TAYLOR TALK
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In August of 1902, two men came to see Leland about a company they were trying to liquidate. It had been organized three years previously and was named the Detroit Automobile Company. It had only produced a few cars but the company failed in 1900. It was revived and reorganized a year later with the chief mechanic now in charge. He renamed it after himself. It was called the Henry Ford Company but Ford left after 3 months when the company was failing again. The investors claimed that Ford only wanted to build race cars but Ford said the company was in too much of a hurry to make a profit and had no long term plans. The investors, now trying to just get out, asked Leland to appraise their automobile plant and equipment for sale. Leland agreed and went to look the factory over. This gave him a tremendous idea. He went and got his new engine and took it for his meeting. When he later met with the investors, he told them “I believe you are making a great mistake in going out of business. The automobile has a great future. I have brought you a motor which we worked out at L and F. It has three times the power of the Olds motor. Its parts are interchangeable, and I can make these motors for you at less cost than the others for the Olds works and it is not temperamental” (which was a problem back then). Impressed by the man before them, they voted to continue the business and gave him the leading role in the company which now needed a new name. The investors hoped that their new company would be the first successful automobile company in Detroit so what more appropriate title than the one the great French adventurer had first brought to that very spot some two hundred years before? It was dubbed the Cadillac and shortly afterward, the Cadillac family crest was adopted (the design was prepared using the celebrated many-quartered shield surmounted by a seven-piked coronet and garlanded with a laurel wreath) and registered as a trademark. |
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Cadillac became the first American automobile manufacturer to win the coveted Dewar Trophy for the standardization of automobile parts. The Dewar trophy was instituted in 1904 to encourage technical progress. It was sponsored by a wealthy member of the British Parliament, Sir Thomas Dewar. It was awarded annually to the company making the most important advancement in the automotive field. From the beginning, Leland stressed the concept of parts interchangeability. “No special fitting of and kind is permitted,” he wrote in a factory manual. “Craftsmanship a Creed, Accuracy a Law.” In 1908, Leland became the first industrialist to employ the Johannson Gauges for checking the accuracy of his tooling. They were the creation of a Swedish-American toolmaker named Carl Johannson. These devices were extremely accurate blocks which measured tolerances down to two-millionths of an inch. The Royal Automobile Club of Britain became aware of Lelands boastings so they decided to test them. They selected 3 Cadillacs out of 8, dismantled them, mixed in spare parts for good measure, and then were re-assembled with no special fitting which was unheard of at that time. Most parts were hand fitted. Each of the cars started immediately and were then driven for 500 miles with no problems. Cadillac became the only company to win a second Dewar Trophy for its revolutionary Delco system of electric starting, lighting, and ignition developed by Leland and Charles F. Kettering of the Datyon Engineering Laboratories. The Delco system was a breakthrough and was the forerunner of the automobile electrical system as we know it today. It was also a breakthrough for woman since they could now start a car with a push a button instead of having to wind that heavy crank. |
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Cadillac became the first American automobile manufacturer to win the coveted Dewar Trophy for the standardization of automobile parts. The Dewar trophy was instituted in 1904 to encourage technical progress. It was sponsored by a wealthy member of the British Parliament, Sir Thomas Dewar. It was awarded annually to the company making the most important advancement in the automotive field. From the beginning, Leland stressed the concept of parts interchangeability. “No special fitting of and kind is permitted,” he wrote in a factory manual. “Craftsmanship a Creed, Accuracy a Law.” In 1908, Leland became the first industrialist to employ the Johannson Gauges for checking the accuracy of his tooling. They were the creation of a Swedish-American toolmaker named Carl Johannson. These devices were extremely accurate blocks which measured tolerances down to two-millionths of an inch. The Royal Automobile Club of Britain became aware of Lelands boastings so they decided to test them. They selected 3 Cadillacs out of 8, dismantled them, mixed in spare parts for good measure, and then were re-assembled with no special fitting which was unheard of at that time. Most parts were hand fitted. Each of the cars started immediately and were then driven for 500 miles with no problems. Cadillac became the only company to win a second Dewar Trophy for its revolutionary Delco system of electric starting, lighting, and ignition developed by Leland and Charles F. Kettering of the Datyon Engineering Laboratories. The Delco system was a breakthrough and was the forerunner of the automobile electrical system as we know it today. It was also a breakthrough for woman since they could now start a car with a push a button instead of having to wind that heavy crank.
Durant was the man who first envisioned the “diversified product line” form of marketing, an idea which would make GM the industry’s dominant force in later years. He wanted to be able to offer someone their first automobile and as that person grew older and attained status in life, to be able to move that person through his automobile ranks ultimately achieving a new Cadillac. Durant started by buying Buick in 1904. It was a successful franchise that enabled him to acquire the Olds Motor Works in 1908. That same year, Durant’s desire for a high-quality product aimed at the price range just above Buick led him to offer Leland $3 million for Cadillac. Leland held out for $3.5 million and Durant declined. After more success at Cadillac, Durant tried again but Leland had upped the price to $4.125 million and then $4.5 million! Leland finally accepted and Durant actually paid in cash that he had earned from Buick. He invited Leland to stay on and run Cadillac until he finally left in 1917 when his control over Cadillac was waning. Leland later went on to found Cadillac’s biggest competitor—the Lincoln Motor Company!
On January 2, 1915, a Cadillac ad appeared in the Saturday Evening Post that has become a classic. It was chosen one of the 100 greatest advertisements of all time. It was written by Theodore F. MacManus and is considered by some to be the greatest of all advertisements. There were no pictures or artwork—just text. It really makes you think. It is called “The Penalty of Leadership” |
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In every field of human endeavor, he that is first must perpetually live in the white light of publicity. Whether the leadership be vested in a man or in a manufactured product, emulation and envy are ever at work. In art, in literature, in music, in industry, the reward and the punishment are always the same. The reward is widespread recognition; the punishment, fierce denial and detraction. When a man’s work becomes a target for the shafts of the envious few. If his work be merely mediocre, he will be left severely alone if he achieves a masterpiece, it will set a million tongues a-wagging. Jealousy alone does not protrude its forked tongue at the artist who produces a commonplace painting. Whatsoever you write, or paint, or play, or sing, or build, no one will strive to surpass, or to slander you, unless your work be stamped with the seal of genius. Long, long after a great work or a good work has been done, those who are disappointed or envious continue to cry out that it cannot be done. Spiteful little voices in the domain of art were raised against our own Whistler as a mountebank, long after the big world had acclaimed him its greatest artistic genius. Multitudes flocked to Bayreuth to worship at the musical shrine of Wagner, while the little group of those whom he had dethroned and displaced argued angrily that he was no musician at all. The little world continued to protest that Fulton could never build a steamboat, while the big world flocked to the river banks to see his oat steam by. The leader is assailed because he is a leader, and the effort to equal him is merely added proof of that leadership. Failing to equal or excel, the follower seeks to depreciate and to destroy—but only confirms once more the superiority of that which he strives to supplant. There is nothing new in this. It is as old as the world and as old as the human passions—envy, fear, greed, ambition and the desire to surpass. And it all avails nothing. If the leader truly leads, he remains—the leader. Master-poet, master-painter, master-workman, each in his turn is assailed, and each holds his laurels through the ages. That which is good or great makes itself known, no matter how loud the clamor of denial. That which deserves to live—lives.
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Sales Department Hours
| Monday |
9.00am - 8.00pm |
| Tuesday |
9.00am - 8.00pm |
| Wednesday |
9.00am - 8.00pm |
| Thursday |
9.00am - 8.00pm |
| Friday |
9.00am - 5:30pm |
| Saturday |
9.00am - 5:00pm |
| Sunday |
Closed |
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