It’s time to visit a few Studebaker dealers and check out some South Bend products. There’s a nice supporting cast of old Detroit iron in a few of these shots. Also, be on the lookout for the Charlie Stuart Inc. pics, as they seem to chronic the highs and lows of Studebaker’s history. The lead pic is in Arcure Motors, Ann Arbor.
Charlie Stuart Inc., Indiana.
Munch Studebaker, Swissvale, Penssylvania.
Merriman Motors, Raleigh, North Carolina.
Klyce Motors, Memphis, Tenessee.
LeFevre Motors, Brookings, South Dakota.
Martin Motors, Hattiesburg, Mississippi.
Newman & Altman, South Bend.
Charlie Stuart Inc., Indiana.
Whattoff Motors, Ames, Iowa.
The ‘Car Of The Future’, in the showroom.
Buckley Brothers, Denver, Colorado.
Charlie Stuart Inc., Indiana.
In the first photo, I sure wish I could cut a deal on that `54 Mercury Sun Valley just to the left of the showroom window out front.
I remember one of those in a junkyard we used to go in going cross lots across the street from my house as a kid… Thought it was so cool…!!! Also one of those “cars of the future” in the same yard
Notice too that alongside the Sun Valley there are two more contemporary Mercs and also directly behind the SV is another. Seems like a lot of Mercuries to be hanging around a Studie dealer though I don’t recall another Mercury/Studebaker
combine dealer either.
Klyce Motors was actually in Memphis, TN, on Cleveland St.
https://memphismagazine.com/ask-vance/lost-memphis-klyce-motors-memphis-studebaker-dealership/
Thanks. It’s updated now.
For the Martin Motors of Hattiesburg, MS photo, chances are this was shot on West Pine St which was auto dealership row up to the 00’s. I ended up buying a ’97 Camry on this street.
Now, most dealers have moved to the west of town following the city’s growth and the street is composed of used car lots and pawn shops.
Actually, that building is on East Pine – 606 E. Pine St., and the building is still standing (though vacant). Photo and StreetView below.
Looks like Martin Motors picked up an Oldsmobile franchise sometime in the late 1950s – had a showroom at 318 E. Pine St. for a while, and then moved to 1419 W. Pine in the mid 1960s. That building is still standing too.
https://maps.app.goo.gl/3N69PW6u5skTFuDp8
I wonder if these dealers were approached by other marques when Studebaker collapsed.
I would image these defunct dealers were cherry picked based on coverage in a particular town or area.
Franchise agreements can be tricky.
Very unlikely, as Studebaker dealers were almost invariably small, old and not exactly attractive in 1966 to the Big 3. The smart ones picked up Toyota and went on to have great success; some went with Datsun.
Our hometown Packard dealer, John Moonry, became an S-P dealer in ’55, then switched to Edsel in ’58, did a stint peddling Skodas, then finally hit it big with Volkswagen. McKeesport was full of bugs when I was a kid.
My local Packard dealer, Covington Packard in Silver Spring, MD also took on Edsels after deciding not to sell the Studebaker-based 1957 models (they didn’t want to have to stock a second set of parts, retrain mechanics, and compete with the Studebaker dealer a few blocks away selling the same basic car for less). When that didn’t work, they became a Buick dealer. They’d later move across town and sold my dad his last new car, a special-ordered 1995 Park Avenue.
Several former independent-make dealers were lured into becoming Edsel dealerships, as a new upscale Ford brand seemed like a good bet when the remaining independents like Packard, Hudson, and Kaiser were failing.
Robert ;
I wonder how the shop mechanics liked all that .
VW’s meant all new Metric tools back when Metric anything ws considered exotic .
I remember buying Metric tools in the mid 1960’s, just the ones I needed to get one particular job done, it was the late 1970’s before I could afford to buy Metric sets .
Times have changed so much, you had to be there to understand .
-Nate
I wonder if these dealers were approached by other marques when Studebaker collapsed.
Postcard view of Husak in Detroit.
My dad bought his 60 Lark at Husak. One day, I rode along when dad stopped at Husak to pick up something for the Lark. I noticed all the signage on the place said Dodge, and asked dad about that. He said that they still serviced Studebakers. This would probably have been some time in 63 or 64, because that Lark was traded in on a new Galaxie in Feb 65, when Studebaker was still sputtering along.
The former Studebaker dealer in Kalamazoo because a VW dealer, tho I don’t know if it was the same dealer changing brands, or a new dealer buying the vacant dealership building.
Big Three district sales managers ‘head-hunted’ the more successful Studebaker dealers in the early-mid 1950’s as Studebaker’s sales fell. The Studebaker dealers with a proven track record of volume sales were actively enticed to switch makes especially by those where the Big Three makes had thin representation in an area.
By the 1960’s, the remaining dealers were typically, small, poorly located, underfunded operations of little use as potential Big Three sales organizations. An internal Studebaker document accessing the quality and condition of the dealership body found that only about one third were at all affective sales outlets.
Some Studebaker dealers were able to parlay their Mercedes-Benz franchises into a stand-alone dealership for M-B as that make rose throughout the 1960’s. Others took on the Japanese imports franchises since those represented promising opportunities which paid off handsomely for many into the 1970’s.
And a few old-time Studebaker dealers just kept on with service and repairs for their loyal customers. Standard Surplus Co. which handled Studebaker service replacement parts was their source, then Newman & Altman bought that operation which became one of the main sources as Studebakers transitioned into collector cars.
One of my local Studebaker dealers – American Service Center in Arlington, VA, did that – they became an exclusive M-B dealer which they remain today at the same location and (now-expanded) building, now called Mercedes-Benz of Arlington. They didn’t even change their sign much – it said American Service Center with STUDEBAKER in larger letters below it; they simply removed the Studebaker lettering and left the ASC lettering in place for a long time. One of their dealer advertisements from decades ago showed an inside view from 1961 with both brands in the showroom.
I would imagine that Altman in SouthBend included ?Nate Altman who ?worked for Studebaker and bought the rights to and continued producing the Avanti?
Impressively presented displays. Small footprints, remind me of the AMC dealerships I recall seeing. The gentleman at LeFevre Motors in South Dakota, quite resembles the politician most likely to become the next PM of Canada.
Wow – the resemblance there is uncanny!
Lets hope he does become the next PM of Canada…
+1
First snap.. ‘49 Jeepster.. grew up with a ‘49 Jeepster as my dad’s commuter car, great memories..
In high school one of the adults at work (Sears) drove a ‘54 Mercury Sun Valley, yellow with a green roof.. it was just a twenty year old car..
When dad was in the market in 56, the dealer in West Dearborn, where he bought the 51 Champion, was already out of business, (in the 60s that building was occupied by the Pompeii restaurant). He said he went to Ann Arbor to buy this 56 Commander, so this car was probably bought at Arcure Motors in the lead pic, as I doubt Ann Arbor would have had two Studebaker dealers.
Photo #2: Charlie Stuart. I like that they’ve painted up a jalopy ’20s (Studebaker?) And they’re giving away a free pony, just like Edsel dealers would do 8 years later.
“To sell ’em something, you gotta get their attention first!”
It’s hard to imagine that, in their heyday, Studebaker had a nationwide network of dealerships. Also hard to recall that, at one time, many auto dealerships were quite small, modest affairs, a far cry from today’s gigantic chrome and glass window monstrosities.
Wasn’t the Studebaker dealer network was one of the key things that drew Jim Nance and Packard to merge with them?
Awesome pictures here, as usual!
Just some more detail on some of the locations:
Munch Sales was located in Swissvale, Pennsylvania, which is a borough about 6 mi. east of Pittsburgh.
Merriman Motors was located in Raleigh, North Carolina – on Morgan St. in downtown.
Dealerships are interesting businesses. When I owned Saturns for over a decade, it was the dealerships and people I knew there that sold us the new cars. We didn’t seek out the new Saturns. Instead, as our Saturns needed routine services, when the time came, the Saturn dealership would let us know what our car was worth, what new cars were available within our budget, and as we kept adding children, how Saturn could fit our growing family. It was the dealerships that got us into new Saturns between 1999-2009. It was the dealership that let us know that they wanted our Saturn VUE and desperate to sell a fully loaded Saturn Relay. (The VUE was worth more than the Relay, but the Relay was what we needed.)
This means that dealerships can be more important than the vehicles they sell. So often we wonder why a particularly undistinguished vehicles is bought – well, I discovered that it is the relationships between the dealer and the customers that made those sales. I wouldn’t have said that any of the Saturns were fantastic, but the dealership was fantastic. We bought all five of our Saturns from the same saleswoman, the same management, the same garage team, until Saturn went out of business. We knew that any problem we had with the cars would be handled deftly, honestly, and that they were responsible for anything going wrong with any of the cars. There was a level of accountability you don’t get from jumping from one dealer to the next.
Car buying is rarely fun. The dealership makes a huge difference in how that happens. So, I can see how Americans found themselves driving a Lark in 1962 and not thinking about that decision twice. They knew the dealers who take care of them.
Munch Motors, as Eric noted, was in Swissvale, Pa. — 2003 Waverly Ave. A search of newspaper ads indicates that it closed sometime around 1953; in 1954, a classified ad appeared, offering for lease “a well-equipped auto service station” at the location.
The building is long gone. There’s a gas station there now (and has been at least since I was a kid).
In that case the pics, identifying, info has “Pittsburgh” misspelled
I’m reminded of the little Studebaker dealership in downtown Edmonton in the early sixties.
A city of nearly 500,000 with a thriving car culture and strong economic growth thanks to the oil and gas industry. I think this dealership, just off the main street downtown was the only one. So there were a few Studebakers on the streets. Visiting the dealership one day with my father as we waited for mom to get off work at the Mayfair Hotel, we looked over a couple of sedans in the showroom. He was nowhere near ready to trade in his little Mercury Comet sedan. I do recall he was not overly impressed with the cars we saw.
Charlie Stuart was in Indianapolis and was one of Studebaker’s biggest dealers. I have seen different North Meridian Street addresses, but there were at least two different locations on what was the city’s main “car dealer row” at the time. They also had a southside location in the early 1950’s. I think he was far and away the biggest of several Indianapolis Studebaker dealers.
Stuart picked up Oldsmobile too and was very successful over a long stretch. There are many photos of Stuart places and events on the website for the Indiana State Library.
Newman & Altman of South Bend may have been Studebaker’s biggest dealer of all. That is indeed the same Altman who ran the companies that 1) bought up the company’s parts inventory when the company got out of the car business and 2) created Avanti Motors.
Here is an interior shot of the Stuart dealership in the second photo from the top, which I believe is a different building from the one shown with all the neon later in this piece.
You beat me to it on Charlie Stuart. I lived in Indy 1968-70 while going to IUPUI and the Stude dealerships were of course gone, but I sure remember Charlie Stuart Oldsmobile. It was a big deal then.
I’m still aching to see a photo of a Studebaker/Mercedes dealership with a W120 190 sharing the sales floor with an E-series pickup.
I want to see an 300 SL gullwing next to a Scotsman…
I wish I had a picture of the old Packard dealership in downtown Dallas. Also the downtown Lincoln dealership I remember at only 3 years old.
Nice , so many memories .
-Nate
Found the pic of the former Studebaker dealer in Kalamazoo.
I remember the round area in the upper left corner of the facade of the white building having the Studebaker S in it. Some time after this pic was taken, the round VW logo was in that same area.
I don’t recall exactly when the transition happened, and don’t know if the same people owned the Studebaker and VW stores or not. The Rambler dealer was directly across the street from the Studebaker store, and I tagged along the day mom bought her 64 Rambler, but I don’t recall for sure if the Studebaker signage was still on that building at that time, or not. It was almost certainly still a Studebaker dealer in the era of the first gen Lark, because I have a pic of a Kalamazoo Township, Lark police car.
Ben Lindenbush, a long time St Louis Studebaker dealer made a relatively pain free transition to AMC cars in 1967.
My family had a Studebaker dealership – E.W. Robbins & Sons – in Bloomsburg, PA from 1932 to 1967. When Studebaker stopped producing cars in Canada, they tried to get VW or Dodge franchises. Neither worked out for them and they closed the dealership in 1967. They kept the building and rented to a tire store which is still operating at the same location.
Many years ago I bought and restored a 1923 Studebaker Big 6 EK Speedster. One of the nicest cars I ever had. It was a touring with double side mount tires in the fenders. It was very showy and a head turner. Lots of room and would cruise at 45-50 on the highway.. Found out later it was one of 2 left in the country. Sold it to a collector.
Correction. Merriman Motors above would have been in Raleigh, NORTH Carolina, not South Carolina.