Korean car with American brand sold in China with a circulation of 2.68 million units!

This article was originally created by Zhang Wenjun of Autohome, authored by Chen Xinxin, please credit, welcome to Moments.

The car market is similar to Three Kingdoms in Time of Troubles. Some brands were once shiny, but in end people go to drink tea. Today, let's take stock of car brands that were once in vogue but are now silently fading out of market. The answer to title is in article, so we'll put it off first.

HAMMER (1983-2010)

Classic index: ★★★★☆

Brand Highlights: Military Vehicles Yu, King of Off-Road Vehicles

Reasons for disappearance: 2008 financial crisis, high fuel consumption and niche brand

Hummer is a civilian version of HMMWV military vehicle produced by Am General in 1992. It was called HUMMER, which means "Hammer" in translation. Due to its excellent off-road performance, it is called "King of SUVs". - road vehicles "". In 1999, General Motors acquired the trademark rights and rights to manufacture Hummer from Am General.

(Hummer H3)

Over last 10 years since launch of Hummer, because it was too niche and consumed too much fuel, it has won favor of only a small number of SUV fans. 2008, global financial crisis When crisis hit, Hummer's owner, General Motors, couldn't defend itself, so Hummer, a niche brand, was on brink of shutting down. After a series of mergers and acquisitions by Sichuan Tengzhong and other companies, nothing came of it, officially disappeared in 2010.

In 1990s, GM acquired a 50% stake in Saab. After 2000, Saab completely became a GM brand. At same time, he also began to cooperate with GM Chevrolet and other models< strong> Manufacture on same platform, this strategy caused Saab to gradually lose itself and ability to independently develop products.

Influenced by global financial crisis in 2008, GM began selling Saab brand. In 2010, Spyker successfully acquired Saab. However, this year Saab was not a turning point as Spyker was ready for sale in 2011 and after Youth Lotus and Huatai mergers and acquisitions, Saab finally went bankrupt.

Oldsmobile (1897-2004)

Classic index: ★★★★

Brand Highlights: Deep Historical Background, First Large-Scale Use of AT, First US 4WD Company

Reason for disappearance: product not keeping up with pace of market, unclear positioning, high fuel consumption of model, failure of market strategy

In 1897, Ransom Eli Olds founded Olds Motor Works Olds Motor Works in Lansing, Michigan. After merging with General Motors in 1908, it was renamed Oldsmobile Oldsmobile. In its history of over 100 years, Oldsmobile has achieved many significant achievements, such as being first company in United States to export automobiles, first company to be equipped with automatic transmissions on a large scale, company that built first all-wheel drive car in USA and much more.

Of course, in development of Oldsmobile over 100 years, many classic models have appeared, such as: Rocket 88, Aurora, Alero, Intrigue, Silhouette and so on. The Rocket 88 mentioned is a model with 50 years of history. The first generation of Rocket 88 was equipped with a 170-horsepower V8 engine, which at that time was a very fast car.

Oldsmobile's car line began to decline after oil crisis, and it has become one of hardest hit foreign brands, especially Japanese ones. Also,Oldsmobile cars don't have same strong style and personality as their own brands like Cadillac or even Pontiac. Various reasons led to demise of Oldsmobile, which became GM's top selling brand. Finally, in 2000, company announced that it would stop saving Oldsmobile, and finally officially closed plant in 2004. The century-old brand just disappeared. However, this century-old car brand is still ruined by same GM platform and other strategies. In fact, after 2000, there are no particularly memorable models.

Pontiac (1899-2009)

Classic index: ★★★★

The highlight of brand: a sports muscle car model presented by Firebird

Reason for Disappearance: GM Single Platform Strategy, 2008 Global Financial Crisis

Pontiac was founded in 1899 as a small auto parts factory, and in 1907 it officially began making cars. It was officially purchased by General Motors in 1909 and its brand positioning is between Oldsmobile and Chevrolet. After joining GM, it began to produce mainly Oakland cars, and first Pontiac car was released in 1926.

(Small Pontiac auto parts factory)

From 1950s, Pontiac began to develop in direction of production of medium and high-end sports cars. Pontiac produced many classic models, including Pontiac GTO, Firebird, Bonneville, etc. By 1969, Pontiac sales reached 140,000 units, which at that time ranked third in sales in United States. In 1970s and 1980s, due to impact of global energy crisis, Pontiac began to transform, no longer focusing on large-capacity, muscle cars, but turning to small and medium family cars. market.

The real decline of Pontiac came after 1990s. GM's one-platform strategy resulted in Pontiac losing itself and later models were released with slight differences in logos and appearance. Oldsmobile or Chevrolet. Pontiac brand models produced at that time will be discontinued at end of 2010. At moment, historic brand with a century of history is officially closed.

Daewoo (1967-2011)

Classic index: ★★★★

Key brand attributes: The second largest car company in South Korea with relatively strong sales in fuel-efficient civilian car market

Reason for disappearance: overexpansion, production on same platform as GM models, declining sales

Daewoo Motor is parent company of South Korean Daewoo Group and second largest automobile manufacturer in South Korea with an annual production of more than 600,000 vehicles. In 1967, Jin Yuzhong founded Shinhan, which later became Xinjin and then Daewoo Motor Company in 1983. Daewoo has always had a very close relationship with General Motors in United States, who have been exporting cars to United States as far back as 1984.

In 1993, Daewoo President Jin Yuzhong put forward a "global management" strategy. At time, Daewoo had over 150 overseas businesses. On October 28, 2002, GM officially acquired Daewoo brand. I believe everyone is very familiar with these GM-run Daewoo models, including Matiz which is a domestic Chevrolet Le Chi, Daewoo Lacetti which is a domestic Buick Excelle, Kalos i.e. , home Lefeng, and Magnus is home Jingcheng.

As for closure, earliest automobile plant "Moskvich" at beginning of its design was built as a highly concentrated complex plant. It is extremely difficult to reconstruct it. Since 60% of shares of Moskvich automobile plant are controlled by state, and most of debt is also owned by Russian Ministry of Finance, Russian government once tried to save Moskvich, but ultimately failed and finally stopped production in 2003. . As largest car brand in Russia, it just disappeared.

SATURN (1982-2009)

Classic index: ★★★

The highlight of brand: good quality of car is enough to compete with Japanese cars

Reason for disappearance: lack of cultural heritage, GM paid little attention to this

Saturn is a young brand. In 1982, GM decided to counteract influence of Japanese cars on local American manufacturers. Being a young brand, Saturn has no historical and cultural load, most advanced technologies and design concepts, unconventional and lightly packaged. And it is also starting point for many Japanese manufacturers when developing products. By 1993, Saturn products were among top ten best-selling models in US auto market. Second only to Lexus and Infiniti, better than Toyota and tied for first place with Lexus in 1997.

The main models produced by Saturn brand include Aura, Sky, Vue, and others. Among them, Aura is one of global models developed by GM. It is practically not inferior to domestic LaCrosse. Compared to Buick's luxury image, Saturn Aura is more dynamic. The car's "straight waterfall" grille is replaced with a Saturn-style silver horizontal stripe. The design of Saturn Aura is very similar to that of Opel.

However, in mid-to-late 1990s, GM focused on Oldsmobile and Buick brands, and in late 1990s, it almost killed once promising Saturn brand. Since then, development of Saturn has faced dilemma of lack of funds and declining sales. In 2009, Saturn brand was finally abandoned, without waiting for GM's plan to revive Saturn cars.

Delage (1905–1954)

Classic index: ★★★

Brand highlights: glorious racing history, many classic luxury sports cars

Reason for disappearance: The economic crisis reduced demand for luxury cars, and a lack of funds led to final disappearance of brand

The French company Drach was founded in 1905 and specialized in production of luxury cars, and in 1954 it ceased operations. His first car, Type A, first appeared in 1906. It adopted horizontal bar design and then produced many classic four- and six-cylinder models.

In 1909 Drach had its own engine. The 1911 X type won Coupe de l'Auto Grand Prix at Boulogne, France. In 1918, a CO2 aircraft traveled from Paris to Nice in 16 hours at an average speed of 42 miles per hour, an astounding feat for time.

However, during economic crisis of 1950s, sales of luxury Delage cars were at a loss. The harsh reality was a lack of funds and funding, causing Delage's good wishes to come back in vain. In new age of war, Draki survived by producing munitions. In 1954, former strong man was forever imprinted in memory of people.