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

Posted by su8overdrive On 2013/10/18 15:43:36

Insiders report that Mercedes sheet steel was below their
usual quality in the '50s, during those bleak postwar years
in both Germany and England.

When Studebaker-Packard entered a management agreement with
Curtiss-Wright, who took on S-P s o l e l y as tax write off and to pick up S-P's jet engine contracts, C-W insisted they drop Packard, instead distributing Mercedes-Benz. Before this, if you wanted a Mercedes in the US, you got it through Max Hoffman, importer of various sports cars.

Mercedes objected to a later idea that S-P hawk Chrysler-engined Facel Vega Excellences as "Packards," seeing this as direct competition.

Meanwhile, it helps if you remember the tenor of the times. For example, Enzo Ferrari, like W. O. Bentley, was a huge fan of the earlier Packards, owning a succession of Packard Twelves from the '30s. But as Packard was still in business selling some luxury models in the '50s and seen as competition (if minor), Ferrari's executives spun the story of Enzo's Packard V-12 respect to the much earlier 1915-22 Twin Six.

Again, haven't we enough of this what if malarkey? There's plenty of yet unearthed Packard history, hard fact, to explore, let alone insights on keeping our cars purring.

Just a thought, but perhaps if we weren't a nation of
mouse clickers and Monday morning quarterbacks, the Packard factory might survive revamped and used to some productive means today.

And Audi's eating M-B's and BMW's lunch these days, anyway.