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1904 – 1911
The arrangement, exactly: Studebaker's gasoline automobile business began in 1904 in partnership with the Garford Company of Elyria, Ohio, and the division of work was the reverse of what the badge suggested. Garford built the chassis and drivetrains in Ohio; Studebaker, the carriage maker, built the bodies in South Bend and mated them to the completed Garford chassis. The cars were sold as the Studebaker-Garford, at premium prices — the Model G listed at $3,700 to $5,000 according to body style — through Studebaker's wagon distribution. In time, vehicles with Garford-built engines began to carry the Studebaker name alone. All of Studebaker's gasoline cars until 1911 were, in this sense, sold under the name "Studebaker Automobile Company" but made substantially by another firm.
The quarrel and the end: Garford also built cars under its own name, and by 1907 it attempted to increase its own production at the expense of Studebaker's quotas. John M. Studebaker enforced the agreement's primacy clause and forced Garford back onto the scheduled production. The decision to drop the Garford name followed; the final Studebaker-Garford product rolled off the line by 1911, leaving Garford alone until John North Willys acquired it in 1913. The lesson the company drew from the arrangement — that a distribution giant could not safely rest on another manufacturer's chassis — is the direct road to the E-M-F purchase that replaced it.
Sources:
- Standard encyclopedia history of Studebaker — the Garford agreement's terms (chassis and drivetrains from Ohio, Studebaker bodies, the Studebaker-Garford brand and the Model G prices), the 1907 production dispute and the primacy clause, the dropping of the Garford name by 1911, and Garford's acquisition by Willys in 1913.
- Hagley Museum and Library, Studebaker Corporation records note — the automotive division's operation in partnership with Garford until 1911.