Re: What would a traditional Packard "Senior" have looked like in 1951?

Posted by Craig the Clipper Man On 2017/8/1 15:51:11

That is a very interesting comment about Packard wanting to be the next Buick. Granted, Buicks were and are nice cars, but that seems like setting your sights rather low. As the producer of luxury cars, one would have thought Packard would have kept its eyes on Cadillac, not Buick. I always thought that the Clipper line was supposed to compete with Buick.

James Nance seems to always get the blame for the ultimate demise of Packard, and personally, I think that is unfair. Granted, he did make some poor decisions, such as agreeing to buy Studebaker and opening the Connor plant; but he did not make those decisions in a vacuum. There were quite a number of executives being paid a lot of money to give him information and advice who clearly steered him in the wrong direction. I truly believe that Nance did care about Packard and wanted the company to succeed; but judging by the decisions and actions of George Christopher, I have to wonder whether he really cared or not.

I think Packard could have purchased an automatic transmission from either GM or Chrysler that would have worked fine and would have saved the company a lot of money in terms of development and manufacturing. Being the only independent to develop its own automatic did not actually put the company's resources to its best advantages, as compared to bringing out a large, powerful V-8 engine after the war. Car companies had produced V-8 engines since before World War I, so there was nothing unique about them; but by 1950, the V-8 was the feature the public definitely wanted.

In 1954, Packard produced 31,291 cars, compared to 444,609 produced by Buick. In 1955 Buick was the third-largest car manufacturer selling 738,814 units! Packard was No. 14 selling a total of 55,247.

To use a sports comparison, this is like a high school football team trying to take on Florida State University.