Perley A. Thomas Car Works, Inc. was an American manufacturer of streetcars based in High Point, North Carolina.

Following the liquidation of Southern Car Works, its engineer Perley A. Thomas in 1916 founded the new company named for himself.

As Thomas Built Buses, the company is still based in High Point, operating as a subsidiary of Freightliner Trucks (of Daimler AG) since 1998.

In 1910, Perley A. Thomas joined Southern Car Company in High Point, North Carolina as an engineer and designer.

[2] In the summer of 1916, Thomas was contracted by Southern Public Utilities Company in Charlotte, North Carolina to enclose its fleet of streetcars.

[2] With a $6,000 loan, Thomas acquired the equipment of his former employer at auction, opening an assembly facility in a former ice manufacturing plant in High Point.

[1][2] By the end of the year, four additional cars were renovated for Southern Public Utilities in Winston-Salem, North Carolina.

[1][2][3] The steel-bodied 800-900-series streetcars were double-ended (two sets of operating controls and two trolley poles), double-trucked, with an arched roof.

[2] In total, NOPSI would order 173 800-900-series streetcars, with Thomas Car Works producing 98 (not including the 14 destroyed in the factory fire).

[2] In 1936, Thomas Car Works entered a bid to produce school bus bodies for the state of North Carolina.

While required to produce 500 bodies, the company was only able to secure the materials for 200; North Carolina would split the bid between Thomas and Hackney Brothers.

[2] For 1937, Thomas returned to bid for North Carolina school bus production, commencing a tradition that remains to this day.

After World War II, Thomas Car Works returned to vehicle production, concentrating nearly entirely on school buses.

Most of the replica cars are bright red, although a few have been painted olive green to provide ADA-compliant service on the St. Charles line.