1903 Oldsmobile Curved Dash Runabout
Contrary to popular opinion, Henry Ford wasn't the first to mass-produce automobiles. Credit for that goes to Ransom E. Olds. Ford was the first to employ the production line. In Olds' factory, partly completed cars swiveled on dollies from one work station to the next.
The Curved Dash Runabout sold in the thousands. In 1908 the company Olds founded joined with Buick to form the core of General Motors. Olds himself had left the carmaker in 1904, dismayed over the company's turn toward producing high-end products instead of the inexpensive mass-market cars Olds had wanted.
The Oldsmobile division of GM was shut down in 2004, 100 years after Olds' departure.
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Last updated December 24 2010: 9:44 AM ET
