Re: Factory Service Index

Posted by HH56 On 2024/5/9 10:23:27

I believe this was touched upon in one of the books where the author mentioned Packard making improvements and running changes throughout a series production and in many instances would offer the upgrades to previous owners of that series or even older series when possible or feasible.

This was initially done to counter other mfgs who typically sold a brand new looking car every year which instantly made the previous model obsolete. Packard owners noticed this too but tended to be long standing more conservative customers not necessarily wanting the latest and greatest flash. By doing the upgrade program many still got the current improvements for a minimal cost. This way they did not feel or see their cars immediately losing value and would realize that buying a Packard did not mean early obsolescence..

When the junior cars came along this retrofit program was not as prevalent although Packard did do something similar by making some accessories available for older models. To some extent the programs to retrofit the R11 ODs and the new 52 Easamatic into the 51 models was the same thing. OD was initially promoted as a reliability and Easamatic a safety issue but they were still a throwback to that make it look less obsolete era..