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Ransom Eli Olds gained his first experiences in his fathers shop. Besides others, steam engines constructed by him were sold. The first motor vehicle propelled by a steam engine was constructed by him in 1887. The first motor vehicle propelled by a combusting engine was constructed in 1895. In 1997, he and the investor Samuel Smith founded the Olds Motor Vehicle Company – which later became famous under the name Oldsmobile. After a rift between him and the sons of Smith about the model range in 1904, Ransom Eli Olds left the Oldsmobile Company and founded the R.E.O. Motor Car Company the same year. The first REO cars were delivered in 1905. Beginning in 1909, REO also made commercial vehicles. In the Great Depression, REO got into financial difficulties. Therefore, production of passenger cars had to be stopped in 1936. Only commercial vehicles were made after that.
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