Re: Henry Ford & Packard (trivia)...

Posted by LINC400 On 2010/3/3 14:44:19

No, Lincoln was not in the hearse business. And neither Packard or Cadillac built hearses. Packard and Cadillac produced a commercial chassis that could be purchased for conversion to hearses, flower cars, ambulances, etc. Lincoln did not.

Many companies used the Cadillac chassis, Superior, Sayers & Scoville, Miller Meteor, Eureka, etc. In 1938 or so, Henney and Packard signed an agreement making each other exclusive. Henney would only use the Packard chassis, and Packard would only sell to Henney. This, plus the increase in Cadillacs popularity, resulted in there being far more Cadillac hearses than Packards. On rare occasions, someone could take a regular passenger car from another manufacturer and have it converted to a hearse. But this was much more expensive and less practical

It was not ironic, but on purpose, than Henry Ford was carried in a Packard hearse. Henry Ford was driven out of the original Henry Ford Company. After he was gone, the company was renamed Cadillac. Plus Cadillac was competition to the Lincoln division. So there was no way Henry was going to ride in a Cadillac hearse. The family looked for, but could not locate a Lincoln hearse. With good reason, with no chassis or manufacturer using Lincolns, hardly any were built. So a Packard was chosen instead. It was still competition for Lincoln, but Henry was never kicked out of Packard, and did not have an intense hatred of the company like he did for Cadillac.