These Car Brands Died, But Bought A Second Chance At Life – Jalopnik

If there have been a graveyard for automobile manufacturers like there’s for discontinued Ben and Jerry’s flavors, it could stretch far into the gap. Some manufacturers left us pretty not too long ago and nonetheless crop up on the highway or in used automobile listings with some regularity: Pontiac, Saturn, Oldsmobile, Saab, and Plymouth come to thoughts. Others loom massive within the annals of automotive legend, like Packard, Studebaker, or the Indiana-based trio of Auburn, Duesenberg, and Cord.

Most misplaced manufacturers keep lifeless and buried, however there is a highly effective attract to ghostly automobile manufacturers that makes individuals need to carry them again. Sometimes the model comes again as a mannequin somewhat than a model, such because the GMC Hummer EV pickup and SUV. Sometimes model revivals by no means fairly get previous the dreaming stage, though maybe not earlier than tens of millions of {dollars} are spent.

Yet different manufacturers take pleasure in profitable reanimations, to a larger or lesser extent. Many of those are among the many nice marques of the previous, and it may be a pleasure for lovers to see them rise once more. Combining heritage with fashionable expertise sometimes works out much better than we would have anticipated. Here are a number of manufacturers that bought a brand new lease on life.

Bugatti has lengthy been a revered title. From 1909 by 1956, Ettore Bugatti’s hand-built creations have been typically considered as greater than vehicles, as an alternative they transcended into the realm of artwork. This explains why Ralph Lauren paid $40 million for a Bugatti Type 57SC Atlantic. Sadly, the unique Bugatti firm died with its creator, changing into a legend primarily present in museums and at concours occasions. Then, within the Nineteen Nineties, the marque was reborn. You may even argue that it was introduced again to life twice.

The first rebirth got here by the hands of Romano Artioli, an Italian Bugatti fanatic who bought the rights to the title in 1987. He opened a brand new manufacturing unit in Italy — the unique Bugatti manufacturing unit had been in France — and in 1991, the reborn firm launched the EB110, named for Ettore Bugatti. This all-wheel drive supercar featured a 550-horsepower V12 and carbon fiber development, vaulting the storied model proper into the fashionable period. Unfortunately, the corporate went into receivership just some years later.

This led to Bugatti’s second rebirth, this time because of the Volkswagen Group and its then-chair, Ferdinand Piëch. The German mega-corporation bought the rights to Bugatti in 1998, permitting Piëch to reside out his dream of constructing an 18-cylinder hypercar. While the corporate displayed two prototypes at automobile exhibits with W18 engines, manufacturing realities knocked it down by two cylinders. In 2005, the 987-horsepower, quad-turbocharged, W16-powered Bugatti Veyron debuted. Since then, the corporate has launched a number of fashions, together with the 282 mph W16 Bugatti Mistral.

From its first manufacturing mannequin in 1921 till World War II, Maybach produced a few of the world’s most prestigious luxurious vehicles. The firm’s first automobile, the Maybach 22/70 HP, also referred to as the Type W3, superior the cutting-edge for German automobile constructing. It provided four-wheel braking and a two-speed transmission that drivers shifted with a foot-operated lever somewhat than a stick shift. This set Maybach’s course as a purveyor of beautifully engineered driver’s vehicles.

Unfortunately, by the early Forties, Germany’s industrial capability was getting used for, ahem, different functions. Maybach manufacturing ceased through the warfare, and like Bugatti, its title light into legend. That is, till Mercedes-Benz sought an ultra-luxury model of its personal following Volkswagen’s buy of Bentley and BMW’s acquisition of Rolls-Royce. So, in 2002, some 60 years after Maybach manufacturing ceased, Mercedes-Benz relaunched the model to initially blended success.

Mercedes’ Maybach revival had some of the extravagant automobile reveals ever, lifting the brand new Maybach 62 off the deck of the Queen Elizabeth 2 ocean liner utilizing a cargo helicopter. Unfortunately, well-heeled consumers did not precisely swoon over the new-old model. It was troublesome for Mercedes to persuade its goal market to place a $350,000 sedan on their Amex Black Cards when the Maybach title had little of the cachet hooked up to Rolls-Royce or Bentley. 

Still, the sages of Stuttgart refused to surrender on their ultra-luxe desires, introducing the Mercedes-Maybach sub-brand in 2014. Today, it produces vehicles just like the Mercedes-Maybach SL680 Monogram Series.

Describing this subsequent model as revived may seem to be stealing a base, on condition that the reborn firm’s manufacturing run consisted of precisely one automobile. However, when the model has a historical past as superb as Duesenberg, any try and carry it again is worthy of consideration. Plus, this revival has shut household ties to the unique firm’s founder, in addition to contributions from a well-known automobile designer.

First, the backstory. To this present day, some declare that Duesenberg constructed one of the best American vehicles in historical past. Vehicles just like the Duesenberg Model J of the Thirties have been quick, luxurious, lovely, and famend for his or her high quality. Legend has it that the superlative “doozy” is a contraction of “Duesenberg,” though Merriam-Webster says the phrase predates the corporate’s founding by no less than 4 years. Still, the truth that individuals may consider it to be true is a testomony to the model’s repute. The Depression ultimately claimed the corporate, finishing the rise and fall of Duesenberg.

In 1966, Fred “Fritz” Duesenberg, the son of the corporate’s founder, tried to revive his father’s work. A rich backer promised him the money he’d want, and he employed the well-known automobile designer Virgil Exner to pen his new Duesey. The consequence was a protracted, luxurious sedan constructed on a 1966 Imperial chassis, carrying styling that considerably awkwardly mixed classical design cues with a contemporary profile. Unfortunately, funding fell by, and immediately the automobile resides within the Bortz Auto Collection with different idea vehicles.

Lagonda is one other storied title from the daybreak of the automotive age. An American-born Brit named Wilbur Gunn constructed his first automobile in 1907 and raced it to victory within the Moscow to St. Petersburg Trial a number of years later, leading to orders from potential clients. He named his firm Lagonda after a Shawnee settlement in his native Ohio. During the years between the world wars, Lagonda grew to become recognized for constructing quick and exquisite vehicles.

In 1947, it was purchased by David Brown, who had beforehand bought Aston Martin. Brown’s focus was primarily on the Aston Martin model, though the following many years did produce some classics just like the Lagonda Rapide saloon. Lagonda grew to become roughly of a sub-brand specializing in four-door vehicles, whereas Aston Martin produced two-door sports activities vehicles. Occasionally, nevertheless, each names graced the identical automobile, as within the wild and wedge-shaped Aston Martin Lagonda sedan. Lagonda, as a separate marque, light into obscurity.

Then the model got here again within the type of the Lagonda Taraf. While some buff books insisted on referring to this million-dollar super-sedan as an Aston Martin, the corporate’s press supplies clearly confirmed it carrying a Lagonda badge. This mannequin was produced from 2014 to 2016, and whereas Aston Martin has made some Lagonda idea vehicles since then, in 2024, the corporate has dominated out reviving the Lagonda model for the foreseeable future.

Strictly talking, the MG model continued to exist after its Abingdon, U.Okay. manufacturing unit closed in October of 1980, nevertheless it was strictly used to badge-engineer Rover vehicles that have been nothing just like the storied MGB roadster produced on the shuttered plant. The MG model (which stands for Morris Garages) dates again simply over a century, and by the Sixties, it had grow to be well-known for classically British sports activities vehicles just like the beloved MGB, which was additionally obtainable as a GT hardtop.

In 1992, the primary actual MG in a dozen years was launched: the MG RV8. The new roadster was based mostly on MGB, whose authentic tooling was nonetheless round. Final meeting passed off at a Rover manufacturing unit in Oxford, carried out by a small crew of specialists. The RV8 featured revised bodywork with flared fenders, a brand new hood, color-matched bumpers, and Porsche 911-style headlights, amongst different adjustments from the MGB. Under the hood was a Rover-sourced 190-horsepower, 3.9-liter V8 that was good for a 0 to 60 run in just below 6 seconds.

The RV8’s manufacturing run lasted solely till 1995, however its success paved the way in which for the mid-engined MGF roadster, which was offered by numerous company house owners from 1995 all the way in which till 2011. In 2006, MG was purchased by the Chinese agency Nanjing, which was in flip acquired by one other Chinese firm known as SAIC. MG would expertise one other revival beneath SAIC, which gave the model a worldwide mannequin lineup that features EVs, hatchbacks, sedans, crossovers, and a brand new EV sports activities automobile known as the Cyberster.

Sadly, this revival might in the end show to be extra aspirational than actual. The U.Okay.-based evo journal studies that TVR’s financials for 2024 have been nonetheless overdue as of the spring of 2025, and its CEO Jim Berriman had not too long ago resigned. These do not sound just like the indicators of an organization in good well being, to say the least. That’s unlucky, each as a result of TVR’s heritage stretches again to 1947, and since the proposed TVR Griffith is a beautiful machine.

TVR was based by Trevor Wilkinson within the post-war years. By the Nineteen Nineties, it was famend for constructing highly effective sports activities vehicles in its former manufacturing unit in Blackpool. Cars just like the Chimera and the wild Cerbera Speed 12 sported a spread of I6 and V8 engines nestled in sinuous glass-fiber our bodies. There was even a single-make racing sequence within the Nineteen Nineties known as the TVR Tuscan Challenge. Things have been going nice, till its then-owner Peter Wheeler offered it to a Russian named Nikolai Smolenski in 2004. Under Smolenski’s possession, TVR successfully disappeared.

Two British automotive entrepreneurs, Les Edgar and McLaren’s Gordon Murray, purchased TVR from Smolenski in 2013, then acquired cash from the Welsh authorities to construct a manufacturing unit in Wales, and set about creating the brand new TVR Griffith. The proposed new automobile could be every little thing TVR was: voluptuous, wild, and blazing quick. Unfortunately, a dozen years on, issues aren’t trying so nice for TVR’s future. Still, the marque’s followers can hope for a miracle.

Alejandro De Tomaso, an Argentine of Italian descent, and his American spouse Isabelle Haskell, based De Tomaso Automobili after they each loved profitable careers as race automobile drivers in Italy. Alejandro De Tomaso targeted on constructing mid-engined race vehicles at first, whereas his industrial empire grew by acquisitions. These included Maserati, which he owned from 1975 by 1993. However, his most well-known automotive legacy is the vehicles that bore his personal title.

And essentially the most well-known of these vehicles is the wonderful De Tomaso Pantera but laborious to drive, which may compete with rather more costly Italian exotics like Ferrari and Lamborghini because of its American-built Ford 5.8-liter Cleveland V8. In the mid-engined Pantera, this 296-horsepower motor was good for a 0-60 time of 5.5 seconds. Production of the Pantera ran from 1971 by 1992. De Tomaso continued to personal his eponymous firm till his dying in 2003, when it appeared like the corporate would die with him.

But then, in 2014, De Tomaso was reborn after the model was purchased by an automotive entrepreneur named Ryan Berris. Not lengthy after, the reborn firm revealed the beautiful P72 supercar, a retro surprise impressed by the De Tomaso P70 race automobile. There have been some challenges since then — Berris was compelled out of the corporate and filed a lawsuit towards it — however as of mid-2025, all 72 items of the P72 had been pre-sold at $1.78 million every, with deliveries slated for later within the yr.

Jean Rédélé based Alpine in 1955, and simply seven quick years later, the corporate had a success with its A110 sports activities coupe. The A110’s legend grew with its success as a rally racer, dominating the Monte Carlo Rally for a number of years within the Sixties and Seventies. The firm additionally loved success in endurance racing, successful the 1978 24 Hours of Le Mans with its A442B race automobile. The title Alpine quickly grew to become synonymous with auto racing victory in France.

Alpine used Renault engines from the beginning, and in 1967, Alpine grew to become Renault’s motorsports division. In 1973, Renault acquired a majority stake in Alpine, making it formally a Renault model. Alpine flourished in racing for nearly two extra many years, however after Renault repeatedly misplaced cash on the model, it basically discontinued it in 1995. Then, in 2016, Renault-Nissan CEO Carlos Ghosn introduced that Alpine would return as a standalone model.

The first new Alpine, fittingly, was named the A110. The reborn 2018 A110 was a nimble little coupe with a 4.5-second 0 to 60 time and a distinctively French character. Alpine has continued to evolve the A110, main Motor Trend to declare the 2025 model to be “the most enchanting affordable sports car on the planet.” What’s extra, there are plans to carry the model to America in 2027, though inside combustion lovers could also be disillusioned to study that the proposed mannequin lineup consists of efficiency EVs. Maybe Alpine should not come to the U.S. in spite of everything.

Some long-cancelled luxurious automobile manufacturers nonetheless echo by the generations, for good or for in poor health. Cadillac’s long-vanished sub-brand, LaSalle, achieved a slice of immortality by way of a line from the theme track of the TV present “All in the Family,” — “Gee, our old LaSalle ran great.” Packard’s colossal, 3.5-million-square-foot manufacturing unit stood in an rising state of disrepair for many years, changing into an emblem of Detroit’s misplaced heyday. Continental was briefly a luxurious division of Ford, however its title lived on in a number of variations of the Lincoln Continental.

Chrysler’s Imperial model, however, by no means fairly caught on as a premier luxurious model, both within the showroom or in legend. There had been Chrysler Imperials since 1926, however the Chrysler company determined it wanted a devoted luxurious model to be launched in 1955, and it selected the Imperial title. Intended to compete with Cadillac and Lincoln, maybe the Imperial model simply arrived too late in our cultural historical past and carried not one of the cachet or nostalgia of these different manufacturers. Chrysler discontinued the model in 1975.

However, in 1981, the Imperial model loved a short three-year revival with the endorsement of Ol’ Blue Eye himself, Frank Sinatra. The bustle-backed automobile was constructed on Chrysler’s J-body platform, making it a gussied-up Cordoba at an eye-popping worth of greater than $18,000. For a bit extra, consumers may drive residence within the Frank Sinatra Edition, or FS. The automobile was blue, with matching blue velour or Corinthian leather-based — naturally — and got here with 16 cassette tapes of Frank’s music in its heart console. Unfortunately, high quality points sank the model’s relaunch earlier than it ever bought up a head of steam.