Rare Rides: The 2003 Studebaker XUV Story, Part II
We introduced the Studebaker XUV in Part I of this series, a concept SUV for which Avanti Motors was immediately sued upon by GM upon its debut. Barred from producing any H2-esque vehicle, their chairman thought up a way to differentiate the XUV in the marketplace: Make it “feminine!”
Responding to the poetic legalese that came from GM’s lawyer, then-chairman of Avanti the upstanding Michael Kelly claimed GM spoke too soon. His first claim: The SUV was still a work in progress and in concept form, can’t tell if it’s going to look like a Hummer, can we? At ease, lawyers.
Avanti sent out a press release in February that addressed the differences between the Studebaker XUV and the Hummer H2. Take a look.
The most unusual details in the release are the sheer length of the XUV, at two feet longer than the H2. The sliding van-like rear side doors and sliding roof panel are also odd. Worth noting, while the Wagonaire did have a retractable roof panel, but did not offer rear sliding doors. Guess Kelly didn’t research his company’s past product that thoroughly. Also of note, two products can look very similar without sharing any parts, as anyone who’s seen Chinese vehicles from the past couple of decades can attest.
Speaking to The Chicago Tribune, Kelly followed up after the settlement with an explanation of changes made to the XUV, and how it wasn’t all that similar to the H2 in the first place. He then made some statements on gender and stereotyping: “We thought the majority of people it would appeal to were men, but at the auto show we found the reaction was greater from, I wouldn’t call them soccer moms, but rather middle-age moms who still have kids in school.”
As a result of these “middle-age moms” preferences (and not at all because of the GM suit), Avanti made some visual changes. Per Kelly, “They [these women] wanted more elegance and less a man’s man-type vehicle like Hummer.” So Avanti made some changes so the XUV would appeal to this special group: Hood scoops and vents went away, the previously enormous six-inch gas cap was downsized and painted, hood latches were no longer on the exterior, the windshield angle was relaxed, and the size of the windows was increased.
Now with female-approved styling, the XUV could go on and enter production, right? Next time we’ll talk about lofty goals and the basis for a revised behemoth that was ready for the moms.
[Images: Avanti Motors]
Interested in lots of cars and their various historical contexts. Started writing articles for TTAC in late 2016, when my first posts were QOTDs. From there I started a few new series like Rare Rides, Buy/Drive/Burn, Abandoned History, and most recently Rare Rides Icons. Operating from a home base in Cincinnati, Ohio, a relative auto journalist dead zone. Many of my articles are prompted by something I'll see on social media that sparks my interest and causes me to research. Finding articles and information from the early days of the internet and beyond that covers the little details lost to time: trim packages, color and wheel choices, interior fabrics. Beyond those, I'm fascinated by automotive industry experiments, both failures and successes. Lately I've taken an interest in AI, and generating "what if" type images for car models long dead. Reincarnating a modern Toyota Paseo, Lincoln Mark IX, or Isuzu Trooper through a text prompt is fun. Fun to post them on Twitter too, and watch people overreact. To that end, the social media I use most is Twitter, @CoreyLewis86. I also contribute pieces for Forbes Wheels and Forbes Home.
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The owe Audi royalties on the grille, especially with the Genesis designs. Bentley logo vs. Genesis logo The Kona is a mashup of the EcoSport, Escape, and Jeep Cherokee The Santa Fe cribs a lot from the Infiniti CUVs The Tucson is a cousin of the Escape The Palisade interior steals a lot from Lincoln Sonata and K5 floating roof from Nissan Going back in time: Mercedes E-class from the mid 1990s and the Kia Amanti 2004 Hyundai Sonata and a Honda Accord around that time H/K/G might add some extra slashes and lighting elements to try to make it look different, but the overall shape and design of the main points tends to make them look like the designers (most of whom came from other large car companies) had other cars on their mind and morphed them into H/K designs.
"while the Wagonaire did have a retractable roof panel" Yep, and I had the Matchbox Wagonaire to prove it. It's interesting that about this time GM came out with the Envoy with, you guessed it, a retractable roof. Avanti should have checked with Chrysler's "La Fem" of the mid-50s to see how well that did. One thing I'm sure of women don't want cars designed for them