Re: The Packard Esquire

Posted by Packard5687 On 2016/9/14 15:57:19

<i>"... I always wondered why the company was called "Studebaker-Packard" instead of "Packard-Studebaker" ..."</i>

This is not a dumb question! The merger was done hastily and many details of it were not as well thought out (not to mention researched!) as they should have been. One glaring example is the name. Studebaker had too much say in the way the deal was structured and this is, in part, reflected in the name. Studebaker's chairman and president remained (Vance and Hoffman), adding unnecessary overhead. Both proving grounds remained. More unnecessary overhead. The list goes on. Packard president Nance was hamstrung in many ways because Studebaker had more clout in the deal than it should have. The worst of it was that Studebaker's costs were out of control - and they had no real idea of what their costs actually were. A proper audit was not done until after the deal was completed. Nance complained, with great justification, that "Studebaker was bleeding Packard white."