Chevrolet thought it should be a luxury vehicle with an accompanying high price tag — more of a Mercedes than a Chevy. Durant thought it should be economical enough so that millions of Americans would buy it.

Within a year, Chevrolet quit in a huff. Worse, he was so angry he sold his GM stock, a move, in hindsight, that ranks up there in the annals of bad business deals with the Louisiana Purchase, which also involved a Frenchman.

As often happens with geniuses, Chevrolet continued to make his mark on history. In 1917 he started another company called the Frontenac Motor Corporation. Frontenac cars won the Indy 500 in 1920 and 1921 (his brother Gaston drove the 1920 winner.)

But race track success did not translate to mainstream popularity. For one thing, the name Frontenac never did catch on and by the time he was 63, Louis Chevrolet, despite the fact that everywhere he looked he could see his name, died penniless in Detroit in 1943.

Meanwhile, with Chevrolet its big seller, for 77 straight years — from 1931 through 2007 — General Motors would sell more cars around the world than any other car company.

Now that's an American business story. Some win, some lose and the government does nothing more than sit on the sideline and collect taxes from the winners.

As opposed to collecting taxes from itself, which is the new deal. And that's not a sure thing. It's still too early to tell how good Congress is going to be at selling cars.

Lee Benson's column runs Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Sunday. Please send e-mail to benson@desnews.com