Re: '66 Packard Model Car

Posted by Fyreline On 2012/8/28 9:32:36

This has been an interesting discussion to follow. AMC certainly had it's own share of troubles as the 1970's US auto market changed around it. I think a good case can be made that an AMC Packard would have added a much-needed cachet to AMC showrooms, although whether or not the existing AMC sales force would have been effective at moving them is another piece of the puzzle. Tooling costs need not have been astronomical, although to be fair they would have been significant and would have represented a higher proportional investment of ever-more-scarce AMC dollars versus the "deeper pockets" of the Big Three. I like the direction some of the "what if" proposals are taking, but in the end it still looks a bit too much like a tarted-up Ambassador . . . and how is that any better (or different) than the 1957-58 Packardbakers?


Food for thought: GM had no use for the Packard line, they had Cadillac. Ford likewise had the Lincoln, which in some instances over the 1950's and 1960's would have made a very nice Packard indeed, but I can't see Ford abandoning the Lincoln marque or worse yet, relegating it to yet another "in between" market niche a la Edsel. Now Chryslet, with it's on-again, off-again Imperial might have represented a happier home for Packard. For many years an Imperial was simply the fanciest Chrysler, and adding a top tier Packard above that could have worked. The obvious Exner connection has some appeal as well. Unfortunately, as the 1970's turned into the 1980's, Lee Iacocca may have had to kill it . . . Which is unfortunate, because if you are a student of Iacocca, it's exactly the kind of car he would have loved.


In the end, "saving" Packard was probably too tall an order for the state of the late 1950's US auto industry. They were all in the midst of compact car mania, Ford would soon be licking its post-Edsel wounds, Chrysler had quality issues to solve, and Studebaker had already made its decision regarding Packard. Which leaves, as you have all pointed out, AMC. Perhaps that would have been Packard's best shot, after all. I can say this without any doubt: It would most certainly have produced some extremely interesting automobiles!