Avanti AVX

The Studebaker Avanti was universally admired and hailed as a ground-breaking American car when it made its debut; however its history after the demise of Studebaker was a chequered and troubled one, as Richard Heseltine reveals…

- Richard Heseltine

Burning embers burn hottest. The Studebaker Avanti was a machine admired by even those who don’t normally ‘do’ American cars. Unfortunately, it was too little, too late, and this once-proud manufacturer produced its final vehicle in early 1966. But that wasn’t the end of the Avanti, which famously lived on after the design rights passed to a couple of enterprising Studebaker dealers. Rather than chasing volume sales, they astutely reasoned that they could make cars in small numbers and sell them at a premium as a ‘boutique’ offering for a discerning clientele.

Hence Avanti the Studebaker model thus became a marque in its own right.