The
Studebaker Wagonaire was a
station wagonA station wagon is a body style variant of a sedan/saloon with its roof extended rearward over a shared passenger/cargo volume with access at the back via a third or fifth door , instead of a trunk lid...
produced by the
Studebaker CorporationStudebaker Corporation was a United States wagon and automobile manufacturer based in South Bend, Indiana. Founded in 1852 and incorporated in 1868 under the name of the Studebaker Brothers Manufacturing Company, the company was originally a producer of wagons for farmers, miners, and the...
of
South Bend, IndianaThe city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
, from 1963-1966. It featured a retractable sliding rear
roofA roof is the covering on the uppermost part of a building. A roof protects the building and its contents from the effects of weather. Structures that require roofs range from a letter box to a cathedral or stadium, dwellings being the most numerous....
section that allowed the vehicle to carry items that would otherwise be too tall for a conventional station wagon of the era.
Development
Studebaker Wagonaire's roof design was the invention of industrial designer
Brooks StevensClifford Brooks Stevens was an American industrial designer of home furnishings, appliances, automobiles and motorcycles — as well as a graphic designer and stylist....
, who was charged by the automaker's president,
Sherwood EgbertSherwood Harry Egbert , born Easton, Kittitas County, Washington, July 24, 1920, a burly former U.S. marine, served as president of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation and Studebaker Corporation from February 1, 1961, to November 24, 1963.-History:...
, to expand the company's limited model range without spending vast amounts of capital on retooling. Stevens was also the designer of the similarly named
Kaiser JeepKaiser Jeep was the result of the merger between the Kaiser-Frazer Corporation, an independent automaker based in Willow Run, Michigan, and the Toledo, Ohio-based Willys-Overland Company....
Wagoneer, a truck-based
sport utility vehicleA sport utility vehicle is a generic marketing term for a vehicle similar to a station wagon, but built on a light-truck chassis. It is usually equipped with four-wheel drive for on- or off-road ability, and with some pretension or ability to be used as an off-road vehicle. Not all four-wheel...
(SUV) that was also introduced along the Wagonaire for the 1963 model year. The Jeep model remained in production almost unchanged on the same
platformAn automobile platform is a shared set of common design, engineering, and production efforts, as well as major components over a number of outwardly distinct models and even types of automobiles, often from different, but related marques...
into 1990s, making it the longest continuous automotive production run in U.S. automotive history.
The Wagonaire roof design was inspired by Stevens' 1959
Scimitar concept carA concept vehicle or show vehicle is a car made to showcase new styling and or new technology. They are often shown at motor shows to gauge customer reaction to new and radical designs which may or may not have a chance of being produced....
built in
StuttgartStuttgart is the capital of the state of Baden-Württemberg in southern Germany. The sixth-largest city in Germany, Stuttgart has a population of 600,038 while the metropolitan area has a population of 5.3 million ....
Germany by Ruetter for the Olin Mathieson Chemical Corporation. There were three full-sized
Chrysler Chrysler Group LLC is a multinational automaker headquartered in Auburn Hills, Michigan, USA. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925....
-based vehicles built for dispay at the 1959 Geneva Motor Show to promote use of
aluminumAluminium or aluminum is a silvery white member of the boron group of chemical elements. It has the symbol Al, and its atomic number is 13. It is not soluble in water under normal circumstances....
in building cars. One of these was a
hardtopA hardtop is a term for a rigid, rather than canvas, automobile roof. It has been used in several contexts: detachable hardtops, retractable hardtop roofs, and the so-called pillarless hardtop body style....
(with no "
B-pillarPillars are the vertical supports of the greenhouse of an automobile — known respectively as the A, B, C or D-pillar moving in profile view from the front to rear....
") station wagon with a sliding roof panel.
The Studebaker Wagonaire was based on the standard
LarkThe Studebaker Lark is a "compact car" which was produced by Studebaker from 1959 to 1966.From its introduction in early 1959 until 1962, the Lark was a product of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. In mid-1962, the company dropped "Packard" from its name and reverted to its pre-1954 name, the...
station wagon body that was modified above the beltline. The roof was designed with a panel over the cargo bay that manually retracted into and then locked into position in the forward section of the roof above the rear passenger's seat. This configuration allowed Studebaker to boast that the Wagonaire could transport items (such as standard size
refrigeratorA refrigerator is a common household appliance that consists of a thermally insulated compartment and a heat pump that transfers heat from the inside of the fridge to its external environment so that the inside of the fridge is cooled to a temperature below the ambient temperature of the room...
s) in an upright position.
Production
Wagonaires seated six passengers (five with the optional front bucket seats). The car could seat eight when equipped with a rear-facing third-row seat, which was available as an option through 1965. When the third seat was ordered, the cars were fitted with special "Captive-Air" (puncture-resistant) tires, as the additional seat took up the space required for a spare tire and wheel.
Early buyers soon found that their new wagons' roofs leaked water near the front of the sliding section. This problem was addressed — with limited success — by the factory. As a result of the leak problem, fixed-roof station wagons were rushed into production alongside the Wagonaire and became available in January 1963. These sold for
US$The United States dollar , also referred to as the American dollar, is the official currency of the United States of America. It is divided into 100 smaller units called cents or pennies....
100 less than the sliding-roof wagons, but it was technically a "delete option", meaning that if the buyer wanted the fixed roof versus the slider, it had to be specifically ordered that way by the selling dealer and was not a separate model.
When Studebaker closed its
South Bend, IndianaThe city of South Bend is the county seat of St. Joseph County, Indiana, United States, on the St. Joseph River near its southernmost bend, from which it derives its name. As of the 2010 Census, the city had a total of 101,168 residents; its Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 316,663...
, assembly plant and continued production at its
Hamilton, OntarioHamilton is a port city in the Canadian province of Ontario. Conceived by George Hamilton when he purchased the Durand farm shortly after the War of 1812, Hamilton has become the centre of a densely populated and industrialized region at the west end of Lake Ontario known as the Golden Horseshoe...
,
CanadaCanada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...
, plant, the company eliminated its "halo" models, the
AvantiSee also Avanti cars The Studebaker Avanti was a sports coupé built by the Studebaker Corporation at the direction of its president Sherwood Egbert between June 1962 and December 1963...
and Hawk, but continued to build Lark-based sedans and Wagonaires.
The 1964 models, which were built only in Canada after December 1963, were the last to carry Studebaker's own engines. Beginning with the 1965 models, General Motors supplied engines based on the
ChevroletChevrolet , also known as Chevy , is a brand of vehicle produced by General Motors Company . Founded by Louis Chevrolet and ousted GM founder William C. Durant on November 3, 1911, General Motors acquired Chevrolet in 1918...
six-cylinder and
V8A V8 engine is a V engine with eight cylinders mounted on the crankcase in two banks of four cylinders, in most cases set at a right angle to each other but sometimes at a narrower angle, with all eight pistons driving a common crankshaft....
designs. The 1965 models were available only with the sliding roof.
The fixed-roof option made a return for Studebaker's final model year in 1966, but the third seat was no longer offered. In addition, the 1966 Wagonaire finally was made a model in its own right, blending the exterior features of the Commander with the interior trim grade of the sporty Daytona. A total of 940 fixed-roof Wagonaires were built for 1966.
Daytona version
The 1963-64 Daytona version of the Wagonaire could be equipped with a V8, Carter 4-barrel
carburetorA carburetor , carburettor, or carburetter is a device that blends air and fuel for an internal combustion engine. It is sometimes shortened to carb in North America and the United Kingdom....
, and a column mounted shifter manual transmission with
overdriveOverdrive is a term used to describe a mechanism that allows an automobile to cruise at sustained speed with reduced engine RPM, leading to better fuel economy, lower noise and lower wear...
. The Wagonaire could also be ordered with any of Studebaker's available "R-series" high-performance Avanti V8 engines and the four-speed floor-shift manual transmission.
Scale models
MatchboxMatchbox is a popular toy brand which was introduced by Lesney Products in 1953 and is now owned by Mattel, Inc. The brand was so named as the original die-cast Matchbox toys were sold in boxes similar in style and size to those in which matches were sold...
-Lesney made a miniature Wagonaire that included a sliding roof section. The scale model was available for many years after Studebaker stopped production of the actual vehicle. Husky Toys also manufactured a model Wagonaire that was similar in size to the Matchbox product.
Revival of the concept
The concept of the retractable roof was picked up by General Motors for a model in its GMC Envoy line in 2003 as a 2004 model. Ads for the new Envoy XUV incorrectly touted the feature as "first ever." One feature that GMC did adopt that Studebaker never did was power operation of the roof section. The Envoy XUV model was discontinued in 2005.