Re: Packard & Hudson proximity

Posted by Mahoning63 On 2013/2/13 10:34:42

The investors needed to see a viable plan that cost much less than the $50M Nance wanted. The pitch needed to include full-scale work-ups of the modified Packards and Studebakers, break-even financials at conservatively low volumes and a marketing plan that cut to the chase: Packard would only make a top notch luxury car, Studebaker only a top notch small car. Operatons would have been bare bones in '57 and '58, lots of folks layed off, showroom line-ups cut way back. The key would have been to make those mock-ups stun the investors... "We can't believe you can produce that big an effect for that little money! We'll give you the loan. Prove that you can execute over the next year then we'll talk about 1959."

Maybe Nance should have kept Loewy rather than shelling out $1M to get rid of him. He was the only designer in Packard's world that seemed to understand proportion.