Re: The Sudden End of the Detroit Packards

Posted by Craig the Clipper Man On 2014/1/25 19:36:52

While the history lessons of the 1930s are somewhat pertinent to the ultimate demise of Packard, I think the fact that the company managed to survive the Depression and enter the 1940s with new innovations and brand new models that appealed to buying public. The real death knell was something that at the time seemed a curse and blessing -- World War II. A curse because the war halted what was the beginning of a burst of demand for the remarkable new Clipper and a blessing for the contracts war production would bring.

Packard came out of the war in strong economic shape, but faced with the problem of retooling and restarting its manufacturing from scratch. This was a formidable task for any car company. This was when the fatal mistakes began to occur. While it appears that Packard's Detroit shutdown was abrupt and shocking, the company's real demise was a long, slow, drawn-out affair that was percipitated by numerous, unrelated bad decisions that started long before James Nance ever considered employment with Packard.