Re: Packard-built Custom Car Records

Posted by Craig the Clipper Man On 2018/1/16 13:47:30

Unless your mailing addressed happened to be in the Hamptons or Beverly Hills, there was definitely a down side to driving around in extremely expensive, flashy cars in the Great Depression. Not only were the driving conditions of most of America's highways not in the best of shape, but when people are reduced to living hand to mouth, seeing people in high-end cars was a little like rubbing salt into the wound.

My mother told me that in the small Mississippi town where she was born, she remembered men in shabby clothes coming up to the back door of her house asking for any kind of work. She said her mother would tell them there wasn't any work, but would always send them on their way with a sandwich and something to drink.

At that time, my grandfather had a good business and would probably have had no problem affording a Packard or Pierce-Arrow, but he chose to drive a Ford sedan instead.

Anytime people are faced with hard economic times, luxury car brands are the first to suffer. There is no shame in driving a modest car during those times instead of flaunting one's obvious wealth. This might account in part for Packard producing cars like the Light 8 and the 120 and 110 in the mid-1930s. A person could still drive a Packard and not be a snob about it.

For those of you who say the 110 and 120 brought down the stature of Packard, you might want to remember that there were a lot of empty factories and unemployment lines containing employees of companies like Pierce-Arrow, Marmon, Stutz, and Auburn/Cord/Duesenberg.