SOUTH BEND, Ind. – In one of the more unusual results of the economic downturn, Teachers CU ended up Tuesday with more than $1 million worth of parts for the iconic Studebaker cars, which ceased production in the U.S. in 1963, as part of a foreclosure auction.
The parts were part of inventory owned by the Studebaker Autoparts Sales Corp., or SASCO, and were purchased by Teachers at foreclosure for $1 million, about what the company owed on its loan, according to Richard Rice, president of the $1.9 billion credit union, which holds the loan.
The value of the parts could be as much as $5 million, Rice said. "But what is probably more valuable is the molds to make the parts," he said, of the other property acquired in the foreclosure sale.
The company is one of three that sell the parts to the once-popular Studebaker cars, which were manufactured in South Bend until 1963, and in Canada until 1966. Studebaker enthusiasts can still be seen on a nice day motoring around the city, which houses the Studebaker National Museum. There visitors can study the long history of the company, which began business making horse-drawn carriages in 1852 and built the carriage that brought President Lincoln to the Ford’s Theatre on the night he was assassinated in 1865.
The foreclosure sale was prompted by efforts by the city to clear the building for a technology center.
Teachers’ Rice, who expects they will be able to sell the parts business, had to think back awhile to end up with another comparable unusual property after a foreclosure . "Back in ‘72, when I first started here, we ended up with some pigs," he recalled.
