Orphan (car)

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

• DeSoto^[1]
• Eagle
• Imperial
• Plymouth^[3]
• Talbot

Ford Motor Company

• Continental^[1]
• Edsel^[1]
• Mercury
• Merkur
• Frontenac
• Monarch
• Meteor
• Comet

General Motors

• Marquette
• Geo
• La Salle^[1]
• Saturn
• Oakland^[1]
• Oldsmobile^[3]
• Hummer^[3]
• Viking
• Pontiac^[3]
• Asüna
• Beaumont
• Holden

Volkswagen Group

• DKW
• Horch
• Wanderer
• NSU Motorenwerke

Steam / Electric

• Baker
• Commuter Vehicles, Inc.
• Doble
• Sebring Vanguard
• Stanley
• White
• Coda

See also

• List of automobile manufacturers
• List of car brands