, then sold to the Indian automaker Tata Motors in 2008. Ford owned the Swedish automaker Volvo from 1999 to 2010. In 1938 til 2010, Ford marketed Mercury in the United States, Canada, Mexico, and the Middle East.

During the 2008–2010 automotive industry crisis, the company struggled financially but did not have to be rescued by the federal government.

Ford is the second-largest U.S.-based automaker, the sixth-largest in the world. Though joint ventures in China (Changan Ford), Taiwan (Ford Lio Ho), Thailand (AutoAlliance Thailand), and Turkey (Ford Otosan), Ford produced 4.4 million automobiles, and employed about 177,000 employees worldwide.

Roots to the GMC brand can be traced to 1900, when the "Grabowsky Motor Company" was established by brothers Max and Morris Grabowsky in Detroit. Renamed Rapid Motor Vehicle Company in 1902 when the brothers moved operations to Pontiac, Michigan. In 1909, William C. Durant gained control of Rapid Motor Vehicle Company and made it a subsidiary of his General Motors Company.

In 1912, the Rapid and Reliance names were dropped in favor of "GMC".

GMC formerly the General Motors Truck Company (1911–1943)
The GMC Truck & Coach Division (1943–1998)
GMC (1998-Present)

Henry, Clement, John Mohler, Peter Everst and Jacob Franklin Studebaker were the brothers that founded an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company.

Studebaker entered the automotive business in 1902 with electric vehicles and in 1904 with gasoline vehicles, all sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company".

Over the next 50 years, the company established a reputation for quality, durability and reliability.

An unsuccessful 1954 merger with Packard (the Studebaker-Packard Corporation) and a failure to solve chronic postwar cash flow problems, the 'Studebaker Corporation' name was restored in 1962, but the South Bend plant ceased automobile production on December 20, 1963. The last Studebaker automobile rolled off the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line on March 17, 1966.

The Oakland Motor Car Company was founded in 1907 in Pontiac, Michigan, by Edward Murphy, a manufacturer of horse-drawn carriages. The following year, another former buggy company executive, William C. Durant, founded General Motors in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for the Buick Motor Company. In 1909 Oakland became part of GM.

In 1926 the Pontiac Series 6-27 was introduced as a junior brand to Oakland which featured a six-cylinder engine. The Pontiac was more popular than the senior brand and became its own GM division when Oakland was canceled in 1931.

It was named after the famous Odawa chief, who had also given his name to the city of Pontiac, Michigan where the car was produced.

By emphasizing its "Wide Track" design, Pontiac billed itself as the "performance division" of General Motors that marketed cars with the "we build excitement" tag line.

GM facing financial problems needed to restructure. As a perquisite for a $53 billion government bailout, GM agreed to discontinue the Pontiac brand. The final Pontiac, a white G6, was assembled in January 2010.

The origins of Plymouth can be traced back to the Maxwell automobile. In the early 1920s Walter P. Chrysler took over control of the troubled Maxwell-Chalmers car company. The inspiration for the Plymouth brand name came from Plymouth binder twine, produced by the Plymouth Cordage Company, also of Plymouth, MA.

The Plymouth automobile was introduced at Madison Square Garden on July 7, 1928. It was Chrysler Corporation's first entry in the low-priced field.

DaimlerChrysler decided to drop the brand name after a limited run of 2001 models. Sales had fallen from 973,000 to 200,000 units by then. They rebranded some models under Dodge and Chrysler.

Originally established as "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds in 1897. In 1901 the company produced 635 cars, making it the first high-volume gasoline-powered automobile manufacturer. Electric car manufacturers such as Columbia Electric and steam-powered car manufacturers such as Locomobile had higher volumes a few years earlier.

March 1901 the factory caught fire and burned to the ground, destroying nearly all of the prototypes that were inside. The only car that survived the fire was a Curved Dash prototype, which was wheeled out of the factory by two workers while escaping the burning building.

In 1908 General Motors purchased the company. Oldsmobile operated as a division of GM until 2004.

In 2004 the final 500 Aleros, Auroras, Bravadas, Silhouettes and Intrigues produced received special Oldsmobile heritage emblems and markings which signified 'Final 500'. Only 360 Silhouettes were built due to the plant running out of production capacity for fleet order obligations on the same assembly line.

The Oldsmobile division's last completed production car was an Alero GLS 4-door sedan, which was signed by all of the Olds assembly line workers. In 2017, the car was auctioned off at a dealer-only auction for $42,000 to a Florida dealer.

In 1937, Edsel Ford began work on Mercury as a completely new brand. Personally selecting the Roman god's name, even though the name was use by several failed automakers from 1903-1923.

In 1938 Ford introduced four body styles of the Mercury Eight at the New York Auto Show.

From 2000 -2010 the Mercury brand produced 2,180,882 vehicles.

After 2011, the model line was no longer legal for sale in North America, as federally-mandated electronic stability control was unable to be integrated with the Ford Panther chassis that had underpinned the model line and its Ford/Lincoln counterparts since 1979.

The final Mercury automobile, a 2011 Grand Marquis, was manufactured by Ford of Canada at St. Thomas Assembly on January 4, 2011.

As of 2019, Mercury remains an active, registered trademark of Ford.

The Lincoln Motor Company was founded in August 1917 by Henry Leland and his son Wilfred. Leland named Lincoln Motor Company after Abraham Lincoln, stating that Lincoln was the first President for whom he ever voted for.

Lincoln Motor Company would assemble 6,500 Liberty V12 engines by the end of World War I. Lincoln would employ 6,000 workers. In 1920 Lincoln Motor Company was reorganized as an automobile manufacturer, retooling its Detroit factory to produce automobiles.

Lincoln Motor Company had struggled with the transition from military to automobile production, with some customers having to wait nearly a year for their vehicles to be completed from the time of purchase. In 1922 the company was on the verge of bankruptcy and was placed in receivership.

Lincoln Motor Company was purchased by Henry Ford for $8 million 1922. While Lincoln was valued at $16 million, a $5 million bid by Ford was the sole bid received for the company (forced to be increased by the court).

Lincoln was operating at a profit by the end of 1923.
The Lincoln luxury brand is still in production by Ford.

The company was founded July 1945. In 1946 Kaiser-Frazer displayed prototypes of their two new cars at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel in New York City. The Kaiser had an advanced front-wheel drive design, while the Frazer was an upscale, conventional rear-wheel drive car.

The Kaiser-Frazer Corporation (1947–1953 aka Kaiser-Frazer) was an American automobile company. It was founded jointly by industrialist Henry J. Kaiser and automobile executive Joseph W. Frazer. In 1947, the company acquired the automotive assets of Graham-Paige, of which Frazer had become president near the end of World War II. Kaiser-Frazer was one of a few US automakers to achieve success after World War II.

In 1953, Kaiser bought the ailing Willys-Overland company, for its Jeep brand, and merged under the "Kaiser-Willys Corporation". The Willys-Overland branch was renamed "Willys Motors", until ten years later, in 1963, it was renamed Kaiser Jeep. In 1970 Kaiser-Jeep Corporation was sold to American Motors Corporation. 

Joe Frazer, Willys-Overland President from 1939 to 1944, claimed to have coined the word jeep by slurring the initials G.P. (General Purpose, Government purposes)

Jeeps went into production for World War II specifically tied the name to this light military 4×4, making them the oldest four-wheel drive mass-production vehicles.

Jeep, starting with Willys-Overland, which filed the original trademark application for the "Jeep" brand-name in February 1943. Kaiser_Motors 1953 acquisition lasted until 1970. American Motors Corporation (AMC) held on until 1987.

1987-1998- Chrysler
1998–2007- DaimlerChrysler AG
2007–2009- Chrysler LLC
2009–2013- Chrysler Group LLC - Fiat Group Automobiles
2014–2021- Fiat Chrysler Automobiles
2021–      Stellantis
 
The Jeep marque has been headquartered in Toledo, Ohio, ever since Willys–Overland launched production of the first CJ or Civilian Jeep branded models there in 1945.