Re: One Story Assembly Plant What If?

Posted by Tim Cole On 2014/6/9 20:30:05

There is such a thing as brand stagnation. A few products like Coke and Marlboro can hang in there because they are cheap junk. However the way of buyers can be very fickle. The situation today is that nobody is building a car intended to get you where you want to go. Supposedly people don't buy cars based on reliability. If that is the case do they deserve anything but junk?

The disappearance of Pontiac, Plymouth, Mercury, Oldsmobile, and AMC sort of blows up a lot of the Packard situation. If that doesn't then the GM bankruptcy certainly does. Cadillac had dealers operating out of gas stations in the 30's so Packard's little soda fountain operations were not unique. What was different for Cadillac was that GM decided to invest in Cadillac and make it work. Today, Cadillac doesn't serve a purpose either. Nor does Lincoln.

When you look at how much capital Packard had access to it still boils down to the amortization of the Packard plant and ultimate liquidation. If the 110 wasn't able to pay for new investment where was the company to go anyway?