Title: 14 Defunct Car Brands and Why they Failed
Headings: Defunct Car Brands
Defunct Car Brands
Studebaker (1852-1966)
Oldsmobile (1897-2004)
Packard (1899-1958)
Pontiac (1926-2010)
DeSoto (1928-1961)
Plymouth (1928-2001)
Mercury (1938-2011)
Tucker (1944-1950)
Kaiser-Frazer (1945-1951)
American Motors Corporation (AMC) (1954-1988)
Edsel (1957-1959)
DeLorean (1975-1982)
Saturn (1985-2010)
Hummer (1992-2010)
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Content: 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.