Re: When and how the luxury market dominance was being lost?
Posted by Dave Kenney On 2008/12/15 16:08:50
Owen, Great post and as always such an interesting subject.
The 1932 900 Light Eight was an outstanding bargain and interesting move downmarket but was also introduced at the worst possible time as 1932 was the worst economically in the Great Depression. FDR was just elected and the New Deal had not yet begun. Without the GM men the 120 possibly would have been as dismal a marketing failure as the Light Eight and much is owed to them for bringing Packard back from the fate of Pierce -Arrow and so many other luxury makes during the Depression.
I agree that the Six was unnecessary and was driven primarily by the GM men who hated the "senior" line and steered the company down market to compete with the middle price car makers. As mentioned George Christopher was probably the person most responsible for this.
The beautiful Clipper styling had such great promise but I think it was a mistake to mount the body on the short 120" wheelbase and sell a six cylinder and small eight version. After WW2 if the company had begun production of the Super Eight and Custom and offered a convertible it could have sold as many cars as it was capable of producing in those first postwar years. I also don't think the '48 makeover was necessary either as the Clipper styling still had legs (notice the similarity with a 1950's Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud) and could have been retained until at least 1950. I wonder how a Clipper Custom with a powerful new Packard V-8 and Ultramatic would have sold in 1951 even? Oh well all just speculation and water under the proverbial bridge and more importantly I just heard the snow plough go by and I have to go clear the driveway of 2' of snow
The 1932 900 Light Eight was an outstanding bargain and interesting move downmarket but was also introduced at the worst possible time as 1932 was the worst economically in the Great Depression. FDR was just elected and the New Deal had not yet begun. Without the GM men the 120 possibly would have been as dismal a marketing failure as the Light Eight and much is owed to them for bringing Packard back from the fate of Pierce -Arrow and so many other luxury makes during the Depression.
I agree that the Six was unnecessary and was driven primarily by the GM men who hated the "senior" line and steered the company down market to compete with the middle price car makers. As mentioned George Christopher was probably the person most responsible for this.
The beautiful Clipper styling had such great promise but I think it was a mistake to mount the body on the short 120" wheelbase and sell a six cylinder and small eight version. After WW2 if the company had begun production of the Super Eight and Custom and offered a convertible it could have sold as many cars as it was capable of producing in those first postwar years. I also don't think the '48 makeover was necessary either as the Clipper styling still had legs (notice the similarity with a 1950's Rolls-Royce Silver Cloud) and could have been retained until at least 1950. I wonder how a Clipper Custom with a powerful new Packard V-8 and Ultramatic would have sold in 1951 even? Oh well all just speculation and water under the proverbial bridge and more importantly I just heard the snow plough go by and I have to go clear the driveway of 2' of snow
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