General Motors Trivia

Choose an answer from the three choices and True or False offered after each question and then "Check Your Answers" at the end of the quiz.

1. General Motors was founded on Wednesday, September 16, in Flint, Michigan, as a holding company for Buick, then controlled by William C. Durant, and acquired Oldsmobile later that year. What was the year?

• 1906
• 1907
• 1908

2. Durant would leave General Motors and form another auto maker in 1911. What was the company?

• Chrysler
• Dodge
• Chevrolet

3. Who became General Motors president in 1923?

• Harmon Flint
• Erwin Costmore
• Alfred P. Sloan

4. In 1929 went on to acquire an 80% stake in German automobile manufacturer and two years later, they owned 100%. What was the name of the company?

• Adam Opel AG
• McLaughlin Motor Car Company
• Vauxhall Motors

5. Who said, “What was good for the country was good”?

• Charles Erwin Wilson
• Graeme K. Howard
• James D. Mooney

6. Chevrolet Corvair, introduced in 1959 as a 1960 model, it was initially very popular. But before long its quirky handling earned it a reputation for being unsafe, inspiring consumer advocate to lambaste it in his book, Unsafe at any Speed, published in 1965. Who was the author?

• Thomas P. Kennedy
• Ralph Nader
• George Wilson

7. The 1970s was the decade of the Vega. Launched as a 1971 model, it also began life as a very popular car in the marketplace. But within a few years, quality problems, exacerbated by labor unrest at its main production source in Lordstown, Ohio, gave the car a bad name.

• True or False?

8. In the 1980 model year, a full line of automobiles on the X-body platform was launched. Again, these cars were all quite popular in their respective segments for the first couple of years, but brake problems, and other defects, ended up giving them, known to the public as "X-Cars," such a bad reputation that the 1985 model year was their last. What model anchored the model?

• Pontiac Mantra
• Chevrolet Citation
• Chevrolet Commander

9. GM CEO, Roger B. Smith formed joint ventures with two Japanese companies. One was NUMMI in California. Who did they joint venture with?

• Kawasaki
• Honda
• Toyota

10. When it was phased out in 2004, it was the oldest surviving American automobile name, and one of the oldest in the world, after Daimler and Peugeot. What was it?

• Pontiac
• Buick
• Oldsmobile

Check Your Answers

1. 1908
2. Chevrolet
3. Alfred P. Sloan
4. Adam Opel AG
5. Charles Erwin Wilson
6. Ralph Nader
7. True
8. Chevrolet Citation
9. Toyota
10. Oldsmobile

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