1930 Studebaker President FE Sedan 🇺🇸

Studebaker was the largest manufacturer of horse drawn wagons in the world in the 1870s. They finally entered the automobile business in 1902. An existing sales network and solid products made Studebaker an instant player in the automobile industry and sales took-off.

After World War I, the company's tendency toward conservative thinking began to hurt them. Studebaker was opposed to four-wheel braking systems but had no choice by 1926 when all the competition had already adopted it. The company also lacked any interest in styling and their designs were described as “sturdy and stodgy”. Likewise, they were stubbornly  committed to six-cylinder engines when the competition was bringing out eights. By the mid-1920s, company President Albert Erskine set-out to change all of this.

In 1927, Studebaker introduced the President. This new top of the line offering featured styling by Ray Dietrich. With a decidedly European flair the car helped to shake Studebaker out of the doldrum of utilitarian design. The following year, the President got an all new inline eight-cylinder engine producing 100 horsepower. It seemed that Studebaker was turning over a new leaf.

In 1929, the President line was expanded to include the FE models on 135” wheelbases and the FH models on 125”. Both models used the same engine and offered variations of the same basic bodies. The Sedan  came standard with five Kelsey-Hayse wooden artillery wheels while the fancier body styles came with six Budd wire wheels. All Presidents came standard with gas and temperature gauges in the dash, Houdaille hydraulic shock absorbers, a clock, a cigar lighter  and vacuum wipers.

The President for 1930 was nearly identical to 1929 with the exception that the visor over the windshield on closed cars was no longer a standard item and the radiator shutters were now thermostatically controlled.

From the peak corporate sales of the mid-1920s, sales drifted downward into the early 1930s. The company declared that there would be no new models in 1930. Despite the carryover of models, sales went up slightly. The company was still profitable but declining sales would eventually take a toll.