Re: Conner ave plant

Posted by Ross On 2017/3/24 18:55:09

Please don't forget also that there was very little going on at East Grand at the start of 55 production--engines, transmissions and (pretty sure) rear axles were being produced in Utica. Castings had long since been outsourced to eliminate the perpetual headache of the Packard foundry. Since bodies were already being made at Connor and there was no chance of moving body building back to EGB (Nance had already had that studied back in 52 or 3), there was very little happening to keep the lights on and the power plant lit at EGB.

I'll make two further points in favor of Connor: eventually they did get quality under control, so it was not impossible even though the learning curve was steep. I am sure a lot of existing expertise vaporized when control of Connor was passed. Second I notice that model for model the 55s have a lot more content than the corresponding 54 models especially in the realms of trim and detailing. The fact that this was accomplished without massive price increases, and the fact that Packard division made a small profit in 55 tells me that overhead costs were much lower there.