On October 26, 1909, General Motors Holding acquired the Cartercar Company, founded four years earlier in Jackson, Michigan, by Byron J. Carter.
In explaining the reason he purchased Cartercar, Durant said:
"They say I shouldn't have bought Cartercar.
Well, how was anyone to know that Carter wasn't to be the thing?
It had the friction drive and no other car had it.
How could I tell what these engineers would say next?"
By the time Durant had regained control of General Motors in 1916, the GM board had already decided to discontinue the Cartercar, largely because sales never approached the 1000-2000 annually that Durant had predicted.
The GM board decided to use the factory instead to produce the Oakland.

Durant had arranged an $8-million deal to buy Ford in 1909, but the bankers turned him down and the board of directors of General Motors dismissed him.

Both Durant and rival Henry Ford foresaw the automobile becoming a mass-market item.
Ford followed the course of the basic Model T, and had said "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."
 Durant, however, drawing on his experience in the carriage business, sought to create automobiles targeted to various incomes and tastes.
 This brought about his plans to merge Buick with various other companies to serve this purpose.
On October 26, 1909, General Motors Holding acquired the Cartercar Company, founded four years earlier in Jackson, Michigan, by Byron J. Carter. In explaining the reason he purchased Cartercar, Durant said:
"They say I shouldn't have bought Cartercar. Well, how was anyone to know that Carter wasn't to be the thing? It had the friction drive and no other car had it. How could I tell what these engineers would say next?" By the time Durant had regained control of General Motors in 1916, the GM board had already decided to discontinue the Cartercar, largely because sales never approached the 1000-2000 annually that Durant had predicted. The GM board decided to use the factory instead to produce the Oakland.
Durant had arranged an $8-million deal to buy Ford in 1909, but the bankers turned him down and the board of directors of General Motors dismissed him.
Both Durant and rival Henry Ford foresaw the automobile becoming a mass-market item. Ford followed the course of the basic Model T, and had said "Any customer can have a car painted any color that he wants so long as it is black."  Durant, however, drawing on his experience in the carriage business, sought to create automobiles targeted to various incomes and tastes.  This brought about his plans to merge Buick with various other companies to serve this purpose.
William C. Durant