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The Missing 1949-'50 Eight Deluxe Convertible 2369

Perusing the 23rd Series section of Mr. Neal's Packard 1948-1950 , a point I'd noticed on first reading but slipped my mind is found on page 70. During the May 26, 1948 board meeting discussing individual model proposals for 23rd Series, an Eight Deluxe convertible, model 2369 was included. Projected volume: 9,750 cars was quite optimistic. Planning for the Super Eights, including the convertible, were to promote them to the 127" wb platform shared with the Custom, this change to leave the 120" wb convertible platform available to build an Eight Deluxe version. It was essentially a free additional model since the tooling existed, already amortized by the 22nd Series production run.

Buick Super, the most direct competitor for the Eights based-priced within $100-$200, fielded a convertible for $2,583, approximate $500 more than their two door Sedanette. Although Packard wouldn't likely match Super's price, a 2369 for $2,800-$2,900 would have sold for the same approximately $500 price premium over the club sedan and an equal amount less than the Super Deluxe convertible 2379. It would have been a continuation of the pre-war 120 convertible coupes.

The majority of the sales volumes were planned to be in Eight and Eight Deluxe lines, a convertible would have been a worthwhile addition to broaden their appeal. During the 22nd Series, convertibles accounted for 6.9% as Super and Custom Eights. Convertibles were generally a prestigious, high-image 'halo' model, good for generating showroom traffic. As the 1949 23rd Series was slated to celebrate the company Golden Anniversary, a popular new Eight Deluxe convertible, available in Anniversary Gold seems a natural, a further good reason to include it. Dealers would have been delighted to have one for showroom display and likely the buyers would have snapped them up.

Fast forward to the October 6, 1948 board notes on proposed 23rd Series models, page 73, the Eight Deluxe convertible 2369 had been deleted, its projected volume moved to the 2392 touring sedan. Why this change from optimism for convertible sales while still in the period before over-production and masses of left-over 22nd Series cars in mid-1949 at the series changeover?

As it turned out for 23rd Series convertible production, results were dismal: 1,430 versus 10,317 22nd Series cars. While the Super Deluxe sales (1285) nearly matched the 22nd Series Custom Eight (1317), it was a disaster compared to the prior Super Eight (9000). The Custom Eight was all but a dead issue at 145, at magnificent motorcar with no direct price competitor but no market demand either.

Convertibles accounted for 1.3% of all 23rd Series production. This gives perspective to why there was significant management waffling over whether to retain a convertible in the upcoming 24th Series. It's also perspective why the 250 was built on the planned high-volume 200 platform rather than the 300/400 chassis; their attempt at a popular-priced Super Deluxe luxury convertible to challenge Buick Roadmaster and Cadillac 62 was largely a failure, a real shame as the model was more appealing. Initial planning called for a 24th Series 200 convertible would be a reasonable reaction to this experience, an effort to create a more popular, lower-priced convertible in hopes of increased sales.

You're perspectives welcome.

Steve

The 22nd Series Super 8 convertible came out early, in fall 1947. Recall that there had been no factory convertible since 1942, so it benefitted from pent up demand. The Super DeLuxe 23rd sales should be compared to this model. Thus both 23rd convertibles sold really poorly compared to their 22nd series analogs. I suppose that Packard may have been concerned with Eight Deluxe convertible sales cannibalizing Super Eight sales, but why should this be true anymore than in the other body styles, especially after the wheelbase difference with the 23rd's? So I think a relatively cheap to tool Eight Deluxe convertible would have resulted in more total Packard sales. The real issue, though, was that Buick has new styling in 49, and Cadillac had a new engine, whereas Packard was facelifting 48

The 22nd Series Super 8 convertible came out early, in fall 1947

Production of the 22nd Series convertibles actually began in April 1947 and production ran concurrent for a while with the 21st Series Clippers. See Neal's book for details.

Packard was to again have a "missing" convertible, this time in 1955 when early production planning documents showed a standard convertible in addition to the Caribbean. Vehicle numbers were assigned for both prototypes and regular production vehicles. It was still active in the product planning as late as June, 1954.

Good sleuthing Steve!

And as you said, helps explain some of the thinking that went into the 24th Series. One suspects that the 250 on 122 wb was also the result of the 200 2-door sedan being available as donor. Wish Packard had sectioned out Reinhart's unwanted 1.5 inches of high pockets when they tooled the 2-door models.

I don't think you could section just the 2 dr without major issues across the line, like sharing a front clip across models.

Thanks for your thoughtful responses. Pent-up wartime demand and a long twenty-two month selling season do explain of the 22nd Series convertible numbers. What is surprising is how precipitous the 23rd Series convertible sales plummeted, still on the market fifteen months. Certainly they reflect the end of the seller's market and renewed competition from all-new Chryslers, Lincolns, Buicks and especially Cadillacs with its new OHV V8 engine. Fielding a larger, finer but subtly changed Super Deluxe convertible still should have produced a better response than the 14% of the 22nd Series convertible totals it did.

Management may well have feared an Eight Deluxe convertible, priced well below the Super Deluxe, would divert sales from the latter. That situation was playing out at the time with the 22nd Series LWB Super Eights decimating Custom Eight sales. Another possibility was that between the May proposals and October planning, the Eight Deluxe convertible unit production costs were analyzed. They may have found there wasn't enough material and labor cost reductions to allow a competitive price and unit profit. Other than a vinyl interior, crank window lifts and 288 engine, not much else could have been changed from the 22nd Series Super Eight convertible on which it would have been based. Still, too bad they didn't run off a few hundred for their best dealers, bets we'd enjoy them now.

On Dave's point that planned '55 400 convertible didn't make it into production. Given the morass '55 production turn into in general, a another convertible added to the Connor Avenue mess would have complicated matters further. As fine a car as the Caribbean is, the lack of a 400 convertible put them at a disadvantage since they had nothing price comparable to the Cadillac Series 62 convertible; the Caribbean priced versus Eldorado.

Paul's point they would have done well to field lowered convertibles and hardtop coupes, were it not for the additional tooling expense to do so, would have produced more highly desirable cars. That concept applies to the sedans line-up as well. A couple inches reduction in section height would never have been missed, kept the body more competitive longer as the industry trended to lower profile cars.

Steve

Steve's points about the difficulty in taking cost out of the convertible and cannibalization of the more expensive models likely explains much of the decision. Once the 22nd-23rd Series' bloom left the rose, sales dropped. It's too bad because Christopher's idea for sleek, modern sheet metal was admirable and he wasn't alone. Hudson, Nash, Kaiser/Fraser and Cosmopolitan all did the same. It proved tricky and all fell short for various reasons. I always loved the brochure renderings of the Packards of this era, especially the Customs. The artists knew what the fundamental problems were (proportions) and corrected them. The only untouchables were the split windshield and wide gap between front and rear doors. Had they been able to correct these (and I took the liberty of getting the artist's Cormorant off steroids), the result would have been a well-proportioned car that was longer, lower and wider than production but otherwise carrying the same lovely theme.

No question the sectioning of 24th Series would have been expensive, especially the firewall. Had everyone decided ahead of time on two body heights, design enablers could have been dialed to ease the pain, such as maintaining a continuous 1.5 inch section that could be removed and, for most class A surfaces, seams covered with trim.

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Example of what she might have looked like in metal.

While FoMoCo was not the optimal or most likely partner, the Cosmopolitan shows what was possible. What Packard really needed was to team with someone willing to share the expense of its first post-war models, probably Nash. Two architectures, the first a big body-on-framer made at EGB for the Custom Eight and Ambassador Six. The second, a medium-sized unibody made by Nash for the Statesman Six and Packard Eight, both scaled-down versions of the big cars. The Packards would have gotten longer hoods and rear overhangs vs. Nash and been priced higher. Both companies could have profited, and eventually brought one or both of the other two Independents into the fold when the time was right.

Sorry to sidetrack, Steve. The thread is yours again...

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