1964 models on display in Arcata, CA.
1951 model key delivery.
Koepke Motor Sales, Lakewood, OH.
Dibble’s Sales & Service, Rochester, NY.
Mettam Inc., Danville, IL.
Joe Nickertz Studebaker, Lido, CA.
Donahue Motors, Albany, OR.
Juris Motors, Cle Elum, WA.
Monroe Penn Studebaker, Arlington, TX.
Roy J. Keller Studebaker-Toyota, Idaho Falls, ID.
I miss Studebakers, many looked weird to me even in the 1960’s (I was smitten by the 1965 Daytona Coupe in white) but they were always known for solidly engineered vehicles dating back to the horse pulled wagon days .
Frost & French was the big Los Angeles Studebaker dealer and lasted well into the late 1970’s before I stopped going by .
I treally like the slogan “Make Safe Driving A Habit” ! .
-Nate
Roly J. Keller, I hope, continued his Toyota franchise. What a great future with that marque. The photos are fun. Thanks.
A Studebaker only dealer may have been common in the early 1950s, but as the end approached in the mid 1960s, I imagine many dealers were hedging their bets and trying to find other automotive franchises to pick up. The Arcata, CA dealership appears to be one of those dealers that had not yet found another brand. At least that is what the signage suggests.
My neighbor on Montreal had 2 GT Hawks into the 70s. He finally gave up, and bought a ’74 Mustang II, V6 5 speed
The Albany, Oregon dealership building is still there. It is a glass business at 230 SE 2nd Ave.
Does the CC archive have more pictures of dead brands? I’d like to see what an Edsel dealer looked like, or in the modern era a Fisker dealer. Saturn would also be interesting since the dealerships were distinctive and easily checked for a then and now look.For instance Saturn of Beaverton, where we took our SL2 was remodeled into a Porsche dealersip by their neighbor Sunset Imports
The BMW motorcycle dealer I used to go to in New York was a catalog of dead brands. First the dealer was called House of Triumph, then he had signs for BSA and Bultaco and briefly sold the revived Matchless motorcycles from the late 80s.
You can tell the repurposed Hummer dealerships because they looked like fancy Quonset huts.
Our local Studebaker dealer was located in an old quonset hut. Just before Studebaker quit building cars they advertised sales and service for Studebaker, Packard, Mercedes-Benz, DKW, and Kaiser-Jeep as well as selling travel trailers, snowmobiles and motor cycles. They picked up the Datsun dealership in the late 1960s. By the mid 1970s they had dropped everything except Datsun and moved to a brand new facility. They lasted into the 1990s when the grandson of the founder sold out so he could retire. I think they did way better with Datsun/Nissan than they did with Studebaker. A lot of Larks were traded in on Datsun 510s.
Instead of showing dealerships with each photo only displaying 1-4 cars, I’d prefer a year of an Automaker’s lineup.
In my area the Studebaker dealer was also a junk yard, a very junky junkyard! It was humorous to drive by and see the new vehicles mixed in with the wrecked and scraped vehicles!
Some time ago, I found an Internet resource that listed all of the known locations of former Studebaker dealers. I went to a nearby location, and it appeared to be the original building still standing! Very surprising! Now that I see this post, the building looks very much like Joe Nickertz Studebaker, Lido, CA.
Is there a place called Lido in California? Or should it be Lodi?
I was in Arcata this summer and saw a 1964 or ‘65 Studebaker parked facing the street in front of a building that looked similar to the dealership in the lead photo. But that would be too much of a coincidence. I’m assuming the car was from those years because it had a license plate frame that read “Made in Canada”.
I owned 2 great studebakers in my youth. Now 80 years old i truly wish i had never let them go. First was a 62 lark, light green. Wonderful car. The next was a 57 silver Hawk. Jet black and chrome.BITCHEN CAR. Turn heads everywhere. Truly a sports sedan.
Arcata, CA would be way out in the boonies of Northern California in 1964 being above Eureka,
Those two salesmen at Dibble in those suits and ties look like they could make me an offer I couldn’t refuse.
Lido, CA is obviously Lodi, CA as there is no Lido.