michigan united states parent general motors website acdelco.com acdelco is an american automotive parts brand owned by general motors gm . factory parts for vehicles manufactured by gm are consolidated under the acdelco brand which also offers aftermarket parts for non gm vehicles . over its long history it has been known by various names such as united motors corporation united motors service and united delco . the brand acdelco should not be confused with gm s former ac delco systems formed in 1994 from the merger of ac rochester division and delco remy division . in 1995 delphi automotive systems absorbed ac delco systems . contents 1 history 1.1 general motors united motors service 1.2 united delco 1.3 ac spark plug division 1.4 ac delco 1.5 acdelco 2 references 3 external links history edit united motors corporation was formed by william c. durant in 1916 as an automotive component and accessory holding company . durant was the owner of buick and founder of general motors in 1908 . after he lost control of general motors in 1910 he founded chevrolet in 1911 with louis chevrolet and the profits from this permitted him to regain control of gm in 1916 . at approximately the same time he assembled united motors . durant s founding of united motors has parallels in his earlier experience in the horse drawn carriage industry in michigan . in the late 19th century he was co owner of the durant dort carriage company one of the nation s leading carriage manufacturers . concerned that they could not source components and raw materials at affordable prices or in sufficient quantities durant dort created a vertically integrated operation owning hardwood forests and manufacturing its own bodies wheels axles upholstery springs varnish and whips . 1 united motors initially included alfred p. sloan s hyatt roller bearing company antifriction roller bearings new departure manufacturing company ball bearings remy electric company electrical starting lighting and ignition equipment charles kettering and edward a. deeds dayton engineering laboratories company delco automotive ignition starters and generators and the perlman rim corporation . durant appointed alfred p. sloan who had been president of hyatt as president of united motors . in the next two years sloan bought the harrison radiator corporation lovell mcconnell manufacturing company renamed klaxon company to make klaxon horns in september 1916 2 and organized united motors service to sell and service the entire line of products nationwide . general motors united motors service edit united motors was originally independent of general motors selling to all manufacturers until 1918 when the company was acquired by general motors for 45 million three quarters debentures and one quarter common shares 3 and integrated into gm on december 31 1918 . 3 united motors became united motors service and continued to operate essentially as it had before . however all of its production was now devoted to gm s brands . alfred p. sloan continued as the division manager which carried with it a gm vice president title and a position on the gm board . in 1923 he became president of general motors and was chairman when he retired in 1956 . 4 charles kettering co founder of delco was head of research at general motors for 27 years . herbert c. harrison was president of harrison radiator until his death in 1927 . 5 william c. durant lost control of gm for the final time in 1920 . united motors service would become a fully integrated division of general motors in 1944 . 6 united delco edit around 1960 the division s name was changed to united delco . with the delco name becoming more well known with consumers the delco name was incorporated into all of the divisions branches delco remy delco harrison delco packard packard electric delco moraine . 7 ac spark plug division edit billboard for ac spark plugs in vancouver circa 1926 in 1899 albert champion came to the u.s. as a champion bicycle racer . he found a job with the stranhan brothers who had started champion spark plug company in 1905 or 1906 and began production in 1907 . champion was not happy in his job because he had no control over his work . he already had at least one spark plug patent from 1898 before leaving europe . in 1908 he went to see william c. durant of the buick motor co. durant asked to see some of his prototypes . buick at that time was using rajah spark plugs . durant thought they could manufacture spark plugs to champion s design cheaper than buying them from rajah and set champion up in a workshop in flint mi . champion went to work producing spark plugs to be used in buick automobiles . champion and durant formed champion ignition co. very shortly later the stranahan brothers champion spark plug co. informed them they could not use the name champion as they had it trademarked . at that time the name was changed to reflect champion s initials . ac spark plug was trademarked in 1908 . in 1927 ac became a division of general motors . citation needed 8 ac delco edit old gm ac delco ad on the side of a building in ritzville washington u.s. in 1974 in an effort to streamline its operations and marketing general motors merged ac spark plug s aftersales operation with united delco to create the new ac delco . ac delco then marketed various ac and delco branded products . 6 7 in 1982 military garment manufacturer avirex ltd. produced for ac delco a limited edition the right stuff a 2 flight jacket dedicated to chuck yeager and his bell x 1 aircraft which broke the sound barrier on october 14 1947 . acdelco edit 1995 saw a re branding of ac delco . the hyphen was dropped and acdelco received a new logo and marketing initiative . the ac bullseye and semicircular delco logo disappeared from product packaging . references edit archived copy . archived from the original on october 17 2008 . retrieved december 22 2009 . united motors buys horn factory pdf . new york times . september 10 1916 . retrieved january 17 2011 . a b arthur pound 1934 . the turning wheel the story of general motors through twenty five years 1908 1933 . doubleday doran & company . http wiki.gmnext.com wiki index.php united motors division ny times obituary march 7 1927 a b who and what is acdelco . general motors national retiree association . may 1 2007 . retrieved february 25 2011 . a b about us history . acdelco india . retrieved february 25 2011 . proper citation needed original contributor stated found in william durant s papers after his death external links edit wikimedia commons has media related to acdelco . acdelco website acdelco s facebook page acdelco s youtube channel acdelco on google acdelco on instagram acdelco on twitter v t e general motors divisions and subsidiaries vehicle brands buick cadillac chevrolet gmc holden holden special vehicles opel opel performance center vauxhall services acdelco gm certified service gm financial onstar geographic general motors canada cami automotive general motors de mexico general motors do brasil general motors egypt general motors india chevrolet sales india private limited general motors south africa general motors japan opel group shareholdings faw gm 50 % gm avtovaz 41.61 % gm korea 96 % chevrolet europe gm vietnam gm uzbekistan 25 % uzdaewooavto 50 % hrl laboratories 50 % saic gm 49 % saic gm wuling 34 % baojun industries m caniques maghr bines 20 % products and technologies platforms transmissions hybrids vehicles engines i3 family 0 sge i4 family 0 sge family 1 mge family ii ecotec v6 high feature gen v v8 gen iv gen v former divisions joint ventures and subsidiaries allison engine company 1929 1995 allison transmission 1929 2007 atlantic aircraft dayton wright company 1919 1923 delco electronics delphi 1994 1999 detroit diesel 1938 1988 directv 1994 2003 electro motive diesel 1930 2004 electronic data systems 1984 1996 euclid trucks 1953 1968 fisher body fleetwood metal body frigidaire 1919 1980 general motors europe 1986 2010 general motors diesel division 1938 1987 general motors diesel 1949 1969 ghandhara industries 1953 1963 gm defense 1950 2003 gmac ally 1919 2013 gmac real estate 1998 2008 gmc heavy trucks hughes aircraft 1985 1997 hughes electronics 1985 1997 hughes network systems 1987 2003 hughesnet direcway direcpc 1996 2003 kettering university national city lines nummi 1984 2009 new venture gear 36 % 1990 2002 nexteer 2009 2010 north american aviation 1933 1948 nuvell financial services 1997 2008 panamsat 1995 2003 remy electric 1918 1994 rochester products division terex united australian automobile industries 1989 1996 winton motor carriage company yellow coach manufacturing company 1925 1943 places renaissance center gm technical center gm proving grounds factories people william c. durant founder tim solso chairman mary barra ceo dan ammann president other general motors foundation history reorganization general motors motorama streetcar conspiracy concept of the corporation ignition switch recalls category commons retrieved from https en.wikipedia.org w index.php title acdelco & oldid 734190074 categories auto parts suppliersgeneral motors subsidiariesautomotive companies of the united statescompanies based in michiganmotor vehicle battery manufacturerscompanies based in genesee county michiganhidden categories use mdy dates from december 2014all articles with unsourced statementsarticles with unsourced statements from march 2014commons category with local link same as on wikidata navigation menu personal tools not logged intalkcontributionscreate accountlog in namespaces article talk variants views read edit view history more search navigation main pagecontentsfeatured contentcurrent eventsrandom articledonate to wikipediawikipedia store interaction helpabout wikipediacommunity portalrecent changescontact page tools what links hererelated changesupload filespecial pagespermanent linkpage informationwikidata itemcite this page print export create a 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