The Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company started building cars in 1902, but they had been making buggies and wagons since 1852. By the late 1950s Studebaker (now merged with Packard) was in terrible financial shape and was getting destroyed by Ford and GM, but that didn’t stop them from making some sweet looking pickup trucks before […]
What is an Avanti? It’s complicated. The Avanti name was first used by Studebaker to build cars on the Lark platform using mostly Studebaker parts and people from 1962 through 1963. But the fiberglass Raymond Loewy designed bodies appeared again in 1965 and the Avanti 2 assembly went through five different ownership arrangements before it […]
GM’s gen 3 small block V8 (commonly called the LS) is known around the world as the engine to drop into your car when you need power, torque, and reliability in a basic package. Today’s 1.5 ton Studebaker Van is not the last car I’d ever expect to have small block power, but it is […]
This next car comes as a tip from Hugh who writes: There are probably more billionaires in the world (2,755 according to google) than wagonaires so this is pretty special. This seems to have had a nice repaint which is more than you can say for most billionaires. Find this 1964 Studebaker Dayton Wagonaire offered […]
You don’t see many pre-war cars driving around on the street nowadays, most of them are Ford Model Ts…probably because Ford built a million of those things, actually that isn’t true, Ford built 15 million examples of the Model T, but if you want to drive an old car, you should get something that stands […]
car comes as a tip from Hugh who writes: You seem to be on a pointy car theme today and this is the champion of pointy nosed cars so to exclude it would be pointless, no? Find this 1951 Studebaker Champion offered for $12,000 in Rhode Island via Hemmings.
If you were to compare automotive makers to soda companies you might be tempted to compare the legendary Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company the something like Snapple. But if Coke is GM and Pepsi is Ford, then Snapple is Dodge…so you’ve got to dig deeper because Studebaker is closer in rarity to Reed’s Ginger Brew. Find this 1963 Studebaker Lark Convertible offered for $16,000 in Wenatchee, WA via craigslist. Tip from JB1025.
This next advertisement came with a surprising headline “5 Avanti II hard to find chevys”…which through me for a real loop, because I thought that Studebaker built the Avanti. So these aren’t Chevys nor Studebakers, because the Avanti name was used to build cars using the fiberglass Raymond Loewy designed bodies through five different ownership arrangements from 1965 through 2006. Confused? Wait, it gets more so. Because the Avanti was build on the Studebaker chassis with a Corvette engine from the late 1960s through 1985 and then it was put on a Chevy Monte Carlo chassis and finally a Caprice chassis. There was even a Mustang V8 based version that was built in Cancun, Mexico before the then current owner Michael Kelly was arrested on fraud charges related to a Ponzi scheme. I can tell you one that that isn’t a Ponzi scheme and that is investing your retirement income in cold hard Avantis. Go ahead, make your own day. Find this Collection of 1982-89 Avanti IIs offered per car starting at $12k to $19k located in Ocala, FL via craigslist. Tip from Rock On!
A wiser man than I once said, if you can’t drive a nice classic car, then drive a cheap classic car. He (or she) was correct, because not everyone can afford a desirable classic like a first generation Corvette or a Austin-Healey 3000 or a Jag E-type…but…anyone can afford something strange like a ’55 Studebaker 4 door sedan in really nice shape. Find this 1955 Studebaker Champion offered for $7,500 in Houston, TX via craigslist. Tip from FuelTruck.
I was planning on posting mostly old German cars this month because of the whole “Oktoberfest” thing, but then someone mentioned that it was the first day of Fall/Autumn…which reminded me there was a whole section of the country where the season of scorched thighs just ended and now it is possible to drive your […]