Re: Great Packards

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2008/12/7 12:18:46

None of the teething problems for the 55th and 56th Series were anything more serious than other manufacturers dealt with in new models except, perhaps, the oiling problem but then one could look at the early big-block 396 and find similar faults, fairly quickly dealt with. Packard hadn't the money/time left to deal with them.

It is regrettable that PMCC saw fit to sit on their laurels in the years directly following the war and spend their vast cash reserves on endeavours other than R&D and quality control while concentrating upon competing with down-market models of their competitors. Had they done just a few things differently they might have survived up to a point at which a favourable merger/acquisition with a more suitable partner would've been possible. I think that Christopher was so focused on the conditions prevailing in 1935 when he initiated the junior cars that he failed to accurately assess the immediate postwar market. I don't believe that the junior cars killed Packard, per se, but rather that they failed to promote their excellent up-market product. Pre-war, they sold the junior cars on the reputation of the senior ones, even though there were far fewer of them built and actually sold. Post-war, they hardly mentioned the Supers and Customs while concentrating all of their marketing efforts on the lower priced cars. Too, by the time management began to see the light, the product was too outdated and they didn't have the money (buys time) to turn it around.

As far as the 55th and 56th Series styling was concerned, a great many long-time Packard customers saw them as gaudy and over decorated.

I do agree however that, had they had the money to buy the time to offset the bad rep that the constant publication of their problems had generated and managed to stay in business long enough for the positive aspects of the engineering of the cars to become well-known and some of the minor glitches to be forgotten, they'd be regarded today in a much more favourable light. There was no more wrong with them than with most first production efforts at new technology. I suspect that, had they gotten the V8 off the drawing board and into testing soon enough to discover that it needed the oiling system tweaked, a real oil pump, adjustable rocker arms and strengthened crankshaft support, the engine would still be in use, in some form, today.