The Avanti was a last ditch effort by Studebakers CEO to produce a dream car with fantastic design and performance so as to save Studebaker. The CEO, I believe his name was Sherwood Egbert, returned to Raymond Loewy's design studios for the last big push to save the company. Loewy had been the design firm which designed all of Studebaker's previous milestone cars, starting back with the 1940 Champion. The other milestones were the 1947 models, the first cars to have an envelope body so that the fenders were integrated into the body and not bolted on. Then the 1950 bullet nose, then the low slung 1953 models, then the 1956 Hawk series, another gorgeous line of cars which had fantastic styling plus powerful performance.
Check out this link to pictures of the 1956 Golden Hawk:
https://www.google.com/search?q=195...0s-cars%2F1956_studebaker_golden_hawk;550;368
Loewy used existing bodies as the basis for the Avanti to save money but came up with another timeless and beautiful design. When the Avanti appeared, it caused enormous interest and thousands of eager potential customer ordered an Avanti. The problem was that Studebaker's board of directors decided they wanted to get out of the automobiles business and they weren't willing to borrow heavily from banks and commit themselves to Avanti production. Egbert fought hard and was able to finally bring the Avanti to market but by the time it began being produced, most of the early orders had been cancelled.
The real problems with Studebaker stemmed with their merger with Packard, the old line luxury car maker, sort of an American version of Mercedes. George Mason, of Nash realized around 1953 that the Independent auto makers, Nash, Hudson, Studebaker and Packard just weren't big enough to compete with the huge auto giants, General Motors, Ford and to a lesser extant Chrysler Corporation. Mason decided that his company Nash, merge with Hudson. Meanwhile Studebaker would merge with Packard and then all four makes would have merged into another large auto conglomerate called American Motors.
First Nash merged with Hudson in 1954, forming American Motors. Suddenly, out of nowhere George Mason died of a heart attack. Meanwhile, Studebaker merged with Packard. When Mason died suddenly, George Romney, Mitt Romney's father took over American Motors and Romney did not want to merge with Studebaker-Packard. He did not honor Mason's previous agreements to do so. Romney forged ahead with great success by getting rid of the Nash and Hudson brands and concentrating on the economical and very reliable Rambler line of compact cars.
Studebaker and Packard had merged. Studebaker was the larger of the two car companies but Packard was in much better shape financially Studebaker was bleeding. They were operating not in Detroit but in South Bend. Indiana in an antiquated plant. They were paying the highest wages in the industry. Ford and Chevy were waging an enormous battle to be the number one seller. Chevy had taken number #1 from Ford around 1931 and now that Henry Ford had died, his grandson, Henry Ford III wanted the number #1 title back so he cut prices to the bone, powerful GM cut their Chevy prices in retaliation. AMC was able to handle this because they now offered only compact cars, cars which other makers were not making. Studebaker however, simply could not compete with Ford and Chevy. For that matter, Chrysler Corporation was having trouble competing as well. The Ford versus Chevy battle dragged on for years. Ford never quite passed Chevy in the 1950's although they came very close a couple of times. Chrysler was big enough to secure financing and revamp their entire line up in both 1955 and again in 1957. They survived but over at Studebaker Packard, they could simply not compete with Ford and Chevy. A Ford or Chevy that could be sold for $1,900 would require Studebaker to answer with a car having to sell for about $2,300.
Once financially rich Packard was being dragged down by its partner Studebaker. Studebaker tried to stop the bleeding by doing what AMC had done under Romney, They brought out the compact Lark for 1959. The Lark sold in impressive numbers and gave Studebaker a reprieve for 2 years but then the Larks had to face new competition as GM, Ford and Chrysler finally brought out their compact cars in 1961, the Corvair, the Falcon and the Valiant. The Lark and the Rambler both needed to redesign and retool to counter the new compacts coming from the large companies. AMC, now rich and successful did just that but Studebaker was too weak financially to respond. At this point, Studebaker brought in a new CEO Brook Stevens. Management had decided to quit the car business and they wanted Stevens to simply wind down automobile operations. Stevens however, still wanted to fight to save the Studebaker automobile He razzle dazzled management with pictures of the Avanti and a new and advanced line up for the 1966 and 67 model years. Management was leery but voted Egbert a small budget to proceed with the Avanti.
The Avanti premiered in 1962 and racked up thousands of customer placed advance orders. Hitches arose in converting the factory to Avanti production. There was an almost one year delay before the Avanti was able to be delivered to customers. By then, most of the advance orders had been cancelled. The new Avanti finally arrived and got a lot of good press and some satisfied customer. The Avanti may not have been too little but it was definitely too late. Studebaker's board of directors had enough and finally cut off all auto operations including the Avanti. Brooks Stevens was forced out and Studebaker started pursuing real estate and other venues.
A group of Avanti admirers love the Avanti so much, the bought the rights to the Avanti name and the remaining Avanti production equipment at South Bend. They began selling an Avanti II. It looked almost exactly like the original Avanti but it was fitted with a General Motors high performance V8 engine. In the early 1980's, Avanti II was being marketed aggressively for about $30,000. They were selling about 1000 units a year and were making a profit. The company changed hands many times in the late 80's and 90's under 5 or 6 owners until the company ended up in Mexico in 2006. In that year Avanti II did its swan song and went out of business for good. It is amazing but the Avanti and Avanti II had a run of about 45 years after the Studebaker factory in South Bend, Ind. closed down. Why did it last so long? The main thing seems to be the styling. The Raymond Lowey studios endowed the Avanti with timeesll styling.
Here is a link to the Avani II -
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Avanti_(car)
Raymond Loewy was French born and lived to the ripe old age of 93, dying in Monte Carlo in 1986: here is a link to Raymond Loewy:
https://www.google.com/webhp?source...45US445&ion=1&espv=2&ie=UTF-8#q=raymond+loewy
Of all the independent automakers Studebaker definitely had the most panache. They featured beautifully styled cars which were also well built and reliable. They prospered in the late 1940's and early 1950's. There cars got even better in the mid 50's but the Ford versus Chevy sales blitz simply decimated Studebaker. Studebaker did not have the financial reserves to fight it out with Ford and Chevy. Also, due to their antiquated factory and limited amount of cash, they could not match Ford and Chevy in price. Financially strong Packard merged with them and the merger took down both companies.
Both Studebaker and Packard had built incredible cars since the early 1900's. By 1958, the Packard marque was gone while Studebaker held on through 1966 when they finally shut down. There are still plenty of Studebakers on the road. You see them frequently at auto shows and every now and then you will see one on the road. They made a good product, often leading the industry in styling and in features. The company became undercapitalized and their management simply was not strong enough to steer them through the Ford versus Chevy sales battles of the 1950's.
Lakey
