when is a Stude not a Stude?

[junior]

...when it's a Jaguar...or so some think. Today when sitting at a traffic light, the guy in the car beside me, driving a late model Volvo yells over to me "Nice Jag...what year is it?" This is the second time in about as many years that strangers have called my car a Jaguar...what gets me is this guy was my about my age (a rather youngish 50 something). I thought he would have known better. Last year, or the year before a girl in the 25 to 30 year old bracket made the same mistake, but I figured she was too young to know what a 54 Stude was... oh well, will continue my endeavour to educate the uneducated masses. But seriously, a Jag???...I just don't get it. Cheers, Junior.

[rodnutrandy]

I think the 53 -54 is as good looking as a Jag. and would prefer the Studebaker over a Jaguar !

[RadioRoy]

The local boyz in da hood who lived by my brother thought his GT Hawk was a T-Bird. Ignorant little buggers.

[starliner62]

Twice this week, I was told that my Lark was a Mercedes.

[Chris Pile]

A GT Hawk in our chapter was once mistaken for a Rolls-Royce.
To say the owner was pleased is an understatement.

[PlainBrownR2]

We had our other '55 Commander called a T-bird when we first got it. Huh....well....it could be a T-bird, if I look at it from the rear and I take my glasses off to look at it in all of its blurry glory......

[Pat Dilling]

I can no longer count how many times my 53 has been called a T-Bird. I always take great pleasure in telling them it was here before the T-Birds. Clearly there is some similar shape that reminds people of a T-Bird.

[Dick Steinkamp]

A very small portion of the population is made up of old car buffs. A TINY portion of old car buffs know Studebakers. It's a little unrealistic to expect everyone to be able to name our cars. It's sort of like high end concours car collectors expecting us to know the difference between a 1930 Isotta-Fraschini 8A SS Castagna Torpedo Sport and a 1930 Minerva Van Den Plas Cabriolet.

Laymen take their best guess. We should be flattered they notice our special cars.



Quite frankly, for a novice, mistaking the roofline of a GT for a T-Bird isn't a huge miss...

[JimC]

Twice this week, I was told that my Lark was a Mercedes.

Yup, happened to me this Saturday morning too. Of course, this opened up a door to share some history about Mercedes distributing their cars through Studebaker dealers, which really gets people's attention. The idea that Studebakers and Mercedes sat on the same lots as equals many times raises people's estimations of the cars.

Of course, some people can peg a Stude a mile away. At the same car show, a local gentleman with a Packard Caribbean convertible that would make Bob Palma drool was able to pick out my Lark from three aisles away. He was a nice guy, and we chatted for quite some time about our two cars (probably more about his very cool and very rare Packard), various parts interchanges that keep the cars on the road, and orphans in general.

Good times

[doug]

My Lark is usually called a Rambler.

[JimC]

My Lark is usually called a Rambler.

At a cruise-in I went to on Thursday, there was a Rambler parked directly across the aisle from me. I really wished I had one of those big sandwich-board type signs to place in the middle of the aisle, with arrows and pointing out "This is a Lark, this is a Rambler. Note the differences."

I do have to give the people who make that mistake some credit. Have you ever seen a rambler up close and in person? You can really tell that they were going after Studebaker with the looks of their cars. You could almost imagine that the two cars could have been built by the same manufacturer.

Still, that doesn't fully quench the little grumble in my mind when someone walks behind my car, sees the big "S T U D E B A K E R" on the trunk lid along with my custom "63 LARK" vanity plates , and still asks "Wow, is this a Rambler? Who made those, anyway?"

[junior]

... It's a little unrealistic to expect everyone to be able to name our cars....Laymen take their best guess. We should be flattered they notice our special cars.



Quite frankly, for a novice, mistaking the roofline of a GT for a T-Bird isn't a huge miss...

always flattered when joe public comments on my car, and do realize that not all folks will identify a studebaker...its just when someone my age can't tell that the car they are looking at is a Studebaker, and calls it a Jag I am somewhat puzzled as I see no connection at all in the way the car looks. I can see the Lark/Merc/Rambler connection, as well as the GT/Merc/and Bird connection, but not the C&K/Jag connection. BTW, what a co-inky-dink that you posted a photo of the white Bird, as I was following a same year and color bird yesterday for quite a while...asked my wife what year it was because it matched her birth-year, and her reply was that she didn't know, but she did know it was from the 'Jetson era' and that it was a T-Bird...(atta girl, especially since she's not into cars). Cheers, Junior

[Bordeaux Daytona]

A very small portion of the population is made up of old car buffs. A TINY portion of old car buffs know Studebakers. It's a little unrealistic to expect everyone to be able to name our cars. It's sort of like high end concours car collectors expecting us to know the difference between a 1930 Isotta-Fraschini 8A SS Castagna Torpedo Sport and a 1930 Minerva Van Den Plas Cabriolet.

Laymen take their best guess. We should be flattered they notice our special cars.



Quite frankly, for a novice, mistaking the roofline of a GT for a T-Bird isn't a huge miss...

It's been said that the Packard Predictor had the roof first. Maybe except for the rear section.

[Dick Steinkamp]

its just when someone my age can't tell that the car they are looking at is a Studebaker, and calls it a Jag I am somewhat puzzled as I see no connection at all in the way the car looks.

Yea...I think it's tough for us car guys (and gals) to relate to someone who isn't one. It is for me anyhow. My GUESS is that in the case of a 53/54 C/K, they see a beautiful vintage car with European styling and the first thing that comes to mind is JAGUAR....not that they have any sort of specific Jaguar year or model in mind, just that Jaguar is the name they associate with beautiful vintage cars with European styling. In their view, it's may be the highest compliment they have for a car...to put it in the JAGUAR category.

If you think a Studebaker has trouble being identified, most folks won't even GUESS the make of my Daimler...even parked. There are no "Daimler" badges, only a stylized "D" on the hubcaps and hood ornament.

[jff]

Twice this week, I was told that my Lark was a Mercedes.

Well, to be fair, here's a Mercedes 200d:



And here's a Lark:



At a glance, the general shape and size are pretty similar.

I test drove a black 1969 200d before buying my Lark, and they really did seem very similar in terms of size and shape, especially since both were black.