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General Motors facts

While investigating facts about General Motors Stock and General Motors Strike, I found out little known, but curios details like:

Judge Doom's scheme to dismantle the street cars in favor of freeways in Who Framed Roger Rabbit was based on a real life conspiracy from General Motors

how general motors started?

Chevron and General Motors bought the patents for NiMH car batteries and used them to block electric vehicle development in the 90s and 00s

What general motors plants are closing?

In my opinion, it is useful to put together a list of the most interesting details from trusted sources that I've come across answering what general motors owns. Here are 50 of the best facts about General Motors Careers and General Motors Diet I managed to collect.

what happened at general motors?

  1. Prior to WWII, Los Angeles had one of the most advanced and efficient light rail systems in the country. This privately-run rail system was purchased by a company owned by General Motors, and slowly dismantled in order to drive demand for more cars and buses.

  2. After the band Chumbawamba was paid $100,000 by General Motors for the use of their song "Pass it Along" in an ad, they then donated 100% of the proceeds to activist groups for the purpose of beginning information and environmental campaigns against GM.

  3. After Ralph Nader Published "Unsafe at any Speed" in 1965, General Motors kept trying to discredit him, including hiring a prostitute to seduce him, but he turned her away. So they hired detectives to prove he was gay, but they were caught when Nader entered Congress and they tried to follow.

  4. When General Motors unveiled the Camaro name in 1966, automotive press asked Chevrolet product managers, “What is a Camaro?” and were told it was “a small, vicious animal that eats Mustangs.”

  5. In October, 2014, General Motors complained that the newly sourced Flint water supply was causing corrosion at a local engine plant. GM switched back to Detroit's Lake Huron supply, meanwhile residents complained about the smell and taste of their drinking water, which they were assured was safe

  6. General Motors pays its CEO more than it pays in US taxes

  7. The cars in Oprah's famous car giveaway back in 2004 were actually donated by General Motors and weren't from Oprah herself

  8. Ralph Nader sued General Motors for harassment in 1970 after GM attempted to blackmail him to suppress his outspoken criticism of automobile safety. He won and used the $425m judgement to found an organization which was instrumental in the creation of OSHA and the Freedom of Information Act.

  9. Who framed Roger Rabbit is loosely based off of a true conspiracy by General Motors to purchase & dismantle streetcar systems in American cities between 1938-1950

  10. Companies such as General Motors (fronting as National City Lines) bought out companies that operated electric streetcars across the USA and fully replaced them with buses, which were reliant on foreign oil.

general motors facts
What's general motors?

General Motors data charts

For your convenience take a look at General Motors figures with stats and charts presented as graphic.

general motors fact data chart about General Motors Year By Year Net Income In The 21st Century
General Motors Year By Year Net Income In The 21st Century

Why general motors failed?

You can easily fact check why general motors is closing plants by examining the linked well-known sources.

In the 1950's General Motors was the biggest employer in the United States and paid their employees an average of $50 per hour. Today Walmart is the biggest employer in the U.S. and pay an average of just over $8 per hour.

General Motors chemist Thomas Midgley Jr. invented both chlorofluorocarbons and leaded gasoline, having "more impact on the atmosphere than any other single organism in Earth's history." - source

A $0.57 faulty ignition switch in General Motors cars has killed 124 people. - source

General Motors and other companies would buy street cars and trains and scrap them to decrease public transportation competition

In the 1970's, General Motors designed the Chevy Vega specifically so it could be shipped pointed downwards. The fluid reservoirs were designed so fluid did not leak when the cars were tipped on end. This allowed them to ship 30 automobiles on a single rail car. - source

When is general motors going back to work?

I learned that General Motors, Standard Oil, Firestone Tire, Mack Trucks, and Phillips Petroleum were all convicted of monopolizing the sale of buses and supplies to National City Lines and its subsidiaries in an effort to eliminate the competing electric trolley car.

How general motors failed?

Henry ford was once fired from the automaker bearing his name, the Henry Ford Company. The company was later renamed Cadillac and became part of General Motors, a modern competitor to Ford's next business venture, the Ford Motor Company.

General Motors spilled 1,000,000 gallons of waste per day into the Hudson River from 1896-1996

Charles Kettering, vice president of research for General Motors, assembled a team to study the problem.

Thomas Midgley Jr. of General Motors introduced lead to gasoline. He reportedly said, "Can you imagine how much money we're going to make with this?" while recovering from lead poisoning after demonstrating it was totally safe by inhaling leaded gas for 60 seconds

Delco was sold from United Motors to General Motors in 1918. Kettering became vice president of General Motors research Corporation and held this position until 1947.

When was general motors founded?

In April 1923 General Motors created the General Motors Chemical Company to supervise the production of TEL.

In 1966, General Motors developed a concept van powered by a 115-horsepower electric engine. It was denied production because of safety concerns.

The next elected President of the USA (The 45th President) will also be the recipient of a new model state car. The specs on the new model are unknown at this point; however, $15,800,765.00 has already been paid to General Motors for this project since 2013.

Eugene Kettering also worked for General Motors and helped develop to Detroit Diesel 6-71 and EMD 567.

The Liberator pistol, a single shot weapon made in WWII. Made by General Motors from only 23 parts, it was woefully inaccurate (with a maximum distance of only 8 metres), cost only $2 to make, and was meant for used behind enemy lines by the resistance.

How general motors diet?

The Frigidaire division of General Motors wanted an alternative refrigerant.

It took Uber only 5 and a half years to surpass the valuation of 107-year-old General Motors.

The 2nd gen Pontiac Firebird hood bird decal was originally unpopular with General Motors executives and wasn't approved until the car's 4th model year, 1973, in which it turned out to be a success.

William Durant founder of General Motors went bankrupt during the great depression and spent his last years managing a bowling alley.

In 1981 General Motors made a deal with the Iraqi gov't to sell 25,000 special models of the Malibu to be used as taxis, however only 13,000 were sent to Iraq due to transmission issues and the remainder sold to the Canadian public at a discount

In 1986 General Motors launched a reorganisation plan that was so expensive ($35 billion) that they could have bought both Toyota and Nissan with the money. Ultimately the aforementioned purchase of Japanese automakers would have earned GM more in dividends.

Victor Wouk, the "Godfather of the Hybrid," built the first full-powered, full-size hybrid vehicle out of a 1972 Buick Skylark provided by General Motors (G.M.) for the 1970 Federal Clean Car Incentive Program. The Environmental Protection Association later kills the program in 1976.

In 2000, General Motors sold more pornos than Hustler.

The substance was named "ethyl" by General Motors and all mention of lead was omitted.

General Motors destroyed the trolley system in America so people would buy cars and not use public transit

Corporation Trust Center, 1209 North Orange Street, is a single-story building that is the legal address of 285,000 businesses including Google, American Airlines, Apple Inc, General Motors, Coca-Cola, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Verizon Internet Services, and Deutsche Bank.

General Motors killed 19,000 dogs, rabbits, pigs, ferrets, rats and mice as crash test dummies in their automobile crash tests. GM later led the development of modern crash test dummies.

In 1924 General Motors partnered with Standard Oil to create the Ethyl Gasoline Corporation for producing and marketing TEL.

America's once world leading train system is today so outdated because General Motors, Firestone tires and Standard oil bought up all of the nation's street car system phasing out trains as a functional transportation system in favor of cars.

General Motors offered to maintain the site of old Tiger Stadium as a youth baseball field but Detroit turned it down

This is our collection of basic interesting facts about General Motors. The fact lists are intended for research in school, for college students or just to feed your brain with new realities. Possible use cases are in quizzes, differences, riddles, homework facts legend, cover facts, and many more. Whatever your case, learn the truth of the matter why is General Motors so important!

Editor Veselin Nedev Editor