Such a car could have resulted had Roy Abernethy, president of AMC, bought the rights to Packard in early 1962 when Studebaker dropped the name from Studebaker-Packard. The Curbside Classic article explains what was going on at the time with the mid-sized market and mentions the rise of Mercedes-Benz as a new kind of luxury car. Here is a sampling of ads for its 1965 models. Very interesting messaging.