This site remembers the lost American automakers, great and small, in both picture and story. The Makes are sorted below into the historical era in which they met their demise. If one of the pictures has a title, click it for the story. If you don't see your favorite, do be patient and try again at a later date. I want to do justice to each story and that takes time. Carmakers are also listed alphabetically in the Index of Makes Histories to the right. If it is highlighted, a history (or imagery) is available.

The Recently Departed

Throughout the evolution of the automobile, economic hard times have naturally selected out the weakest Makes. Between the bursting of the DotCom Bubble and the Great Recession, the first decade of the 20th Century sent some storied names to their graves, as well as some others that might not be as sorely missed.  

The Age of Malaise

These were the dark days of the American automobile. The triple wallop of oil embargos, government regulations and a nearly constant state of recession, took down most of the last remaining independents. Several promising upstarts were also defeated, along with a few that were a bit more questionable.

 The Great Contraction

As the realities of the post-war world set in, many of the storied independent makers found they could no longer compete. Soon thereafter the nation's worst recession since the Great Depression forced even the Big Three to retreat - or at least two of them. The motoring world also saw a number of interesting takes that quite never took.

The Post-War Boom...and Bust

It was a time of boundless optimism. America’s post-war expansion ignited a nation’s spirit of enterprise that had long been supressed. But these entrepreneurial ventures soon discovered that building a successful car company takes a lot more than just making a really cool car.

The Last Independent

Like the nation it was named after, the 100-year history of American Motors derived its essence from many varied automotive cultures. The story of America’s “last independent” spans the early years of the Jeffery and Rambler, to Nash Motors, the only Independent to turn a profit durring the Great Depression, followed by a side trip to England for the Metropolitan, before absorbing first Hudson, and later Kaiser-Jeep, to become AMC, who would enter into a French fling with Renault, only to be tossed it off to the Chrysler Corporation, who tried to make it soar like an Eagle, before selling out to the Germans at Daimler, who finally laid the storied carmaker to rest. 

For the Love of Cars

And finally…no matter the era, some cars just had to be built.