Home | Studebaker Motor Company - Out to create the best vehicle on the road

 

Saw that earlier, and my basic reaction was:

WTF?

 

Nissan called...

they want their ugly designs back...

BTW.. is this legit.. or someone wanted it to come back? sorry didn't care enough to read the article...

I know this was a joke/april's fool but.. AMC in modern day would have been cool:
http://www.hotrod.com/featuredvehicl...s/viewall.html

 

I'm glad to see anyone start a company that will put jobs on US soil, but those designs don't tell me this will go anywhere good.

 

When your website openly asks designers to send in their concept designs it doesn't bode well for the immediate success of the company or give any confidence that they'll be building vehicles in the immediate future.

 

I'd be much more interested in any of the vehicle's from the AMC April fools joke. They are much more appealing with some modern drivetrains.

 

Those AMC concepts were pretty cool.
I think I could see a market for a modern Gremlin or Pacer.

Don't know what's up with the Studebaker thing, though.

 

Those all look like ***.

 

That would be cool if they made cars similar to Morgan.

 

This "company" poped up over 5 years ago. Like today, they had a website, but it almost felt like it was some young person with a few hundred dollars that was doing a class project in college by actually setting up a legal company, even though it was one with not a thing to sell.

Like the current website, it had some questionably designed cars lifted form some industrial arts class or internet solicitations, plus a call for designers, investors, and the like. I remember it made the rounds in Studebaker fan sites and even though it wasn't really a exactly hoax, it wasn't serious (or at least the most poorly thought out startup car business in history).

Since then, they apparently have managed to register with the Federal government as a manufacturer of road vehicles..... I say 'apparently' because they seemingly wrote their own Wikipedia entry since it reads like more like an advertisement than anything else. Plus there is a request not to post comments and statements. I don't recall ever seeing that on any other Wikipedia subject involving a manufacturer. Leads me to believe they're worried about someone calling them out.

Also worth noting these 2 enties on their website:


Finally, the company has no affiliation with the guys who own the Avanti name or the people who brought you the Studebaker XUV, the 2 Studebaker namesakes that have actually produced something with 4 wheels, runs, and actually went on the market. It also has absolutely no link to the original Studebaker either. (You could literally go to your state office and incorperate, say, a new Dusenburg Motor Company, and as long as no one owned the name you're now the CEO of Dusenburg even though you have no affiliation with the orginnal company that went out of business in the 1930s.

In case you were wondering, AMC was bought by Chrysler, while Mercury, Pontiac, Oldsmobile, Eagle, Saturn, etc were divisions owned by parent companies... a bit more legal headaches if you're thinking of bringing back those names.

In the strictest sense of the word, insofar as them being a actual legal company, they are legit. They (or perhaps, "he" since it seems to be just 1 person) actually might end up with something on the road: Importing motor scooters from China and sticking "Studebaker" script on the sides. He does appear to be actually working on this (importing electric scooters bypasses emission regs and he'll likely get money or taxbreaks from the feds by bringing a zero emissions vehicle to market...even though it's just a scooter).

But beyond that, you still get the feeling it's either a nieve guy or a young idealist who's doing a one man show who has a day job that's paying for the plane tickets.

This "company" has been around since at least 2004 (and maybe even 2002).

They haven't moved any closer to producing a real car yet, and they had just as many years in a good economy as a bad so it isn't the economy.

Yet they haven't moved an inch from where they were when they started. No car, no design, no money, and an mysterious "reveolutionary" way of producing vehicles.

Legit?

 

By the way, a couple of things regarding the real Studebaker.

First, it diversified in the late 1960s. By the early 60s, the automobile division was nothing but a side business... one that (to management) was more trouble than it was worth. Like Ceberus was to Chrysler, Studebaker starved the automobile side of money and the management of the automobile division was regulated to tarting up what was basically a decade old chassis. Then they started selling off parts of themselves. They sold off their engine and drivetrain foundry and ran Chevy engines. They shut down the South Bend factory and ran with just the one in Canada. Finally, management pulled the plug on the car division to focus on other (profitable) areas of Studebaker.

STP, Clarke (construction equptment), Gravely tractors, Paxton superchargers, and a host of other small companys are the remains of what was actually Studebaker, though over the years they were sold (and sometimes resold) to other businesses.

As mentioned, the direct decendent, and the only remaining part of the core business is Studebaker-Worthington Leasing, which does financing for and leasing for business and construction equptment.

Studebaker was also the sole importer of Mercedes Benz till they sold it off in 66 when they completely got out of the automobile business. If Studebaker had continued, to a large degree we'd likely see Studebaker and Mercedes Benz combine, as design was already inching in that direction (the early 60s Lark grilles and some of the themes in the late Lark body designs.

Studebaker also had plenty of new designs that were aimed for the 67-68 timeframe. They were actually quite stunning, and begs the question of "What if"?








Studebaker also planned to bring back the Packard by brand engineering the Facel Vega. But Mercedes benz vetoed the idea and Studebaker was making more money selling Benzes than they would selling Packards again, so the whole thing was scratched.

 

That in itself is not that big of a deal. A few years ago a friend of my brother was looking into importing dirt bikes from China. He was going to have his own "brand" as well. The deal fell through when he couldn't get them to pass California emissions and was left to only importing them as a "kit" minus the motor. Wisely he bailed out.

It seems there are still dozens upon dozens of manufacturers in China looking to export all kinds of "knock-off" vehicles. You just need a big enough wad of cash to make a deal. Its being able to legally sell them stateside that's the bigger obstacle.

 

Seems as though we have another Zeroshift® situation on our hands.

 

Zeroshift? :

 

Come on, you're no stranger to the automotive news section!

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