The Buick Model B was

Buick Buick () is a division of the American automobile manufacturer General Motors (GM). Started by automotive pioneer David Dunbar Buick in 1899, it was among the first American marques of automobiles, and was the company that established General ...

's first model as an independent company, later becoming part of

General Motors The General Motors Company (GM) is an American Multinational corporation, multinational Automotive industry, automotive manufacturing company headquartered in Detroit, Michigan, United States. It is the largest automaker in the United States and ...

in 1908. It was built in

Jackson, Michigan Jackson is the only city and county seat of Jackson County in the U.S. state of Michigan. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 33,534, down from 36,316 at the 2000 census. Located along Interstate 94 and U.S. Route 127, it is approxi ...

. A model B was exhibited in 1905 at the

New York Auto Show The New York International Auto Show is an annual auto show that is held in Manhattan in late March or early April. It is held at the Jacob Javits Convention Center. It usually opens on or just before Easter weekend and closes on the first S ...

as a promotion of the model C which would be the same.

William C. Durant William Crapo Durant (December 8, 1861 – March 18, 1947) was a leading pioneer of the United States automobile industry and co-founder of General Motors and Chevrolet. He created a system in which a company held multiple marques – each s ...

introduced the car himself at the exhibit, and took new car orders at the car show, raising sales from 37 cars in 1904 to 750 in 1905. It had a 2-cylinder, horizontally opposed engine – the world's first production OHV (overhead valve) engine – installed lengthwise within the frame, had a planetary transmission, with a cone clutch and two forward speeds and one reverse gear. The engine was rated at 21 bhp. In later years, it was renamed as improvements were made. The chassis was shared later with the

Oldsmobile Model 20 The Series 20 was an automobile produced by Oldsmobile Division of General Motors in 1909. When the Oldsmobile Company joined General Motors in 1908, the Series 20 was one of the first examples of platform sharing that became GM's most notable bu ...

when they became a division of GM while the overhead valve engine wasn't used by Oldsmobile. It had a retail price of US$950 ($ in dollars ) for the touring sedan. The Model B / C continued to be made, as model F, G, and 14, but was dropped after 1911 as Buick had been promoting 4 cylinder cars, starting with the D in 1907. * Model B (1903-04) * Model C (1905) * Model F & G (1906–1910) * Model 14 & 14B (1910–1911)

References

Buick vehicles Cars powered by boxer engines First car made by manufacturer {{Brass-auto-stub