Did you recently take on (or consider) a loan of 84 months or longer on a car purchase?
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
A reporter would like to speak with you about your experience; please reach out to PR@Edmunds.com by 7/22 for details.
Options
Comments
http://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/myalbum/photo.php?lid=9805
The son of the founder of the dealership is a good friend of mine and is meeting me in South Bend in August for the Studebaker Drivers' Club International Meet. I got him a ticket to tour the old Studebaker Administration Building, which is remarkably unchanged inside. He's a healthy 83 this year.
I have a picture of the building from 1958, a recession year for the country and a bad year for Studebaker, that has an unlighted neon M-B star in one showroom window.
That photo is a '62 Lark Regal convertible, the lower-priced of the two convertibles that year. The Daytona was priced higher and came with standard bucket seats and additional trim outside.
I still love the looks of it and wish I had taken more photos. I will try to get to some cruise-ins in that area where it may show up.
2014 Malibu 2LT, 2015 Cruze 2LT,
I remember the site you linked with the old Stude dealership buildings, the one in my town being just a few blocks from where I live now, and is now a locksmith and related goods shop.
The good old days weren't always so good, but the boomers had better music than kids today...more interesting cars too (maybe not more reliable or easy to live with, however)
The '50's are easily remembered even by non-Stude people for their, ahem, 'distinctive' front styling. (Fozzie Bear: "A bear in his natural habitat...a Studebaker!"). Fozzie's car is in the Studebaker National Museum BTW.
My understanding is that the '50 models were generally pretty good cars too. I like how that era Stude had curved one-piece windshields on Commanders (actually, this started in '41 on coupes) when most other cars did not yet. I also kinda like the funky "Starlight" coupe with wraparound rear window (predecessor to that funky mid'70's Toronado like that?!).
If you find the pic of your Dad's car, please post! Thanks.
One reason I learned to like Studes, is, besides the fact that I can remember them on the roads, they didn't look like other American cars. Always thought Hawks were beautiful, Avantis beautiful (more debate on those I know), and even '62 and later Larks I think are more handsome today than Chevy II's, Falcons, or Valiants of the same period, as they have large rear wheel openings, 15-inch wheels, low beltlines and glassy greenhouses. Of course I realize that styling is subjective.
It should be remembered that the 1950 model year was actually about fourteen months long because 1949 model year production ended early so that they could make a facelift by putting the Lowey rocket nose on the front of the existing body. That is part of the reason why production appeared to increase from 129,301 for 1949 to 320,884 in 1950. This is an average of 225,000+. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/U.S._Automobile_Production_Figures
Another reason for increased sales was that Studebaker introduced its “automatic drive” in 1950. A third reason was that most of the 1950 model year production had been completed before the Korean War broke out on June 25, 1950, and production restrictions were put in place for the
1951 and 1952 model years.
Studebaker president Harold Vance is sometimes wrongly criticized for getting Packard into a bad deal with the merger because Studebaker could not make a profit until it sold approximately 180,000 cars, and some say 250,000+ cars. But Vance knew that Studebaker had sold an average of 225,000 cars in 1949-1950, He also know that Studebaker was able to make a profit for 1951 by selling 246,195 cars. Therefore, he had reason to believe that Studebaker could better than that after the Korean War restrictions were lifted.
Unfortunately, 1954 Studebaker model year sales were only 68,708, which put both Studebaker and Packard in trouble. Studebaker never recovered from 1954. In 1955, they added chrome and sold 116,333 cars but they lost a lot of money. In 1959, the best year of Lark sales, they sold only 126,156 cars but they made a good profit.
I believe that the main reason for this was reduced labor costs because Studebaker Packard president James Nance got tough with the union. I have heard no better explanation for this lower “break even” point. Reduced labor costs are a major reason why Chrysler is doing better now than it was a few years ago.
The purists in the Milestone Car Society say that the original 1953-1954 Lowey coupes and hardtops were beautiful, but Studebaker ruined them in 1955 by adding all that chrome. The sales figures say otherwise. Americans wanted all that chrome.
When I was a little kid who did not yet appreciate the annual model year change-over, the 1955s seemed to be more expensive and much better versions of the same cars. I still feel that way. I took the Commander on a run on Pacific Coast Highway yesterday (Sunday) morning and I still love it although I have owned it since 1979.
Price wars aside, there remains the question of how Studebaker could have a terrible year in 1955 when it sold 116,333 cars, but had their most profitable year four years later in 1959 when they only sold 126,156 cars.
Some of the neat things the article says are:
With this backlog it was not surprising that two years ago (i.e., 1953) this veteran firm got the jump on the industry with a beautiful, low-slung new car styled by Raymond Loewy. A rising nationwide sports car consciousness should have boosted sales to new records. It didn't, because womenfolk directly influence seven automobile sales out of 10, and wives thought the new car, among other things, insufficiently bright in the chrome department. Also, Studebaker's low, sleek, Italian-type hoodline necessitated moving the engine well back. This improved weight distribution, but it also stinted rear leg room, despite a longer wheelbase. The ladies didn't like that either.
A DAZZLING BULWARK
The new President, built on the same chassis (but with a 27-cubic-inch-larger engine than the 1953 Commander), suffers from the same drawback; but the feminine element is taking more kindly to the dazzling front bulwark of chrome.
. . .Despite an obvious stiffness (JLJ Note: Really???), the Speedster quickly jumped to an indicated 90 mph (it will cruise all day at 70 mph, which is only about 2,850 rpm)(JLJ Note: Still true 57 years later) It rides very comfortably to the accompaniment of a pleasantly muted exhaust burble, (JLJ Note: I completely agree with that statement ) while even tight bends can be in high-speed sports car style with perfect safety (JLJ Note: Well. . .maybe compared to the competition at that time. )
.. . .At 185 hp the Speedster's engine is unstressed, yet in power-weight ratio the car ranks with the top six automobiles in the industry, regardless of power. With basic modifications, 230 hp should be obtainable, giving a power-weight ratio of about 15 pounds per hp—far superior to that of most production sports cars and better, even, than that of the new 275-hp Packard which now appears to top the domestic list.
Like it or hate it, I think it's hard to deny that it seemed more modern than about any other car one could buy in spring of 1962.
The later reproductions seems to favor the round headlights. I go back and forth on the type I favor. This model seems to have the best post-Studebaker bumper.
Studebaker made the same mistake ten years apart. In 1953 and 1964 unveil five- passenger sports-type vehiches designed by Raymond Lowey and associates, but have production problems can't build them fast enough. In 1954 and 1964 they can't sell them fast enough.
Oh Fin, you do make me nostalgic sometimes. I was growing up in the area when the 1962 World's Fair (which motivated the building of the Space Needle) was in Seattle. The first time I went up the Needle in the 'Bubblator' (a convex plexiglass elevator that goes up the outside of the central spine) I almost backslid on my toilet training.
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
2009 BMW 335i, 2003 Corvette cnv. (RIP 2001 Jaguar XK8 cnv and 1985 MB 380SE [the best of the lot])
I love '62 Corvettes, but I don't see their influence in later cars.
I believe that the Avanti in the first color photo is the same one that Raymond Lowey is standing next to in the fourth black and white photo. The two Avantis in the fourth photo are inconsistently trimmed, and the one Lowey is standing next to has no emblem. The car in the first photo and the one Lowey is standing next to has no emblem and the areas around the rear passenger window do not seem to be shiny like chrome or silver.
I not only see Avanti influence on modern cars in the profile, the coke bottle shape and back window, but also the blending of the tail lights flush into the body. Many cars look like that today.
http://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/showthread.php?61416-Caution-Risque!-SNM-- Studebaker-Billboard!-(pic)
Doesn't hurt that it's my favorite year and model of Studebaker in the photo.
" Old" men love going through Owner's Manuals line by line. They will underline things they deem to be important and they write notes in the margins. Notes about things only they care about.
When I was in high school, my best friend bought a pristine 1956 Chevy from a friend of his uncle's. The old guy who owned it had a well notated owner's manual along with a detailed log book. Every penny ever spent on that Chevy was noted. Every tank of gas. What he paid for the gas, how many gallons and a mileage calculation.
Amazing how some things can be so important to some people that a person like myself doesn't give a twit about.
The Chevy was a 210 2 door - So. California beauty six cylinder with an automatic. The price was 100.00!
My buddy kept it a year or so before selling it to a guy who made a Cholo Wagon out of it. The last time I saw it, it was lowered to the ground with a LOUd set of pipes etc. Primer spots...the usual. What a waste!
Funny, in four-doors, I like the '63 Stude, with its '77 Caprice-style rear door openings, but in two-doors, I like the boxier '64-66 styling better.
Thre were two ways to lower cars. The "right" way if there is such a thing, and the "cheap way.
Doing it "right" meant paying to having a couple of coils cut out of the springs and if it had rear leaf springs, installing lowering bloack.
Doing it cheap meant heating hte springs with a torch until they actually melted together. Yo could heat the rear leaf springs and bend them over.
There was actually a lowered bullet nose Stude that ran around our town lowered to the ground.
Perhaps the owner of the Studebaker in the earlier post did not like the 1966 factory shade of green http://www.studebaker-info.org/Auntbea/auntbeastude.html (Aunt Bea's Studebaker) and decided to use an earlier Studebaker color below:
I am guilty of doing the same thing. My 1955 Commander was a Saginaw green that had too much blue it for my taste. Farewell Goober Pyle. RIP
team ina and clarke broome
bob brown is the local seo king
Designer Virgil Exner did not like Lowey taking all the credit for the designs, but Studebaker made good use of his name as early as 1937 or 1938. Additionally, Lowey was able to design passenger cars while WW II was still going on because he was not a Studebaker employee but an independent contractor. The Big Three were not supposed to be designing passenger cars at that time. Studebaker got a big jump on the competition with its "First By Far with a Postwar Car" theme as a result.
Incidentally, a lady I've gotten to know who was the first retail purchaser of an Avanti in North Dakota and was photographed in the Studebaker dealer magazine for being so, and whose original retail purchaser card in the Studebaker Museum allowed us to verify the serial number of her car, has purchased a '64 Avanti from a brick-and-mortar store in MO recently. Her 'new' car is serial 5634 and was built on 12/26/63, the last day Studebaker built Avantis!
BTW, she did find her original Avanti with my help online, but it's pretty ratty and receiving a SBC engine.
The rear cover of this very interesting book, Art of the American Automobile quotes Harley Earl, chief designer for General Motors as saying.
"The most important part of the design of an automobile is the grille, the face of it. That is the whole design, right there. “
http://www.amazon.com/Art-American-Automobile-Greatest-Stylists/dp/0831706775
Wikipedia says this about Harley Earl: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harley_Earl
Harley Earl authorized the Frank Hershey design for the 1948 Cadillac, which incorporated the first automotive tailfins. Inspiration for the fins came from the Lockheed P-38 Lightning. But it also extended beyond the war during the age when space rockets captured the popular imagination (1950s and 1960s). The style caught on throughout Detroit and eventually led to competition between Earl and Virgil Exner over the size and complexity of tailfins, culminating with those on the 1959 Cadillac models.
Studebaker’s design was inconsistent with the Harley Earl school of design of the 50's and early 60s. Studebaker kept taking the grilles and fins off the cars, but that is not what we wanted. We wanted rockets, bullets and/or twin torpedoes at the front of the car and fins at the rear.
The 1961 Lincolns were quite a bit shorter than the models of the previous year and I cannot think of another production 4 door convertible from the 1960s or since then.
Suicide doors are cool too, but the Ford Thunderbird had those a few years later too. I think that was in 1967. I remember that same year the doors would lock automatically when the car was in motion, and some which were towed through automatic car washes had all the doors locked at the end of the line.
Detailing isn't 100% perfect, but for around a dollar, it is more than acceptable.
https://www.fairfieldcollectibles.com/advanced_search_result.php?keywords=packar- -d+clipper
The price is making me think twice, but I think it was the best looking Studebaker of 1957 and this model is not common.
I have often have trouble getting access to this site. I Get a 505 access denied message. Am I the only one having this problem ?
That Packardbacker model is made by Brooklin, probably the pioneer in detailed oddball quality 1:43 models aimed at adult collectors. They are still made in England, too. They aren't cheap, but price on that link looks high, here's one on ebay I can't imagine there are many if any other 57 Packard castings out there.
If you mean accessing the Edmunds forums, I have been experiencing weird issues for some time. I can't get in at all in Firefox at work, but it works there in Chrome. At home it is marking everything unread - stuff that was read days ago. And then sometimes it simply times out.
I'm not generally a fan of Golden Hawks, but I've got to say that of the several Fairfield/Danbury/Franklin cars of various makes I own, the '57 Golden Hawk by Danbury is the nicest, most accurate model, with fine detailing right down the fuel filler door that opens.
I cannot get to this site using Internet Explorer. I get a message that says HTTP 505 Apache Tomcat 7.0.14 error report. I am here now using Google Chrome. (Sorry that chrome entered into the discussion again, but that's the name.)