Re: your experience with 6 cyl Packard engines: 110/Six/Clipper Six

Posted by Rusty O\'Toole On 2009/12/13 10:57:32

Pierce Arrow's loyalty to the six cylinder concept hardly caused them to go bankrupt.

They brought out a brand new straight eight of their own in 1929. Then they followed it up with a new and excellent V12 3 years later. They produced their last car in 1938, ten long years after giving up the 6.

They were still producing the old fashioned hand made cars with wooden framed bodies. New designs of cheap mass produced cars were nearly as good for all practical purposes and a lot cheaper to produce. That is what finished them off, a lack of customers willing to pay a lot of money for a product that was still superior, but no longer as far ahead of the mass produced cars as they used to be.

Packard avoided this fate for another 20 years by moving with the times and bringing out a cheaper car of their own.