My kids are out of school for the summer. It got me to thinking that there can never be enough education.

So, in the spirit of more and better education, this week I wanted to share some auto history and trivia to get you talking about some fun things you might not know. Have fun:

• Honda introduced its first automobiles in the U.S. in 1970 with the Civic, Accord and Prelude. These were small cars that appealed to American customers looking for a fuel-efficient car with character. Within a few years of opening the Marysville plant, Honda saw its workers achieve Honda's world-class quality standards.
• James W. Packard (1863-1928) designed and introduced the Packard automobile in 1899 in Warren, Ohio.
• Wilfred C. Leland (1869-1958) was known for his great contributions to the development of the car in business management and finance.
• Henry M. Leland (1843-1932) developed the first Cadillac and Lincoln.
• Fred Zeder (1895-1950) was a research guru behind the early Chryslers, Plymouths and Imperials.
• Charles W. Nash (1864-1948) was president of Buick and General Motors Corp. In 1916, he established the Nash Motor Co., an original parent of the American Motors Corp.
• C. Harold Wills (1878-1940) was the first engineer and designer to work with Henry Ford. He created his own car, the Wills-St.Clair, in the 1920s.
• Walter Chrysler (1875-1940) was the founder and president of Chrysler Corp.
• John (1864-1920) and Horace (1868-1920) Dodge were developers of the Dodge motorcar. Dodge cars were the first vehicles to be used by the Army in combat during World War I.
• Alexander Winton (1869-1932) was a designer and producer of the third internal combustion car in the United States.
• James Couzens (1872-1947) was a business manager for Ford Motor Co. There is a street in Detroit named after him.
• Edsel Ford (1893-1943) was the president of Ford Motor Co. for more than 20 years. He also was instrumental in building the Willow Run factory -- which built the B-24 Liberator bomber.
• Henry Ford (1863-1947) was the creator of the Model T Ford. The Model T made up more than half the cars in America from 1912 to 1924. Ford also devised the world's first moving assembly line.
• Roy D. Chapin (1880-1936) was one of the original founders of the Hudson Motorcar Co.
• David Buick (1855-1929) was the developer of the original Buick. The Buick was the first car powered by a valve in-head engine.
• Ransom E. Olds (1864-1950) developed the first mass-produced car in the U.S. Also, the Oldsmobile was named for him.

• Frank (1868-1925) and Charles (1861-1938) Duryea, considered the fathers of the American automobile, were the first Americans to develop, prove, build and market a successful self-propelled vehicle for the road.
• John N. Willys (1873-1933) was the founder of the Willys-Overland Co.
• Charles F. Kettering (1876-1958) was the founder and builder of the first electrical self-starter still used on most vehicles.
• William Knudsen (1879-1948) was a builder of Ford assembly plants in the United States and throughout the world. Later in life, he helped Chevrolet become the more widely used automobile in the world.
• Louis Chevrolet (1878-1941) was a professional race-car driver and chief engineer for the first Chevrolet automobiles. The name Chevrolet has been stamped into the metal of more transport vehicles than any other.
• William C. Durant (1869-1947) managed the Buick Motor Co. in 1904. In 1908, he was instrumental in reorganizing General Motors Corp.
• Norval A. Hawkins (1876-1947) was the sales wizard behind the Model T Ford. He also was the first to devise the branch assembly plant system.
• John Tjaarda was a world-reknowned automotive engineer, mechanic, designer, race car driver and pilot. He designed car bodies for Ford, Chrysler, Packard, Duesenberg, Pierce-Arrow and Stutz, among others.
• Andrew F. Johnson was an artist who operated a design school in New York City. He trained some of the famous automotive designers while teaching at Detroit's Cass Technical High School a few blocks east of Tiger Stadium.
• Chevrolet began as a dream of two men -- Louis Chevrolet and Billy Durant -- in 1911. Chevrolet was a race-car driver and designer, Durant a financier. They started talking about a car company in 1909.
• Suzuki Motor Corp., which was established in 1920, is headquartered in Hamamatsu, Japan.
• The Monte Carlo and Lumina have won championships in NASCAR's Busch Grand National Winston West ARCA and ASA stock-car events.
• Jaguar Cars started selling in in the U.S. and Canada 50 years ago, becoming the first British car company to export.
• Nearly $12 billion in motor vehicle taxes were collected from motorists in 1963, a record high to date. More than $3.6 billion was contributed by truck taxes alone.
• Total sales of the Hyundai Excel in 1986 were 168,882, setting a new record for an import's first year in the market.
• That year, Hyundai became the only manufacturer to exceed 1,000 sales per franchise in the more than 35 years that the industry publication Automotive News had kept statistics on the subject.
• Saturn's president, Joseph Sanchez, died in January 1985, just 19 days after Saturn Corp. was founded. In February, GM's Roger Smith appointed William Hoglund as the new Saturn president.
• The first U.S. market redesign at Mitsubishi was in 1987, with the Mighty Max truck.
• Firestone got out of Indy competition in 1974. Soon after, it began losing market share and brand image among consumers.
• Toyota announced it would build its first wholly owned U.S. automobile manufacturing facility at Georgetown, Ky., in 1985. Ground was broken for the Georgetown plant in May 1986.
• Manuscripts in Detroit's National Automotive History Collection include those of Henry Leland (founder of Cadillac and Lincoln Motor Car Cos.), Charles B. King (the first man to drive a car on the streets of Detroit on March 6, 1896), James Scripts Booth (Detroit artist, engineer, designer and automobile manufacturer), Arthur Harrington (co-founder of the Marmon-Herrington Co., which produced all-wheel-drive vehicles for America's use in World War II) and John Tjaarda (engineer, mechnic, designer, race car driver and pilot responsible for introducing the concept of streamlining cars).