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 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 Clipper Saab Bricklin Sterling Sunbeam Fisker Muntz
Discontinued marques from existing manufacturers
The following are discontinued marques from existing manufacturers (and thus not orphan automobiles).
Chrysler Group DeSoto Eagle Imperial Plymouth Talbot
Ford Motor Company Continental Edsel Mercury Merkur Frontenac Monarch Meteor Comet
General Motors Marquette Geo La Salle Saturn Oakland Oldsmobile Hummer Viking Pontiac 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
References