It was a great effort cut short by the sudden illness of Egbert. Studebaker may have made it longer if he had not been lost. As a Studebaker fan since the age of 5, I was devastated by the failure just as I was out of college and prepared to own Studebakers for the rest of my life. I was able to buy a new 1964 Avanti with the help of my father and still own it to this day.
Had both Studebaker and Packard merged together with Hudson and Nash along with Kaiser and Jeep and man Studebaker would've been around to this day competing with BMW and Audi like nothing.
@CJColvin - I would have lined up the proposed American Motors like this: Packard: luxury, competing with Cadillac, Imperial and Lincoln. Hudson: Large cars, competing with Buick, Chrysler and Mercury. Kaiser: Mid-sized cars, competing with Oldsmobile and DeSoto. Nash: Small cars, competing with Chevy and Ford. Studebaker: Performance, competing with Corvette. Willys: Trucks and off-road vehicles like the Jeep line.
also. so sad a family business who started off as a wagon manufacturing plant to Auto maker, with a reputation of pride and quality of a good product. that family puts their name on it. these traits are what also build a great nation.
Take heart in the fact that there are still more than a few up and running today. That phenomenal V8 has got to be perfection in engineering and design.
The proving grounds 3 mile oval, shown in the beginning. That is where I am employed as of today. Who knows about tomorrow. Of course it is no longer owned by Studebaker. Although, nearly every year, we host the Studebaker club and let them in the old original shop and make a lap around the oval. Good times. It's amazing to work at a location that has such history.
The most underated car in the automotive world. I place the failure squarely at the feet of Corvette, when in 1963, The orders for Corvette superceeded those of the Avanti, so, that held up the fiberglass body produced by the Ashtabula, Ohio company that produced both the Corvette and the Avanti. Hundreds of customers cancelled their Avanti orders and that tanked the company because the Avanti sales would've saved the company.
The Daytona convertibles driver was a good man, and did all he could to both bring out exciting new product like the Avanti, and going against the Board who only wanted to diversify the company. The Board won creating a large conglomerate of division's, and Sherwood Egbert came down with Cancer and died. Egbert did have a bad habit of driving one of the Company division's car's, a Mercedes-Benz.
His big deal was repainting the plant? Wow, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Funny thing, the other business acquisitions did better - Clark, Onan, and others are still going well today. I never knew they owned STP! When I worked at GM (NDH) we had a manager who made all the machines in the plant five feet high or less - he felt it would make the employees feel better and work harder. Sounds a lot like the "color harmonizing" business. The NDH plant closed, too. Sole distributor for Mercedes-Benz! That was quite a coup!
My grandparents had a farm in Iowa, they had a lark station wagon and a pickup don’t know what year they were. I found out later that he was a mechanic for studebaker I have always wanted a studebaker.
+WAQWBrentwood STP stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum. The brand was around for years before Studebaker bought it. Many of Studebakers old product lines are still around today. STP, Onan generators, Clarke Equipment, Gravely lawn equipment to name a few.
Scientifically treated petroleum. It had lead as a lubricant and a hyponex molecular structure that expanded as it got hotter, thus increasing the viscosity, or "stabilizing" the viscosity. It was developed by the Germans during the second world war to increase the life of the oil in their U boats as Germany was under a war time petroleum embargo, and was not receiving enough petroleum products to keep their war machine running. They [ the Germans] also developed very high quality full synthetic lubricants too for the same reason in the same time frame.
I would imagine what Studebaker would've looked like had Studebaker and Packard merged together with Hudson and Nash along with Kaiser and Jeep to create AMC in 1954?
I always understood that two buildings were not connected by any kind of conveyor, requiring the output of one to be loaded onto trucks and moved to the other building, where they would have to unload those same trucks. If so, that was far worse than "greedy" Labour. Another problem is that Studebaker, after the war, made their cars too small. They should have been wider and longer, which would have accentuated the fact that they were as low as a step-down Hudson.
As if a coat of paint would do anything. Think about it; when you do a paint job on anything it is the surface preparation that makes the job. Slap on the paint over rust and dirt and it looks worse than having done nothing.
+Michael McCombs My family used to get a new Studebaker every two or three years, until it was announced that they would stop making their own engines and purchase Chevrolet engines from Generous Motors. I am sure that was the reason they lost many loyal customers.
Yes, one of the definitions of STP has been said to be Studebaker Test Products. There have been others under the brand. Kids used to try and figure it out, like Studebaker tops Packard, and similar silly monicors.
+Neil Dickson STP stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum. The brand was around for years before Studebaker bought it. The history is on their website.
Scientifically treated petroleum. It had lead as a lubricant and a hyponex molecular structure that expanded as it got hotter, thus increasing the viscosity, or "stabilizing" the viscosity. It was developed by the Germans during the second world war to increase the life of the oil in their U boats as Germany was under a war time petroleum embargo, and was not receiving enough petroleum products to keep their war machine running. They [ the Germans] also developed very high quality full synthetic lubricants too for the same reason in the same time frame.
@@3RTracing it's amazing how many technologies the Germans created before and during the war. Many are still coming out as new technologies today. I wonder if they had anything to do with the current battery technologies.
If this film is to believed, they had no cash shortage and could have invested in a new modern car, but they had no intention of continuing the car division.
Just saw a production of "Guys & Dolls", written by Frank Loesser. There is a line "I hope he get stabbed by a Studebaker!". Play made Broadway in 1951, therefore, this has to be in reference to the "bullet nose" Studebakers.
studebaker was fighting a loosing battle with the big 3 auto builders//--how can you build under 100k vehicles at the same cost as both ford and chev.building over a million each???--not possible//--2nd major problem studebaker. workers were paid higher than industry standard wages.--3rd problem paying annual dividends even after mediocre sales years 4th problem they urgently needed a good TRUCK person to continue the momentum started by the legendary US6X6 --YES niche automobiles can make it in high volume markets//--just look at SUBARU-DIFFERENT BY DESIGN and highly successful
One of the reasons Studebaker went under, but not the only one. Ultimately management lost its will and decided on a quick cash out rather than fighting for the company.
@@ThunderAppeal Honestly, management was completely in the right to wind down automotive production and concentrate on their other holdings when they did. After the 1953 Chevrolet-Ford price war that practically crippled all the remaining independents, coupled by Studebaker's mismanagement of the demand of Loewy coupes that year (resulting in the same piss-poor build quality that Chrysler would suffer a few years later during their Forward Look), Studebaker was done as an automaker. Everything after just forestalled the inevitable. The flood of imports in the 1970s coupled with increasing safety and environmental regulation would have caused the entirety of Studebaker to go down instead of just a part of it. I say this as someone who loves Studebaker and dailies a '62 GT Hawk. It's unfortunate, but it's the cold, hard truth.
@@danr1920 The whole reason why the Lark was a success in the first place was because it was a compact. If Studebaker had made it full-sized, like you suggest, all that would have resulted is more dwindling sales off of an already pathetic 1958 model year of 78,000 vehicles in total.
They should have closed the South Bend plant instead of the Detroit plant. Studebakers could have been built in Detroit and Packard production could have moved to Canada and used the 1955-56 platform instead of making Packardbakers.
The issue was that Packard was stoney broke, and the Studebaker general ledger was unhealthy, feilding a separate chassis car in an economy market, with a huge cost forecast in steering, axles, buy in transmissions, and new fangled compliance costs in the horizon. The forward loaded cost of making the highly legislated 1967 to 68 models almost killed AMC. It would have done the same to Studebaker. Someone worked out the cost of a new plant and workforce to make a new car. World wide, From 58 to 66, every mass produced Western car maker from Borgward to Far East makers like Prince, were going bust....FAST. Probably wisely, the team "threw" in the towel rather than suffering a Debt Bomb like Chrysler Corporation did from 1963 to 1978. Mopar were really strong on product, but rapidly lost ability to pay for crash and Emissions and smarter production cost reductions without hurting product. The dollars have to add up. Imagine the plant cost for new steering and a new separate style Toyota Crown chassis or Falcon, AMC or Chrysler style unibody.
I've never seen so much made out of "cleaning up" and "painting". It's called routine plant maintenance - calling it out repeatedly is just sad. And seeing Studebaker gloat about the money making divisions only reinforces the feeling that they pulled the plug on the automobile division to avoid pension liabilities.
I come from Scotland my dad ran 6 Studebaker ex miltery trucks for his Haulage Business many years ago he loved them said they were built like a Tank good go anywhere Vehicles 6 wheel drive.
It's sad That we lost our American luxurious car brand But in this case sometimes. I wonder What cars they would have in their lineup If they made cars today.
Studebaker historically was firmly in the middle-price market, although they went down-market after WWII. The only cars they ever built that were truly of the best in the industry as far as luxury and refinement went was the pre-war President and the Avanti.
@@PontiacFan68 The short answer to that is that the car facilities were too outdated, the management still wanted Studebaker to survive (just not as an automaker), and the Big Three already had their own marques they could and did use. That said, my '62 GT Hawk is both under-appreciated and lovely. It's also firmly a middle-class car as well.
Studebaker Board did perform their fiduciary responsibilities by protecting the stock holder from liquidation. Just not a glamorous way to end auto production.
Yeah, but they completely fucked their loyal employees. I wouldnt call that responsible in any way at all. You sound like a shit eating corporate shill.
In WWII they built trucks for the Russian Army. The trucks had 'Studebaker' name on the front. Russian guys thought 'Studebaker' meant Truck in English. Eager to pick up on English words, they would call their Russian Trucks 'Studebaker's'
I remember hearing a story, that in Russia, after receiving the Trucks. The word Studebaker, became a synanym, for whatever their word is, that means Indestructible?
Earlier this year I was watching Russian-made movies with English subtitles. I commented on one that I was surprised that a truck that the bad guys were driving was a Dodge and was referred to as such on a few occasions in the dialog. A Russian fellow replied to my comment that knowing about Studebaker and Dodge trucks is common knowledge among Russians interested in WW2 history.
Studebaker almost ruined gravely.they wanted to move the company and pay less wages...they couldn't find workers and manufacturing tumbled.studebaker sold it off shortly thereafter.
Oh come on by the 1950's Studebaker was making just about the worst engines in America. Every Studebakers more than a couple of years old were horrendous oil burners. Studebaker was in such dire straights they were unable to give their engine blocks proper time to season and they were rushed into machining way too soon. Consequently the blocks and bores suffered premature wear and dimensional instability.
Studebaker introduced their OHV V8 in 1951. 1year before Chrysler, 3 Years before Ford, and 4 years before Chevy had one. And I believe, they actually had fewer problems, with premature wear and dimensional instability, than any of the other manufacturers did at the time, or even subsequently? They may not have, as deliberately, squelched the discussion of these issues, as the other manufacturers did? But it's been fairly well established by now. That most of this was due to a lack of viscosity standards. For motor oils that were on the market, at the time! And that, the Studebaker V8 is one of the most durable and trouble free power plants ever produced, by any manufacturer!
absolutely incorrect. Studebaker engines lasted longer, got better mileage, where more efficient and better assembled and engineered than most all of the other V8's in the industry. The V8's were pretty much indestructible. As far as oil burning, many Studebaker buyers opted to not have an oil filter, which was truly a bad option offered by Studebaker. That contributed to an oil burner. Conversely, those engines that were fitted with oil filtration went for 100's of thousands of miles without a ring job.
If I may offer a third opinion. A friend of mine who is older and a great mechanic and very knowledgeable of automotive history once told me. " Studebaker engines were OK but when they developed the 289/ 301 V8 in such a short time with such a small budget it was impressive for what it was, But the bulk of their sales like with Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge was economy cars. but for some reason they kept using their out dated flat 6. it got good mileage and was cheap but was really under powered. and the big three had 6's that got almost the same mileage but had way more torque. (better street performance) then they made a huge mistake. instead of developing a new ohv 6 they started using the Chevy 6. If you mass produce cars NEVER use a competitors engine/ drive train. when they started using the chevy V8 I knew it was all over for Studebaker."
It was a great effort cut short by the sudden illness of Egbert. Studebaker may have made it longer if he had not been lost. As a Studebaker fan since the age of 5, I was devastated by the failure just as I was out of college and prepared to own Studebakers for the rest of my life. I was able to buy a new 1964 Avanti with the help of my father and still own it to this day.
Those are fine automobiles. Glad you got you a new one .I always liked studabaker
Lucky guy!
Had both Studebaker and Packard merged together with Hudson and Nash along with Kaiser and Jeep and man Studebaker would've been around to this day competing with BMW and Audi like nothing.
@CJColvin - I would have lined up the proposed American Motors like this:
Packard: luxury, competing with Cadillac, Imperial and Lincoln.
Hudson: Large cars, competing with Buick, Chrysler and Mercury.
Kaiser: Mid-sized cars, competing with Oldsmobile and DeSoto.
Nash: Small cars, competing with Chevy and Ford.
Studebaker: Performance, competing with Corvette.
Willys: Trucks and off-road vehicles like the Jeep line.
So sad seeing this because the company goes out of business two years later. RIP Studebaker, we will miss your great cars.
also. so sad a family business who started off as a wagon manufacturing plant to Auto maker, with a reputation of pride and quality of a good product. that family puts their name on it. these traits are what also build a great nation.
Not to mention, they had ideas that were way ahead of their time.
@@1984xlx same goes for Preston Tucker. The Big 3 were major bullies back then.
Actually they did not go out of business But they did stop making their own cars
Take heart in the fact that there are still more than a few up and running today. That phenomenal V8 has got to be perfection in engineering and design.
The proving grounds 3 mile oval, shown in the beginning. That is where I am employed as of today. Who knows about tomorrow. Of course it is no longer owned by Studebaker. Although, nearly every year, we host the Studebaker club and let them in the old original shop and make a lap around the oval. Good times. It's amazing to work at a location that has such history.
My dad loved Studebaker cars ! Have a 1941 champion & 1939 stud with suicide doors that belonged to his dad he bought in 1961 ! Neat cars !
The most underated car in the automotive world. I place the failure squarely at the feet of Corvette, when in 1963, The orders for Corvette superceeded those of the Avanti, so, that held up the fiberglass body produced by the Ashtabula, Ohio company that produced both the Corvette and the Avanti. Hundreds of customers cancelled their Avanti orders and that tanked the company because the Avanti sales would've saved the company.
The Daytona convertibles driver was a good man, and did all he could to both bring out exciting new product like the Avanti, and going against the Board who only wanted to diversify the company. The Board won creating a large conglomerate of division's, and Sherwood Egbert came down with Cancer and died. Egbert did have a bad habit of driving one of the Company division's car's, a Mercedes-Benz.
His big deal was repainting the plant? Wow, rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic. Funny thing, the other business acquisitions did better - Clark, Onan, and others are still going well today. I never knew they owned STP!
When I worked at GM (NDH) we had a manager who made all the machines in the plant five feet high or less - he felt it would make the employees feel better and work harder. Sounds a lot like the "color harmonizing" business. The NDH plant closed, too.
Sole distributor for Mercedes-Benz! That was quite a coup!
The repainting probably distracted the employees from the fact that Studebaker stole all theur pension money.
My favorite car of all time was a 1960 Studebaker Lark 259 V8 with overdrive. It had very good performance and was fun to drive.
My grandparents had a farm in Iowa, they had a lark station wagon and a pickup don’t know what year they were. I found out later that he was a mechanic for studebaker I have always wanted a studebaker.
I don't know if this is a fact, but somewhere in my murky memory is the concept that "STP" meant "Studebaker Tested Product".
+WAQWBrentwood Maybe not far off, though it's "Scientifically Tested Petroleum".
+WAQWBrentwood STP stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum. The brand was around for years before Studebaker bought it. Many of Studebakers old product lines are still around today. STP, Onan generators, Clarke Equipment, Gravely lawn equipment to name a few.
Scientifically treated petroleum. It had lead as a lubricant and a hyponex molecular structure that expanded as it got hotter, thus increasing the viscosity, or "stabilizing" the viscosity. It was developed by the Germans during the second world war to increase the life of the oil in their U boats as Germany was under a war time petroleum embargo, and was not receiving enough petroleum products to keep their war machine running. They [ the Germans] also developed very high quality full synthetic lubricants too for the same reason in the same time frame.
I still think had Sherwood Egbert not gotten cancer, we may still have a studebaker making cars.
I would imagine what Studebaker would've looked like had Studebaker and Packard merged together with Hudson and Nash along with Kaiser and Jeep to create AMC in 1954?
Tragic story indeed, excellent cars in the day but a perfect lesson in greedy labour and mismanagement.
I always understood that two buildings were not connected by any kind of conveyor, requiring the output of one to be loaded onto trucks and moved to the other building, where they would have to unload those same trucks. If so, that was far worse than "greedy" Labour. Another problem is that Studebaker, after the war, made their cars too small. They should have been wider and longer, which would have accentuated the fact that they were as low as a step-down Hudson.
Not realized at the time was that by branching out into other fields, Studebaker Corp was preparing to leave the business of building automobiles.
As if a coat of paint would do anything. Think about it; when you do a paint job on anything it is the surface preparation that makes the job. Slap on the paint over rust and dirt and it looks worse than having done nothing.
Like lipstick on a pig .
There was little prep work done...videos from inside the shuttered plant showed large shards of paint peeling off the walls..
it was sad when the south bend plant closed in Dec of 1963, then the Canadian plant in 1966. This was a preview of things to come for many companys.
+Michael McCombs My family used to get a new Studebaker every two or three years, until it was announced that they would stop making their own engines and purchase Chevrolet engines from Generous Motors. I am sure that was the reason they lost many loyal customers.
Yes, one of the definitions of STP has been said to be Studebaker Test Products. There have been others under the brand. Kids used to try and figure it out, like Studebaker tops Packard, and similar silly monicors.
+Neil Dickson STP stands for Scientifically Treated Petroleum. The brand was around for years before Studebaker bought it. The history is on their website.
Scientifically treated petroleum. It had lead as a lubricant and a hyponex molecular structure that expanded as it got hotter, thus increasing the viscosity, or "stabilizing" the viscosity. It was developed by the Germans during the second world war to increase the life of the oil in their U boats as Germany was under a war time petroleum embargo, and was not receiving enough petroleum products to keep their war machine running. They [ the Germans] also developed very high quality full synthetic lubricants too for the same reason in the same time frame.
@xcellken1 I think we all played that game. I remember Studebaker tops Pontiac.
@@3RTracing it's amazing how many technologies the Germans created before and during the war. Many are still coming out as new technologies today. I wonder if they had anything to do with the current battery technologies.
Studebaker Technical Products
If this film is to believed, they had no cash shortage and could have invested in a new modern car, but they had no intention of continuing the car division.
Just saw a production of "Guys & Dolls", written by Frank Loesser. There is a line "I hope he get stabbed by a Studebaker!". Play made Broadway in 1951, therefore, this has to be in reference to the "bullet nose" Studebakers.
My 62 is LIKE NEW
It's a shame that Studebaker won't be in business by 1965.
They stopped making cars and stayed in business
They became everything but cars.
studebaker was fighting a loosing battle with the big 3 auto builders//--how can you build under 100k vehicles at the same cost as both ford and chev.building over a million each???--not possible//--2nd major problem studebaker. workers were paid higher than industry standard wages.--3rd problem paying annual dividends even after mediocre sales years 4th problem they urgently needed a good TRUCK person to continue the momentum started by the legendary US6X6 --YES niche automobiles can make it in high volume markets//--just look at SUBARU-DIFFERENT BY DESIGN and highly successful
One of the reasons Studebaker went under, but not the only one.
Ultimately management lost its will and decided on a quick cash out rather than fighting for the company.
@@ThunderAppeal Honestly, management was completely in the right to wind down automotive production and concentrate on their other holdings when they did. After the 1953 Chevrolet-Ford price war that practically crippled all the remaining independents, coupled by Studebaker's mismanagement of the demand of Loewy coupes that year (resulting in the same piss-poor build quality that Chrysler would suffer a few years later during their Forward Look), Studebaker was done as an automaker. Everything after just forestalled the inevitable. The flood of imports in the 1970s coupled with increasing safety and environmental regulation would have caused the entirety of Studebaker to go down instead of just a part of it.
I say this as someone who loves Studebaker and dailies a '62 GT Hawk. It's unfortunate, but it's the cold, hard truth.
Eggbert was the guy that okayed the Avanti I believe
While the Avanti was a great car, it could never expected to show any real profit. The Lark should have been a full size car.
@@danr1920 The whole reason why the Lark was a success in the first place was because it was a compact. If Studebaker had made it full-sized, like you suggest, all that would have resulted is more dwindling sales off of an already pathetic 1958 model year of 78,000 vehicles in total.
They should have closed the South Bend plant instead of the Detroit plant. Studebakers could have been built in Detroit and Packard production could have moved to Canada and used the 1955-56 platform instead of making Packardbakers.
The issue was that Packard was stoney broke, and the Studebaker general ledger was unhealthy, feilding a separate chassis car in an economy market, with a huge cost forecast in steering, axles, buy in transmissions, and new fangled compliance costs in the horizon. The forward loaded cost of making the highly legislated 1967 to 68 models almost killed AMC. It would have done the same to Studebaker. Someone worked out the cost of a new plant and workforce to make a new car. World wide, From 58 to 66, every mass produced Western car maker from Borgward to Far East makers like Prince, were going bust....FAST. Probably wisely, the team "threw" in the towel rather than suffering a Debt Bomb like Chrysler Corporation did from 1963 to 1978. Mopar were really strong on product, but rapidly lost ability to pay for crash and Emissions and smarter production cost reductions without hurting product. The dollars have to add up. Imagine the plant cost for new steering and a new separate style Toyota Crown chassis or Falcon, AMC or Chrysler style unibody.
I've never seen so much made out of "cleaning up" and "painting". It's called routine plant maintenance - calling it out repeatedly is just sad. And seeing Studebaker gloat about the money making divisions only reinforces the feeling that they pulled the plug on the automobile division to avoid pension liabilities.
They made great cars
What four cylinder???
Never came to fruition. The cost would take a big chunk of limited cash, and the sales benefit of a four banger was doubtful.
Sad
I come from Scotland my dad ran 6 Studebaker ex miltery trucks for his Haulage Business many years ago he loved them said they were built like a Tank good go anywhere Vehicles 6 wheel drive.
Truly is a shame don't have Studebaker it was a great American car just look around our roads today they are filled with foreign junk cars
Dressing up the plant is like dressing up a corpse.
Instead of raising the worker wage, they just fritter the money away painting a plant that they close a year later. Just like Motorola......
They might have painted it with plans to sell it
It's sad That we lost our American luxurious car brand But in this case sometimes. I wonder What cars they would have in their lineup If they made cars today.
Studebaker historically was firmly in the middle-price market, although they went down-market after WWII. The only cars they ever built that were truly of the best in the industry as far as luxury and refinement went was the pre-war President and the Avanti.
@@jakekaywell5972 I wounder why GM, Ford, or Chrysler corp. Did not get the chance they had to buy them out and make them.
@@PontiacFan68 The short answer to that is that the car facilities were too outdated, the management still wanted Studebaker to survive (just not as an automaker), and the Big Three already had their own marques they could and did use.
That said, my '62 GT Hawk is both under-appreciated and lovely. It's also firmly a middle-class car as well.
@@jakekaywell5972 - Studebaker commercials always claimed that they were in the low price field.
Studebaker Board did perform their fiduciary responsibilities by protecting the stock holder from liquidation. Just not a glamorous way to end auto production.
Yeah, but they completely fucked their loyal employees.
I wouldnt call that responsible in any way at all.
You sound like a shit eating corporate shill.
4:58 a tight squeeze
Then Egbert got cancer and that was the end of the car company.
In WWII they built trucks for the Russian Army. The trucks had 'Studebaker' name on the front. Russian guys thought 'Studebaker' meant Truck in English. Eager to pick up on English words, they would call their Russian Trucks 'Studebaker's'
No way-it's a lie...
I remember hearing a story, that in Russia, after receiving the Trucks. The word Studebaker, became a synanym, for whatever their word is, that means Indestructible?
Earlier this year I was watching Russian-made movies with English subtitles. I commented on one that I was surprised that a truck that the bad guys were driving was a Dodge and was referred to as such on a few occasions in the dialog. A Russian fellow replied to my comment that knowing about Studebaker and Dodge trucks is common knowledge among Russians interested in WW2 history.
They did not improve the Gravely what a lost opportunity.
I live near a garden center that sells Gravely garden equipment. I didn’t know they were still around.
Studebaker almost ruined gravely.they wanted to move the company and pay less wages...they couldn't find workers and manufacturing tumbled.studebaker sold it off shortly thereafter.
Oh come on by the 1950's Studebaker was making just about the worst engines in America. Every Studebakers more than a couple of years old were horrendous oil burners. Studebaker was in such dire straights they were unable to give their engine blocks proper time to season and they were rushed into machining way too soon. Consequently the blocks and bores suffered premature wear and dimensional instability.
Studebaker introduced their OHV V8 in 1951. 1year before Chrysler, 3 Years before Ford, and 4 years before Chevy had one. And I believe, they actually had fewer problems, with premature wear and dimensional instability, than any of the other manufacturers did at the time, or even subsequently? They may not have, as deliberately, squelched the discussion of these issues, as the other manufacturers did? But it's been fairly well established by now. That most of this was due to a lack of viscosity standards. For motor oils that were on the market, at the time! And that, the Studebaker V8 is one of the most durable and trouble free power plants ever produced, by any manufacturer!
absolutely incorrect. Studebaker engines lasted longer, got better mileage, where more efficient and better assembled and engineered than most all of the other V8's in the industry. The V8's were pretty much indestructible. As far as oil burning, many Studebaker buyers opted to not have an oil filter, which was truly a bad option offered by Studebaker. That contributed to an oil burner. Conversely, those engines that were fitted with oil filtration went for 100's of thousands of miles without a ring job.
@@glorialondon5054 many Studebakers were shipped without an oil filter system. That did contribute to the oil burning issue in some engines.
Total BS
If I may offer a third opinion. A friend of mine who is older and a great mechanic and very knowledgeable of automotive history once told me. " Studebaker engines were OK but when they developed the 289/ 301 V8 in such a short time with such a small budget it was impressive for what it was, But the bulk of their sales like with Ford, Chevrolet and Dodge was economy cars. but for some reason they kept using their out dated flat 6. it got good mileage and was cheap but was really under powered. and the big three had 6's that got almost the same mileage but had way more torque. (better street performance) then they made a huge mistake. instead of developing a new ohv 6 they started using the Chevy 6. If you mass produce cars NEVER use a competitors engine/ drive train. when they started using the chevy V8 I knew it was all over for Studebaker."