Quote:
Steve203 wrote:
Reportedly the day after Nance signed the lease on Conner, AMC announced they were closing Hudson operations in Detroit, and the shut down was effective in October 54. After sitting on the Hudson body plant for 2 years, waiting for stamping orders from Packard that never came, because AMC's prices were sky high, the Hudson body plant was sold to Cadillac for $2.1M, $6.6M less than Chrysler had wanted for Conner.
Warning; Conspiracy Theories ahead!
My previous suggestion that the Conner plant deal was self-sabotage could be way off the mark. Packard might have been doing the best they could while other companies were trying to cut them off. The speculation on how well Packard could have done if things had worked out differently may not indicate Packard's ineptness as much as it shows that there were plenty of others who were working against their success.
Who knows the politics and back-room corporate dealings that went one? It certainly looks like AMC was asked to hold off on selling the Hudson body plant until after Packard had signed the deal on Chrysler's Conner plant. Then, wonder of wonders, Cadillac gets the Hudson plant at what looks to be a bargain price. AMC was evidently chosen by the Big Boys to play ball and survive... maybe because AMC didn't have the cars to compete against the larger GM and Chrysler cars, like Packard did. Come to think of it, AMC never made cars to compete in that segment... and neither did Studebaker.
Quote:
Steve203 wrote:
"...adding strong Packard and Clipper sales to weak Hornet and Wasp gives a total of 75,568, almost dead on a full single shift schedule for E Grand, without the overtime of the 9hr/2 shift/3 Saturdays per month schedule Conner was running. If the market liked the Clipper based Hudsons better, the company may be looking at a 100,000 unit year."
What's good for Packard may not be what's good for GM, eh?
This Post was from: https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/newbb/viewtopic.php?post_id=156538