Quote:
humanpotatohybrid wrote:
I'm not an expert on Caribbeans, but I'm pretty sure with enough time and money to waste you could take virtually everything of aesthetic importance from a 56 and put it on a 55. As Howard alluded to, it's well known that a number of 55 cars that were sitting on lots into MY56 had some aesthetic additions, such as extra trim, to help them move off the lot (often with random accessories added too).
Adding extra trim or 1956 parts, etc. did really nothing to "move them off the lot"... but rather did a lot to reduce profit margin if the dealer truly was having troubles selling cars. SOME dealers who were enterprising dreamed up all manners of tricks to distinguish cars they were selling. Earle C. Anthony, for instance, equipped some of the V-8 Packards they sold with "Luber-Finer" oil filtration systems or GM "Autronic Eye" automatic headlight dimmers. This didn't mean they were having troubles selling cars and they were not struggling to move anything "off the lot." At least not until word got out that Packard was shutting down production.
Frankly there were some, like ECA, who simply could not get enough cars to sell!
Yes there were indeed some Packard dealers who may have had "turtles" on the lot but modifying these cars or loading them with accessories was hardly the solution to this specific problem. The real problem was trying to get mid-1950s buyers to buy Packards where there was so much rumor and subterfuge going on about the company at the time! Things back then were very, very different from today's mindset.
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