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who posted this? FESS UP!

I saved this from the NG over two years ago because I knew I wanted to post it on our club website. I want to use it now, and wish the author would email me at:::

daflexx at mchsi dot com

with permission!

Dave Miller, So. Ga SDC

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Lo and Behold, computer system is happy today and allowing me to post for the first time in a month. Probably so much the better, I am sure. Good to see so many smiling faces in South Bend last weekend; it sure was a great time, eh? Geeze, I actually bought a Studebaker item from JP; Lee DeLaBarre witnessed and can testify!

I saw Kevin Wolford's reference to the Kennedy Assassination in the thread "An Apology," but couldn't find the original thread. Kevin's hypothesis is correct and is one of four contributing factors to the South Bend plant closing in December 1963.

There were actually four contributing factors, probably none more important than another. Studebaker might have survived any two of them, but the combination of all four nailed The South Bend coffin shut by early December. The Four Coffin Nails were, in no particular order:

  1. Sherwood Egbert becoming too physically ill to run the company.

  1. Studebaker's gross overproduction of 1963 models during the summer of 1963, against no dealer orders, to keep the lines running even though the 1963s were not selling.

  2. John F. Kennedy's assassination.

  1. The excellent new head-to-head competition offered by General Motors in the form of the Chevrolet Chevelle/Malibu and the thoroughly restyled and now conventionally-engineered Buick Special/Skylark, Pontiac Tempest/LeMans, and Oldsmobile F-85/Cutlass.

Reply to
So. Ga. Cruiser
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Gosh......don't remember the original posting (but I don't remember much these days).

But if we care to stir-up the group with further discussion of "what if?":

I agree with the 4 factors cited (but there were surely many more):

  1. Sherwood Egbert's health: not only his inability to function at full strength, but assume his credibility with the Board was weakened when Avanti failed.

  1. gross overproduction of '63s: have heard that cited before as well......it's my understanding that they still had 3000+ '63s at the factory......and more at dealers......while trying to launch the '64s.

  2. Kennedy assassination: yes, several sources say that the Board had set a "Do or Die" date on the calendar to decide the auto division's fate......the JFK assassination killed all companies' sales.....but by then, the Board was probably glad to have poor sales to justify the decision they wanted to make.

  1. new models from competitors......yup, I can remember the impact of the new Malibu, LeMans, Cutlass & Skylark. Supercharged 289's didn't cut it against cheap big-blocks. Not to mention that we knew the Mustang was coming.

I'm now reading Patrick Foster's "Studebaker - The Complete History".......I wouldn't call it complete, but he does have some new points.

He seems to think the death blow was the early '62 strike: i.e. the "new" Hawk & Larks were well received, but they lost 38 days production at precisely the wrong time, turning what might have been a good year into a disappointment and further shaking confidence in the company.

Foster also indicates that Egbert really wanted to push for the new "Avanti styled" sedans (in steel on the existing chassis) as an upmarket companion to the Lark .......but with the failure of the Avanti and his failing health the Board wasn't interested.

Haven't finished the book yet, but Foster lists the tax credits available to the corporation to offset losses........the last big tax credits expired at the end of December, 1963, eliminating justification for keeping the South Bend plant open.

Another thing I hadn't realized: not only did the '59 Lark give them the best sales they had had in years, it was the corporations most profitable year EVER. Wow......things happen quickly in the car business. Most of us admire Egbert for what he tried to do.....but "what if" Harold Churchill hadn't been replaced?

Reply to
Itsfrom Click

Bob Palma had a thread in May, 2003 that contained this copy.....

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Copy a line from your thread and toss it in the search box and select 'search this group'

HTIH Jeff

Reply to
Deepnhock

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