An orphan car is any marque of motor vehicle built by a manufacturer that has discontinued business entirely.
The term is sometimes confused with and inaccurately applied to a discontinued marque from a still-existing vehicle manufacturer (e.g. Oldsmobile, by General Motors) or a sub-marque (e.g. Thunderbird, by Ford Motors).
In the case of a revived marque, a discontinued one revived by a newer company (e.g. Maybach, by mercedes-Benz), only the original vehicles are accurately considered orphans.
There are hundreds of orphan automobile brands, and hundreds of defunct manufacturers. Some of the better known orphans are listed below:
The following are discontinued marques from existing manufacturers (and thus not orphan automobiles).