Studebaker was an American wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 as the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the firm was originally a producer of wagons, buggies, carriages and harnesses. Studebaker continued to manufacture other diversified products after automobile production ceased in 1966.
Studebaker entered the automotive business in 1902 with electric vehicles and in 1904 with gasoline vehicles, all sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company". Until 1911, its automotive division operated in partnership with the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and after 1909 with the E-M-F Company. The first gasoline automobiles to be fully manufactured by Studebaker were marketed in August 1912. Over the next 50 years, the company established a reputation for good quality and reliability.
After years of financial problems, the company merged in 1954 with luxury carmaker Packard to form the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. However, Studebaker's financial problems were worse than the Packard executives had thought. The Packard marque was phased out, and the company returned to the Studebaker Corporation name in 1962. The South Bend plant ceased production on December 20, 1963, and the last Studebaker automobile rolled off the Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, assembly line on March 17, 1966. Studebaker continued as an independent company until merging with Wagner Electric in May 1967 and then Worthington Corporation in November 1967.
The Avanti (including the Avanti II) is an American performance sports coupe based on the Studebaker Avanti and marketed through a succession of five different ownership arrangements between 1965 and 2006.
Subsequent to Studebaker's December 20, 1963 closure of its South Bend factory and effective discontinuation of the auto with the 1964 model year, cars carrying the Avanti nameplate were initially produced from left-over Studebaker components, and later by the Avanti Motor Company from General Motors and Ford chassis and engines. A small and often interrupted stream of increasingly modified cars were made before all production ceased in 2006.