Re: Is it just me, or are there a fair number of '57-'58 Packards out there?

Posted by Mr.Pushbutton  On 2009/2/13 10:48:09

(Monday morning quarterback alert) One thing that amazes me when I read, and reread Ward's excellent book is the duplication of jobs that Packard left in place after taking over Studebaker. TWO executive departments, TWO engineering departments, TWO legal departments, TWO accouting/finance departments, etc........infinity. These days a merger goes down, there is a brief honeymoon where everthing stays the same (around 90 days) while the new owners figure things out and BOOM, the consolidations begin. This just points out how ill equipped Packard was from a mangerial standpoint to "get bigger", they had problems enough with what was on their plate in Detroit with the Packard line, and in contrast I would have to say that AMC was a better managed enterprise at that time given how they merged Hudson and Nash, even with the geographical distance between Detroit and Kenosha. We have always read that there was a struggle of wills between Nance and Rommney, neither wanted to be #2 in any lash-up of companies. I would have to say from the easy position of hindsight that Rommney was a better administrator and was the best man for the job had the final lash up of S-P and H-N/AMC occured.