One question people ask me more than just about any other is "Why did Studebaker go out of business?" There are a lot of opinions. Some folks think the failure of all the independents was inevitable. Others believe the Big Three deliberately drove Studebaker out of business. A few armchair analysts have even put forth the idea that Studebaker was a backwards company that made cars no one wanted to buy.
Does anyone familiar with Studebaker's history honestly believe that?
What really happened was that Studebaker suffered a series of missteps, setbacks and errors. Individually, they seemed relatively minor, especially at the time they occurred--but when added together, they managed to create a huge problem. I believe that if some of the events and situations had come a few years earlier than they did, or a few years later, they might not have been enough to do the company great harm. But because there were so many, and because of their timing, it was enough to cripple Studebaker.
