After running the photos of all the old trucks the other day we got to thinking about the major American car brand names that have slid under the waves in years past. There are a stack of them, especially from the era early in the 20th century when there were companies large and small all across the country producing cars.

Some were killed by economic conditions, others suffered some fatal management decisions that led to their demise, but all are gone and most likely not coming back.

In no particular order…Here’s our 11. Which ones did we miss?

Top 11 Defunct American Car Makers

11) Nash: Started in 1916 by the former GM president Charles W. Nash, Nash Motors enjoyed a pretty long run of success through the 1950s and 1960s. The appeal of Nash cars was always directed toward middle-class drivers and the company broke some new ground as it debuted the first uni-body car in 1941 and seatbelts in the early 1950s, among other innovations. This nameplate’s end came quietly as George Romney, the president of American Motors, decided that the Rambler product name would be the one that would carry the company. As a result, the Nash name was phased out over time. A dignified end to a great brand.

10) Cord: Cord lived only a short life, but what a glorious run it had during that quick stint in the limelight. Cords were made from 1929-1932 and then again from 1936-1937. The company’s legendary models include the first front-wheel drive American car, the model L-29, and the first car with retractable headlights, which was the “coffin nose” 810. The undoing of Cord came from two fronts. The first was the Great Depression, which left very few customers for fancy cars, and the second was the cars themselves. They were unreliable and complicated enough that repairs were often difficult to make.

9) Pontiac: Born in 1926 as a sister brand to Oakland, Pontiac quickly blew Oakland into the weeds and did so in such a fashion that GM shut Oakland down in 1933. Pontiac marched along through the 1930s and 1940s as a brand that was really a conglomeration of GM parts bins. Their cars were parts Chevy and parts Buick, but the combo had a dedicated following. It would be Bunkie Knudsen’s idea to modify the brand into one geared toward younger, performance minded buyers that would set the Pontiac narrative for more than four decades. The 1960s were Pontiac’s true heyday. The GTO, swissh cheese Catalinas, Super Duty 421 engines, aggressive advertising, and John Delorean formed Pontiac into a hip performance brand on par with anything in the world. As was the case with Oldsmobile, the Pontiac brand began to lose identity in the 1970s, more in the 1980s, was totally badge engineered in the 1990s. Ironically, just when Pontiac was reestablishing itself as a clear performance brand for GM, it was killed in a brand purge that took Saturn and Hummer as well. The last Pontiacs were built in December 2009.

8.) Checker: Morris Markin started Checker Motors in 1922. The company started out making bodies for the Commonwealth Motor company, which then sold its cars to taxicab companies. The cars were called “The Mogul” to start with and gained their now-famous Checker name when a large Chicago taxi company called Checker Taxi Cab placed an order for several cabs. Markin used this to change the name of the company. The most famous model, the Marathon, was the standard taxicab used in America for decades. The design was basically unchanged aesthetically from 1956 through the ending year of 1982.

7) DeSoto: Walter P. Chrysler himself started the DeSoto brand in 1928. It was launched as a mid-priced competitor for Studebaker and some GM models. In 1961 Chrysler killed the brand after basically steering it off a cliff. Instead of using its (then) five brands to appeal to different market segments, Chrysler allowed them all to compete with each other. In doing this, the other makes stole the entry level customers DeSoto was dependant on, and with lagging sales, it was only a matter of time before the other shoe dropped.

6) Plymouth: Ironically, the brand that did the most damage to DeSoto back in the day was Plymouth. Always positioned as a “bargain” brand Plymouth was introduced in 1928 just as DeSoto was. Plymouth’s early life was good, producing more than 400,000 cars in the late 1930s and actually passing Ford to be the number-two manufacturer in the country for a couple years in the 1940s. The end began slowly in the late 1970s when Chrysler was in the financial soup. Less and less time, money, and attention was paid to Plymouth, and eventually all Plymouths were simply re-badged Dodges. At the end, the only cars in the Plymouth lineup were the Prowler, Neon, Breeze, and Voyager mini-van. The last year for Plymouth models was 2001.

5) Oldsmobile: After 107 years and 35.2 million cars made, Oldsmobile was put to death by GM. The 2004 models were the last to come off the line. The end of Olds is a textbook study on the failure of badge engineering. Olds sales were massive through the 1970s and 1980s. The company had its best year in 1985. In just a few years, sales had plummeted due to a complete lack of identity aside all the other similar GM offerings. This certainly seems like one that could have been saved.

4) Packard: Packard was born in 1899 and died in 1958 after being sucked up by Studebaker and stripped of its once proud identity. Packard was a luxury brand in the best American sense. The cars were big, perhaps a little gaudy at times, and normally had plenty of power. In 1954 Packard bought Studebaker with the thought that the Studebaker dealers would be able to move Packards as well. As it turned out, no one could sell the cars in 1956 and beyond, as styling weirdness and quality problems sent people running in the other direction. The 1956 model was the last one wholly designed by Packard itself. In 1957 and 1958, the last two years of the name were not exactly proud ones. Odd looking Studebakers were badged with Packard logos and sent to dealers who couldn’t sell them. Studebaker pulled the Packard name in 1958.

3) Duesenberg: Duesenberg was started in 1913 by the Duesenberg brothers of Iowa. Quickly the cars came to be known as world class. Duesenbergs were winning races like the Indy 500 and the French Grand Prix and the public was in awe of them. They were a sure sign of opulence. The Great Depression made building word-class cars a problem. The company folded in 1937.

2) Studebaker: Starting in the 19th century building wagons for settlers, Studebaker was pretty early into the automotive game, forming up officially in 1897. Their styling and image was never seen a racy or attractive to hot-rod-obsessed kids, but Studebakers were a hot commodity until the early 1950s when the bottom fell out of the sales game. In 1954 Studebaker was bought by Packard. Both companies were scuffling badly and the purchase did nothing to help either. The dawn of the 1960s saw both companies on the rocks and despite their best efforts sales lagged and lagged, leading to an end of production in 1966.

1) American Motors: When Nash-Kelvinator merged with Hudson in 1954, the new company was called American Motors. AMC was plugging along quite nicely until the mid-1970s. In the late 1970’s the wheels really fell off the wagon and the company was hemorrhaging money and desperately needed a financier. They found one in French manufacturer Renault. Then there was a sales disaster in 1979 and 1980 found banks refusing any more credit to AMC. Renault kept buying more and more of the company to where it was the majority owner by the early 1980s. With less than 2% of the market share, the company stumbled into 1985 and in 1988 the remaining shards of the company were sold to Chrysler, ending its run as a production car. Only AMC’s Jeep brand survives.