Have the last embers of the old Studebaker Corp. flickered out?
It appears the Avanti may have reached the end of the road. No new cars are trickling out of the Youngstown, Ohio, factory. Most employees have been laid off, the company is facing numerous lawsuits from creditors, and there seems to be nothing more than hope that this classic car will survive.
The sporty Avanti, created by industrial design genius Raymond Loewy and two colleagues in 1961 in the Palm Springs desert, was introduced by Studebaker in 1962 as a last-ditch attempt to shore up sagging sales.
But the two-door fiber glass-body coupe, available with a supercharged engine, met with only limited success.
When Studebaker folded in 1966, two of the country`s most successful Studebaker dealers, Nate Altman and Leo Newman, bought the rights to the car and continued building it until 1986.
Production of the car, dubbed Avanti II, had a small but loyal following, and sales were 150 or so each year.
After some financial troubles and two buyouts, Youngstown businessman John J. Cafaro ended up with the rights to the car in 1986. The deal included all the spare parts, which Cafaro moved from Studebaker`s old home in South Bend, Ind., to Youngstown. Cafaro pumped some $10 million into the project and began developing a four-door sedan and a convertible version of the Avanti.
Cafaro also installed a nationwide sales force and began signing up new dealers. In 1989 the Avanti Automotive Corp. had as many as 44 dealers.
Both new models and the coupe were paraded on the national auto show circuit, and plans called for production of 1,000 cars this year.
But fewer than 10 cars have been built in the last six months, according to the Youngstown Vindicator, the local newspaper. Avanti laid off 120 workers in December, leaving only a skeleton crew of about 25, the newspaper reported. Gary Fielding, Avanti`s former national manager for sales and marketing, quit in March. He said he believes there is a chance the car will be revived but that the company is facing severe financial problems.
”Everything is still there,” Fielding said. ”The employees are still there. They can resume production at any time. But what J. Cafaro`s thoughts are, I can`t tell you,” he said.
Cafaro did not return calls.
Fielding said the major reason the company ran into financial trouble was the decision to discontinue the coupe and convertible for several months while focusing resources on the four-door. That, he said, is when ”the cash registers stopped ringing.”
One Avanti dealer, Spacecoast Chrysler in Titusville, Fla., sold two convertibles and one coupe and still has a four-door sedan. When that is sold- the asking price is $43,000-the dealership no longer will handle the car, said owner Bob Minor.
”What they really did was shoot themselves in the foot,” Minor said.
”They halted production on the coupe and convertible, the most popular models, to concentrate on the four-door. The company just overreached.”
The recession also hurt Avanti, Minor said. The convertible was priced at about $47,000; the four-door sold for more than $50,000. The coupe sold for about $33,000. Sales of almost all luxury cars are flat this year.
Dealers appear to be confused about the status of the company, which has been sued a number of times for non-payment of bills.
”All my contacts are gone,” said Rich Emerson, general manager of the Boca Auto Mall, a car dealership in Boca Raton, Fla. ”If I have a question or a problem, I call the factory.
”The company is still in existence and plans to build only the convertible,” said Emerson, whose dealership has sold two Avantis. Emerson said he has two four-door models in stock and has had them for six months.
The four-door has been criticized for its styling, and dealers have had a hard time selling the cars.
”Mr. Loewy would spin in his grave if he saw that car,” Johnny Ebstein said two years ago when he first saw the four-door. Ebstein was one of the designers who worked with Loewy on the original coupe 30 years ago.
”I offered to help them clean up the design, but I never even got a reply,” Ebstein said. ”The four-door needs some work. I don`t think there is a great market for that car, because Avanti has an image of making coupes and convertibles.”
