20 Automotive Manufacturers We Want to Resurrect

There are a lot of great companies making great cars right now. And most of their reputations are built upon the legendary cars they once produced. Every great marque has an icon or eight. Cars like the '69 Camaro, the Ur Quattro, the 250 GTO, the DB5, and the DS are more than just great cars from a bygone era, but symbols of all that is good about their parent companies. If you're a car nerd, you know the makes of all of those models, and that's because they are iconic vehicles.

Sadly, many iconic vehicles were made by companies that no longer exist. We may never see a new car based on these, and their legends have to be preserved by us, the car nerds. Sometimes car companies do get resurrected, though, and we think these are the top 20 that should rise from the dead.

Years Active: 1888-1982

Complex Says:

The world always has a place for a small, fast, cheap car, especially one that was a competetive rally racer. If it's good enough for Stirling Moss, it's good enough for us. Bring back the Alpine!

Years Active: 1909-1954

Complex Says: Hudson was dedicated to innovation and didn't always follow the trends of the other American marques so closely. The company was even the first to, wisely, hire a female designer in order to make its cars appeal to both sexes. Eventually, Hudson merged with Nash-Kelvinator to become AMC and lost its identity.

Years Active: 1905-1952

Complex Says: Some of the greatest compacts in history bore an Austin badge, including the iconic rally-winning Mini. While the Mini has been snatched up by zee Germans and capitalized (why is it always MINI?), Austin's style and commitment to small family cars is missed. The horrible beige vehicles of the '80s, on the other hand, are not.

Years Active: 1928-2001

Complex Says: Plymouth, a Chrysler project, was one of the earliest American takes on the affordable family car. For most of the company's life, it was one of the best-selling marques in the U.S., competing directly with Chevrolet and Ford. Plymouth was known for being a dependable, practical choice that usually had a bit more design flair than the competition. Sadly, as time marched on, Plymouth degenerated into a sad, badge-engineered shadow of its former self that sold awful, stripped down versions of cars from Chrysler and Dodge.

Years Active: 1919-1960

Complex Says: Early Armstrong Siddeley cars were nothing short of colossal. While the sheer size of these was impressive, it's the extremely British, elegant, art-deco designs that followed that are the true classics. We would love to see more of this British elegance on the market for less than $300,000.

Years Active: 1897-2004

Complex Says: Any car company that managed to stick around for 107 years was doing something right. In fact, Olds did a lot of things right. It was the first manufacturer to make use of an assembly line (Ford was the first to make use of a moving assembly line). Olds raced a luxury car that cost more than a three-bedroom home against a train--and won. The company offered the first automatic transmission, along with the first V8 engine. Despite the history, performance, and luxury the marque offered, by the time the '90s rolled around, Oldsmobiles were largely just another rebadged GM product. Another once proud marque fell victim to American badge-engineering.

Years Active: 1919-1967

Complex Says: While everybody seems to have their own theory on the name, the only one that is right is the founder's: it would be easy to pronounce in all languages. We here at Complex love British cars with a racing history, so we would love to see a modern sport-sedan bearing the awesome Alvis eagle hood ornament. Sadly, like most British cars, the majority of Alvises broken down on a regular basis. Damn English wiring.

Years Active: 1852-1967

Complex Says: Studebaker released its first car in 1902, although it had been making wagons for 50 years at that point; An electric model, it wasn't very good, and few people other than Thomas Edison bought one. Soon afterward, Studebaker started making real cars. These cars became American classics. 'Bakers were big, comfortable cruisers equally suited for drive-in movies and long highway trips with the screaming munchkins of yesteryear in the back. These cars weren't just arm-chairs with wheels though. Studebaker was also the first American manufacturer to build an automotive proving ground. We would love to see a modern-day Studebaker wagon or retro-modern bullet nose sedan on sale today. It would be magical.

Years Active: 1947-2012

Complex Says: TVR, named after its founder Trevor, was mostly know for making sports cars that might just try to kill you at any moment... in a good way. They were pure and simple: nothing more than the absolute essentials. If all a buyer wanted in his car was a powerful engine and a total lack of traction control, TVR was certainly the best bet. Sadly, not many people want that sort of thing.

Years Active: 1911-1935

Complex Says: Stutz Motor Company, out of Indianapolis, Ind., hold the title of "America's first sport car." Stutz cars raced in the Indy 500 and on the public highway. The similarity between the racing cars and the road cars was one of the major selling points, and the Stutz was marketed heavily toward the sporting gentleman. Stutz is responsible for the under-slung chassis, which greatly increased the safety and cornering ability of its cars, and for the 1927 24-hour speed record. The brickyard could use a resident motor company again.

Years Active: 1899-1958

Complex Says: James Ward Packard was the American Ferruccio Lamborghini, in that his car company was born of anger toward another company. Packard had purchased a Winton car, did not like it, and wrote to Alexander Winton with his complaints and suggestions. Winton challenged Packard, an engineer, to build a better car, so Packard did just that. Packards introduced innovations like the modern steering wheel and the 12-cylinder engine. Packard built expensive, opulent cars with a reputation for mechanical sturdiness and reliability, which is something Mr. Lamborghini could have learned from. Unfortunately, in 1958 Packard succumbed to poor management and political tensions with potential partner AMC.

Years Active: 1904-1936

Complex Says: Literally meaning "Spanish-Swiss," Hispano-Suiza was a Spain-based car manufacturer for the upper class, competing with Rolls-Royce, Deusenberg, Bentley, and Isotta-Fraschini. Like many manufacturers of luxury cars of this era, Hispano-Suiza was dealt a severe blow by the great depression, and was finished off by the Spanish Civil War.

We miss the style and elegance of this company, and yes, the car pictured is made of Brazillian tulipwood.

Hispano-Suiza has managed to stay in business as an aerospace firm.

Years Active: 1926-2010

Complex Says: Although Pontiac is one of the recently deceased, having only passed away in 2010, we still yearn for the company's good old days. Pontiac was the sporty counterpart to GM's pedestrian vehicles sold as Chevys. But in the last few decades, Pontiac became nothing more than bland, badge-engineered disasters. Sadly, at the moment of death things were just starting to look up for Pontiac, despite the horrible Toyota-sourced Vibe. The G8 sedan and especially the GXP variant were some of the best cars to ever come out of GM.

Years Active: 1947-2011

Complex Says: We'll never forgive GM for this one. What is the purpose of buying an interesting company with a rich heritage, the world's most educated customer base, and extremely innovative engineers and designers and doing nothing more than letting its cars go without updates for over a decade and turning them into shitty Chevy clones?

GM ruined Saab, and we're still angry about it. We're still hoping that the 9-3, pictured above, will somehow make it to market.

Years Active: 1929-1932, 1936-1937

Complex Says: If things had gone differently, Cord could have easily been one of today's "big three." The brand philosophy was one of innovation and streamlining. Cord's cars were clever, well-designed, and forward thinking, but plagued by reliability issues that eventually killed the brand. Cord was the first company to produce a front-wheel-drive car to reduce costs, and it was the first company to put pop-up headlights on a car. It was under Cord's ownership and founder E. L. Cord's leadership that Auburn and Duesenberg realized their true potential. The Cord 810/812 is nothing short of iconic. The car, with its "coffin-nose," has been named the "Single Most Beautiful American Car" by American Heritage magazine. The "Classic Cord" Hot Wheels car is worth up to $3,000 if still in the original package.

Years Active: 1900-1949

Complex Says: The second world war was the downfall of many auto manufacturers, not the least of which was the Italian luxury marque Isotta Fraschini. While parts of the company are still around today, making diesel engines and body lotion for men, what we really want to see is an Italian challenger to Rolls-Royce's throne. A group of Italians has promised to do it, but there's no evidence that they'll ever actually get around to it.

Years Active: 1968-1976

Complex Says: The idea of a Ferrari that's cheap enough for an average guy to aspire to is wonderful. Sadly, there were only ever eight years of wonderful in the form of the Dino, named for Enzo Ferrari's son. While it may not have lasted any longer than the brand named after Edsel Ford, it was a hell of a lot cooler.

Years Active: 1900-1936

Complex Says: The Auburn Automobile Company, named for its hometown of Auburn, Ind., made some of the greatest sports cars of the 1930s. While Auburn had been fairly successful before 1926, it was after Cord purchased the company that it really flourished. Auburn was positioned above Cord as a luxury marque, but below the unattainable Duesenberg brand. Auburn produced some attractive sedans, but the chief draw was the beautiful speedsters. The "boat-tail" speedsters, in particular, have some of the best-looking butts in automotive history, and we'd like to see those butts on the market once more.

Years Active: 1895-1954

Complex Says: Delahaye started building cars that just oozed French style in 1894, continuing until the company was bought out and shut down in 1954. Delahaye's designs were stunning, distinctive, and very Gallic. Car designers often manage to get themselves trapped by trends, but Delahaye consistently put out cars that were not only beautiful to look at, but also interesting. They were works of art, and like works of art, they gain value with age. A Delahaye 175S sold at auction for $3 million in 2010.

Years Active: 1913-1937

Complex Says: Duesenberg was the great American competitor to the top-tier European luxury marques like Rolls-Royce, Isotta-Fraschini, and Mercedes-Benz. As a company, it produced a few good cars, and it produced the absolutely brilliant Model J and variants thereof. In 1930, a normal car's horsepower rated around 70. A Model J's straight-eight engine produced 265 horses, while the superchaged SJ and SSJ produced 320 and 400 horsepower, respectively. These are numbers that are still impressive today, 80 years later. The Duesenberg SSJ was the Bugatti Veyron of its day--unbelievably powerful, an inspiring status symbol, and decades ahead of its time technologically. All of that came at a shocking price of $13,000-$25,000 at a time when the average annual salary was $1,368.

There's a reason Model Js were driven by celebrities and royalty like Cary Grant, Tyrone Power, the Duke of Windsor, and King Alfonso XIII of Spain. It was the best car money could buy—assuming you had that kind of money.

Duesenberg is the sixth Indiana-based company to be featured on this list. It's clear that Hoosiers need to start designing cars again. They're shockingly good at it.