The companion makes were also intended to increase the sales of their respective divisions by selling cars that cost less to produce.

Pontiac was the only GM marque produced for a significant amount of time that was not an outside acquisition; it was discontinued in 2010 in the aftermath of the Great Recession.

[4] Durant intended for GM to replicate his business model as a horse-drawn coachbuilder, where he had found success by quickly acquiring outside companies in order to produce various coaches at different price points.

[d] That, combined with his having over-leveraged the fledgling company in making these acquisitions, saw Durant expelled from GM in 1910 at the behest of its creditors, who were reeling from the Panic of 1910–1911.

Sloan recognized that GM was ineffectively utilizing its various brands to fight against Ford, which at the time commanded more than half of the automobile market.

[17] Sloan, who had replaced du Pont as GM president in 1923,[18] decided to create various "companion makes" to fill the variety of gaps that had developed in the original pricing hierarchy.

[21][22] The name dated to 1893 as a coachbuilding business that had been the predecessor of Oakland's automotive ventures, and was an homage to both its factory in Pontiac, Michigan, and the Native American chief of the same name.

[23] The chassis had a wheelbase of 110 inches (2,800 mm), and the car was available in such body styles as a roadster, phaeton, coupe, convertible, two- or four-door sedan, or landaulet.

[25] The director of the custom car operation, Harley Earl, would turn boxy factory automobiles into sleek low-riding roadsters, something that thrilled Fisher.

[26] Sloan was sufficiently impressed by the result that he made Earl head of a special design division of GM, established in June 1927.

[34] It possessed distinctive styling, with a portly shape that led to its sobriquet of "the pregnant Buick" and a herringbone radiator, to distinguish it from other GM makes.

[20][34] The beginning of the Great Depression made the Viking unprofitable for Oldsmobile, which had enough trouble selling its own models that were just under half the price, and it was discontinued at the end of 1930.

[42] The Depression was similarly unkind to Marquette, which, having failed to resuscitate Buick's sales,[43] was discontinued at the end of the 1930 model year, after about 35,000 units were made and mere months after dealerships had been mailed signs to put up advertising their presence.

[20] The production tools for the engine were exported to Germany and used by Opel, GM's European subsidiary, for their Blitz truck.

[48] The marque remained in production until 2010, when it was discontinued in the aftermath of the Great Recession as part of GM's reorganization from recession-caused bankruptcy.

[20] A report on the Viking referred to the program as "several 'in-between' cars introduced by General Motors while the Twenties still roared and the stock market hadn't crashed.