Orphan (car)
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An orphan car is any marque of motor vehicle built by a manufacturer that has discontinued business entirely.
The term is sometimes confused with and inaccurately applied to a discontinued marque from a still-existing vehicle manufacturer (e.g. Oldsmobile, by General Motors) or a sub-marque (e.g. Thunderbird, by Ford Motors).
In the case of a revived marque, a discontinued one revived by a newer company (e.g. Maybach, by mercedes-Benz), only the original vehicles are accurately considered orphans.
Orphans
There are hundreds of orphan automobile brands, and hundreds of defunct manufacturers. Some of the better known orphans are listed below:
- Checker
- DeLorean
- Nash[1]
- Rambler
- American Motors (AMC)[2]
- Hudson[1]
- Studebaker[1]
- Pierce Arrow[1]
- Marmon[1]
- Cord
- Hispano Suiza
- Austin-Healey[3]
- Rover
- Triumph (out of production in 1994; manufacturer defunct; marque acquired by BMW in 1993;dormant)
- Kaiser[1]
- Willys[2]
- Crosley[1]
- Tucker[3]
- Packard[1]
- Saab[2]
- Bricklin
- Sterling
- Sunbeam[3]
- Fisker
- Muntz
Discontinued marques from existing manufacturers
The following are discontinued marques from existing manufacturers (and thus not orphan automobiles).
Chrysler Group
Ford Motor Company
General Motors
- Marquette
- Geo
- La Salle[1]
- Saturn
- Oakland[1]
- Oldsmobile[3]
- Hummer[3]
- Viking
- Pontiac[3]
- Asüna
- Beaumont
- Holden