Oldsmobile
Oldsmobile was founded in 1897 as the "Olds Motor Vehicle Company" by Ransom E. Olds located in Lansing, Michigan as a competitor to Buick and Cadillac. It was the first high-volume gasoline-powered car manufacturer in 1901. That same year, Oldsmobile was renamed Olds Motor Works and moved to a new plant in Detroit. Not only that, Oldsmobile had a bunch of prototypes ready to be put into production, but the factory that had those prototypes caught on fire and destroyed all of the prototypes except for Oldsmobile's first ever car. In 1903 and 1904, Oldsmobile was the best-selling car company. However, in 1904, Ransom E. Olds left the company due to arguments and disputes with Frederick Smith, his sales manager. Frederick was questioning if Oldsmobile cars had no defects when they were fully produced. This caused Olds to create an experimental engineering shop without Frederick knowing, which would soon go on to create the REO Motor Car Company. Throughout the early to the late 1900s, Oldsmobile produced the first mass-produced car, the Oldsmobile Model R "Curved Dash" on the first ever assembly line, which is incorrectly credited to Henry Ford. The cars were colloquially referred to as "Oldsmobiles", popularizing the lyrics of the 1905 hit song "In My Merry Oldsmobile". It was eventually bought out by General Motors in 1908. Platforms that were shared with Buick had a "Series" prefix, while pre-GM vehicles had a "Model" prefix.