Re: SP merger

Posted by Steve203 On 2015/3/2 19:54:22

Probably stretching things bit to say management was being prescient when developing their '53 line.....more like dumb luck!

I call the 59 Lark a masterful job of making lemonade. Making compacts was the only thing Studebaker could do.

I think it's in the book about Harold Churchill were the discussion is reported about carrying on the Packard name after Detroit was closed. iirc it cost something like $3M to make the 57 Packardbaker. It would have cost millions more to reconfigure the body plant to make the 8" wider existing Packard body.

As the Packard body was not excessively wide, but rather the Studebaker body was excessively narrow compared to Ford, Chevy or Plymouth, by the mid 50s, and there was no money to reconfigure the body plant, going to compacts exclusively was the only option other than throwing in the towel.

Which brings us back to Nance's fantasies about platform sharing between Studebaker and Packard. E Grand could handle Studebaker's volume and South Bend couldn't built Packard's bodies.