Curtiss-Wright – Your Exclusive Mercedes-Benz Truck Engine Distributor

[kscarbel2]

In 1956, Curtiss-Wright agreed to loan $35 million to financially troubled Studebaker-Packard and provide management services to the automaker under contract for three years.

Under Curtiss-Wright's guidance, Studebaker-Packard sold the old Detroit Packard plant and returned the then-new Packard plant to its lessor, Chrysler.

During the 1950s, a weak sales network prevented Mercedes-Benz from penetrating the U.S. car market. Then in 1957, under the guidance of Curtiss-Wright head Roy Hurley, Studebaker-Packard signed an agreement with Daimler-Benz making the US carmaker the exclusive distributor for Mercedes-Benz cars, commercial trucks and Unimog utility vehicles in the U.S. and Canada.

The agreement also stipulated that the Utica-Bend Division of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, then producing diesel engines for the U.S. Navy, would import and manufacture Mercedes-Benz diesel engines ranging from 25 to 600 horsepower, as well as fuel injection systems.

Studebaker-Packard formed a subsidiary, Mercedes-Benz Sales, Inc., which sold and serviced Mercedes-Benz cars through select franchised dealers.

Following the Packard nameplate's demise in 1959, Studebaker-Packard became Studebaker Corporation in 1962 and continued as Mercedes-Benz’s exclusive U.S. distributor until February 1965, when Daimler-Benz bought Studebaker’s Mercedes-Benz Sales Inc. subsidiary including the distribution rights for the United States and Canada for approximately $9 million.

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[Phase 1]

Curtiss Wright has been an interesting company. It has the heritage of companies started by the aircraft pioneers Glenn Curtis and the Wright brothers.

[41chevy]

Glenn Curtis' first aircraft factory called "The Experimental Aircraft Factory" opened in 1917 in Garden City Long Island. The first factory in the U.S.A. dedicated to aircraft only.

http://www.gardencityhistoricalsociety.org/historicstructures/71clintonrd.htm

[Doug Maney]

Curtiss-Wright had a facility in central PA in the mid-fifties. They constructed a company town for the executives and employees. My family worked on construction of the town and I was raised there after my parents bought one of the houses after Curtiss-Wright moved out. Curtiss-Wright was a very interesting company and they influenced many technologies over the years.

[Red Horse]

Also construction equipment-in particular a line of scrapers-both crawler drawn as well as rubber tired self powered