Edward Philie was the only teenager in his corner of the world who had an old Studebaker “limo” when he was a kid. Four decades or so later, he’s the only one around Rockland, Mass., with one, and that’s just the way he likes it.
“The very first car I ever owned after I got my license was one of these,” he says, referring to his classy and unique 1948 Studebaker Commander Land Cruiser. “It was a big four-door, exactly like this one. Everything is exactly like the car is today only my first car was black, and I liked it! I went to Chevy after that. I had a ’54 Chevy and then a ’62 and a ’66 … I always told my wife when I am getting ready to retire, I want to find one of these.”
Philie was hoping to find a Land Cruiser that could be a bit of a project car, although not necessarily one that needed everything. Eventually, he found one through a dealer in California. “I kept looking and put it out on the web that I was looking for one … and a guy form California got a hold of me and sent me some pictures of one. The car looked good and it was all there, but it had been in a barn sitting. It had been there for a long time, but the grand kids of the person who owned it were playing with it and had pushed it out of the barn yard and left it out, and it destroyed the interior … It was still drivable … but it needed a new battery, of course.
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