Studebaker Motor Co. CEO in South Bend today

[Chris_Dresbach]

It's been all over the forum here a while back that a guy in Colorado, Ric Reed, wants to bring back Studebaker. Well, today he visited South Bend and will be here for the next two days scouting out a possible new site to build a plant and talk to locals about the idea. He is still looking for people to invest in the company. This was just on the 6:00 news.

[kurtruk]

YAWN.

[Studebaker Wheel]

Where do I send my money?

[raoul5788]

You might as well send it to me Richard. I'll make better use of it!

[White Hawk]

Perhaps it would be best to send any"investment money" to the SNM or the FOUNDATION.

[aarrggh]

Studebaker should remain a great American icon from the past .

[Milaca]

Build a plant for manufacturing when there have been plants recently retired by the big three that would be suitable? Not realistic for a start-up.

[JimC]

Why hasn't this guy come here yet? I think he's afraid of what Studebaker owners might say. If that is the case, then it begs the question, "who WILL buy new ones if the only people who remember the name won't?"

If his concept cars fit what Studebaker was all about, "different by design" then let's talk. But the concepts don't fit the Studebaker look or design. His concepts are too far out. But hey, I can sure appreciate his passion for the brand.

[Chris Pile]

So South Bend went for the scam, too.

[Green 53]

Just another person with big ideas and no money. All hat. No cattle

[JimC]

To add to what I said, if the cars he wanted to build were recognizable as a "Studebaker", then *maybe* I wouldn't cringe at the thought. But the sketches he's put forth for the concept cars are pretty awful, at least according to my taste. Here's the new "Lark":



I mean, can't you just see the resemblence to a Lark? It's his money, he can build 'em, but to me, it looks like a tree fell on the hood of this car and it hasn't even been built yet. Maybe a better option would be to do what Toyota did with the corolla back in the early 90's - buy another company's car and rebrand it. Toyota used the Geo Prism, swapped out a little trim, and the Corolla was born. This guy could do the same with, say, the Chrysler 300. That thing looks like a modern day Lark. Buy a fleet of em, swap out the trim and branding, and boom, he's in business. I still wouldn't buy one, but it seems a lot more logical than trying to start up a company from scratch, only to build the squashed blueberry pictured above. As always, just my opinion

[Scott]

If it did get off the ground there is no reason to suppose that making any of the new vehicles look like old Studebakers would be an asset. I doubt that Loewy or Stevens or Bourke would be very enthusiastic about obvious retro styling. They were about moving in new directions when the budget allowed. Only the people that know the old Studebakers would really care if the new ones looked at all like the old ones. Can you say a 1939 Commander looks at all like a 1954 Commander? No. And neither should a 20XX Lark look like a 1962 Lark.

[parts2]

Here in Arizona..that car would be great for acquiring melanoma in hands and arms..and forehead..

Uh..nose..and for us perfectly scalped guys without need of superfluous hair covering..head..

[stevo5671]

I don't think that car looks all that bad. I'm not a big fan of the hood or front end, but from the side it's not too bad. Looks like a lot of modern concept cars. I think it could compete with the Ford Focus etc.

[kurtruk]

To add to what I said, if the cars he wanted to build were recognizable as a "Studebaker", then *maybe* I wouldn't cringe at the thought. But the sketches he's put forth for the concept cars are pretty awful, at least according to my taste. Here's the new "Lark":



I mean, can't you just see the resemblence to a Lark? It's his money, he can build 'em, but to me, it looks like a tree fell on the hood of this car and it hasn't even been built yet. Maybe a better option would be to do what Toyota did with the corolla back in the early 90's - buy another company's car and rebrand it. Toyota used the Geo Prism, swapped out a little trim, and the Corolla was born. This guy could do the same with, say, the Chrysler 300. That thing looks like a modern day Lark. Buy a fleet of em, swap out the trim and branding, and boom, he's in business. I still wouldn't buy one, but it seems a lot more logical than trying to start up a company from scratch, only to build the squashed blueberry pictured above. As always, just my opinion

WOW. You have that exactly backwards! Every Geo was someone else's car.