<1928 model year McLaughlin-Buick 496 Tourer>  The Greater Toronto Area (GTA) is, and has long been, a major automobile manufacturing region.  From 1876, OSHAWA was home to the McLaughlin Carriage Company, which produced  more than 25,000 carriages a year.  By 1915, under the presidency of “Colonel” Sam McLaughlin, the company was turning out roughly one horseless carriage every ten minutes.  The McLaughlin-Buick 496 Tourer (ABOVE) was one of only two built for a royal visit to Canada.  Custom-built McLaughlin-Buicks, designed and detailed with elegance in mind, were used extensively by the Prince of Wales (later King Edward VIII), his brother the Duke of York (later King George VI) and shipped from province to province by train.  Somehow they ended up in the United Kingdom.