Auto manufacturers gone or have left the US since 2000?

As many of you know, I work in auto insurance claims. One of the things I do from time to time is put out a publication for our staff that has a lot of metrics which are tracked. In an effort to keep it from being too dry and boring, I like to try to put fun little "tidbids" of car related information, or a trivia question.

Want to check with the collective to make sure I'm not missing anything on this one. Name the auto manufacturers that no longer sell cars in the US since the year 2000. It could be due to phasing out, going out of business, just pulling out of the market, whatever. Trying to stick to names that the majority of people have heard of. Here's the list I came up with on my own. Am I missing anyone??

Oldsmobile, Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, Saab (boy, GM sure did shed, didn't they), Mercury, Plymouth, Suzuki, Isuzu, Daewoo, Maybach.

Aptera, Corbin, and Vector probably don't count as "well known names".

What's the fun of "trivia" if you're trying to stick to names the majority of people have heard with?

Here's another that most wouldn't have known:

Th!nk

I have to remember my target audience. Folks on this board would be interested in Vector, but we're the hard core of car people. The overwhelming majority of people would never have even heard of them, so to list them would have no meaning to them. They've all heard of Plymouth, etc...but likely won't remember all those bigger brands that have disappeared. The idea is that they'll say "Oh yeah, I remember those cars, I forgot they were gone".

If I do car facts instead of trivia, I'll get a bit into detail and lesser know stuff. But for trivia, it's not tough as they're not big time car people. So I try not to make the question totally impossible. This is almost like the elevator music of trivia...easy listening.

Mazda, technically speaking...

They no longer build any cars in the states.

Nashco wrote: What's the fun of "trivia" if you're trying to stick to names the majority of people have heard with? Here's another that most wouldn't have known: Th!nk

I would, they were building their battery packs here and I was in their plant delivering tooling all the time.......I saw one of their demonstator cars come in on a rollback with the entire side torn off it.....looked like it was used in the bond movie with the sawblade helicopters.

They were also converting C30 volvo's to EV status as well.

In reply to fidelity101:

he said sell, not build.

In reply to SCARRMRCC:

do'h

okay, triumph! (the cars not the bikes)

you could always have the bonus question....

i remember when Ford got in all the trouble when they were going to crush all those TH!NK cars but had to ship them over to Norway to make all the tree huggers happy

fidelity101 wrote: In reply to SCARRMRCC: do'h okay, triumph! (the cars not the bikes)

to rub salt in, he also said since 2000

When did Geo and Eagle get nixed?

Eagle - mid 90's geo - late 90's

cutter67 wrote: you could always have the bonus question.... i remember when Ford got in all the trouble when they were going to crush all those TH!NK cars but had to ship them over to Norway to make all the tree huggers happy

I'm guessing you're joking, but in case you're not, that's way off.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Global
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_City

Bryce

In reply to aussiesmg:

Okay reading > me.

Should Suzuki be on the list? I thought their recent announcement was to pull out soon. I think they are here through 2013. May be worth a fact check or some tidying of the question.

yamaha wrote: Eagle - 1998 geo - 1997

Fixed

Nashco wrote:

cutter67 wrote: you could always have the bonus question.... i remember when Ford got in all the trouble when they were going to crush all those TH!NK cars but had to ship them over to Norway to make all the tree huggers happy

I'm guessing you're joking, but in case you're not, that's way off. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_Global http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Think_City Bryce

i knew i read it somewhere else in the paper when it happened

they were really upset that Ford was going to crush them

Disposal controversy

A major controversy erupted when Ford decided to crush off-lease TH!NK City cars stockpiled in the U.S. After protesting by environmentalist groups, including a Greenpeace rally on the roof of Ford's Norway offices, Ford decided to ship the excess vehicles to Norway.[5

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ford_TH!NK

JohnRW1621 wrote: Should Suzuki be on the list? I thought their recent announcement was to pull out soon. I think they are here through 2013. May be worth a fact check or some tidying of the question.

Local dealer is still selling them at huge discounts.