Re: The Packard Esquire

Posted by 58L8134 On 2016/9/14 12:30:43

Hi

The Utica plant, along with the Chippewa Avenue plant in South Bend and the defense contracts, were among the spoils Curtiss-Wright extracted from Studebaker-Packard as conditions of its 1956 management agreement in exchange for $35M in operating capital to make it into 1957.

Whatever went on politically in the background between the Eisenhower administration, the Pentagon and Curtiss-Wright can be surmised, as it was an election year. It wouldn't have done to have two major automakers collapse months before November. C-W got its arm twisted a bit to step up and take on the problem. Ultimately, salvaging an auto-making operation (and the employment thereof) while stemming the financial losses was their mandate. Studebaker had a greater chance of doing so in volume and was the larger employer of the two companies.

Packard would exist in name, remaining on the market in reduced form while the company retrenched. Even as that retrenchment with the Lark progressed, no product they could afford to subsequently develop truly needed large displacement V8 engines after that point, even if the Utica plant were still available.

Simply my opinions, for what they're worth.

Steve