Re: Was the 1957-1958 Packard manufactured ONLY for marketing purposes?

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2013/8/17 17:56:00

I suppose they were made to be sold, same as the 1899 - 1956 models if that is what you mean by marketing purposes.

I don't see how it saved them any money to drag out production for another 2 years. They would still have to buy back practically as much unsold merchandise and it cost them millions to tool up and produce the 57s and 58s.

My guess is they thought a) the "Packardbakers" would act as a stop gap until they could raise the money to build a "real" Packard or b) they were such great cars the public would buy enough of them to make a profit.

In any case the whole Packardbaker project turned out to be a pipe dream and was dropped, along with the regular Studebaker line in favor of the new compact Lark. The Lark was more in tune with the public's desires at the time, and got the credit for saving Studebaker.

This illustrates that times were changing, big cars were out of favor, and chances are Packard would not have survived no matter what anyone did.