NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - The last car from America's oldest car company -- an Oldsmobile Alero -- is due to roll off a Lansing, Mich., assembly line Thursday.
The death of the Oldsmobile -- a brand with sales that have dropped steadily in recent years -- marks the end of an era in American automaking. Olds says it was the first company to mass-produce cars -- not Ford -- and that it pioneered the use of chrome and automatic transmissions in American cars.
The last Alero to come off the line Thursday in Lansing is destined for a home in the R.E. Olds Transportation Museum, named for Ransom Eli Olds, who co-founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company in August 1897.
"Oldsmobile production has remained unprofitable and, therefore, GM's current planning is to end production with the 2004 models," General Motors, the world's biggest automaker, said in September 2001.
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