Market Share and Median Prices for General Motors’ Five Brands, 1954 Notes: The pyramid represents the market share for new cars held by the five GM brands in 1954, beginning with Chevrolet and moving up to the top brand, Cadillac. GM’s total market share was 50.7 percent, and the five brands each claimed the following shares: Chevrolet, 25.6 percent; Pontiac, 6.5 percent; Oldsmobile, 7.4 percent; Buick, 9.3 percent; and Cadillac 2.0 percent. The pyramid is stylized since the market shares do not represent an exact pyramid. My pyramid is based on a revised model of a price pyramid created by James M. Rubenstein in Making and Selling Cars: Innovation and Change in the U.S. Automotive Industry (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2001), 206.

From Trust and power : consumers, the modern corporation, and the making of the United States automobile market by Sally H. Clarke