West Midlands

Discontinued 1919 – 1967 Luxury / Prestige Sports & Specialist

T. G. John founded Alvis in Coventry in 1919, and its 12/50 and Speed 20 made it one of Britain's most respected makers of quality sporting cars. Car…

Discontinued 1919 – 1960 Luxury / Prestige

A Coventry maker of dignified, well-engineered luxury cars, Armstrong Siddeley grew out of the same Siddeley-Deasy business that also built aircraft engines, and its cars shared some of…

Discontinued 1905 – 1987 Mainstream & Utility

Herbert Austin left Wolseley to found the Austin Motor Company at Longbridge, south-west of Birmingham, in 1905. The little Austin Seven of 1922 put Britain on wheels, Austin…

Discontinued 1952 – 1972 Sports & Specialist

Austin-Healey was born at the 1952 Motor Show, when Austin's Leonard Lord saw Donald Healey's Healey Hundred and agreed to build it as the Austin-Healey 100. The big…

Discontinued 1919 – 1931 Mainstream & Utility

Bean Cars, made by the Black Country ironfounders A. Harper Sons & Bean in Dudley and Coseley, briefly outsold Austin and Morris in the early 1920s. Car production…

Discontinued 1919 – 1966 Mainstream & Utility

Beardmore, the Clydeside shipbuilding and engineering giant, built cars and, from 1919 to 1966, the rugged Beardmore taxi, nicknamed "the Rolls-Royce of taxicabs". Production moved from Paisley to…

Discontinued 1904 – 1932 Mainstream & Utility

Calthorpe of Birmingham made quality light cars, as well as bicycles and motorcycles, from 1904. Its 10 hp Minor was admired as a large car in miniature, but…

Discontinued 1919 – 2013 Mainstream & Utility

Carbodies of Coventry built bodies for MG, Alvis, Rootes and others, then became the home of the London black cab. It built the Austin FX4 for decades and,…

Discontinued 1909 – 1929 Mainstream & Utility

Clyno began with motorcycles in 1909 and moved to Wolverhampton in 1910. Its cheap, reliable light cars made it Britain's third-largest car maker in 1926, behind only Austin…

Discontinued 1896 – 2009 Luxury / Prestige

One of Britain's oldest car makers, Daimler was founded in Coventry in 1896 to exploit the British rights to Gottlieb Daimler's engine patents. It became the marque of…

Discontinued 2013 – 2026 Luxury / Prestige

David Brown Automotive, founded in Coventry in 2013, built hand-made modern interpretations of classic cars: the Aston Martin DB6-inspired Speedback GT and the Mini Remastered. It moved to…

Discontinued 1957 – 1961 Mainstream & Utility

The Frisky was a British microcar built at Henry Meadows' engine works in Wolverhampton from 1958. Its gull-winged prototype was styled by Giovanni Michelotti of Vignale, but the…

Discontinued 1967 – 2010 Kit Car Sports & Specialist

GTM began in 1967 as the Cox GTM, a mid-engined coupé built from Mini parts in a Stockport garage. Under later owners it became one of Britain's leading…

Discontinued 1914 – 1982 Mainstream & Utility

Sydney Guy left Sunbeam to found Guy Motors at Fallings Park, Wolverhampton, in 1914. It built light, tough lorries, the Arab bus chassis and the first British V8…

Discontinued 1907 – 1976 Mainstream & Utility

Founded in Coventry in 1907 by William Hillman with designer Louis Coatalen, Hillman became the everyday family-car brand of the Rootes Group, best known for the Minx, the…

Discontinued 1887 – 1976 Luxury / Prestige Mainstream & Utility

Thomas Humber's cycle company began building cars in 1896 and grew into a respected maker of solid, comfortable upper-middle-class cars. As the senior brand of the Rootes Group…

Active 1922 – present Luxury / Prestige Sports & Specialist

Britain's best-known luxury sports and saloon car maker, founded in Blackpool as a motorcycle sidecar business before becoming one of Coventry's defining marques. Renamed from SS Cars in…

Discontinued 1934 – 2002 Sports & Specialist Luxury / Prestige

A West Bromwich coachbuilder turned specialist manufacturer of hand-built, Chrysler V8-powered grand tourers, Jensen is best remembered for the Interceptor and its pioneering four-wheel-drive FF sibling. The company…

Discontinued 1908 – 1970 Mainstream & Utility

Karrier was a Huddersfield maker of municipal vehicles, light lorries and trolleybuses from 1908. It gave Britain the Cob "mechanical horse" and the Ro-Railer, and after being bought…

Discontinued 1899 – 1955 Luxury / Prestige

The three Lanchester brothers built one of Britain's first petrol cars in Birmingham in 1895 and founded their company in 1899, becoming famous for inventive engineering, including the…