Oldest car dealer

[stall]

There is a very nice article on the W.Hare auto dealership in Indiana in the new (Feb.09) Car and Driver magazine. Its 6 pages with lotos of pictures. They sold Studebaker's in the early 1900s and sell Chevy's now. I found it interesting.

http://studebakerspeedster.blogspot.com/2008/12/studebakers-new-v-8.html

[53k]

quote:Originally posted by stall

There is a very nice article on the W.Hare auto dealership in Indiana in the new (Feb.09) Car and Driver magazine. Its 6 pages with lotos of pictures. They sold Studebaker's in the early 1900s and sell Chevy's now. I found it interesting.

I think this was discussed recently. I was tempted to post then that hwat may be the longest duration and family-owned Studebaker dealership was Anderson Motors in Garnett, KS. It started in the Studebaker wagon days and was continuously owned by the Anderson family until the last Anderson sold the dealership in the early '90s (they had taken on Ford in 1961 as they saw the handwriting on the wall, but they sold Studebakers through the '66 model year and serviced them for years after production closed). One of the owners told me in '64 or so that there were more Studebaker trucks registered in Anderson County than Fords, Dodges, Chevrolets and GMCs combined. We needed more dealers like them.

Paul Johnson, Wild and Wonderful West Virginia
'53 Commander Starliner (since 1966)
'64 Daytona Wagonaire (original owner)
'64 Daytona Convertible (2006)
Museum R-4 engine
1962 Gravely Model L (Studebaker-Packard serial plate)
1972 Gravely Model 430 (Studebaker name plate, Studebaker Onan engine)

[Desert Explorer]

That was a cool read, and educational! Thanks.

[JRoberts]

Indeed and very good read.

Joe Roberts
'61 R1 Champ
'65 Cruiser
Editor of "The Down Easterner"
Eastern North Carolina Chapter

[JBOYLE]

I read it yesterday at the dentist...(I stopped subscribing to C&D when I realized that I knew more about the old stuff than their young batch of writers).

Great story...they make it sound like it's no fun being a car dealer today despite selling 300 cars a month...they have to compete with 17 other Chevy dealers in the region. Wow.

63 Avanti R1 2788
1914 Stutz Bearcat
(George Barris replica)

Washington State