Those of you who love mint condition survivors, go on to the next post. Those of you who appreciate a worn but not worn-out car, read on! This 1957 Studebaker Broadmoor is for sale here on eBay with a buy it now of $7,500 but the opportunity to make lower offers. It’s located in Inman, South Carolina.
“…the first cars to fully meet the practical load and road needs of wagon owners.” That what the 1957 brochure (courtesy of oldcarbrochures.com) said about the Broadmoor. Unfortunately for Studebaker, only 1,530 folks really got that message as that’s all they sold in 1957. Of course, that makes this car pretty rare today!
There’s really not a lot of rust there, with the driver’s door and rear quarter being the worst according to the seller. That’s one heck of a trailer hitch!
The front floor panels look like they might have been replaced, and they are said to be coated in POR-15.
You’ll probably want to at least recover the dash, and replace the seat blanket and headliner.
The new-appearing alternator and carburetor as well as hoses are all good signs, and we’re told this car runs and drives with its original 289 V8. Maybe the miles are accurate after all! I know I’d love to show up in this car “as is” at a local Cars and Coffee — you’d have to beat folks off with a stick! Okay, not really, but it would be fun to see the reactions. Tell us if you decide to drive this one home!
I doubt it had an alternator from the factory.
This is one of those love it or hate it cars.
I wish the seller good luck on getting his price.
I think he is going to need it.
Truly a shame this generation of Studebaker wasn’t more appreciated. It was pretty much like any other car of that time.
Not really. The trend during that era was longer, lower, and wider. They did try to fake longer with those quarter panels, but the basic body and track width dated from 1953, making the car much narrower and feel outdated than anything else.
Studebaker’s entire plant was designed for building smaller, narrower cars of the 40s and 50s, and they did not have the money to totally re-tool their plant, or anything else for that matter. From here until their demise in 1966, they spend all their time trying to do changes and upgrades on the cheap, mostly with smoke and mirrors. Overall, they did pretty well, but their fate was definitely sealed.
I agree they tried, but the union also played a role in its demise after Packard bought Studebaker the union thought they diserved more money being owned by Packard but Studebaker was losing money and Packard was deceived about that caved to the union and never recovered. I often wonder if Packard would have made it had the not bought Studebaker.
Those fins extend about three feet past the body! Really cool old wagon. Seems I didn’t appreciate old station wagons until I acquired some age. That’s a lot of character in those lines.
I never understood why so much more rest fender without the tail gate being back there, too. In 1961, my parents bought me a ’57 Champion 2 door coupe to drive to school, part time job and outings with friends. Had a flathead 6 and 3 on the tree. Same dash, front end and tail lights. Loved that car… Of course, it was “my first.”
It looks like Studebaker did it that way to make the car “bigger” without making extensive changes to the existing station wagon body. Compare it to a ’54 Studebaker wagon that doesn’t have quite as exaggerated rear fender extensions. (I assume this body style started out earlier with no fins/extensions at all.)
Hi
‘Broadmoor’ is a notorious prison for the criminally insane in the UK.
SO? Why add that bit of superfluous information HERE?
There is no “superfluous information” …
It’s also a swanky hotel in CO. that I can’t afford!
It’s also a little neighborhood here on the east side of Columbus, Ohio. Also also there’s a reference to ‘Broadmoor’ on Frank Zappa’s ‘You Can’t Do That On Stage Anymore’ Vol 1 disc 1. Can we keep this thing rolling ?!
I had an Ariens riding lawn mower call a Sportmoor, does that count?
I was a huge fan of more broads, the more the merrier. :-) Bahahahaha
I dig the 50’s styling cues. Total of 1530 built for ‘57, so there can’t be too many remaining.
This is MY era of cars! And `57-`58 Studebaker are severely underappreciated. This one is fairly solid, and shows promise. The colors are factory, and if done right, this would make a great ‘driveable’ collectible to haul to shows! Nothing fancy about the original seat upholstery, so you could re-do that in vinyl. The 289’s were somewhat peppy on their own, so except for a 4bbl./intake combo, I would keep it. And yes, I think the mileage IS original!! Wish I had the bucks.
Underappreciated because of Hawks!
OMG this is ugly !! I want one.
Hahahahaha!!
This thing is UUUUUGGGGLLLLYYYY!!!!
It’s so ugly it’s cool! As for the low mileage claims, following classic and muscle cars all my life, I always wanted to believe the amazing stories of “19,000 original miles!” and “since only driven on weekends, miles are original” and so on. I’ve seen many sell for loads of money based on these claims, and wondered how there could be so many low mileage beauties out there 🤔 Now that the “classic collector cars” segment has entered into the era of six digit odometers, I notice there are far fewer true low mileage cars out there. And with time going by, we’ll be able to double check the authenticity of this on websites like Carfax and AutoCheck! It’s going to be a lot more difficult to get away with that. Still fun to dream that maybe, just maybe, this old classic actually does have that low of miles!
Food for thought. Back in the 50’s and 60th everyone lived within a mile of work( not anymore-try 25 miles.) Suspensions, brakes, transmissions, et_al would be wearing our by 75,000 miles so people would reduce miles to extend car life. The 6-digit odometer happened as car reliability, driver trust and suburb living destroyed mileage restraints. Cars @ 75000 miles were pretty loosey- goosey back in the day
I actually like this car! Very cool in my eyes! I love studi’s anyway! If I could afford to get this car, I would be all over it!
And its GONE !
No wonder . Fantastic rare car with V8.
Some one got a great deal and will be the hit of any car show.
This was a true Barn Find. Congrats !
Studes of this vintage are what the poor people drove in the late 60s, at least in my neighborhood
And, your point? These are what my family had and we were definitely far from being poor. My Mom and Dad had one each, as well as my two oldest brothers. My Dad liked for my brothers to have them because they couldn’t tear them up. When the time came, my next oldest brother got one then it was my turn. I still drive them.
The Broadmoor was a top of the line Model the sedan Equalivent of thePresident Classic and as for the comment on simplicity of the upholstery that is far from the truth Studebake had some of the most beautiful fabrics and color combos in the Auto Industry, SE Interiors in Knoxville Tn reproducies nearly all versions of their model s offered and they made some of the toughest and fastest engines around in the 289’s and later Supercharged engines. That can be proven today at the Vintage Races held up East every year have make many believers of the so called Big 3 Hot doggers. Seller is a bit confused in his model designations, It is as described a Broadmoor which was offered in 56-57 and had nothing to do with his mentioned Wagonaire name. Those were very low production half sliding roof models offered in 63-66 very few made each year. Here again many years later GM tried to “Grab someone else’s ide” they brought out a verson of this about 2-3 years ago in theis
sUV line I forget the name but it too never got off the ground just had low production numbers lol. Unlike Stude they never offered theirs with the optional Hi performance Supercharged 4 speed package that Stude did. Olnly those of us from that era know the shock of having a 4dr wagon with pie pots and skinny tires pull up side you at the light and embarrass a supposed bad Big 3 Make.
Very odd design on the back. Could have moved the tailgate back 6 inches, made it more vertical and end up with a better look and more storage area. As it is those rear quarters sticking out so far make it look like it was designed by different people that didn’t talk to each other.
There could have been many styling changes that would have improved looks, but they were just trying to stay alive at this stage. They used left over parts, bolt on parts anything they could to avoid new tooling cost. The Red Ink was hemmoraging at rapid speed, Those quarter panels were most likely used on the longer wheelbase sedans as well. The changes you mention would probably involved much more cost than benefit. One of the things that kept them alive was simple things, they did well in the Fleet Markets. Taxi Co.s Police Depts, etc loved Studebaker in thatthey were cheap to repair. Those cars literally bolt together. Quarter panels, fenders when they were involved in accidents they were in and out of the fleet shops in no time and not a lot of welding and time consuming labor. And their v/8 Police Martial engines were no slouch in fairly light bodies. Certainly ahead of “Car 54” 6 cylinder Plymouths!!
Not completely true. And these cars, the quarter panels or not bol on. Some models had them, some didn’t.
As for fleet use, it wasn’t cheapness to repair that attracted them, it was the lowest bid. Organizations like larger taxi companies and the federal government by several vehicles at a time, in the procedure is to put the specs out for bids. The lowest bid gets the contract. After Studebaker went out, the largest percentage of government vehicles I saw in my area were American motors. They frequently seemed a little odd and out of place, but they were the low bid. Today a large percentage of the state owned cars in my area are Honda accord. The guys that drive them hate them, but it was the same thing – they were the lowest bid.
Dang with all the posts….you guys really do care !
As you say Robert not all Studes and these wagons were total Bolt on body Panels this was more common in the Lark series which was what helped save them a few years in the end. I was purely speaking in general terms for those who were not familiar with nor have a great affinity for Studebakers and especially for those who have no respect for them for their durability and their performance in the last year from introduction of the
Avanti and the subsequent Super Lark R series engines that Andy Granetelli was part of. And yes the basis for Fleets are generally on low bid, with consideration and on Gov’t bid especially but remember we are talking about Govt. and Politics then and NOW and if you believe that was all above board LOL I will say no more and I was a Purchasing Agent for an International Manufacturing Co at one of theirI.S facilities 13 of 20 years and bought their vehicles and Rolling stock and can tell you low bid is not the final say always. And yes AMC’s are great, love them and all Orphan Cars. I f . I were not so old and had been fortunate enough to have been rich I would have a stable full of them all. I just enjoy discussing Studes as at my age about all I can do and they have some of the most interesting history and more recorded history in the club than most of the manufactures out there. And yes some fleet users hated them and some loved them. That’s what makes old iron collecting fun. A place for ALL
Want to talk about REALLY rare?
This car, with the available power windows.
God these are ugly! Looks like Don Knotts character he played in The Incredible Mr. Limpet. Just sayin’