First cars from 19 now-dead car makers

Depending on how sentimental you are about the motor industry, there can be something quite poignant about the demise of a car manufacturer.

All that time, effort and expense, and then, suddenly, nothing but memories and ageing secondhand metal.

Of course, every manufacturer had a beginning, a time of hopes and dreams. Here we remember those good times and present a selection of the first cars some of those departed companies produced, when a sense of impending doom was still years in the future.

And as we’re doing it in alphabetical order, let’s start with A…