Re: What SINGLE factor MOST contributed to the demise of Packard?

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2013/10/16 20:36:31

Guscha these days in the US, BMW and Mercedes are prestige makes thanks to their expensive V8 and V12 models. This helps sell the cheaper 4 cylinder and 6 cylinder models.

Even though the 4 cylinder models are no better in room or performance than a Toyota, they sell at a premium price and people buy them who would not buy a Toyota, because of the name and prestige.

This was the case with Packard in the 40s and 50s. They still had a prestige name even though most of their sales were of medium priced cars.

They basically handed the luxury car market over to Cadillac because it was more profitable in the short term to concentrate on the lower priced cars but in the longer term this was a mistake.

The 110, 120 and Clipper didn't kill Packard's reputation, any more than the 20/25 killed Rolls Royce's. What killed them is that in the fifties they did not have a full line of luxury cars to complement the medium price models.