Re: 8.75 vs 2.1

Posted by Steve203 On 2014/11/16 11:42:33

No one can blame Chrysler for trying to get all they could from the deal. After all, they could only sell that plant once. Even at $8.75M

True, but there is a difference between a fair market price, and using Packard like a rented mule. I had posted a few months ago about the price Ford sold the original Lincoln plant to DTE for, also far less that what Chrysler wanted for Conner, and the Lincoln plant was larger.

Anything other than a modern body/assembly facility attached directly to Utica was going to be a stopgap. That is, if they intended to pursue the complete one-story plant concept to fruition.

We kicked around the plant alternatives in the "what if" threads last summer.

The bottom line was East Grand, in the mid 50s, wasn't that impossible a proposition. Cadillac's Clark St plant was built in the early 20s. Parts of Dodge Main were built before WWI. Both ran into the early 80s. If Cadillac had wanted a new plant in the 50s, they could have gotten one.

Anything other than a modern body/assembly facility attached directly to Utica was going to be a stopgap.

The money Packard sank into Utica was another thing that made them cash poor.

I took a look at the situation at Curtiss-Wright during that period. Roy Hurley and the board were looking for a fast buck. Instead of developing jet engines on their own, they licensed engines that were developed by others. With that mindset, if Packard had moved in 52 to sell Utica and the J-47 contract to C-W, before the Air Force started cutting the production rate to nothing, Hurley might have jumped at it as it would have been immediately profitable to C-W. Then Packard would have had a big portion of the money they needed to do a proper job of developing a new model.

There were a number of timing mismatches when it came to the advantages that could have been wrought. Packard needed their body plant but Hudson wasn't quite done using it. By the time AMC could lease it, Packard was locked into Connor. We assume the Hudson body plant might have worked out better than Connor though anecdotal evidence suggests it might not have been that much better a situation.

Another timeline inconsistency. Ward says that Hudson approached Packard about a merger, around August 53. Foster says that Barit approached Mason in June and they signed a memo of understanding in a room in the Book Cadillac hotel that month.

The best scenario we came up with in the "what if" thread was Packard merging with Hudson. With Packard the larger company, a stock swap would have Nance and the Packard board in charge. The Hudson body plant, fully equipped and staffed, would have been acquired essentially for free. The Hudson Hornet and Wasp, being in the same size and price range as the Clipper, could be replaced by retrimmed Clippers, powered by the Hudson 308, and production consolidated at East Grand.