QOTD: The Grimmest End?

“I’m a lawyer from Denver, Colorado, Mike… I probably can’t hit a thing.” – William Holden, The Bridges at Toko-Ri

Sometimes, things don’t work out the way you planned. Sometimes, despite erring on the side of caution and always treading the right path through life, fate deals a cruel blow. It’s just the way it is.

A man who did everything right can find himself dying in a muddy ditch, far from home. Other times, it’s an automotive brand laying in that ditch — a victim of circumstance, world events, changing societal trends, financial incompetence, or hasty cost-cutting. Whatever came before no longer matters.

Still, some deaths are worse than others. Which automotive demise was least charitable to the deceased?

We’ve lost a good many brands over the past century and change, though many were blips on the radar. Here for a second, swallowed (and forgotten) by history the next.

Then there were the brands that once encompassed an entire automaker. AMC comes to mind, which saw (as a brand) its lineup dwindle to a lone, innovative-yet-still-outdated model by the late 1980s. That model would itself spawn a brand, Eagle, which met its own end after a fair bit of success. Ask Corey about his respect for the Vision.

Performance attributes aside, Eagle Talon owners still carry a stigma.

We can’t consider Studebaker’s to be the grimmest end, as 1964 saw a suddenly stately Lark, a gorgeous (but ancient) Gran Turismo Hawk, and the Avanti. The South Bend brand used its pocket change to good effect right to the end.

The same can’t be said about Packard, the “merger” partner that Studebaker managed to kill off in 1958. Smothered beneath its partner’s bloated overhead and myriad inefficiencies, the storied brand, once a contender for the top spot on the domestic luxury totem, ended life as an awkwardly tarted-up Stude that left all onlookers feeling sad.

That has to be the grimmest end.

Sure, we hardly go two minutes without thinking about Oldsmobile here at TTAC Towers, but the final decade of Olds’ life saw the introduction of a range of okay-to-better vehicles. Even the final model, the Alero, has an adoring fan base.

Things weren’t so inspiring at Plymouth. Aside from the Prowler, a vehicle whose debut, in hindsight, seems bizarre and unlikely, there was little to get excited about by the end. And that could include the V6-only Prowler. One could include Pontiac in this list, though there were attempts, at least, to return some thrills to the “We build excitement” brand.

Anyway, you’ve probably landed on a winner. Or loser, in this case. Which automotive brand met the saddest, most depressing end?

[Image: General Motors]