The automotive startup graveyard from the last century is already very enormous and will continue to grow. The only American automakers still in business are Tesla and Ford.
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Which automakers filed for bankruptcy?
Studebaker (1852-1966) The Studebakers, a family of German descent, founded a business making carriages and wagons after working as blacksmiths. In 1912, they began selling cars, establishing a reputation for producing dependable goods of high quality. Despite administrative issues, they were able to survive the Great Depression and produce cutting-edge automobile designs throughout the 1940s that would have a long-lasting impact on other manufacturers. In 1953, GM and Ford’s price disputes nearly led to the demise of Studebaker. Through a disastrous merger, they were able to extend their lifespan by 13 years at Packard’s price.
Oldsmobile (1897-2004) Oldsmobile, which had previously been autonomous, was bought by GM in 1908. Its “In the 1950s, 1960s, and 1970s, its Rocket V8 engine and reputation for speed made it a renownedly potent and daring brand. Oldsmobile had lost ground by the 1990s, and its reputation for performance was waning. Rebadging gradually brought down the industry titan.
Packard (1899-1958) Because it cost more than four times as much as an equivalent Oldsmobile, the Packard was intended as a premium vehicle. The brand would need to project a sense of luxury in order to survive the Great Depression. Problems first surfaced when they started releasing mid-priced automobiles. They just couldn’t compete with the “Big Three in an affordable market. Price disputes between the major automakers and a risky merger with Studebaker destroyed the small firm.
Pontiac (1926-2010) Pontiac, like many other brand names on this list, was once offered as a less expensive luxury car substitute. The Pontiac was transformed into a fast-racing, thrilling, muscle and road vehicle by innovative leadership in the late 1950s, including John DeLorean. In the 1970s and 1980s, fuel shortages and safety concerns restrained this image, causing a steady fall that lasted until GM’s Chapter 11 reorganization in 2008.
DeSoto (1928-1961) Chrysler designed the DeSoto as a mid-range vehicle, but it was doomed to failure almost immediately. Soon after DeSoto was established, Chrysler bought Dodge, and DeSoto suddenly found itself in direct competition with Dodge in the mid-priced segment. In 1933, Chrysler made an attempt to reimagine the DeSoto as an upper-midrange vehicle in order to increase Dodge sales. Chrysler’s persistent poor management and the 1958 recession will ultimately put an end to DeSoto.
Plymouth (1928-2001) Plymouth was introduced by Chrysler as a more affordable alternative to its other vehicles. The brand maintained its strength in the 1950s and 1960s because to its futuristic, high-flying style, but “This identity was shattered in the 1990s by badge-engineering, or applying the Plymouth label to other Chrysler models. Prior to its introduction, Plymouth was shut down. The Chrysler Prowler and PT Cruiser were intended as Plymouth’s means of recapturing an ancient, original character.
Mercury (1938-2011) At the time of its debut, Mercury was a mid-range vehicle meant to bridge the gap between the less expensive Ford cars and the opulent Lincoln lineup. Lincoln and Mercury amalgamated in the middle of the 1940s as sales fell off. From the 1960s until the 2000s, Mercury’s faithful Marquis and Grand Marquis models had great popularity, but Mercury’s aging and shrinking clientele eventually brought about its extinction.
Tucker (1944-1950) Following World War II, American consumers cried out for new car designs, but the Big Three had not yet made any. Preston Tucker thought his brand-new Tucker 48 Sedana vehicle, which was jam-packed with cutting-edge safety features, might fill the need. A prototype had a catastrophic debut in 1947it couldn’t back up, was loud, boiled coolant, needed external power to start. Later prototypes were used for debuts that were far more successful. Tucker raised money for the vehicle by offering waiting list places and accessories to interested customers. An SEC inquiry and trial were later the outcome of this. Although Tucker was exonerated of all allegations and declared innocent, the damage had already been done, and the Tucker Corporation eventually failed due to a high debt load.
Kaiser-Frazer (1945-1951) Henry Kaiser, an entrepreneur, and Joseph Frazer, a senior automotive executive, teamed up to form this influential but short-lived automaker. Kaiser-Frazer was the first company to introduce a completely new car, whilst the Big Three continued to market pre-war cars after WWII. Kaiser and Frazer prospered up until 1951, when they broke up over divergent views on how to market their automobiles. After being acquired by the American Motors Corporation, Kaiser Motors would later buy Willys-Overland, the company that created the Jeep, and introduce the vehicle to a new market.
AMC, or American Motors Corporation (1954-1988) After Hudson Motor Company and Nash-Kelvinator Corporation merged, AMC was created. At the time, it was the biggest corporate merger in American history. They made a daring and original choice to concentrate on small, fuel-efficient automobiles in the late 1950s that would pay off in the 1960s. As the rest of its line grew shabbily old in the 1970s, AMC’s Jeeps would keep the firm solvent. In the 1980s, Chrysler would eventually pick up the pieces in an effort to seize the lucrative Jeep line.
Edsel (1957-1959) After countless hours of market study, Ford marketed the Edsel as the ideal vehicle “All Americans would adore and desire YOUR car. Sadly, when the vehicle was unveiled on “E Day, September 4, 1957, received a cool reception. Everything about it, including its name, design, and functionality, was deemed garish and ugly. Despite efforts to compete in the mid-cost market, Worseit ultimately ended up being priced as a premium automobile. Ford lost $2.9 billion on the Edsel venture in 2017 dollars.
DeLorean (1975-1982) Among other notable accomplishments, John DeLorean is most recognized for developing the eye-catching GTO and for becoming the youngest GM CEO in history. DeLorean constructed a manufacturing facility in Northern Ireland to create the DMC-12 with the help of venture financing from Hollywood celebrities and the British government. Initial models had poor quality control and testing, and in the States, opinions of the car’s features, price, and design were divided. DeLorean, who was having trouble making ends meet, was apprehended in an FBI operation and charged with cocaine trafficking in 1982. Though he was ultimately found not guilty of all charges, the trial damaged his reputation. A new DeLorean Motor Company opened in 2016, pledging to produce additional DMC-12 vehicles in the future as a result of the cars’ cult following.
Saturn (1985-2010) Initially known as Saturn when it was established in Spring Hill, Tennessee “a brand-new class of automaker. It was a privately held, employee-owned business that ran independently from General Motors and had a lot more independence than any of GM’s other divisions. Although its cars sold well, it wasn’t enough. Other divisions also took offense at Saturn’s special position. The unusual arrangement Saturn had benefited from ended in 2004. As GM was shutting down divisions left and right, Saturn was likely the last one standing for the year 2010.
Hummer (1992-2010) In 1982, AM General gave the American military the first military Humvee prototypes. Their first production contract was for $1.2 billion. It is said that AM General already had plans to create a civilian version of the vehicle and that Arnold Schwarzenegger encouraged them to do so. In 1999, GM acquired the line from AM General and started producing and exporting them over the world. However, Hummer was shut down because to issues with safety and fuel efficiency, as well as a number of failed selling transactions.
Has Ford filed for bankruptcy?
Elon Musk, the CEO of Tesla, is well aware that building a successful auto company isn’t simple. Additionally, he is aware of how uncommon it is for carmarkers to avoid bankruptcy.
Musk told his 48 million Twitter followers late last week that Ford and Tesla are the only American automakers that haven’t declared bankruptcy at least once in their history. “Prototypes are easy, production is hard, and becoming cash flow positive is excruciating,” claims Musk.
Which automaker has had the worst business results?
Nothing lasts a lifetime. Thousands of other manufacturers existed in the early years of the auto industry, but they all eventually went out of business, merged, crumbled, or vanished. Today, we have Detroit’s Big Three. Only a select number of those long-gone brand names made the biggest contributions to the brilliance of contemporary automobiles and remained in our minds. Here are the ten well-known brands from the past that, in our opinion, should be remembered the most.
In Indiana, these renowned manufacturers of horse-drawn wagons first produced electric and compact gas vehicles in 1902. Two years later, they started selling four-cylinder, bigger automobiles and limos. By 1927, Studebaker had advanced to big six-cylinder engines, two-tone paint, rumble seats, and the designation Dictator as a model, coming before Commander and later President.
The company struggled after World War II until 1958, when the tiny Lark was introduced, reviving cash flow. This made it possible to create the spacious but yet sporty Hawk and the oddly alluring Avanti hardtop, both of which have a large following in clubs around the nation today.
Harry Stutz created a small automobile in 1902 that utilized a steering wheel rather than the more typical tiller, but it wasn’t until 1911when his first automobile finished 11th at the first Indianapolis 500, averaging roughly 68 mphthat he established his own automobile business. His two-seat Bearcat roadster vehicle established the phrase “sports automobile” in 1912.
The Black Hawk, a later Stutz model that focused on performance, won the company’s first stock car racing championship in 1927. Stutz produced the nation’s fastest production car in 1928, with a top speed of 106 mph. However, the business was unable to endure the Great Depression and produced its final automobile in 1934.
Despite partnerships with renowned designer Dutch Darrin, whose 1954 two-door roadster with a supercharged six-cylinder is fiercely sought after by collectors today, sleek styling made Kaiser Motors’ automobiles interesting but not very successful on the market. When General Motors acquired the Kaiser factory in 1954, Kaiser teamed up with Willys, the well-known Jeep manufacturer during World War II, and moved its manufacturing from Michigan to the Toledo Jeep factory. Kaisers were produced and sold in Argentina up to 1961, although the final model year in the United States was 1955.
A lot of great equipment was thrown out the doors of those planes just to keep them flying, according to General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, who compared the loss of Pontiacwhich GM had to abandon during the 2008 bankruptcy proceedingsto airmen in World War II dumping parts off malfunctioning bombers in an effort to return from bombing raids in Germany to safety in England.
With vehicles like the nimble Solstice and the roaring G8, as well as its illustrious past of highly popular muscle cars like the GTO and Trans-Am, Pontiac held out the hope for even better vehicles to come. However, it was not to be.
Founded in 1897 in Lansing, Michigan, after founder Ransom Eli Olds had experimented with vehicles for ten years, it was America’s first automobile manufacturer. The family business of the Olds was the production of gasoline-powered engines. The original Olds, a tiny “Curved Dash” single-cylinder with a 7-hp two-speed, is referred to as the country’s first mass-produced automobile by historians.
In 1908, William Durant bought the business to add to the General Motors corporation. Oldsmobile produced the first HydraMatic transmission in 1940; it was a four-speed unit that was dependable and well-liked by the general public. It provided the 442 muscle-car package in 1964. It introduced the front-drive Toronado in 1966.
For the most of the 1970s, the Oldsmobile brand was the third-largest nameplate seller. Oldsmobile sold more than a million automobiles in 1986 alone. A few years later, Olds created the Aurora, a ground-breaking body design that used intricate, tapering frame assembly and helped GM emerge from its gloomy period of flexible, floppy structures. But in 2004, GM decided to discontinue the brand.
In Warren, Ohio, two brothers with a busy factory making electric equipment made the decision to construct their own automobile in 1899. They relocated to Detroit in 1903. In addition to the Liberty aviation engine, which is the most well-known of World War I, Packard also had the first 12-cylinder engine in production by 1916, which it improved through 1939.
Packards were known for being the priciest production vehicles, and the 1941 Clipper model, which was created by Dutch Darrin of Kaiser, is a highly sought-after collector automobile. After World War II, the automobiles’ craftsmanship remained excellent, but their absence of a V8 and pre-war aesthetic cues reduced their appeal. After a brief period of selling rebadged Studebakers, Packard ceased to exist in 1958.
A Buffalo manufacturer of bird cages produced its first automobile, a tiny Motorette, in 1901 before moving on to larger vehicles with cutting-edge technologies including hydraulic lifters, aluminum bodywork, power brakes, and fender-mounted lamps. Although the company also produced an eight-cylinder model with a massive custom-built luxury body and a V12 that broke speed records in the Bonneville desert, the brand was known for its big, quiet six-cylinder engines. Although Pierce-Arrow and Studebaker amalgamated, sales fell until the final vehicle was built in 1938.
The Duesenberg Model J, which debuted in 1928, is the most valuable and recognizable car ever produced by a U.S. manufacturer. It was created shortly after Errett Lobsban Cord acquired the four-year-old Duesenberg company in 1926. There were no savings made: The twin-overhead-cam, four-valve-per-cylinder, inline eight-cylinder engines of the 5000-pound cars, which had a top speed of 110 mph at the adjacent Indianapolis racetrack, had self-lubricating chassis. The automobiles, which were made by nine separate coachbuilders, cost a fortune to purchase by Hollywood stars Clark Gable and Gary Cooper. When E. L. Cord sold the business in 1937, no more were produced.
A compact, flashy brass roadster with a top speed of 50 mph was developed in 1910 by former Olds Motor Works employees with funding from a department store baron. In 1916, the vehicle traveled from San Francisco to New York in five days, three hours, and 31 minutes, breaking the previous record of 102 mph established on the sand at Daytona. After each racing victory, sales soared. During World War II, the company’s Detroit plant was diverted to produce bomber parts, and the Hudson Hornet won the NASCAR championship in the early 1950s despite weak sales of the production models. Future Hudsons were based on Ramblers, the popular sedan brand owned by Nash owner AMC, after the firm merged with Nash in 1953. Shortly after, the Hudson brand name was abandoned.
How can I prevent bankruptcy?
People contemplating bankruptcy may have found themselves in this predicament as a direct result of poor spending and saving habits, however unforeseen medical expenses or abrupt unemployment can put practically anyone in a difficult financial scenario. An experience with bankruptcy might serve as a stark reminder that you need to change your way of life in a world where living beyond your means is all too common. Whatever the cause of the instability in your money, the following methods can be helpful.
Make a budget and cut spending
The first step in making changes is to calculate your monthly spending. The quickest and simplest approach to control your spending is by creating a budget.
Discovering strategies to cut back on your expenditures is the next stage. For all purchases, use cash, a debit card, or a smartphone connected to a cash account. Lock your credit cards away (or give them to a trusted friend for protection). It’s best to avoid canceling your cards because doing so will lower your credit limit and immediately raise your credit utilization ratio, both of which are detrimental to your credit score.
Downsize your lifestyle if you are unable to support it entirely on cash. This covers both major and minor expenses because every dollar matters. Some expensive strategies to reduce include the ones listed below:
- Relocate to a smaller home
- Drive a used, inexpensive vehicle
- Sell your motorcycle, boat, or other vehicle.
- Avoid taking a vacation.
You must cut out all spending at the small end of the range except for the bare necessities of food, clothing, shelter, and transportation to and from work. That includes all the minor extras we consider to be necessities, like:
- Television through cable
- Dine outside
- broadband internet
- Alcohol
- Cigarettes
- gym subscriptions
- publication subscriptions
Gift-giving throughout the holidays can also be stopped. Spend time rather than money on the people you care about. These actions might not be very enjoyable, but all that money spent on entertainment is what got you into this predicament in the first place. If you identify with this, you are not alone.
Maximize income
Even after reducing your overhead, you could not make enough money to cover your living costs in cash. If so, now is the moment to increase your revenue. Getting a job is the most obvious way to accomplish this. Take up a second job if you currently hold one. Take a third job if you already have a second one. The same holds true for your spouse or close companion. Although it may sound harsh, you must take drastic action if you are considering filing for bankruptcy. Look for side jobs like those offered through TaskRabbit and similar websites during difficult economic times.
Selling some of the items you acquired during your days of unrestricted spending can help you increase your income. What about getting a roommate? When it comes to paying your bills, having two salaries is preferable to having only one.
If you are eligible, look into government support for housing forbearance, medical care, food assistance, and other benefits, especially if your unemployment insurance is about to expire. It would be worthwhile to take any action that could prevent bankruptcy while you recover.
Investigate consolidating or settling debts
Debt consolidation is frequently mentioned as a way to avoid bankruptcy because it combines several high-interest loans into one lower-interest loan. It can be a smart move if you can get approved for one of these loans, but you must have the resolve to stay on track. Some people go on a spending binge once they are no longer under any financial pressure to make their debt payments. Consolidating your debts should not be a quick cure; it should be a long-term strategy.
The option of debt settlement is also viable. In this instance, the debt relief organization negotiates with your creditors to lower the total amount of your debt rather than reducing the number of your creditors. They will forgive the remainder of each loan if you agree to pay up a portion of each now, with the justification that otherwise they might never receive anything. Before selecting one, thoroughly weigh the advantages and disadvantages of the two options. Again, refrain from picking up undesirable behaviors.
Consider using the right kind of professional help
It can be a good idea to turn to specialists for assistance when you need it. Having said that, it is also possible to become a victim of dishonest businesspeople. People who are in need of a quick remedy may fall victim to “credit counseling firms” due to their fundamental sales pitch, which seems a little contradictory.
Before you choose this path, keep in mind that the simplest and possibly most useful advice you can receive is to put your wallet away and limit your spending. Conduct in-depth research on your options if you still feel like more particular counsel is required.