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Actually the Lark saved Studebaker for a while Posted by JerseySaab [Email] (#666) [Profile/Gallery] (more from JerseySaab) on Fri, 13 May 2011 16:27:01 In Reply to: Re: Studebaker never went out of business..., No Snaab, Fri, 13 May 2011 07:27:55 Members do not see ads below this line. - Help Keep This Site Online - Signup |
Studebaker would probably have been out of the car business years earlier if not for the Lark, which debuted in 1959. Sales were initially brisk, giving the company a new lease on life, but fell like a stone after the Big 3 automakers brought out their compacts.
The Lark was an example of desperate hatchet-engineering by a company on the ropes with virtually no resources for new model development. Studebaker's aim was to replicate the success of the Rambler, which was America's only really successful postwar compact car. What they did was to lop off the front and back ends of a standard-sized Studebaker sedan, and voila, instant "compact." If you look closely at the early Larks you can see this (doors and windows are identical to the previous Studebaker). External body panels were restyled later on to give the Lark a more modern appearance but underneath it was still a 1953 Studebaker sedan.
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