Re: Postwar LWB Market Production

Posted by Mahoning63 On 2016/2/25 21:10:43

Excellent analysis Steve! Enjoyed it thoroughly and your conclusions are spot on. As you make clear, consistent availability of LWB cars was critical to staying in the forefront of the imagination of the moneyed clientele that Packard had long courted. Even after Packard switched to "Junior" platforms exclusively in 1940, their long wheelbase versions couldn't help but look impressive. The Clipper-based versions were particularly well-done.

Cadillac fell behind in these years. I've heard that the Caddy limos were fabulous to ride in, but I doubt Cadillac Design was content as they gazed at the new Henney-built Packards. The 1950 Cadillac was a much better effort, the type of car the designers probably had wanted back in 1946.

Conversely, the '53 Packard Executive didn't have nearly the unique appearance that the earlier Packards and concurrent Cadillac had, being nothing more than a coupe mated to a sedan. Subjective styling observations aside, its biggest problem was price. At $6900 it was $1300 more than the Series 75. This was a mistake on Nance's part, who approved Packard sending kits to Henney to build the car from scratch. There was no way Henney could approach the build efficiency of Packard. It was one thing to build hearses, which had mostly unique elements. The Executive, by contrast, was mostly stock Packard. A better strategy would have been to have Henney create the unique parts - rear doors, roof and floor pan extensions - and ship them to Briggs (Conner) where the cars could be built efficiently alongside the rest of the line.

Always liked the '54 Imperial, a real looker and very refined, if dated by then.