How GM Sold You the Same Car Five Times

General Motors once sold five car brands, each built for a different buyer at a different price. Chevrolet for the starter family, Pontiac for the young professional, Oldsmobile for the middle class, Buick for the established household, Cadillac for the person who had arrived. Each brand had its own engines, its own factories, its own engineering. They called it the "ladder of success," and it turned GM into the largest company on Earth. But over fifty years, GM quietly replaced every rung with identical wood, sold it five times at five prices, and hoped nobody would look down.