Buick is an American make of automobile, which is not exported anywhere other than Canada and Israel. Although companies in China and Taiwan make their own licensed Buicks for their respective domestic markets. The general lack of export Buicks was not always the case. In Buick's early days they exported heavily and American made Buicks were one of the most popular brands in China. Things remained that way up until Buick production was halted during World War II. They resumed production afterwards, but they never resumed the export models.

Buick's single most popular traditional bit of styling was a set of three or four portholes on the front fenders of the car. This feature was first introduced in the 1949 model and it was copied from a custom car that had made the rounds at the auto shows a bit earlier. They would put three portholes on the inexpensive models and four portholes on the higher cost models. Later they all went to three holes, but some people complained as last years four hole model now seemed more prestigious than the current model did. These portholes have appeared off and on in functional and non-functional forms since the day they were introduced, even the current Buick Park Avenue model has them.

The Buick make of automobile dates back to 1903 when David Buick invented an overhead valve engine design and proceeded to start manufacturing a vehicle based on that engine. The new company was taken over by the partnership of James Whiting and William Durant a less than a year later, and Mr. Buick sold his portion of the company to them for a relatively puny amount of money.

Buick turned into the biggest automaker in America shortly afterwards, and William Durant started using the profits to buy up other automakers as well, calling the combined company General Motors. His vision required that the various brands did not compete against each other, and would instead target various points of the market. This general scheme of operation has largely continued right up to the present day, from the average priced Chevrolet to the higher class Buick, to the snooty Cadillac. Many different brand names have come and gone in the General Motors lineup (such as Geo and Marquette), but Buick has been there since the beginning. The target market of the Buick is those that want an upper class vehicle but without making the kind of statement that goes along with owning a Cadillac.

As of this writing Buicks are still a fairly popular brand in the GM lineup, but there is always the chance that they will eliminate the Buick name to cut costs, as they have already done with Oldsmobile.

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