The Erskine was an American automobile brand produced by the Studebaker Corporation of South Bend, Indiana, from 1926 to 1930. The marque was named after Albert Russel Erskine (1871–1933), Studebaker’s president at the time.
When introduced in time for the American 1927 model year, the car was named after its creator, and marketed as The Little Aristocrat. To make the Erskine affordable, Studebaker fitted the cars with six-cylinder Continental engines rather than the more advanced Studebaker units and priced the cars at $995. Body design proved to be quite a head-turner, and received numerous accolades from the British and French press. Initially, sales demand was promising. However, within a year Ford introduced its Model A and priced it at $525, undercutting the Erskine by $470
Erskine also encouraged the payment of stockholder dividends from Studebaker’s capital reserves as the depression deepened; this inflated the value of the stock, and eventually weakened the company. In addition to the two failed car brands he created (Rockne and Erskine), Erskine also had purchased luxury car maker Pierce-Arrow during the high rolling 1920s, which had to be sold off to investors as a means of improving cash flow.
Faced with loss of control of Studebaker, Albert Russel Erskine committed suicide in 1933 on the Studebaker proving grounds outside of South Bend, Indiana.