Studebaker Automobiles 1897-1966
Beginnings
In 1895, John M's son-in-law Fred Fish urged for development of 'a practical horseless carriage'. When, on Peter's death, he became chairman of the executive committee in 1897, the firm had an engineer working on a motor vehicle. At first, Studebaker opted for electric (battery-powered) over gasoline propulsion. But in those days there was no future for a slow car dependent on heavy, primitive batteries. While it attempted to manufacture its own electric vehicles from 1902 to 1911, the company entered into body-manufacturing and distribution agreements with two makers of gasoline powered vehicles, Garford of Elyria, Ohio, and the Everett-Metzger-Flanders (E-M-F) Company of Detroit. Beginning in 1904, Studebaker began making gasoline-engined cars.
Garford
Under the agreement with Studebaker, Garford would receive completed chassis and drivetrains from Ohio and then mate them with Studebaker-built bodies, which were sold under the Studebaker-Garford brand name at premium prices. Eventually, vehicles with Garford-built engines began to carry the Studebaker name. Garford also built cars under its own name and, by 1907, attempted to increase production at the expense of Studebaker. Once the Studebakers discovered this, John Mohler Studebaker enforced a primacy clause, forcing Garford back on to the scheduled production quotas. The decision to drop the Garford was made and the final product rolled off the assembly line by 1911, leaving Garford alone until it was acquired by John North Willys in 1913.
E-M-F
Studebaker's marketing agreement with the E-M-F Company was a different relationship, one John Studebaker had hoped would give Studebaker a quality product without the entanglements found in the Garford relationship, but this was not to be. Under the terms of the agreement, E-M-F would manufacture vehicles and the Studebakers would distribute them through their wagon dealers. Now company president, Fred Fish purchased one-third of the E-M-F stock in 1908 and followed up by acquiring all the remainder from J. P. Morgan in 1910 and buying E-M-F's manufacturing plants at Walkerville, Ontario, Canada, and across the river in Detroit.
Studebaker marque established
In 1911, it was decided to refinance and incorporate as the Studebaker Corporation. The company discontinued making electric vehicles that same year.
The E-M-F gasoline-powered cars had proved disastrously unreliable, causing wags to say that E-M-F stood for Every Morning Fix-it, Easy Mark's Favorite and the like.Compounding the problems was the infighting between E-M-F's principal partners, Everett, Flanders and Metzger. Eventually in mid-1909, Everitt and Metger left to start a new enterprise. Flanders also quit and joined them in 1912 but the Metzger Motor Car Co could not be saved from failure by renaming it the Flanders Motor Company. After taking over E-M-F's facilities, to remedy the customer dissatisfaction, Studebaker paid mechanics to visit each disgruntled owner and replace defective parts in their vehicles at a total cost of US$1 million. The worst problem was rear-axle failure. Hendry comments that the frenzied testing resulted in Studebaker's aim to design 'for life'—and the consequent emergence of "a series of really rugged cars. . . the famous Big and Special Sixes". From that time, Studebaker's own marque was put on new automobiles produced at the former E-M-F facilities as an assurance that the vehicles were well built.
Engineering advances
The 1913 six-cylinder models were the first to employ the important advancement of monobloc engine casting which became associated with an economy production drive in the years of World War I. At that time, a 28-year-old university graduate engineer, Fred M. Zeder, was appointed chief engineer. He was the first of a trio of brilliant technicians, with Owen R. Skelton and Carl Breer, who launched the successful 1918 models, and were known as "the Three Musketeers". They left in 1920 to form a consultancy, later to become the nucleus of Chrysler Engineering. The replacement chief engineer was Guy P. Henry who introduced molybdenum steel, an improved clutch design and presided over the six-cylinders-only policy favored by new president Albert Russel Erskine who replaced Fred Fish in July 1915.
John M Studebaker had always viewed the automobile as complementary to the horse-drawn wagon, pointing out that the expense of maintaining a car might be beyond the resources of a small farmer. As a result, the manufacture of horse-drawn vehicles was not wholly ceased until Erskine ordered removal of the last wagon gear in 1919.To the cars, Studebaker added a truck line, which later replaced the horse-drawn wagons. Buses, fire engines and even small rail locomotives were produced using the same powerful six-cylinder engines.
In 1925, the corporation's most successful distributor and dealer Paul G Hoffman came to South Bend as vice-president in charge of sales. In 1926, Studebaker became the first automobile manufacturer in the United States to open a controlled outdoor proving ground on which, in 1937, would be planted 5,000 pine trees in a pattern that spelled "STUDEBAKER" when viewed from the air. Also in 1926, the last of the Detroit plant was moved to South Bend under the control of Harold S Vance, vice-president in charge of production and engineering. That year, a new small car, the Erskine Six was launched in Paris, resulting in 26,000 sales abroad and many more in America. By 1929, the sales list had been expanded to 50 models and business was so good that 90 per cent of earnings were being paid out as dividends to shareholders in a highly competitive environment. However, the end of that year ushered in the great depression which saw many layoffs and massive national unemployment for several years.
From the 1920s to the 1960s, the South Bend company originated many style and engineering milestones, including the Light Four, Light Six, Special Six, Big Six models, the record-breaking Commander and President, followed by the 1939 Champion. During World War II, Studebaker produced the Studebaker US6 truck in great quantity and the unique M29 Weasel cargo and personnel carrier. After cessation of hostilities, Studebaker returned to building automobiles that appealed to average Americans.
