1959 Lark Taxi in NYC picture

[BStephens]

Picture from 1959 NYC.

[Dwain G.]

Is that a '57 Stude taxi at rear of photo?

[FlatheadGeo]

Sure does look like my '57!

[raprice]

It kinda looks like a '57. Wow, 2 Studebakers in one photo. Who'd a thunk it?
Rog

[BStephens]

Good looking cars there! That 59 would have been brand new!

[studegary]

The 1953 Buick next to it is the oldest car that I noticed. At that time, a six year old car was getting to be an old car.

[Noxnabaker]

What's the car between the -58 Fords?

[Skip Lackie]

The car between the 58 Fords is a Checker cab.

I have seen other photos from that period that show ~25% of the cabs in NYC to be 59/60 Larks. Stude really put a push on those years for fleet sales, and it seems to have worked. That said, they were all gone by ~1965. Only the Checkers and the big late 1940s DeSotos with the sunroofs seem to have lasted more than a few years in NYC taxi service.

[StudeRich]

The Taxi in the background appears to be a '57 or more likely a '58 E-Econo Miler Taxi, that looks a lot like a Scotsman, but has the 120 Inch Wheelbase President State "Y" Body with no trim. A LOT of them were sold in New York City.

[tstoj38]

Another Stude taxi.

[Noxnabaker]

I sure got fooled by the side-trim & the stuff in the grill, we had a lot of Checker taxi's in Stockholm, but I can't remember any with that extra chrome.

[Skip Lackie]

I sure got fooled by the side-trim & the stuff in the grill, we had a lot of Checker taxi's in Stockholm, but I can't remember any with that extra chrome.

I'm no expert on Checkers, but I think they offered several optional trim packages, some with chrome and some with painted trim. Maybe the Stockholm taxi companies chose the base model version. Faced with declining sales, Checker brought out the upscale Marathon model around this time to market as private cars. As a recall, they didn't sell that well and didn't make much difference to Checker's bottom line.

[Buzzard]

I believe I count 19 various cabs clearly in the photo-amazing as that makes them the majority of traffic.

[jclary]

I was a young teenager when the Larks hit the market. Back then, they were known as "compact" cars. Looking at this picture, and thinking of the "aero" design of today's small cars...this Lark looks rather imposing. We have to remember that, back then, headroom for hats was still a concern (although JFK was about to set a trend to end that). To me, Studebaker's ability to keep the cabin this roomy and pull off the "compact" car illusion for the Lark, remains one of the best marketing ploys of automotive history.

[SScopelli]

Nice, a Black 56 Ford 2 door wagon forefront left, and 5 58 Ford taxis..