Friday 17th October 1902

The first Cadillac, a single-cylinder lightweight vehicle, was given its maiden test drive by Alanson P. Brush, the 24-year-old Leland and Faulconer engineer from Detroit who had contributed substantially to the car’s design and who would later build the Brush Runabout. Cadillac displayed the vehicle at the New York Auto Show in January 1903, where the vehicles impressed the crowds enough to gather over 2,000 firm orders. Cadillac’s biggest selling point was precision manufacturing, and therefore, reliability; a Cadillac was simply a better-made vehicle than its competitors.