How is it that we’ve never given the Powell its 15 minutes of CC fame? It was ahead of its time, offering an SUV-like wagon and a pickup, and really ahead of the recycling wave, as it used a chassis and drive train from junked Plymouths (vintage 1940-1941), since Powell was in no position to build those. What they did build was a body made from steel and fiberglass parts, and one that had a few clever features.
Not surprisingly, it was not a sustainable business model.
The Powell was conceived by Hayward and Channing Powell, two Southern California brothers who made a bit of a business producing radios in the 1920s. But eventually competition from bigger names like RCA and Crosley squeezed their profits. So the Powells shifted their efforts to building motor scooters. Business was fairly good until World War II. But after the war, the cheaper Cushman and the more refined Vespas scooters squeezed them again, and they had to reinvent themselves once more. They decided that four wheels might be more profitable than two.
Southern California was a hotbed of recreational motoring of all sorts, and the Powell’s had adopted the sportsman lifestyle. A “sportsmen’s car” is what they came up with, one that would be targeted toward guys like themselves, who wanted the utility of a Jeep but were willing to trade some off-road capability for a more comfortable driving experience.
The resulting Powell Sports Wagon, available with a covered rear to turn it into a true wagon, has been termed a proto-SUV. Of course the Willys Jeep Station Wagon, available with 4WD was even more of that, but the Powell offered a somewhat more civilized ride, with its recycled Plymouth sedan chassis, which were fully refurbished, and the drive train rebuilt.
The body was very basic and simple, with sliding side windows and few amenities. It reminds me more than a bit of the original Scout, minus the four wheel drive.
The Powell had a few interesting features, including this optional pull-out drawer (available on both sides) to store small items, or without the dividers, long items like fishing poles.
Powells were mostly sold in Southern California, at a modest clip. Almost a thousand were sold over its three years (1955-1957). Prices started at just $1095, quite a bit less than a new car of the times. They were cheap to build, and the chassis could be bought in junkyards for $45 or so. Powell was supposedly profitable, but the business was wound down in 1957. Some sources claim it was because they ran out of old Plymouth chassis to scavenge, but the 1942-1948 was essentially the same, so that seem dubious.
Interesting ~ I never knew the back story of these .
-Nate
Timing. Had this been ready to go right after WWII, it would have hit the seller’s market for a good seven years before the Big Three and Washington decided to pull military contracts and flood the auto market. A shame it didn’t happen in 1946.
Something happened post WWII in the radio industry to get these two into cars, Crosley into cars, and Munz into TVs and cars. Flushed with loot, these millionaires decided to hit the auto industry? Interesting.
The opportunity to create a viable independent auto maker was seen by many businesspeople after WWII. We see Kaiser/Frasier, Tucker, Crosley, King Midget, Powell, along with the established independents, chasing after a piece of the auto market. Then someone decided that the way to go was to import cars. Hot times. I can better understand why Detroit’s Big Three decided to wreck this situation and lock these innovators out. Their easy loans in 1953 oversaturated the market, and it seeded the economic recession four years later in 1957 with even bigger economic implosion, (auto market dropped 40%). Then they pushed auto dealers into nightmares, resulting in auto legislation permitting dealers to get legal settlement from Detroit, the Maroney window stickers and future auto legislations during the 1960s.
Hot times. This could have been a neat success for a lot longer, right?
TV and Radio equals the Web and Mobiles today. Apple, Google and that chap who founded PayPal are all playing around with cars. Somethings don’t change.
$45 for a chassis. Maybe another $100 for the engine, transmission, and rear axle? Then some not-insignificant costs to “refurbish” (whatever that truly means) all of that. Let’s say $300-350 for the basic platform onto which to build a body. Back-of-the-envelope math says they weren’t very profitable.
In 1956, a brand-new Ford or Chevy half-ton lists around $1650. Yes, that’s 50% higher than a Powell, but you get a brand-new vehicle.
I also would imagine they didn’t have much of a distribution network. The ad doesn’t say anything about “write for a list of dealers”. Could you only buy one in SoCal?
I think the Powell brothers milked it for what it was worth, then got out while the getting was good.
Long-term viability definitely doesn’t seem like part of their mission statement. At best, they might have been able to get some sort of deal to sell these at a discount store like K-Mart (if they’d have been around back then). IOW, a pickup version of the Sears Allstate.
Maybe the Powell brothers could have gotten a distribution deal with, say, Montgomery Ward, but it’s unlikely it would have been anymore successful than the Sears car.
Not sure if I can recall these. Looks very much International Harvester-ish.
BTW, I agree with VanillaDude, back a few posts.
Very neat. And what a remarkable example of the entrepreneurial spirit of never giving up! The Powell brothers started building radios at a very young age… they got squeezed out of that industry by the Depression and by competition… then the moved on to scooters, and got squeezed out of that industry too.
So they moved on to these trucks, which were an ingenious idea, but likely just couldn’t support a sustainable business.
After trucks, it looks like the brothers went back to two-wheel vehicles — with these motorized trail bikes. Looks like an off-road scooter made to fold up and store in a car’s trunk. Another clever product… probably of limited appeal but I think Powell made them through much of the 1960s & 70s.
That’s an appealing product at an attractive price.
It’s good to see that the Powells rediscovered their proper niche.
They just went on hiatus for a while, until the Homer was ready for market!
Interesting and I admire the enterprise. That sliding drawer looks fun, assuming stuff never fell out of into the bodyside.
And is this the first use of the “Sport Wagon” name? Something that did get picked up on.
Nice write up. I’ve always wanted a 4 wheeled Powell. Simple basic transportation.
Fascinating! The pull-out drawer looks like it might have inspired the “gear tunnel” on the Rivian R1T electric pickup.
I’ve been intrigued by these trucks since I first saw an article on one in an old car mag as a kid. They seemed like a great idea in so many ways, and that there would definitely have been a decent market for a basic workhorse with tried and true (read: cheap to maintain and repair) mechanicals. The more I think about it though… the actual process sounds like it could’ve been a bit labor intensive to implement, especially on a larger scale. Having to seek out and procure used up 15 year old cars, strip them of their bodies and refresh the mechanicals well enough to serve up with a “standard new car guarantee”, then fabricate a new body to be mated up with the revived chassis. Yoiks! And then there’s other hurdles- like manufacturing being a lonng way from the other coast, thus making it more prohibitive to ship your sparkling new Powells to the more populous eastern seaboard. All considered, I’m surprised that the company made as many as they did… hope to see one in the flesh someday!
If I had been around and been in the market for a truck like this back in the mid 1950’s, I’d have definitely sprung for the drawers on both sides; I think I could utilize that out-of-the-weather storage (especially with the dividers), and it’s a good use of space that would be otherwise wasted. I’d also have a hankering for a Borg Warner overdrive, as it would make for much happier cruising while retaining steep enough gears to help get the little six moving with some alacrity.
“Standard new car guarantee” was 90 days or 4000 miles back then, with plenty of weasel words. Not too hard to meet with refurbished 1940’s Plymouth mechanicals.