Re: The last Detroit-Built Packard: 25 June 1956

Posted by 58L8134 On 2017/7/3 12:47:54

Hi

Usually on the anniversary, the question of which is the legitimate last Packard arises on the Studebaker Driver's Club Forum. The following rather legalistic-sounding explanation was my response:

On the question of which Packard is last: That depends upon how you define a car as "genuine" versus "an impostor"? If the vehicle has to come into existence primarily through design, engineering, tooling and marketing of a dedicated organization without major outside input, then 1956 would be the last "genuine" Packard.

But, automobiles are a transportation device created by corporate entities organized for that purpose, profitably if possible, as the overall objective. Studebaker, no greater or lesser than Packard as a corporate entity, was organized and existed exactly for that purpose.

Once the two corporations were legally bound together through merger, their purposes became one. Products of both divisions became the responsibility of each as well as the overall corporation to perpetuate, serving their respective market segments. This situation doesn't make a distinction where or under whose auscipes those resources are brought to bear to fulfill those purposes.

As such, the 1958 Packard would be last "genuine" examples built under the corporate umbrella created by the merger. That it is constituted of no content originally developed under the prior separate corporation is the only reason for reservations whether it is a legitimate bearer of the title. It falls to the individual to decide whether one accepts that latter product warrants its status as the last Packard.

Steve