The Early Days

In 1904, Studebaker began production of gasoline powered car in partnership with Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio.  Under the agreement, Garford would ship completed chassis and drive trains from Ohio and then Studebaker would mate them with Studebaker built bodies.  They were sold under the Studebaker-Garford brand name.  Eventually, even the Garford built engines would carry the Studebaker name.  Garford also built a limited number of cars under its own name, and by 1907 attempted to increase their production at the expense of Studebaker.  Once Studebaker discovered what was going on, Studebaker enforced their primacy clause, forcing Garford back onto the scheduled production quotas.  In 1906 Garford, in order to fund it’s expansion plan, had allowed Studebaker to become a minority investor, giving Studebaker three seats on the seven-member board, Garford expected to control the board with the remaining four seats.  But Hayden Eames soon went over to the Studebaker side, giving Studebaker control of the board.  Studebaker continued to acquire more shares and by 1908 Garford, was a minority stock holder in his own company.  However by 1910, Studebaker was finding it impossible to attain the sales volume they wanted with Garford’s limited manufacturing facilities and high prices.  The decision to drop Studebaker-Garford was made and the final product rolled off of the assembly line by 1911 or 1912.  Studebaker sold it’s interest in Garford’s company  to Willy-Overland, in 1911 or 1912, leaving Garford to try it alone until finally Garford’s shares were acquired by John North Willys in 1913.

I found very little information on exactly what body styles were offered in what years.  From Thomas Bonsall’s “The Studebaker Story”, we find the first car (1904) was a touring car with removable tonneau.  Several sources on the internet indicate, that when tonneau was removed, this then became the two passenger runabout.  Bonsall, further states for model year 1905 a touring car was added to the model “C”, renamed the 9502 line-up.  Thus, one could conclude this was in addition to the existing runabout which had lost it’s removable tonneau.  The model 9503, a longer wheel base, four cyl. model was also added.  But, Bonsall does not mention what body styles were offered in this range.  One could guess however, the two passenger runabout and a touring car.  For 1906 the model 9503 was carried over as the new year model E, along with two totally new models, the  F & G, adding additional wheel base and horse power options.  No mention of body styles is offered.  Bonsell, indicates the 1906 models were carried over to 1907 as the model L, G, and H respectively, with little change and still no mention of body styles.  In 1908 the model “B” is added, a 40 HP 114 inch wheel base model, but as before, no body styles are mentioned.  Bonsall did not cover the Garford, after the 1908 model year.