Re: Packard financials and Patent Plates

Posted by su8overdrive On 2016/4/22 1:51:27

Agree with 55/Motor City above. This is the kind of hard fact we like to see, not the "what ifs" from those with no knowledge of the tenor of the times, many buffs under the impression Packard existed to make toys for them 60, 70, 80 years hence. As they said in the detective movies, "follow the money trail."

In summation, sans excuses, which mean little to shareholders --and remember that even in 1933, after only GM, Packard was still the most widely held automotive stock, 107,000 shareholders to GM's 360,000 (Ford was privately held) --
note Packard's most profitable years were 1928-29, '30 still good. After that, other than a lift from the new juniors 1935-37, nothing 'til the war work, though thanks to Clipper styling, had not Pearl Harbor intervened, 1942 would've been Packard's biggest volume year other than 1937, which suggests styling even more important than price.
After the war, back to fiscal morbundity but took off with the jet engine contracts in 1948, otherwise declining into the '50s, as did all independents for the inevitable reasons; unable to match Big Three tool amortization, unit costs, component purchasing power, afford annual model changes, TV advertising.

Thanks for posting this chart of Packard fiscal history at a glance, OD.

Meanwhile, thanks, too, to Carol Mauck and Kev for saving that cache of Packard history, papers, records.