Every once in a while, a car brand, for one reason or another, will fail. One year they might be at the height of production and popularity and the next they could be in a downward spiral. Below are 14 defunct car brands and an explanation as to why they failed. It might seem like some brands were doing very well – but read below for more stories about what happened next.
Defunct Car Brands infographic14 Defunct Car Brands and How They Failed
| Brand | Date Founded | Date Ended |
|---|---|---|
| Plymouth | 1928 | 2001 |
| Mercury | 1938 | 2011 |
| Pontiac | 1926 | 2010 |
| Oldsmobile | 1897 | 2004 |
| American Motor Company (AMC) | 1954 | 1988 |
| Packard | 1899 | 1958 |
| Studebaker | 1852 | 1966 |
| DeSoto | 1928 | 1961 |
| Hummer | 1992 | 2010 |
| Saturn | 1985 | 2010 |
| Kaiser-Frazer | 1945 | 1951 |
| Tucker Corporation | 1944 | 1950 |
| Edsel | 1957 | 1959 |
| DeLorean Motor Company | 1975 | 1982 |
| Brand | Peak Production Year (Number of Cars Produced) | Point of No Return (Number of Cars Produced) |
|---|---|---|
| Plymouth | 1973 (751,812) | 1990 (310,205) |
| Mercury | 1979 (669,138) | 2000 (282,292) As Lincoln-Mercury |
| Pontiac | 1973 (919,870) | 1990 (641,820) |
| Oldsmobile | 1985 (1,165,649) | 1992 (395,974) |
| American Motor Company (AMC) | 1974 (431,798) | 1978 (137,860) |
| Packard | 1937 (122,593) | 1953 (90,252) |
| Studebaker | 1950 (320,884) | 1953 (151,576) |
| DeSoto | 1950 (136,203) | 1958 (49,445) |
| Hummer | 2006 (72,253) | 2008 (27,468 Sales) |
| Saturn | 1994 (286,003) | 2004 (213,657) |
| Kaiser-Frazer | Year: 1951, Kaiser: 139,452, Frazer: 10,214 | Year: 1951, Kaiser: 139,452, Frazer: 10,214 |
| Tucker Corporation | 1948 (50) | 1948 (50) |
| Edsel | 1958 (63,110) | 1959 (44,891) |
| DeLorean Motor Company | 1981 (9,200) | 1982 (1,000) |
Brand: Plymouth
Motto: “One clever idea after another.”
Once a high flying, futuristic brand under Chrysler, “badge engineering,” or putting the Plymouth name on other Chrysler products, destroyed this brand’s identity (and sales numbers) in the 90s.
Popular Car: 1970 Plymouth Road Runner
Brand: Mercury
Motto: “New doors opened.”
Designed as Ford’s “middle price” option and most of its models were badge engineered, cheaper versions of Lincoln or other Ford models. An aging, narrowing demographic ended the brand in 2000.
Popular Car: 1983 Mercury Grand Marquis
Brand: Pontiac
Motto: “Pontiac. Designed for Action.”
Fuel shortages and safety concerns in the 70s and 80s curbed Pontiac’s sports and road car image, ruining its image and resulting in a slow decline until GM’s 2008 Chapter 11 reorganization.
Popular Car: 1968 Pontiac GTO
Brand: Oldsmobile
Motto: “Start Something”
Oldsmobile was, like Pontiac, once seen as a high-powered performance car. Badge engineering and a loss of quality and performance in the 90s eroded the brand until it became defunct.
Popular Car: 1910 Oldsmobile Limited
Brand: American Motor Company (AMC)
Motto: N/A
AMC first focused on compact, fuel efficient cars in the 50s. They weren’t able to keep up on the technology or design fronts, however. Near the end, they were bought out for their Jeeps.
Popular Car: 1958 Rambler Sedan
Brand: Packard
Motto: “Ask the man who owns one.”
Packard started as a luxury line. Price wars between GM and Ford took their toll, but it was a disastrous merger with Studebaker in 1953 that was the final nail in Packard’s coffin.
Popular Car: 1949 Packard Convertible Coupe
Brand: Studebaker
Motto: “Always give more than you promise.”
The Studebakers came to America as German immigrants, blacksmiths by trade. They produced quality automobiles throughout the 1940s, but price wars between GM and Ford devastated them in 1953.
Popular Car: 1922 Studebaker Light Six
Brand: DeSoto
Motto: “DeSoto Sets the Pace”
DeSoto was doomed from the beginning. Not long after its creation, parent Chrysler acquired Dodge – also a middle-price car that outdid DeSoto in every way. The 1958 recession spelled the end.
Popular Car: 1959 DeSoto Fireflite Sportsman
Brand: Hummer
Motto: “Hummer. Like nothing else.”
Fuel economy and safety concerns eventually spelled the end of the Hummer. It was once a very successful military contract vehicle, produced by AM General and later General Motors.
Popular Car: 2007 Hummer H3
Brand: Saturn
Motto: “Like Always. Like Never Before.”
Saturn was a bold, private, employee owned experiment started by GM. Jealousy from other GM divisions and poor sales lead to Saturn being reabsorbed by GM in 2004.
Popular Car: 1991 Saturn SC
Brand: Kaiser-Frazer
Motto: “Je Suis Pret”
Joseph Frazer and Henry Kaiser worked well together, selling the Kaiser and Frazer cars under one roof. That is, until an argument in 1951 about production ended their relationship and the company.
Popular Car: 1949 Frazer Manhattan
Brand: Tucker Corporation
Motto: “15 years of testing produced the car of the year.”
Preston Tucker planned to build the car of the future, but in his attempt to raise funds he was stopped by an SEC investigation and trial. Despite being cleared of all charges, the legal fees killed the company.
Popular Car: 1948 Tucker “Torpedo” Sedan
Brand: Edsel
Motto: “Its elegance, its engines, its exciting new features make other cars seem ordinary.”
“Edsel” is still used as a euphemism for a disastrous marketing failure – which is just what the Edsel was. Over-hyped, it met with a lukewarm public reception in 1957. Mediocre sales cost Ford billions.
Popular Car: 1958 Edsel Corsair
Brand: DeLorean Motor Company
Motto: “Live the Dream”
John DeLorean designed some of the best looking cars in history, but he was caught in an FBI drug trafficking sting in 1982. He was acquitted of all charges, but the trail ruined his reputation.
Popular Car: 1981 DeLorean DMC-12
Sources:
https://www.thrillist.com/cars/11-defunct-american-car-brands-we-wish-would-return-extinct-cars-american-car-companies-that-failed
http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2016/01/top-10-defunct-auto-brands.html
http://www.popularmechanics.com/cars/g728/10-greatest-failed-us-auto-companies/?slide=1
http://fortune.com/2013/04/15/10-big-car-brands-that-bit-the-dust/
http://www.onallcylinders.com/2015/11/26/plymouth-revisited-a-look-at-the-8-best-plymouth-vehicles-since-the-mayflower/
http://www.advergize.com/slogans-list/car-slogans/
http://www.allpar.com/cars/production/plymouth-us-model-year-production.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Automobile_Production_Figures
http://adage.com/article/adage-encyclopedia/studebaker/98894/
http://www.productioncars.com/production-numbers/saturn_new.php
https://www.wikipedia.org/
Studebaker (1852-1966)
A family of German descent, the Studebakers, were originally blacksmiths who started a carriage and wagon business. They marketed their first automobile in 1912 and built a reputation for providing a reliable, quality product. Despite managerial trouble, they managed to survive the Great Depression and produced innovative car designs throughout the 1940s that would influence other producers for decades. Price wars between GM and Ford nearly destroyed Studebaker in 1953. They managed to prolong their life by 13 years at Packard’s expense in a disastrous merger.
Oldsmobile (1897-2004)
Originally independent, Oldsmobile was purchased by GM in 1908. Its “Rocket V8” engine and reputation for speed made it a famously powerful and adventurous brand throughout the 1950s, 60s, and 70s. By the 1990s, Oldsmobile had fallen behind and its performance image was fading – rebadging slowly toppled the giant.
Packard (1899-1958)
Packard was conceived as a luxury model – it cost over 4 times as much as a comparative Oldsmobile. This luxury image would prove vital to sustaining the brand, even through the Great Depression. Only when they began introducing mid-priced vehicles did they run into problems – they simply were unable to compete with the “Big Three” in a mid-priced market. Price wars among the big auto corporations and a dangerous merger with Studebaker drove the independent manufacturer into the ground.
Pontiac (1926-2010)
Like many brand names on this list, Pontiac was introduced as a cheaper alternative to a more expensive luxury car. Pioneering leadership in the late 1950s, among them John DeLorean, made the Pontiac into a fast-racing, exciting, muscle and road car. Fuel shortages and safety concerns curbed this image in the 1970s and 80s, resulting in a slow decline until GM’s 2008 Chapter 11 reorganization.
DeSoto (1928-1961)
DeSoto was created by Chrysler as a mid-priced model, but was doomed to failure almost immediately. Chrysler’s purchase of Dodge happened not long after DeSoto’s founding, and DeSoto found itself competing with its own sister in the mid-priced market. In an effort to boost Dodge sales, Chrysler attempted to remake DeSoto as an upper-mid-priced car in 1933. Repeated mismanagement by Chrysler and the 1958 recession would eventually put DeSoto to bed.
Plymouth (1928-2001)
Chrysler introduced Plymouth as a low-cost alternative to its other cars. Its high-flying and futuristic design kept the brand strong in the 1950s and 60s, but “badge-engineering,” or slapping the Plymouth label on other Chrysler products, destroyed this identity in the 1990s. The Chrysler Prowler and PT Cruiser were planned as Plymouths – a way to recapture an old, original spirit – but Plymouth was shuttered before their release.
Mercury (1938-2011)
Mercury was a mid-priced car at its introduction, designed to be an affordable medium between the cheaper Ford models and the luxury Lincoln line. As sales slumped in the mid-1940s, Lincoln and Mercury merged. The faithful Marquis and Grand Marquis models were exceptionally popular from the 1960s to the 2000s, but Mercury’s aging and narrowing demographic eventually lead to its demise.
Tucker (1944-1950)
After WWII, American consumers were clamoring for new car designs – but the Big Three had yet to introduce any. Preston Tucker believed he could fill the void with his Tucker 48 Sedan – a new car packed full of futuristic safety innovations. A prototype made a disastrous premier in 1947 – it was loud, boiled coolant, required external power to start, and couldn’t back up. Much more successful debuts were made with later prototypes. To fund the car, Tucker sold accessories and spots on a waiting list to eager consumers. This later resulted in an SEC investigation and trial. All charges were dropped and Tucker was found innocent – but the damage was done, and under a heavy burden of debt the Tucker Corporation folded.
Kaiser-Frazer (1945-1951)
Automotive executive Joseph Frazer and industrialist Henry Kaiser came together as partners for this short-lived but influential automobile manufacturer. While the Big Three were selling pre-war models after WWII, Kaiser-Frazer was the first group to introduce a totally new car. They did well until 1951, when Kaiser and Frazer split over differing opinions on how to sell their cars. Kaiser Motors would continue, though – eventually buying Willys-Overland, creators of the Jeep, and bringing the Jeep to a new audience after being bought, themselves, by the American Motors Corporation.
American Motors Corporation (AMC) (1954-1988)
AMC was founded as a result of a merger between Hudson Motor Company and Nash-Kelvinator Corporation. It was the largest corporate merger in U.S. history at the time. In the late 1950s, they began focusing on compact, fuel-efficient cars – a bold and unique decision that would pay dividends in the 1960s. AMC’s Jeeps would keep the company afloat through the 1970s, as the rest of its line aged ungracefully. Chrysler would eventually pick up the pieces in the 1980s as a way to grab the profitable Jeep line.
Edsel (1957-1959)
Ford promoted the Edsel as the perfect car, created after endless hours of market research – a “YOU car,” that all Americans would love and want. Unfortunately, when the car was unveiled on “E Day,” September 4, 1957, it was met with a lukewarm welcome. Everything from its name to its design and performance were found to be tacky and unattractive. Worse – it wound up being priced as a luxury car despite attempts to compete in the mid-priced market. In 2017 dollars, Ford lost $2.9 billion on the Edsel adventure.
DeLorean (1975-1982)
John DeLorean is best known for designing the striking GTO, among other cars, and for being the youngest GM executive in history. Using seed capital from Hollywood stars and the British government, DeLorean built a manufacturing plant in Northern Ireland to produce the DMC-12. Initial vehicles suffered from poor quality control and testing, and the features, cost, and design of the car met with mixed enthusiasm in the States. Struggling to break even, DeLorean was caught in an FBI sting and accused of being a drug trafficker in 1982. He was later acquitted of all charges – but the trial ruined his reputation. The cars gained a cult following, and a new DeLorean Motor Company opened in 2016, promising to build new DMC-12 models in the future.
Saturn (1985-2010)
When Saturn was founded in Spring Hill, Tennessee, it was called “a new kind of car company.” It was a private, employee-owned company that operated separately from GM and enjoyed much more freedom than GM’s other divisions. Its cars sold well, but not well enough. Other divisions were also resentful of Saturn’s unique status. In 2004, the unique arrangement Saturn had enjoyed was dissolved. This was probably the end for them – in 2010, as GM was closing divisions left and right, Saturn found itself on the cutting room floor.
Hummer (1992-2010)
Initial prototypes of the military Humvee were delivered to the U.S. military by AM General in 1982. The first contract for their production was worth $1.2 billion. AM General supposedly had plans already to develop a civilian version of the vehicle – it’s rumored that they were encouraged to do so by Arnold Schwarzenegger. GM purchased the line from AM General in 1999 and began building and distributing them worldwide. However, amid concerns over fuel economy and safety, and in the face of several failed sale deals, Hummer was shut down.