Many people don't realize the ancillary uphill battles Studebaker dealers faced, especially toward the end. I was reminded of that this evening, although it was told as a "true joke." I'm sure it was true at the time, but not a joke until later.
Cari and I are stockholders in a local bank with a dozen branches around Hendricks and Boone counties, west of Indianapolis. We didn't buy a lot of the stock in 1976, but the block we did buy is now worth about fifteen (15) times what we paid for it...and it has paid good dividends every year to boot! The advice to buy it at the time proved to be excellent, even though we had just gotten married.
We attended the annual Stockholders Meeting and free dinner (true CASOs; something was free) this evening. We happened to sit at an 8-top table (random seating) with one of the bank's former Presidents, Matt, a fellow about my age and a real nice guy I've known forever...and who reminds me every so often that I never did find a nice mid-60s Barracuda Formula S for him. Matt's father had been one of the bank's Presidents before him!
Also at the table was a local SDC member (Gordon) and his wife, both retired, also fellow stockholders. Gordon still has the late-production, square-headlight, red, 1964 R2 Avanti he bought when it was barely a year old. It's in nice shape but needs some freshening-up.
Back in 1964, Gordon got the loan to buy the Avanti through Matt, who was a loan officer at the time when his Dad was President, IIRC. Everybody was joking around tonight when Matt related that his Dad about had a heart attack when Matt told him, back in the day, that the bank had just loaned $3,000 on a used, year-old Studebaker!
I.e., You did WHAT?
I honestly don't believe we can realize, at this late date, the many prejudices, financing among them, that plagued Studebaker dealers and inhibited sales of our favorite marque toward the end. BP
Cari and I are stockholders in a local bank with a dozen branches around Hendricks and Boone counties, west of Indianapolis. We didn't buy a lot of the stock in 1976, but the block we did buy is now worth about fifteen (15) times what we paid for it...and it has paid good dividends every year to boot! The advice to buy it at the time proved to be excellent, even though we had just gotten married.
We attended the annual Stockholders Meeting and free dinner (true CASOs; something was free) this evening. We happened to sit at an 8-top table (random seating) with one of the bank's former Presidents, Matt, a fellow about my age and a real nice guy I've known forever...and who reminds me every so often that I never did find a nice mid-60s Barracuda Formula S for him. Matt's father had been one of the bank's Presidents before him!
Also at the table was a local SDC member (Gordon) and his wife, both retired, also fellow stockholders. Gordon still has the late-production, square-headlight, red, 1964 R2 Avanti he bought when it was barely a year old. It's in nice shape but needs some freshening-up.
Back in 1964, Gordon got the loan to buy the Avanti through Matt, who was a loan officer at the time when his Dad was President, IIRC. Everybody was joking around tonight when Matt related that his Dad about had a heart attack when Matt told him, back in the day, that the bank had just loaned $3,000 on a used, year-old Studebaker!
I.e., You did WHAT?
I honestly don't believe we can realize, at this late date, the many prejudices, financing among them, that plagued Studebaker dealers and inhibited sales of our favorite marque toward the end. BP
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