“Family cars built to Studebaker’s high quality standards, yet priced with budgets in mind!” That’s a line from a brochure describing the newly-revised Studebaker models: the Lark Challenger and Commander. This 1964 Studebaker Commander can be found posted here on craigslist in Snohomish, Washington, and the seller is asking $6,200. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Rocco B. for sending in this tip!
Studebaker was struggling by 1963 and by the end of the year, they closed the legendary South Bend, Indiana plant and moved production to their Canada facility. The engine plant would follow suit a few months later and Chevrolet would provide engines rather than Studebaker. I was in South Bend a couple of years ago to photograph one of the Studebaker buildings and it was incredible to see, although, as with most now-defunct car facilities, most of the buildings are gone.
This car appears to be in outstanding condition and the seller has it priced at right around Hagerty’s #3 good condition value of $6,100, although, that’s with a 259 V8, not a straight-six as in this car. They do say that there are a few “mild paint blemishes”, but I sure don’t see anything too alarming. Sure, if this was a two-door with a V8 it would be more desirable to most people, but any car in this condition is desirable to me, no matter how many doors it has.
We have only seen one other 1964 Studebaker Commander here on Barn Finds, and it was over five years ago. Ahhhh… 2017, to go back to that era. The driver’s seat bottom has a tear and the seat bottoms would have originally had matching nylon fabric inserts as shown on the seat backs. I’d want to redo that pattern and material. There is also some cracking on the padded dash, but the back seat looks good. You can see that the seat bottoms appear to have been redone in all-vinyl, after looking at the back seat photo and seeing the seat back fabric.
The engine should be Studebaker’s Skybolt 170-cu.in. OHV inline-six, which would have had 112 horsepower and 154 lb-ft of torque. The seller says that they changed out the original carburetor to a Weber when they got the car and it runs like a top. It looks great to me, would you daily drive a ’64 Studebaker Commander sedan?
Had a 64 Challenger 3 on the tree with that power house. Think I was 17 senior year. By the time the car was eight years old it was trying to do a magic trick and disappear. Yeah it was NE Ohio the rust belt but geezz even sprung for an Earl Schieb paint job. These cars rust but this one looks pretty good at least in the pics. Cheap collector car someone might appreciate.
I miss good old Earl Schieb. Any car, any collor for only $29.95. No ups, no extras. If you don’t want the windows painted roll them down!
If the car is as solid as it looks in the photos, wow what a great car for that person who wants to get into classic cars for the first time. Maybe get the price down to $4500, then go over it and fix up the interior etc, drive and enjoy. I bet in 5 years it will be still worth what was paid, maybe even invested, and all that joy and smiles would have been a very reasonable investment. Like may have said before me, it’s really hard to buy a car or truck that can be enjoyed for less than 10K these days.
The “air cleaner bandit” strikes again! IDK, that, to me, is a clear indication of a schmoe. Like seeing someone with their zipper down. And I was surprised, Weber DOES make a conventional 1 barrel.
Do we have any South Bend natives in the audience? You hear me prattle on about Milwaukee and AMC, I can only imagine, South Bend residents, who we had a kindred connection with, felt the same about Studebaker. I thought the red handle under the dash was for O/D. Could they have put an O/D behind the automatic? While most Studebaker followers are pushing up daisies, this is exactly the kind of car someone today would go for. Not so much for what a great car it was, but just so unusual to see, and readily repairable at a plausible cost. Another great find.
The red handle is the hood release.
That must mean the other handle, the one that looks like a hood release, is for the O/D….
I’ve seen ’50s cars that had two identical handles for hood and overdrive placed side-by-side below the dash. Always thought that might lead to some fraught moments.
Howard:
Not all of us Studebaker enthusiasts are pushing up daisies. However, in a pool of 5 Studebakers on display at our village car show last fall, at 64, I was the “youngest” Studebaker owner in attendance. ( I have a 1964 Daytona convertible.)
I am running into more and more cruise night and car show attendees who haven’t heard of Studebaker so they are definitely conversation pieces.
Bob
Just picked up a cherry, 43k miles New Mexico 1950 Studie Champion… will go thru the driveline to make sure its safe…other than that, it will stay origional
Go to sdckeystoneregionchapter.com for a chance to win a 64 Daytona convertible
It’s an automatic, no overdrive. The second handle is the ebrake release.
62 GT Hawk owner here, not pushing up any daisys yet, only 65!
I was born in South Bend and my dad drove Studebakers. I would love to have this car just because it is a Studebaker. The fact it appears to be in great shape and is one of the last ones makes it even more appealing.
When I arrived in South Bend, spring of 1956 NOBODY drove Studebakers, I mean NOBODY. I lived in an upscale neighborhood on Sunnymeade Ave and the only cars one saw were Chevys, Fords and Chryslers. Our neighbor had a DKW Junior, the only odd ball around.
These last year cars were manufactured in Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. Many of them were equipped with the optional 283 cubic inch Chevrolet engine. I hate to use the “L” word, but this car would make a great sleeper with a built LS installed in it!
This is a 64, so it may well have been built in South Bend, and the optional V8 engines would have been Studebaker’s 259 and 289’s.
All 65 and 66’s were built in Hamilton with GM engines. The Chevy… er McKimmon industrial engines, were a definite downgrade, but Studebaker did what it had to do.
What a great deal this car is…as usual it’s on the wrong coast to make it happen for me. It just doesn’t make sense when the shipping cost ends up being equal to 20% of the cost of the car. Anyway, I have the 65 Wagonair with the 194 six and it is plenty peppy enough for me. Strange but I have a seam split in the exact same place on the front seat too. My wagon isn’t nearly in as good a shape as this one…but it’s the wagon with the sliding roof which is an all-time classic
Fly in and drive it home.
This is a upscale Commander. It has the 4 headlights instead of 2 and a split front seat. I am guessing that they also recline.
“That must mean the other handle, the one that looks like a hood release, is for the O/D….”
No sir, you don’t have overdrive on automatic transmission cars. Red handle is the hood release; black handle is the emergency brake release.
Nice looking Commander. The Cruiser or Daytona 4 door and 2 door models are certainly more desirable and pricey. I have a 1964 Daytona convertible which prices out around 3 – 4 times the listing price.
What he said…it’s on the wrong coast..Oh well, garage space is at a premium now anyway…:>)
I sold this car (“Edith”) a year ago after driving it for 6 years; I fixed all the leaks, replaced the cracked head with a good rebuilt one, and installed a NOS Dana 27 twin traction rear end. I also adapted a later GM front sway bar and she handles great. Was going to add 2 cylinders but after buying a 79 Avanti we decided to find her a new home instead. If price drops much more I might buy her back. The
Driver’s seat has been reupholstered, but the car appears pretty good to my eyes, as far as looking authentic. People seem to forget that these cars were marketed and priced against the similar-size cars like Falcon, Chevy II, Valiant, and Rambler. I think the styling has stood the test of time better than any of those, and the instrument panel is padded top-to-bottom unlike the others, and the instrument lenses are glass surrounded by chrome metal, not plastic which was chronic in everybody else’s cars then. Low production numbers, and the ’64’s are the last year built in the U.S., and it’s an affordable, interesting old car IMHO.
Bill-
Very good points about the use of metal over plastics in Studebaker cars. The interior of my Daytona includes plastic caps on door lock plungers – both stripped, and plastic visor clips – one now broken. Studebaker built a good, competitive vehicle. Often first to market with certain innovations and no-cost extras as Studebaker called them.
Bob
It’s hard to imagine a better deal for $6100 judging from the photos. There might be an unpleasant surprise somewhere. But it sure looks great.