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
[edit]There are hundreds of orphan automobile brands, and hundreds of defunct manufacturers. Some of the better known orphans are listed below:
- Checker
- DeLorean
- Nash
- Rambler
- American Motors (AMC)
- Hudson
- Studebaker
- Pierce Arrow
- Marmon
- Cord
- Hispano Suiza
- Austin-Healey
- Rover
- Triumph (out of production in 1994; manufacturer defunct; marque acquired by BMW in 1993;dormant)
- Kaiser
- Willys
- Crosley
- Tucker
- Packard
- Saab
- Bricklin
- Sterling
- Sunbeam
- Fisker
- Muntz
Discontinued marques from existing manufacturers
[edit]The following are discontinued marques from existing manufacturers (and thus not orphan automobiles).