Re: More on the Facel-Packard . . .

Posted by su8overdrive On 2013/6/9 2:45:43

Monsignor Fyreline -- Wonderful firsthand story, thank you.
Amazes some of us that a dying Packard brought Mercedes-Benz to our shores, an automaker managing to retain their hallmark vertical grille while selling similar-looking cars at different price ranges without bleeding a proud name white, something BMW also managed. C-E-S Class. 3- 5- 7-Series. Six, Eight, Super Eight.

Not so much today, but for decades we heard how the One Twenty "tarnished" the Packard name. No one ever said that about the lower Mercedes and BMW lines. Unlike the German companies, Rolls-Royce with their funky little Silver Dawns/Bentley R-Types, even GM, Packard never learned how to market downscale as upscale.

As mentioned, a l l the independents were doomed by the '50s simply as they couldn't match Big Two (Chrysler's market share only 12.9% in 1954) unit cost, tool amortization, or afford the increasingly "necessary" silly annual model changes and expensive TV advertising. This was underscored by the Facel Vega using a Chrysler drivetrain.