1938

On May 28, 1937, the government of Germany—then under the
control of Adolf Hitler of the National Socialist (Nazi) Party—
formed new state-owned automobile company, then known
as Gesellschaft zur Vorbereitung des Deutschen Volkswagens
mbH. Later that year, it was renamed simply Volkswagenwerk,
or “The People’s Car Company.”

Originally operated by the German Labor Front, a Nazi
organization, Volkswagen was headquartered in Wolfsburg,
Germany. In addition to his ambitious campaign to build a
network of autobahns and limited access highways across
Germany, Hitler’s pet project was the development and mass
production of an affordable yet still speedy vehicle that could
sell for less than 1,000 Reich marks (about $140 at the time).         
        

VW logo during the 1930s, initials surrounded by a stylized cogwheel and a spinning propeller that looked like a
swastika.

The Land Rover, a British-made all-terrain vehicle that will soon
earn a reputation for its use in exotic locales, debuted at an auto
show in Amsterdam on April 30, 1948.

The first Land Rover, known as the Series 1, was the brainchild
of Maurice Wilks, the head designer for the British car company
Rover, of which his brother Spencer Wilks was the managing
director.

Maurice Fernand Cary Wilks
(19 August 1904 – 8 September 1963)

On April 29, 2004, the last Oldsmobile came off the assembly
line at the Lansing Car Assembly plant in Michigan, signaling
the end of the 106-year-old automotive brand, America’s oldest.

Ransom Eli Olds (June 3, 1864 – August 26, 1950)

On April 27, 2009, the struggling American auto giant General
Motors (GM) said it planed to discontinue production of its
more than 80-year-old Pontiac brand.

Pontiac’s origins date back to the Oakland Motor Car, which
was founded in 1907 in Pontiac, Michigan, by Edward Murphy,
a horse-drawn carriage manufacturer.

In 1909, Oakland became part of General Motors, a conglomerate
formed the previous year by another former buggy company
executive, William Durant. The first Pontiac model made its
debut as part of the Oakland line in the 1920s.         
        
        
       

The 2010 Pontiac G6: The final nail in the car coffin.