Production
Wagonaires seated six passengers (five with the optional front bucket seats). The car could seat eight when equipped with a rear-facing third-row seat, which was available as an option through 1965. When the third seat was ordered, the cars were fitted with special "Captive-Air" (puncture-resistant) tires, as the additional seat took up the space required for a spare tire and wheel.
Early buyers soon found that their new wagons' roofs leaked water near the front of the sliding section. This problem was addressed — with limited success — by the factory. As a result of the leak problem, fixed-roof station wagons were rushed into production alongside the Wagonaire and became available in January 1963. These sold for US$100 less than the sliding-roof wagons, but it was technically a "delete option", meaning that if the buyer wanted the fixed roof versus the slider, it had to be specifically ordered that way by the selling dealer and was not a separate model.
When Studebaker closed its South Bend, Indiana, assembly plant and continued production at its Hamilton, Ontario, Canada, plant, the company eliminated its "halo" models, the Avanti and Hawk, but continued to build Lark-based sedans and Wagonaires.
The 1964 models, which were built only in Canada after December 1963, were the last to carry Studebaker's own engines. Beginning with the 1965 models, General Motors supplied engines based on the Chevrolet six-cylinder and V8 designs. The 1965 models were available only with the sliding roof.
The fixed-roof option made a return for Studebaker's final model year in 1966, but the third seat was no longer offered. In addition, the 1966 Wagonaire finally was made a model in its own right, blending the exterior features of the Commander with the interior trim grade of the sporty Daytona. There were also fixed-top Wagonaires available in 1966; while a total of 618 of all types of Wagonaires were built for 1966.
Read more about this topic: Studebaker Wagonaire
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