The CC Cohort has been badly neglected of late, so let’s do something about that. Here’s a 1962 Studebaker Lark wagon shot in a Colorado Springs parking lot by Hugo90. 1962 was the last year before Brooks Stevens’ last-ditch restyling of the Studebakers, including the wondrous Wagonaire. So yes, it’s looking a bit old-fashioned, and those big 15″ wheels and tires only add to the effect.
Suddenly, this reminds me of another wagon. Can you guess which one?
Well, sort of…now what if Studebaker and International had merged? That’s something to ponder…
Its odd how each part, taken by itself, is not that bad. Yet stand back and behold the summation and, yeck, it just doesn’t work. Oh well, it is now a cool old cruiser, better now than it ever was back in the day.
Or a Chevy HHR, from the rear.
Yup I certainly see some resemblance. Of course I’m partial to the Travelall.
I would’ve liked to see Studebaker merge with Daimler-Benz or AMC. Studebaker already had its own trucks, so an IH merger would have created some redundancies.
But Stude was REALLY neglecting the truck line (even worse than the out of date cars.) I could see the Studebaker/Case IH corporation giving Stude a lease on life for another roughly 20 years but then IH passenger trucks would have still likely died in the early 80s. Although to make things worse didn’t both corporations have an adversarial relationship with their unions?
And many forget that Stude was into the Gravely tractor business etc. There likely would have been more economies of scale for the two corporations then there appears to be at first glance.
I forgot about Gravely. Aren’t they still in business?
http://www.gravely.com/Pages/default.aspx
Yes they are. I guess you can say that there are still parts of the old Stuebaker corp around.
Well MadHungarian the Facel-Vegas would have been more Packard looking than the Packard-bakers…
At the time, Studebaker-Packard owned the US distributing rights for Mercedes-Benz. I think they had some dual dealers and even did joint advertising. The affiliation is probably responsible for the Mercedes-esque styling features that found their way into the Lark and GT Hawk (the 1963 Larks being probably the best example). I think that was more something that just kinda happened rather than any convergence between the two makes being officially promoted by Daimler-Benz.
In fact, the relationship was the source of the final nail driven into Packard’s coffin. D-B objected to a 1960 or ’61 proposal to sell rebadged Facel-Vegas in the US as Packards on the grounds that they did not want another European luxury car competing for attention in the same showrooms.
I think the Stude looks like a Travelall when someone left the back windows rolled down and a tree trunk hit the sills and bent the doors!
Oh well…
There is something about these Lark wagons that I find almost irresistible. One came up on my local CL, but a tree had fallen onto the roof at and behind the right rear door. A nice car, otherwise. Actually, I am having a hard time finding fault with a garage containing both of these wagons.
Let’s see – a Studebaker-IH merger. From what we know about both, I can guess two things: the two companies’ unique abilities to design rusting into their vehicles would have resulted in panel perforation before leaving the dealer’s lot for the first time. Also, given what we know about both vehicles’ narcotic-like effect on their owners, the government might have had to set up the automotive equivalent of methadone clinics for affected owners, or else individual owners would have collections that looked like the Chrysler Sales Bank of the late 1970s.
“…unique abilities to design rusting into their vehicles…”
Ha ha, JP! That little blurb is the SOLE reason I passed on considering a 1976 IH Scout ll when searching for my first new vehicle purchase!
I don’t believe I saw vehicles that rusted out quicker.
Prefer the Travelall meself but I can see the similarity between the two, the Stude looks bent in the middle like the 48 Mercury Ambulance friends had years ago it was also an illusion. Must do some uploading to the cohort soon Ive seen some interesting cars recently I need to share with you guys
I do not understand the studebaker hate. Yes Paul, it does look as though IH might have stolen some design cues from the stud (don’t tell Eric I said that) but there is room for them both at my house. Studebaker was always a favorite of mine so if you wouldn’t mind shipping one of the hawks (any hawk) down to my house I might forgive your treatment of the lark.
Agreed. I’d give one a home. S’matter of fact, there is a Studebaker PU nearby that would seem to be something of a daily driver…I see it in town two or three times a week. If it ever came up for sale I’d look into it in a New York minute.
I prefer the Studebakers, although the Travelall was (and still is) a great vehicle. The Brooks Steven’s greenhouse restyling for ’63 brought the car’s looks into line with its contemporaries, in other words, modern. Post 1954 Studebakers was, “when given lemons, make lemonade.” That statement fits the Studebaker Lark.
Ok, so I’m not well-versed in my IHs, but was the Travelall a Fort Wayne production? If so, could this general look just be a Hoosier thing? Because the similarities are undeniable.
(Hoosier is what we call ourselves in Indiana. It’s because most of us can’t spell Indianaonian.)
I believe that it was just Scouts and heavy trucks built in Fort Wayne. I do not know where the Travelalls and Pickups came from. I’ll bet Eric can tell us.
Springfield OH is where the most of the Travelalls and pickups were built. They did have a plant in Chatham Ontario where they built Light Line trucks, including the Scout, until 1968.
What’s even funnier is that the Brooks Stevens restyle made the Studebaker look a lot like another proto-SUV…Steven’s own Wagoneer.
Hey how about an Eagle SX4 drivetrain for the Lark? 😛
Good grief, that explains why I like early Travelalls so much.
Yes a Raymond Lowry designed farm tractor would have been wonderful. Brookes Stevens would have made the tractor look like, well er like a tractor.
A Studebaker-Jeep merger might have been a better fit. IH was still too focused on big trucks and didn’t really need a merger at the time. Kaiser-Jeep, in contrast, would have greatly benefited from a larger dealer network, an in-house V8, and greater economies of scale. In addition, an updated Studebaker platform could have been a less costly basis for the Wagoneer/truck and allowed Studebaker a more gradual exit from the passenger-car business.
The basic Studebaker body would have made a decent compact truck/wagon/taxi cab. Given the long and successful production run of the Jeep Wagoneer/Cherokee, this gambit might have been Studebaker’s only realistic option for long-term survival as an automobile manufacturer.
I don’t know if that would have been a good thing. Something like this abortive Hummer-competitor, the “Studebaker” XUV, could have actually gone into production. An truck/SUV-only independent would have crashed and died when gas hit $4. As Chrysler almost was, and almost did.
I don’t know, I think the Studebaker wagon may have survived…
Ha! I’d like to show that to the owner of one of those Bentleys.
Or as this: