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Hubcap selfies: 1936 LaSalle, 1941 Buick 
The Buick and LaSalle in question. I have strong hankering for a Westergard style custom rn #LonestarRoundup
People remember LaSalle mainly from the All In The Family theme song ("gee our old LaSalle ran great"). It was one of GM's first orphan brands, created as a kind of downscale Cadillac. LaSalles were produced 1927-40, and had Cadillac motors.
First GM brand to get the axe was Oakland, killed in 1928 to make way for Pontiac; then Marquette, a two-year brand 1929-30 created as a downscale Buick.
GM practically invented price segmentation, the idea that a customer would trade up to a more expensive, prestigious brand as they got older; Chevy<Pontiac<Olds<Buick<Cadillac. Each was a "Motor Division," making its own motors,
that all got muddled in the 50s as GM brands began introducing trim packages and models that erased price differences and created internal competition b/t brands. By the late 70s, they began killing off motor divisions; no longer would Pontiac or Olds have their own engines.
that ushered in the era of "badge engineering," with each GM brand having an almost identical version of the same car. The Cadillac Cimarron, for example, was pretty much a Chevy Cavalier with different nameplates.
When GM killed off Olds in 2004 and Pontiac in 2010, it was sad, but for all intents & purposes they were basically just emblems at that point. Olds Shelby and Pontiac G8 & GTO were nice Hail Mary passes, tho
Yes, Virginia, there is a Shelby Oldsmobile, the Series I. Built by Carroll Shelby with an Olds Aurora 4.0 32 valve V8, you could in concept order from an Olds dealer. Very few were ever made.
Anyhoo, the moral of the story is if you have a global auto manufacturing conglomerate, don't let accountants run it
