Re: '66 Packard Model Car

Posted by BH On 2012/8/27 20:40:24

Tooling costs for body sheet metal are a big factor, which is what did Abernethy in with the Ambassador redesign. The losses amounted to over $12M.

I can only guess that, having been with Packard, Abernethy didn't want to move to far too fast, yet he still wound up in over his head. I also question whether the existing dealer body would have been prepared to deal with such a market niche as Packard.

Yet, could be some old stigma followed, from ten years earlier, when the marque was shopped around, and nobody wanted it, then.

Perhaps short-sighted and arrogant on their part, on all counts.

Yet, I still question whether a company that found itself between a rock and a hard place for most of its 33 years would have ever committed to (or succeeded with) anything like a Packard revival.

Jeep was more to their liking.