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General Motors facts for kids

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General Motors Company
Public
Industry Automotive
Founded Flint, Michigan (September 16, 1908)
Founder William C. Durant
Headquarters Renaissance Center
Detroit, Michigan, United States
Area served
 Worldwide
Key people
 Daniel Akerson
(Chairman and CEO)
Products Automobiles
Revenue IncreaseUS$ 98.7 billion (Q1-Q3 2010)
IncreaseUS$ 4.2 billion (Q1-Q3 2010)
Number of employees
 209,000 (2010)
Divisions Chevrolet
Buick
Cadillac
GMC
Subsidiaries Opel
Holden
Vauxhall

General Motors Company is the largest American car company. It is based in the Renaissance Center in Detroit, Michigan. It was founded in 1908 by a man named Billy Durant. It makes cars and trucks in 31 countries. About 209,000 people work for it. It is the second largest car company in the world, after Toyota.

In the 1950s and 1960s, it dominated the car industry, but it fell into decline by the 1980s and 90s. The company went through a bankruptcy in 2009 and was bought by the US Government, which has been selling its stake in the company.

As of April 2014, GM is being investigated by the United States Congress over the deaths of 13 people involving faulty ignition systems that have been used in many GM cars, with some built as early as 1997. In May 2014 the company was fined $35 million from NHTSA over the ignition problem.

Brands

GM has many brands, including:

In the past, General Motors has used other brands, including Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Saturn, Hummer, Geo, and Daewoo, but none of these are produced by GM as of 2014. They either have gone out of business or were merged into Chevrolet. GM also owned Saab from 1989-2010, and also held stakes in Isuzu and Suzuki until 2008. In 2017 they sold Opel and Vauxhall Motors to Groupe PSA.

Images for kids

  • General Motors building 089833pv

    General Motors headquarters building, 1981

  • General Motors Company 1916

    General Motors Company share certificate issued October 13, 1916

  • Chevrolet nova 1969 ad

    An advertisement for the 1969 Chevrolet Nova using the advertising slogan "Putting you first, keeps us first"

  • DSC8983 (51577943248)

    Chevrolet Corvette C8.R in the IMSA SportsCar Championship

  • Flint Sit-Down Strike sleeping

    Young striker off sentry duty sleeping on the assembly line of auto seats

  • Flint Sit-Down Strike National Guard

    National Guardsmen with machine guns overlooking Chevrolet factories number nine and number four

  • Gm logo 1938

    1938–1964

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