Art & Inspiration Why Studebaker failed

If you look up Studebaker's sales figures you will see they were doing OK up to 1953. The all new 53s should have shown a big sales increase over 52 but they didn't. This was the beginning of the end for Studebaker. They never sold enough cars to make a profit, and could not afford to modernize their product or factory. The last Studebakers in the sixties, used basically the same ch***is, front suspension, engine etc as the 1952s and were made in the same factory on the same worn out machine tools. Cost cutting and cutting corners on quality in the fifties didn't help.

Two other things that didn't help were the cut throat sales tactics of Ford and Chev who were in a battle royal for sales supremacy in the fifties. The tactics they used were so dirty the government eventually stepped in with new laws like the Mulroney price sticker in the window and other consumer protection laws.

The independents (Studebaker, Hudson, Nash and Packard) saw their sales plummet as GM and Ford flooded the market using high trade in allowances, generous financing through their captive finance companies and m***ive advertising campaigns to **** in the customers.

Another factor was the appointment of "engine" Charlie Wilson, ex GM executive, as Secretary of Defense. He pursued what he called a narrow based procurement policy which basically meant buying everything from General Motors, leaving Studebaker, Packard and others holding the bag. They spent millions tooling up to build trucks, jet engines and other products then Charlie Wilson cancelled the contracts and gave them to GM.