REO

REO was the automobile, truck and bus marque of the REO Motor Car Company of Lansing, Michigan, which Ransom E. Olds founded in 1905 after leaving Oldsmobile. The name came from his initials, adopted after the owner of his former company objected to "R. E. Olds Motor Car Company", and it was written both REO and Reo. The marque built cars from 1905 to 1936, among them the Flying Cloud of 1927 and the luxury Royale of 1931, and a truck line that began in 1910 and included the Speed Wagon of 1915, an ancestor of the pickup truck. After 1936 REO built only trucks and buses. The vehicle business was sold to Bohn Aluminum and Brass in 1954, became a subsidiary of White Motor Corporation in 1957, and merged with Diamond T in 1967 to form Diamond Reo Trucks. REO also built Studebaker US6 trucks under licence during the Second World War.