Instruct: Given a question, retrieve documents that can help answer the question.
Query: When was Buick formed?
Buick is one of the oldest automobile brands in the world and the oldest in the United States. (Autocar, founded in 1897, is the oldest motor vehicle manufacturer in the western hemisphere; while originally an automobile maker, Autocar now builds heavy trucks. Oldsmobile, also an early auto maker founded in 1897, is now defunct; Studebaker was founded in 1852, but did not begin producing automobiles until 1902; Ford produced his first car in 1896 but did not start the Ford Motor Co. until 1903, and during the period in between was involved with other automobile manufacturers such as Cadillac, founded in 1902).
This period held the fastest Buick since the days of the 1991-1996 Roadmaster, the Buick Regal GS. This car was now supercharged instead of turbocharged, and produced and of torque. When introduced in January 1997, Buick advertised the Regal as the "car for the supercharged family". Buick also released two other model types, the LSE and the GSE. The LSE stayed with the engine with upgrades and the GSE stayed with the supercharged engine with upgrades. Also, in 2000 Buick came out with a concept GSX that had an intercooled 3.8 L, but was supercharged rather than turbocharged. It had 
The first full-size Buick to join the smaller Model B was in 1907, when the Model D was introduced with a four-cylinder 255.0cuin (4,178cc) T-head engine, installed in the front with rear wheel drive. This was one of the only cars with side valves that Buick ever made.[21]
In late 2017, Buick announced a facelift update for the 2018 model year that adds the new Buick grilles with the spreading wings to the Verano and Excelle products. The update applies to the Buick Verano sedan, Buick Verano hatchback, Buick Excelle GT sedan, and added a Buick Excelle GX station wagon as an additional new body style.
David Buick incorporated his company as the Buick Motor Company on May 19, 1903, in Detroit, Michigan. Buick had been financed by friend and fellow automobile enthusiast, Benjamin Briscoe, who sold control of the business to James H. Whiting (1842–1919), in September, 1903.[5] of Flint Wagon Works, in Flint, Michigan. Whiting moved Buick to Flint that summer, to a location across the street from his factory, with the idea of adding Buick's engines to his wagons.[2] David Buick stayed on as a manager, and re-hired Walter Marr as chief engineer. The engine Buick and Marr developed for this automobile was a two-cylinder valve-in-head engine of 159 cubic inches, with each cylinder horizontal and opposed to the other by 180 degrees. Whiting built only a few automobiles in 1904, by bringing Buick engines across the street where his workers shoehorned them into his wagons, before running out of capital, causing him to bring in William C. Durant that year as controlling investor. Durant spent the next four years turning Buick into the biggest-selling automobile brand in the US. Durant was co-owner, also in Flint, with Josiah Dallas Dort, of the Durant-Dort Carriage Company, which was the largest carriage-making company in the country and one of the largest in the world.[2] Durant moved most production to the former Durant-Dort Imperial Wheel plant in Jackson, Michigan in 1905. Buick continued car production in Jackson through 1907, when Factory #1 was completed in Flint. The Jackson plant continued production with Buick trucks through 1912.[6] David Buick sold his stock upon departure in 1906, and died in modest circumstances 25 years later. In 1907, Durant agreed to supply motors to R. S. McLaughlin in Canada, an auto maker, and in 1908 he founded General Motors.[7]
In Israel, Buicks are imported by Universal Motors, Ltd. (UMI), which also imports other GM vehicles. For model years 2004 and 2005, the Buick LeSabre and Buick Rendezvous were sold. For model years 2006 and 2007, the Buick LaCrosse and Buick Lucerne were sold alongside the Rendezvous. For model year 2008, the Buick LaCrosse and Buick Lucerne were available. Buicks were sold throughout the Middle East until the second-generation Buick Roadmaster was discontinued.
The origins of the Roadmaster name date to 1936 when Buick added names to its entire model lineup to celebrate the engineering improvements and design advancements over their 1935 models. Buick's Series 40 was named the Special, the Series 50 became the Super, the Series 60 was named the Century and the Series 90 — Buick's largest and most luxurious vehicle — was named the Limited. The Series 50 was retired, but new for the model year was the Series 80 Roadmaster. The implications of the name were clear, for as the 1936 Buick sales catalogue said, "It literally named itself the first time a test model leveled out on the open highway."
The money ran out again, and in 1903 Buick was forced to raise more money via a $5,000 loan (equal to $ today) from a friend and fellow car enthusiast, Benjamin Briscoe. With this financial help, Buick formed the Buick Motor Company which would eventually become the cornerstone of the General Motors empire.
Durant began to lose interest in Flint activities and set up an office in New York. A.B.C. Hardy tried to interest him in automobiles. Eventually James Whiting of Flint Wagon Works persuaded Durant to take what became a consuming interest in Flint Wagon Works' Buick automobile venture. Durant used his own capital and that of Durant-Dort to buy control of Buick. David Buick, already a minority partner in his own business, was left with a single share of his enterprise. However, Durant agreed to keep Buick on as an employee, and Buick remained with the firm until 1906, when Durant bought out his single share for $100,000.
The Buick Riviera is a personal luxury car produced by Buick from 1963 to 1999. GM's first entry into that prestige niche, the Riviera was highly praised by automotive journalists upon its high-profile debut. While early models stayed close to the original form, eight subsequent generations varied substantially over the Riviera's thirty-year lifespan. In all, 1,127,261 were produced.
The Roadmaster was introduced in a year when Buick's valve-in-head straight-eight engines were heavily revised. Buick reduced the number of engines from four sizes to two: a 233-cubic-inch, 93-horsepower job for the Special, and a big, 320.2-cubic inch, 120-horsepower engine for the other series. (To put the size and power of Buick’s larger straight-eight engine in context, compare it to the new 322-cubic-inch mono-block 120 horsepower V-8 that Cadillac introduced that year.) In addition to this major engineering change 1936 was also the year Buick adopted an all steel turret top and hydraulic brakes. Coil springs were in the front.
Flint native, and PGA touring professional Larry Mancour had returned to Michigan to play in the Buick Open and stayed to build the Grand Blanc Golf Club. He then added nine holes at the Flint Elks Golf Club where he remained the professional for 20 years. He rescued the Buick Open when General Motors dropped sponsorship of the tournament. With local Buick dealers Mancour started the Little Buick Open in 1969. It drew players and fans and led to the rebirth of the Buick Open in 1977.
The 1965 Skylark Gran Sport was the intermediate Buick Skylark with the Gran Sport option added. Although a V8 was already offered in the Skylark, the Gran Sport had the largest engine permitted by GM - a Buick V8 (called a 400 by Buick because that was the maximum engine size allowed in intermediate body cars). This engine produced 325 hp (242 kW) and 445 lb·ft (603 Nm) and was known as the "nailhead" engine. Buick sold more than 15,000 Skylarks with the Gran Sport option that first year, and almost as many the next. It was renamed the GS 400 in 1967, and the Gran Sport became its own model in (about) that same year along with a new "400" engine quite different from the famously reliable but becoming-obsolete nailhead engine design that was first introduced in 1953. Sales fell somewhat in the face of increasingly higher-performance and more popular muscle cars from other marques when compared to those from the more stodgy and expensive Buick. Buick, however, stepped it up a notch when introducing the Stage 1 option in 1969. This limited production (less than 1,500 cars in 1969) version delivered 340 hp (253 kW) and 440 lb·ft (597 Nm).
William S. Ballenger Sr. (December 5, 18661951) was one of the five men who organized and owned the Buick Motor Company, bringing it to Flint, Michigan, in 1905. He was elected secretary and treasurer of Buick until 1908 when the firm was purchased by General Motors, which he had also helped form.
For the 1973 model year, the Buick Gran Sports, Skylarks, and Sport Wagons would all be replaced by the new mid-sized Buick Century. Since Centurys were available with Gran Sport trim, the Gran Sport name was once again reduced to being an option package.In the middle of the 1973 model year, Buick returned to the compact market with the Buick Apollo, using General Motors’ X-body platform, based on the Chevrolet Nova. When the car was extensively restyled for the 1975 model year, the two-door hatchback sedan (coupe) and two-door sedan (coupe) were rechristened “Skylark”, while the four-door sedan remained "Apollo". As this generation Skylark was "downsized", the next larger coupe and sedan to take the market position that the Skylark formerly occupied was the all-new Buick Regal.
The company changed its name to St. Joe Minerals in 1970, and was acquired by the Fluor Corporation in 1981. In 1986, St. Joe and another mining company, Homestake Lead, formed The Doe Run Company Partnership, which added Homestake's Buick mine, mill and smelter to St. Joe's operations. The Buick smelter was later converted to the Buick Resource Recycling Division for lead recycling in 1991.
The demand for Buicks was big enough that car production was moved from Flint to Jackson, Michigan. When William C. Durant bought Buick in 1904 he returned the facility to Flint and W.F. Stewart Company constructed a new factory on the Buick Hamilton Farm complex. In 1908 the newly formed General Motors, which had taken over Buick, purchased Stewart’s plant for US$240,000 in GM stock and then leased the building to Buick, with W.F. Stewart Company retaining their head offices in the complex.
VentiPorts appeared on the limited production 1987 Buick GNX, and once again they were functional. Then the feature was dropped again, until 2003 when VentiPorts were re-introduced on the Buick Park Avenue Ultra. After the Park Avenue was discontinued, Buick incorporated VentiPorts on the new-for-2006 Lucerne. For the first time it seemed Buick was tying VentiPort count to the number of cylinders; the V6 Lucernes had three on each side, while V8s had four on each side.
The Bolero was a concept car showcased by Buick in 1990. It was displayed at the Detroit Auto Show in January 1990 and the Chicago Auto Show in February 1990. It formed some of the basis for the 1992 Buick Skylark.
Importantly, the new Skylark featured Buick's new 322 in³ (5.3 L) Nailhead V8 in place of the automaker's longstanding straight 8, and a 12 volt electrical system, both division firsts. It debuted full-cutout wheel openings, a styling cue that spread to the main 1954 Buick line. Accenting its lowered, notched beltline was a new "Sweepspear" running almost the entire length of the vehicle, a styling cue that was to appear in various forms on many Buick models over the years.
Other experiments, such as GM's sale of Opel models like the Kadett through Buick dealers in the late 1960s and early 1970s, yielded ambivalent results; the Opels were generally well-regarded and sales were decent but never substantial. In the 1970s, when Buick decided to phase out its Opels and sell small Isuzus instead, the result was a handful of cars carrying a global brand, "Buick Opel by Isuzu." Buick was not the first to rebadge Isuzus — Chevrolet did the same with their LUV pickup truck in 1972.
The Buick Trishield is rooted in the ancestral coat of arms of the automaker’s founder, David Dunbar Buick. That crest was a red shield with a checkered silver and azure diagonal line from the upper left to lower right, a stag above, and a punctured cross below. The division adopted this on its radiator grilles in 1937. In 1960, the logo underwent a major overhaul. Its single shield was replaced by a trio in red, white, and blue—denoting the LeSabre, Invicta, and Electra then in the Buick lineup. It was supplanted by the Buick Hawk in the 1970s, but the trishield reemerged in the 1980s, simplified, but with its same patriotic colors. The Trishield with red, white, and blue features, was simplified in 2005, but the colors have returned representing the current trio of vehicles in the Buick marque for sedans and crossovers. However, the Trishield enjoys its even more distilled and emboldened tri-color form.
The LeSabre nameplate made its first appearance on the 1951 Le Sabre show car, which introduced the world to aircraft-inspired design elements such as the wrap-around windshield and tail fins. There is a V12 for the Buick LeSabre (5.00L) which originated in 1953. In 1959 LeSabre became the new moniker for what had previously been known as the Buick Special. The Buick LeSabre was offered in a full line of body styles except between 1965-1969 when its station wagon variant was dropped from Buick's full-size offerings. In 1977, the LeSabre was downsized along with other GM full-size models, and was available only in pillared coupe, sedan and wagon body styles.
The Janney was a brass era experimental vehicle, assembled in Flint, Michigan by the Janney Motor Company in 1906. The Janney was a light car with a four-cylinder engine. The company was formed by William C. Durant, and occupied an old Buick plant in Flint. A total of four vehicles were built, before the company was absorbed by Buick. The Janney was later redesigned and became the 1908 Buick Model 10.
Buick represented the Wairau electorate in the New Zealand House of Representatives from 1890 to 1896, when he was defeated. The 1896 general election was contested by Buick and Charles H. Mills, who received 2014 and 2072 votes, respectively. Mills thus succeeded Buick. He was a temperance advocate and supporter of Irish Home Rule.