Forgotten Companies

Podcast Episode: 0250
What ever happened to?

​Unlock the fascinating stories behind the car companies that time forgot. Discover the innovative yet short-lived brands that once captured the automotive industry's imagination. Learn why these once-prominent names could not withstand the tide of market consolidation and evolving consumer tastes despite their unique innovations and contributions.

        Well, it was a sunny afternoon and I decided to stop by the library we're going to just kill some time as we're waiting for my daughter to finish dance and my son and I went in and we're starting to look around at some books, and I found this one just sitting at the end of an aisle. It was about the automotive industry throughout the entire 30s. Well, as I've already talked about in our podcast, 30 years on, all the differences the beginning of the 30s to the end of the 30s. The 30 years on, all the differences the beginning of the 30s to the end of the 30s, the differences in the automobiles. But I started looking and seeing all the different car companies that existed back in this timeframe. There were tons of them. Why? Because every single automotive company hit a specific part of the market for a price point. It's not like today, where car companies go from the bottom end of the barrel all the way to premium or even luxury within one singular brand. No, they had a multitude of different brands that did this, but there's a lot of them that people don't remember. They were big and they were good for their time and they served a purpose, but they've fallen off the wayside and disappeared into the past. Today, AutoLooks is going to be looking at not just these car companies from the 1930s, the 40s, the 50s. No, we're going to be talking about the entire generation of the automobile, the forgotten car companies that came to make a stance but never live life to the fullest.
 
       Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our host website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by, check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings. Go to the Corporate Leaks website page. Big or small, we have them all car companies from around the globe, all available on the AutoLooks.net website. And while there, like I said, check out some of the other stuff. Find more of our previous podcasts where we talk about all kinds of things across the automotive industry, from manufacturing to vehicles made in specific countries, to even just products and actual car companies. We do it all. The AutoLooks Podcast, where we review everything within the automotive industry. The AutoLooks Podcast is brought to everything within the automotive industry. The AutoLooks Podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com, if you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at [email protected]. 

​          So, like I said in the intro, forgotten car companies. There's a lot of them and even, like some, that just recently passed away, we've already forgotten about how many people out there listening to this podcast right now remember Scion. If you're an avid automotive enthusiast like myself and hell, you just love Toyotas then you remember Scion. You remember it was brought in to bring a more youthful generation into the Toyota brand because Toyota, by the late 90s and early 2000s, was seen as your father's or your grandfather's vehicle. You didn't want to get into it. There was no fun hell, by this time it was literally just the Celica and m or two that were kicking around. There wasn't a lot of fun in the Toyota brand. Well, they brought out the scion brand to try and rejuvenate it in the north American climate. Now scion wasn't available everywhere, but in north America it was here and it brought Japanese dedicated products to North American shores. But the funniest thing about it is that Scion only died out a few years ago and yet we have already forgotten about it.
 
       When it was here it was one of the biggest things around. When you saw an xB on the road. It was like whoa that is cool, or you're the other type of person, like whoa that is ugly as a toaster on wheels. It was one or the other, it wasn't both. But it was a brand that added so many personalization factors to it that the market they wanted to go after they catered to everything they wanted. So why did it fail? Well, Toyota became more youthful. They added better designs and more sport aspect into their products. TRD and GR became more of a mainstay in the Toyota branding so they didn't have a use for Scion. Essentially, by the end, scion were just Toyota products.
 
       Look at the IM. It's essentially a Corolla hatch. That's all it is. But we've all forgot about it. But why is that? Why do we forget about these big car companies? Like, go back to the beginning of the automobile industry. Do you remember DeSoto? Some big car fanatics like myself will remember DeSoto. It was essentially made for between Dodge and Plymouth. It was a big car company and in the 50s it was starting to outrank Dodge in sales. Desoto was a big name for Chrysler Corporation and they carved themselves a niche out within pricing. But as pricing became expanded across the entire Chrysler Corporation lineup, the need for DeSoto and even Fargo far exceeded their uses to the automotive company and when they died out, they had no wow factor. That's what really kills off a lot of these. 

​        If I say to a lot of you, do you remember Mosler or Vector Automotive or, hell, even Panoz? You'll probably say yes, some of you will remember it. Some of you will hear the name and think, oh, it sounds familiar. And then you go online you see the Vector M12 and you're like, oh yeah, I remember that car. That was cool, that was a 90s car, that was amazing. The Mosler M900. Hell, it was vying to be America's supercar, right up there with the Saleen S7. Now the Saleen name doesn't disappear because Saleen is still kicking around in the aftermarket industry. But their automotive is all but gone and we've forgotten all about products like the Saleen S7. The Mosler 900. The Panoz Esperante or AIV Roadster. Like Panoz was big Hell, they raced in Le Mans. But now that they're gone, why do we forget them? Why do we not remember who these car companies are? Well, they weren't big.
 
      Delorean is remembered today only because of Back to the Future. Think about it. Take the DeLorean and that movie completely out of the equation. Do you remember the DeLorean Motor Company? Or do you remember the Time Machine? Most people only say yes to remembering the Time Machine. They just remember that it's a DeLorean Motor Company. Or do you remember the Time Machine? Most people only say yes to remembering the Time Machine. They just remember that it's a DeLorean because they love the movie so much and they're like oh yeah, that's a DeLorean from Back to the Future Because that's what it's referenced as even in the movie.
 
       And if that movie hadn't been as big as it was, DeLorean wouldn't be as big as name. You got to remember they had one car; they lived a very short lifetime. And remember they had one car, they lived a very short lifetime and when they died, they died with a bang, literally with a bang. So, unless you grew up in the 80s and you remember the court cases against John Z DeLorean, or you remember all the people in Northern Ireland pissed off that this factory was closing. They're losing tons of jobs yet again, you don't remember any of that. So, for you, DeLorean is just a footnote you have to remember without the movie we wouldn't have remembered it. 

​       Hell Tucker, without his major court case, most of us wouldn't remember it either. You have to remember, tucker only built 50 vehicles, basically to prove to the courts, to the government and to his finances that he can make a car and he can make a go at it. But really after the 50s, until the movie was made in the early 90s do you remember Tucker Automotive? A lot of people won't. It was a very groundbreaking vehicle. It showcased so much to the world and yet it didn't produce enough and after its time it literally disappeared because it wasn't in her face. Like I said, there's some car companies out there. We remember De Tomaso was never super big, but when they disappeared, we still remember them, because everyone remembers the Pantera and they also remember the fact that Elvis Presley had a Pantera.
 
      A big celebrity with an amazing car Hell Fisker Automotive. Doesn't matter how many times they come back to life and die out; we all remember them. It was one of the first things that Usher gave Justin Bieber when his first record took. He gifted him a chrome-wrapped Fisker Karma. Now that car is still in existence as the Karma, but Fisker's gone. Yet again, ten years from now, will we remember Fisker? Yes, because Heinrich Fisker has set his name into the automotive footnotes of history. 

     Did companies like Geo or Asuna do that. No, Geo and Asuna were essentially brought out to try and create Korean entry-level products with an Americanized name. Geo was for the American and Canadian market and Asuna was only for the Canadian marketplace. With dealerships requesting this, they got their products. They got their entry-level little products. Both of them had little Halo sports cars. We have the Geo Storm and the Asuna Sunfire. They also had the Geo Tracker, but if you remember, the Tracker was also a Suzuki and a Chevrolet and hell, there's even a Pontiac model. So, we don't remember the fact that it was the Geo Tracker because it wasn't a dedicated model. But the Asuna Sunfire and Geo Storm, those were their products, but we don't remember them because they didn't leave their mark on history.
 
       There are car companies out there that'll leave their mark on history, and setting yourself as a footnote in automotive history will get you there. Saab was there. Saab was groundbreaking. We all remember Saab vehicles, but ever since the end of their existence from General Motors, we have slowly forgotten about them. But why is that? Why has Saab literally disappeared into the forgotten companies of the past? It's because near the end of their lifetime they started producing very generic products reminiscent of both Subaru and General Motors vehicles. Only the 9-3 in the end was their own product. Hell, the new 9-5 came out, gave Saab something new for themselves, but unfortunately it was too little, too late. People had forgotten about it. You see, when you lose your cutting edge, you disappear.
 
      And these forgotten companies came in to take the market by storm. They either created, ran or just lucked out at the very end of some of these markets, and there's a lot of car companies like that. Like I said, scion came in at a time when the last major generation of youth was getting into automobiles at a young age and Toyota wanted to get in on the action and with only having sedans, SUV’s, minivans and trucks, they didn't have anything to get people into their vehicles. So, they created Scion, these little economy vehicles. They saw how Geo and Asuna worked for General Motors back in the 1980s and 90s. We don't remember the car companies, but it got us into the bigger car companies and that's where a lot of these came from. 

       ​One of the ill-forgotten ones that you really think of was another General Motors one. GM has a lot of these car companies that have literally disappeared into the background, like Oakland. Now Oakland fit a point just before Buick they also had Viking Hell. How about LaSalle? Lasalle sat higher up than Cadillac. It was the Rolls Royce of General Motors, but then Cadillac moved up into that category and LaSalle moved down. By the end of LaSalle's existence all it was just another Cadillac branding. See, a lot of these car companies’ kind of just get mashed in with other products from the range. If you notice, a lot of these car companies we've talked about, except for Tucker, have all been part of other car companies. They came here to serve a big purpose.
 
      General Motors didn't just create Saturn because they wanted to. They created Saturn to go up against the Japanese imports. Gm was losing ground to the Japanese in the 1980s. Essentially, it's what forced the American government to put massive tariffs in the 1980s on Japanese-built vehicles, forcing these car companies to build manufacturing plants in the United States market. Now, with NAFTA eventually coming out, they were able to choose both Canada and Mexico as well to build their vehicles for the North American climate. But Saturn was created to go up against the new Japanese invasion, as they called it in the 1980s, the Asian invasion. That's what Saturn was here to do. It was here to go up against those car companies and it lived a long life from the late 80s and all the way up until the early 2000s. 

       Saturn lived. It essentially died when it just became another General Motors product. By its end, only the sky and the ion were the only things that look completely different than anything else. Because you have to remember even the Saturn Aura it was new for North America but it was an Opel. They were made by European product line. So essentially in the end Saturn just became Opal Vauxhall of North America. It lost its way and it lost its two-door coupe.
 
      The SC1 is essentially what kept Saturn going through the 90s. They had a little sports coupe, an entry level product, priced just right that it sat at the bottom end but at the top end of the bottom end and it did that so it can get more people in. But once people got into Saturn and started realizing it's a General Motors product, they got more faith in General Motors vehicles and they would move up into other divisions. This worked well from General Motors as it slowly curbed their loss of market share in the North American product. So, it was great. Saturn was a great idea for them, and if you want to know more about Saturn, you should actually go onto our podcast page and actually look for the Saturn podcast. We did one about the car company from how it was created to how it ended. It's a good story to listen to. Same with Saab. Saab was essentially a great story to listen to as well, and that's from our first season. 

​        So, some of these forgotten companies are here, but one of the bigger forgotten car companies out there is one that, unless you're really into owning vehicles from the fourth American car company, you would never even think of American Motors. Now we can't really say they're a forgotten car company because everyone remembers American Motors. When they research stuff from Jeep, they'll find out about them. When they search stuff from Chrysler, they'll find out about them. You have to remember, and there are so many different divisions that became part of them. But they are somewhat forgotten because we forget that America had four major car companies. Hell, even in today's climate, America only has two main car companies. You can't even consider Chrysler an American car company now because it's been owned since 1999 by a European counterpart first Mercedes or Daimler-Benz, then Fiat and now part of the Stellantis group, which is essentially Peugeot-Citroen. So, they're not really American. For 20 years Chrysler hasn't even been American. Sure, they started here and they still build a lot of their stuff here, but they're not American. Hell, new Jeep products aren't even being brought over to the American marketplace. The brand-new avenger and compass aren't coming here. Hell, even the recon isn't coming here. They're making them for offshore marketplaces. But AMC, like I said, really isn't a forgotten car company. It's not as forgotten as the biggest small car company America ever had.
 
      That was Checker Motors. Oh, and we have a podcast about electric Checker that you might want to listen to. It's about, you know, trying to bring back checker and kind of gives a little history about Checker Motors. Now, checker essentially got started out building cabs in New York. They became the main cabs now. All the way up until the 50s they got a brand-new design and that design stayed on all the way until the late 80s when the car company eventually died out.
 
      If you go back and watch any movie from the 1980s hell, I'll give you one right here Ghostbusters, the first one. Or even go back and watch an old school movie from Robert De Niro called Taxi Driver. The taxi he drives in that is an old Checker Marathon. Now Checker also sold these vehicles as sedans and station wagons for personal use as well, and then they also had limos, ambulances and a couple other features. But we only remember them as the cabs. We don't remember Checker as anything more than the yellow cab from New York City, but they were a car company as well. They built production vehicles for people to buy, but when you go to car shows nobody remembers them, kind of like the Studebaker Avanti. Avanti Corporation existed for so long. 

        Studebaker's last vehicle, the Studebaker Avanti, was so advanced for its time and its design was so cutting edge that a group of investors could not let that car go. They couldn't let it die. With Studebaker Only a few years after coming out, they literally just couldn't let it die. So, they bought the rights to it and kept it going, kind of like how INEOS has bought the original Land Rover Defender platform to keep it going. When Land Rover decided to redo the Defender completely, straight down to every nut and bolt, INEOS said no, everybody wants the original. All they want it is with new features. So, let's give it an overhaul like you guys did in the 80s. Land Rover Jaguar said no. So, INEOS bought the rights to it. These capitalists bought the rights to the Studebaker Avanti and kept them together as the Avanti Motor Corporation all the way up until the early 2000s.
 
      Yes, the Studebaker Avanti the last vehicle you got to remember Studebaker died out in the 60s and their last car survived until the early 2000s. It's a forgotten company. Nobody remembers that the Avanti became its own car company and survived for so long. Hell, it even had a sedan version built in the late 80s and early 90s. It had one built where Bugatti was considering on building one back then, but it became forgotten. We lost touch with those things. We forgot that the Studebaker Avanti was still around and that's what eventually was their downfall. Kind of like Asia Motors, it became part of Kia and then Kia utilized its products to build its own and with that, Asia Motors eventually just became absorbed by the Hyundai Motor Corporation and completely dissolved. The only remnants you could find of Asia Motors anymore is Kia's military products, and even today they don't market them as Asia products. Asia Motors was one of those ones that just disappeared.
 
      Hell, the original Skyline nameplate, if you go back to it, was its own nameplate. It wasn't the Nissan Skyline; it was just the Skyline by Prince Motors. But then again Japanese markets it wasn't the Nissan Skyline; it was just the Skyline. But then again, Japanese markets. Mazda tried so many of them Autozam, Efini, hell. They even tried to create the Amanti Luxury Division.
 
     A lot of these products made it out, but we don't remember them. They were rebadged and just look like standard Mazda products, kind of like the Merkur. We saw it over here and Merkur tried to make a name for itself, but essentially, we all just saw it as a Ford Focus. It was nothing more. Plymouth did this when they brought the Valiant out. Similar to how Chrysler moved the Imperial onto its own nameplate and Lincoln did it with the Continental on its own nameplate, Plymouth did it to the Valiant name as well. It existed. There are so many weird brands out there that existed, were so big, and then we all forgot about them. 

​       Now the Asian marketplace. Before Kia and Hyundai absorbed each other together, there used to be four main car companies there. There was SsangYong, Hyundai, kia and Daewoo. Now Daewoo is more in a financial and mechanical, more in machines, televisions, electronics and all that now. But they built vehicles for a short amount of time, eventually getting bought out by General Motors. And now today, Daewoo all it is GM Korea. Daewoo came to our North American marketplace for a very short lay of time. They did find sales in the North American marketplace and they were here, but all they had were these little sedans and hatchbacks. They didn't make a name for themselves, and that's where a lot of these car companies have issues.
 
      Hell, what about Troller? Troller was on the news in Brazil, globally saving people from floodwaters A few years ago when the Amazon overflowed extensively. It saved the country. These Troller T4s were going in to the rainforest and saving people. Where are they now? Ford bought them out and shut down the plant so they could sell more Broncos and Rangers in Brazil and not have to compete with something. But Troller was a Brazilian car company. But do you remember them? No, you don't, and they were here since the 90s. Troller was a big SUV company and it was originally built off Jeep platforms, kind of like the Stark as well, the Tac Stark, the and it was originally built off Jeep platforms, kind of like the Stark as well, the Tac Stark, the Asia, Rocsta, the Daewoo, Korando all Jeep counterpart vehicles built for their select markets. 

      But a lot of those car companies just disappeared. They came in here with a cape on as a savior for cars. They made their mark, but unfortunately there was no follow up, and that's the problem. Some of these car companies were just too good for their own good, essentially, and some of them just got absorbed by other car companies, or we just completely forgot about them, or the market contracted. They all have their place in history. Hell, companies like Byton and Coda were there near the beginning of the electric industry. Coda was just a rebadged Geely product for the North American climate. It was one of the original electric cars. It was sold before Tesla even had the Roadster on the road, but only sold in California and sold in very small numbers because there wasn't a lot of charging stations. But Coda was there. They were big in their marketplace but then died out. Byton was going to showcase to the world changes to our automobile. They pioneered the massive touch screen across the entire front end of a vehicle and before the m bite even was released, it faded into the memory.
 
     There's a lot of car companies out there that have done amazingly great things. They've been here, but we all forget about them. My favorite forgotten car companies there's two of them and these two were really big in their home markets and today most people don't even remember them. I'm talking about McLaughlin Motors from Canada and Pierce Arrow from America. Now people remember Duesenberg, Packard, Studebaker, LaSalle’s, but nobody remembers Pierce Arrow. Pierce Arrow actually set the standards for high end luxury for both North America and European marketplaces. They were out doing Rolls Royce. They were one of the most luxurious things you could buy on four wheels in history. But when the market collapsed in the 30s, they couldn't maintain and they died out. But Pierce Arrow should have been a name we all remembered, kind of like Locomobile, a steam-powered. They were the only car company to ever professionally make a steam powered vehicle in mass quantities for people, but we don't remember them. 

        Detroit Electric one of the biggest electric vehicle car companies in the early history of the automobile. They lasted over a decade making electric cabs for big city marketplaces and electric vehicles for homeowners, but we don't remember them. They pioneered the evolution of the electric vehicle industry. Pierce Arrow pioneered ultra-luxury vehicles and McLaughlin McLaughlin was one of the most revered luxury makes in the North American marketplace when they existed. You couldn't sell products like Pierce Arrow, Cadillac or even Lincoln in Canada because of the McLaughlin. Its name was so big at that point in time that everybody automatically knew what it was. They got so famous for building cutters and carriages in the early days that by the time they made automobiles, people trusted them more than anyone else for perfection. But when they tried to get more mainstream, they started to fail and with it, became part of General Motors. The funniest thing is McLaughlin Motors is the reason why General Motors exists today. Anybody out there can fight me on this all they want, but they exist only because of McLaughlin Motors. Now McLaughlin Motors.
 
      Robert McLaughlin's son, Sam, was good friends with William C Durant and he had a meeting with him right after he was outed from General Motors. He used his own stock and his own buying powers and GM to essentially get William C Durant back on the board and basically sold part of the assets of McLaughlin Motors and technical information to General Motors to help them compete against the big wigs of both Ford and Chrysler. But in today's world nobody remembers McLaughlin Motors. Unless you go to Oshawa, Ontario, you don't know McLaughlin. You never really heard of them. The only thing is if you watch the Royal family, you might understand McLaughlin Motors, because even when Prince William got married, that old classic car they rode around in was a McLaughlin that was gifted to his grandparents when they toured Canada. McLaughlin was a big name but they're old but forgotten.
 
       You see, a lot of these car companies become as big as possible but, like I said, 1930s brought a lot of these American car companies that were so big and were too big to fail, made them fail and the ones that didn't fail during those times eventually just died out in later days when they weren't able to make back their market share. Some of these car companies lasted so long with an original product that people loved that by the time that people wanted and demanded a new vehicle, they didn't even know how to deal with todays technologies. Checker essentially died because they couldn't make vehicles in today's market. American Motors died out because it had trouble getting financing to overhaul all of their plants. DeSoto was killed off because there was no need for an extra division, kind of Saturn, Plymouth, Scion. They were all just kicked to the curb. A lot of these car companies just nobody wanted around anymore. 

         The companies like Scion, Edsel, Saturn, AMC Hudson, Willy’s, DKW, Yugo, Wolseley, TVR not all of them have been completely forgotten. Yugo just announced that they're going to be coming back. TVR has been coming back for a while and keeps themselves their name out there. Hudson really came back with the Cars movie and AMC. Well, like I said, search for it, you'll find it. But Edsel Edsel was one of the biggest follies of automotive history. It outranks Tucker. Tucker got taken down by the big three where Edsel was created by one of the big three had amazing promotion but when the vehicle came out it was the biggest lunch bag let down of all time. The company still was pushed and they still tried to sell them, but unfortunately with a poor design. Nobody wanted them. But you can't say they're a forgotten company because people remember their blunder, kind of like tucker, the car company that should have been attacking the big three today but didn't make it.
 
       There's a lot of little companies out there that we all forget about, but there are some. There were divisions and products of some of these bigger car companies that existed for a long period of time but when they faded to memory they literally faded out. They shut their doors and were forgotten. It's like somebody who's your best friend at work. You don't go out and hang out after work, but they're their best friend at work. You could talk about and do everything with this person while you're at work. They get another job and move on and within a few months to a year you've forgotten them. Hell, people in your family, you all get together and remember them when they pass away, but really do you remember them a year later when you see a picture or hear something about it? You might remember them, but they're not top of mind for you. That's what a lot of these car companies are. They were big, they were there, they served a purpose, but when they faded to memory they literally faded out of existence and today we've just all forgotten about them.
 
     It's nice that some of these car companies are coming back with the new electrification into the world. Alpha Motors Company is now the new AMC, which is rejuvenating interest in the old AMC brand. The Cars movies brought people back into finding out about Hudson Motors. Hell, the Simpsons kind of kept the Geo nameplate alive, poking fun at it. There's a lot of them out there and a lot of them that should get a little bit more credit for what they did for the world. They might not have an amazing supercar like DeTomaso or Vector or Saleen, but they were here. They sold thousands of vehicles; they made a name for themselves and everybody saw them. But today we just don't remember them. We can't understand why we don't remember them, but, like I said, it's a lot like old family members Over time we just lose touch with our memories and they fade away. Not everyone can live a life of luxury like DeLorean. 

​       So, if you like this podcast, please like, share or comment about it on any of the major social feeds or streaming sites that you have found the AutoLooks podcast on, from iTunes to Spotify to Amazon Music, we are there. You can find the AutoLooks podcast anywhere on any major streaming site from around the globe. We are there for you to listen to Spreading the word of the automotive world to fans, friends, family, well-wishers, anyone who is willing to listen to us, and, after this, stop by, write a review, send us a comment or even send this podcast out to your friends, your family, your well-wishers, your boss person at the end of the cubicles. You're not too crazy about Send it out to them. Ask them about any of the forgotten companies that they may remember. Be like oh, have you heard of this car company? Oh, no, yeah, I remember them. They were like the biggest thing when I was a teenager and then they just disappeared. Can't believe you know them. See how many people. You can freak out about this and then send us an email or a comment about it.
 
       We love hearing stories from all of our fans. We've learned so much stuff from you. Keep sending them in and send the emails to [email protected]. If you'd like to get in touch with the AutoLooks.net website podcast or even Mr. Everett J. himself, send the email over to email at AutoLooks.net. The AutoLooks Podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by PodBean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net. So, from myself, Everett J., the AutoLooks.net website and the Ecomm Entertainment Group strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride that these forgotten companies are going to take us on. Thank you. 

Everett J.
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