I was wondering just how many brands have gone broke and how many have had a revival. Just because a company goes broke it doesn't mean their products were not any good the funds were just mismanaged.

Name a few
Packard : 1899- 1958
Stuts : If you own one your a millionaire (1877-1948)
Delorean It did go bust but it is back
Daimler 1890- 2002 Jag sold to BSA, Leyland Ford Revival 2005
Austin 1905-1990 ties with Nissan and Rover
Morris 1913-1984 with a revival by Leyland and BMW for MINI Also ties with MG Rover

300+ companies. Does this include companies that didn't make a single car?

post war closures:
Studebaker 1852 - 1966
Kaiser
AMC
Cord
Duesenburg
Auburn
Checker
Henry J
Oldsmobile
Tucker
Edsel

cheat: the rest


edit: I like the stories like Henry Ford was successful with his third company. The Henry Ford Company was his second and when Henry Ford departed along with several of his key partners, the company was dissolved. With the intent of liquidating the firm's assets, Ford's financial backers, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment prior to selling them. Instead, Leland persuaded them to continue the automobile business using Leland's proven 1-cylinder engine. Henry Ford's departure required a new name, and on August 22, 1902, the company reformed as the Cadillac Automobile Company, now GM's luxury brand.

[This message has been edited by Gokart Mozart (edited 06-09-2009).]

quote Originally posted by Gokart Mozart: 300+ companies. Does this include companies that didn't make a single car? post war closures: Studebaker 1852 - 1966 Kaiser AMC Cord Duesenburg Auburn Checker Henry J Oldsmobile Tucker Edsel cheat: the rest edit: I like the stories like Henry Ford was successful with his third company. The Henry Ford Company was his second and when Henry Ford departed along with several of his key partners, the company was dissolved. With the intent of liquidating the firm's assets, Ford's financial backers, William Murphy and Lemuel Bowen called in engineer Henry M. Leland of Leland & Faulconer Manufacturing Company to appraise the plant and equipment prior to selling them. Instead, Leland persuaded them to continue the automobile business using Leland's proven 1-cylinder engine. Henry Ford's departure required a new name, and on August 22, 1902, the company reformed as the Cadillac Automobile Company, now GM's luxury brand.

Note defunct does not mean bankrupt. Many were bought up in the old days or names were changed. Oakland became Pontiac and Edel was a Ford division that was closed done.

The Ford/Leland story did not end there. After Caditllac Leland went on to form Lincoln. They hist some hard times and were purchased by Henry Ford at the request do his son Edsel. It was not a friendly take over.

If you are talking about any company that made cars that stop producing them for whatever reason - then you might well be talking about thousands of companies. In the first part of the 1900's almost every wagon maker built a car. There were companies that never made a single car and some that made only one or two - are they "car companies"?

I am the archivist at the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum and some where in our files I have lists after lists of these kind of manufactures. I also think there is a book that list some of them but if I remember right it only lists them up to 1920 or so. email me if you really want to know and I'll see what I can come up with.

quote Originally posted by 87 REGISTRY: I am the archivist at the R. E. Olds Transportation Museum and some where in our files I have lists after lists of these kind of manufactures. I also think there is a book that list some of them but if I remember right it only lists them up to 1920 or so. email me if you really want to know and I'll see what I can come up with.

Well that has been posted has pretty much answered it.

Just did a quick check of two sources at the Museum. One list had over 5,500 names on it. I didn't go over the complete list but it looked like a list of companies and not a list of cars or models. Some of the companies were listed more then once because they came and went a couple of times (such as the Ann Arbor which made cars in early 1910 went out of business then started up again in 1911 and then went out again in 1912). Also listed were some companies that only re-badged other companies cars with little or no changes to them.

Hudson, would it count? I don't know that they went broke... but they aren't made anymore.

quote The Hudson Motor Car Company made Hudson and other brand automobiles in Detroit, Michigan, from 1909 to 1954. In 1954, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator Corporation to form American Motors. The Hudson name was continued through the 1957 model year, after which it was dropped.

Another one, Vector. Hasn't it gone broke... then come back?

[This message has been edited by Khw (edited 06-09-2009).]

quote Delorean It did go bust but it is back

DMC is not back... someone bought the rights to keep using the name and reproduce parts... but they are not making new DMC-12s... the 'new' ones that they make are good chassis with NOS parts and remanufactured parts to create a 'new' car...

But hey... do you think if Obama was around back then would we still be able to buy an AMC Gremlin?

Dewoo but who dident see that one comming.

De Lorean doesn't quite make new cars. From what I understand, for every "New" De Lorean an old one has to die. They are using the old VIN's and call it a Restoration. (New De Lorean's won't meet current crash requirements, airbags, etc. to be a brand new car) Take it with a grain of sand, I got that information from a blog post a few years back when De Lorean decided to make "New" cars for ~$65k.

From what I understand Automobiles in the 1900's were like the Gold Rush about 50 years earlier. Supposedly we'll see a rush of electric car makers come and go in the next decade. I used to believe it, but now I'm getting increasingly weary of it. The price of admission is just much higher now, than it was 100 years ago.
I'm willing to bet Tesla Motors will either die, or be swallowed by one of the big makers soon. Aptera needs to build serious quantity first, before I consider it anything but a hobby car.

A couple of years ago, we had the Real Estate Rush, the beanie baby rush (okay, that's not a serious contender.. :-p), Dot Com rush, Web2.0 Rush (that one never really took off as much), Mortgage backed securities rush, etc.

Wonder what's next. Seems that the last few "rushes" weren't in manufacturing at all. Kind of interesting.

There was Bricklin
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bricklin_SV-1

The car model company AMT even produced a car called the Pirana that used Corvair drive train and was used in "The Man from U.N.C.L.E." TV series.
http://www.c-we.com/piranha/

Let me think.......there's Amphicar
http://www.amphicars.com/

Lagonda and Bugatti are the names of two car companies that went bust but the names have been resurected by Aston Martin & Volkwagen respectively.

I'm sure I can think of more but......for now...

Merkur is another defunct brand, they were imported German Fords.

Add in the Japanese, British, and European car companies that no longer exist.

By revival, you mean filed Chapter 11, or 7 went bankrupt then came back to make new cars?? So far none. At least that's what some un-named source said.

Maybe the old Ford/Cadillac fits that description, but in the last 100 years every company that went broke went out of business forever.

Yes the Delorean are sold here in Houston, but it's true they recycle the old VINs and there will never be more than the 8,000 or so that were originally built.