In December 2000, General Motors announces that it will end the struggling Oldsmobile line - the oldest automotive brand name in U.S. history - with the 2004 model year. Slowly, Intrigue; Aurora, and Bravada production draws to a close. By the end, only the Alero and Silhouette are left.

When the decision is made, Olds counts 2,802 dealers in the United States. After a brief fight, the vast majority sign settlement packages. When GM reports its earnings in January 2001, the company takes a charge of $939 million for the Oldsmobile phaseout.

"It's time to get on with the burial," says Oldsmobile dealer Gary Wright at the 2004 NADA convention.

"It's sad, and it's done, and it's not going to change. Oldsmobile is a wonderful memory, but there's nothing in the windshield. It's all in the rear-view mirror."

Oldsmobile was named for its founder, Ransom E. Olds, who started the Olds Motor Vehicle Co. in Lansing, Michigan, in 1897. The company is officially founded in 1899, with financial help from lumber tycoon Samuel L. Smith.

The Oldsmobile Runabout of the early 1900s becomes America's most profitable car, but the company's growth is stunted when Olds turns down a new engine designed by his had of engineering, Henry Leland.

Consequently, Smith, the financier, forces Ransom Olds out of the company in 1904. Olds goes on to found the Reo Motor Car Company, while Henry Leland takes his motor elsewhere: it powers the world's first Cadillac.

General Motors absorbs Oldsmobile, which soon assumes its place as the middle-class car in GM's line-up: more expensive than Chevrolet and Pontiac, but a step or two below Buick and Cadillac.

The company becomes among the pioneers in automatic transmissions and chrome-plated trim.

Among Oldsmobile's most famous cars is the Toronado, America's first front-wheel-drive car.

In 1977, Oldsmobile becomes the first GM division after Chevrolet to sell more than 1 million cars. Its high point comes in 1985, when it builds 1,168,982 vehicles.