SOUTH BEND, Ind. (AP) — The Studebaker Corporation made its first foray into the market for lower-priced automobiles in 1927.

It didn’t go well.

Introduced as a separate brand, the Erskine — named for company president Albert R. Erskine — sought to compete with General Motors’ Pontiac and Chrysler’s Plymouth as low-cost companions to their makers’ more expensive models.

“One of the Erskine’s downfalls was it was not the best choice in the automotive field,” Studebaker National Museum archivist Andrew Beckman says. “It was overpriced, underpowered.”

The Erskine cost $995 in 1927 — $14,217 in 2019 dollars. Studebaker manufactured 95,104 Erskines during the brand’s four-year run from 1927 to 1930.

By contrast, Ford’s Model A debuted in 1928 at $525. Through its four production years, Ford manufactured 4,858,644 Model As, according to Wikipedia.

“Suddenly you had a car that was handsome looking that was roughly the same size and much more durable,” Beckman says about the Model A, “so you really had to want the Erskine.”

But Studebaker persisted, and the Erskine, its successors and a few of their competitors form the basis for the exhibit “Reaching the Masses: Studebaker Companion Models” through March 1 at the museum.

Studebaker made its next attempt at an economy car with the 1932 Rockne, named for Knute Rockne, the recently-deceased University of Notre Dame football coach and Studebaker employee.

“The Rockne was actually an excellent automobile,” Beckman says. “Unfortunately, in the throes of the Great Depression and trying to put food on the table, finding money for an automobile wasn’t on (people’s) radar. The Rockne was an excellent automobile, but the timing was bad.”

The 1932 Rockne “65” sold for $585, while the Rockne “75” sold for $685 — $10,983 and $11,390, respectively, in 2019 dollars — whereas Studebaker’s most expensive 1932 model, the seven-passenger President, sold for $1,990 ($37,361 today).

As with the Erskine, the Rockne appeared not as a Studebaker model but as a separate brand.

It lasted just two years, with only one model, the “65” renamed a “10,” in 1933.

And like the Erskine, it stalled, too, although Studebaker marketing materials from 1932 belied reality: As of Nov. 1, 1932, 21,500 vehicles had been sold and it was the eighth-bestselling model of its year, a period placard in the exhibit boasts.

Those numbers, Beckman says, need to be put into the context of the times.

A loyal Studebaker customer, for example, may have wanted to buy a Studebaker Six, whose cheapest model was $840, but settled for the less expensive Rockne.