Re: Production of New Packards?

Posted by su8overdrive On 2012/7/3 21:23:01

Aye, that'd be splendid, Cardinal Mahoning, but, that's a lotta ifs. The harsh truth is that Packard means nothing, nothing at all, to most fellows-- and NO women -- under 60,
and i'm not talking about the handful of young buffs, historians who check out this fine site.

Hewlett-Packard, yes. Packard, no.

Who would be this new company's target, the remaining duffers who recall Packard from the '50s when they were young men? Most of them thought Packard by then a hidebound fogey's car, and bought a Cadillac or Chrysler instead, assuming they had that kind of lucre. Women make the decision on over 55% of all new car purchases, and it's a looooooong way from some gal looking at your shiny old car at a local show or outing, to being locked in a 48-month lease on an emerging and quixotic luxury car.

Would this new "Packard" be an amalgam of 1912, 1934, '40, '42, or '56 design cues? If it's a 1941-47 Clipper redux, they're going to have a way to go before being sleeker than the current Mercedes CL500 sedan.

Too, any remaining worshippers of the products of Packard's waning decade with the wherewithall to buy an expensive, unproven "new" make often as not tend to abhor green, clean technology. They want "the good ole days," which means, for them, something with retro cues but still spewing hydrocarbons from the tailpipe.

Few people recall that James Ward Packard's interest was strictly in producing a quality sporting one-cylinder runabaout, akin to a topdrawer Mazda Miata, BMW M3, and that it was Henry Joy's idea to move to Detroit and produce large touring automobiles. J.W. Packard was in the electrical business first and foremost, the day's Hewlett-Packard, and was solely interested in producing a light, nimble, gentleman's sporting car.

Look how some guys idolize GM's Bob Lutz simply because he's a "car guy," which means he owns several collector cars, channels the requisite testosterone, and in addition to stamping out today's GM Novocaine-mobiles
which aren't in the same league as similarly priced products from Japan, Inc. and Germany, pumping out pickup trucks and silly SUVs on pickup chassis.
Those, a handful of special edition Cadillacs and the recent Corvette are the only things GM produces with worldclass quality.

So, either someone with more money than brains comes along with the billions to launch a retro company using yesterday's technology 'til that customer base dies off,

or for some reason thinks there's need for yet another upscale car to go up against Lexus, BMW, Mercedes, Audi, tho' as a hybrid, which is the wave of the future. And the audience for such a new product couldn't care less whether it's called Packard, Pierce-Arrow, Lozier, Chadwick, or Lightning.

And, of course, any initial turbulence would be blamed on our nation's "high labor costs," conveniently overlooking that Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Porsche, VW all have higher labor costs per vehicle yet manage to share Detroit's lunch with Japan, Inc., other than the above handful of niche products, pickup trucks, pickup-based SUVs, the recent Corvette and Mustang, etc.

This be a fool's errand, discussing new departures on a site geared for celebrating the past. Sadly, too many old car cuckoos, as the late Jean Shepherd called us and himself, can't differentiate judiciously enjoying our pampered survivors from whatever clean, relatively benign sulky we drive to work, the store, errands.

Nice fantasy, but for whom? Not the minutest fraction of the people necessary to float the new megacorp. Thomas Wolfe was right about not being able to go home again.

We live in an age of wanting it all, witness cupholders, seat warmers, constant electronic connection even while driving. We even seem to think we can straddle the past and present, too. You can't take something from one era and transmogrify it for another.

We can, however, continue to enjoy our Packards, relying on a contingent of younger folk being drawn to them, even as we were. I don't hear my Ferrari, Delahaye, Cord friends fearing the future.

The good news is that Packard, our Packard-- and you'll note "our" is subjective, as we hear dear little from brass and '20s Packard owners on this site;
and bear in mind that some who enjoy the velvety firetrucks from the '30s shrug off the '40s cars;
and that not everyone appreciates both senior and junior;
or cares for the bathtubs and '50s fare--

--yet "our" Packard remains in business, given the multitude of small US businesses selling original and reproduction parts, services so we can keep 'em flying.

A Grand Avenue Fourth to all.