The currently active topic on Oldsmobiles and the particular interest of Tuckerfan brought to my mind a question that’s niggled there for some time:
I’m sure there’s information out there on when various “makes” (major brands) of automobiles stopped being produced, e.g., Studebaker in, I think, 1964. But my elementary Googleology doesn’t make any comprehensive list appear.
So I propose the question of the most recent makes of automobiles that have ceased production and when they were ended, perhaps using 1935, during the Depression, as the cutoff year so we don’t get swamped with Duryeas and Locomobiles.
Here is a complete-looking list of all the makes that have ever existed, including their dates of founding. It would much easier to list the ones that are left.
Plymouth is a more recent casualty than Oldsmobile, btw. Rover is history, too.
It gets a little more confusing because over the years, some automakers have changed individual models into “marques” and vice-versa. At one point Valiant and Imperial were separate brands from Chrysler, at other times they were models of the Plymouth and Chrysler lines. Eagle was a model for AMC, then became a brand when Chrysler bought AMC.
And if you listen carefully to the commercials, it isn’t even Chrysler anymore, it’s Daimler-Chrysler.
I had one each of these years ago. All defunct now, alas.
Terraplane (mine was a '33 roadster with a '48 Hudson souped-up straight eight engine. In L.A., naturally, in '49)
'36 DeSoto
'53 Nash
My dream car back then was Hudson, a really great and fast car! Was beating Mercuries & Fords in stockcar races back when they really had to be “stock.” Too expensive for me then.
It gets a little more confusing because over the years, some automakers have changed individual models into “marques” and vice-versa. At one point Valiant and Imperial were separate brands from Chrysler, at other times they were models of the Plymouth and Chrysler lines. Eagle was a model for AMC, then became a brand when Chrysler bought AMC.
And if you listen carefully to the commercials, it isn’t even Chrysler anymore, it’s Daimler-Chrysler.
Valient was it’s own make at first but then became a Plymouth Valient after a few years.
Imperial was always made by Chrysler Motors, but was always it’s own make.
As an aside, the original LeBaron was an Imperial model but later on became a Chrysler model.
They quit making the Imperial back in the early 70s and brought it back for 1982 with a twin of the Chrysler Cordoba with a different front end and taillights and then again in the early 90s as a twin of the New Yorker.
Much earlier, there was the Desoto make which was made by Chrysler Motors but it didn’t last very long.
Datsun was founded in 1914. In 1934, a Japanese entrepreneur called Nihon Sangyo became the company’s sole owner and changed the name to Nissan, but kept the Datsun name.
Nissan USA decided in 1983 to drop the Datsun name, so to ease the transition, the next two years’ models were called the Datsun Nissan (model name).
Not exactly. Nissan was and always had been the company that built the Datsun. In the late 70’s when the company started building cars outside of Japan, those car took the Nissan name and for the 1982 model year, all the cars were known as Nissans, not Datsuns. Some of the early transition cars carried both names, my sister had an 81 Datsun 210, it had both Datsun and Nissan badging. The Nissan name had been applied to the Japanese market in the mid 70’s.
A few others not mentioned.
Allstate, built by Kaiser for and sold by Sears.
Avanti, some investors bought the tooling from Studebaker and continued to produce the car until 1975. In 1967 when the supply of Studebaker engines dried up, they switched to Chevy powerplants.
Beechcraft, yep the plane maker built a small car for a few years after WWII.
Checker, builder of the ubiquitous taxicabs went out of business in 1981.
Crosley. The first small car that sold in significant numbers. Can you say “deathtrap on wheels”?
Cunningham, one of the first successful marriages of a European car with American V-8 power.
Darren, the first true American sports car, beat the Corvette by a year.
DeLorean, a piece of crap engineering wise was made a star in the Back to the Future movies.
Excalibur, 1930 Rolls Royce styling on a modern Cadillac chassis. Over 10,000 sold between 1967 and 1975.
Henry J, built by Kaiser-Frazer but a make in it’s own right.
Muntz, the car built by television maker Earl “Madman” Muntz. Bought a small struggling car company, made some design changes and sold his car for 4 years.
The Valiant was also the main car of Chrysler’s Australian subsidiary. It was in production from the early 60’s (imported from the US) until 1980 when Chrysler Australia was eaten by Mitsubishi.
(Daimler) Chrysler have since re-entered the Australian market selling mainly Jeeps, PT Cruiser, some Neons, and the odd 300C (so far I have seen only 1 - it looks spectacular).
That’s a spoilsport entry. :rolleyes:
Came to that link and found they had indeed listed the Duessenberg.
Saw one in Chigago with chrome plated metal hose exhaust pipes from each cylinger.
Believe it or not I went out and bought a 2004 Alero just so I could say to my Grandkids one day that I owned one of the last Olds made!
But it’s a nice one, loaded to the gills. Leather & a V-6 too.
:smack: I didn’t even need a car. My 2003 Ford only had 14k on it! Gave that to my son.
The Duesenberg ceased production in 1937, although attempts have been made to revive the brand, including one in the works right now:
Bugattis were made until 1959. In 1998 Volkswagen acquired the right to the name, and after some delay, they have just released the Veyron, a 1,000 horsepower, 1-million Euro (US$1.2 million) supercar, the most powerful and most expensive production car ever made. I’ve seen the car in a showroom in Berlin, and it is simply astounding.
