Re: Would it have been easier to salvage Packard than Studebaker?

Posted by Mahoning63 On 2011/1/8 11:44:20

Great suggestion. Would throw in:

Maybach(Mercedes)
Rolls-Royce (BMW)
Bugatti (VW)
Bentley (VW)
Lamborghini (VW)
VW Phaeton (VW)
Maserati (Fiat)
Tesla

Maybach, Rolls (the big one, not the new smaller one), Bugatti and VW Phaeton were failures. Bentley, Lambo and the Maserati Quattroporte have done well so far. Tesla S electric sedan remains to be seen.

Roy G had the passion, an absolute necessity. He tried to create a new car from scratch, almost impossible these days. He was underfinanced and his design was non-compelling.

Bentley used the same approach that Rolls and Maybach did - borrow from the parent company - but has done much better. The main reason is that that they made a hot car and kept the price in check. So two lessons apply now as they did 50 and 75 years ago: don't put out an old fashioned frumpy car in the hopes that stellar engineering and quality will be enough to save you, and don't let your manufacturing footprint get too inefficient.

One thought I have is to approach Marcionne at Fiat/Chrylser. He needs a luxury brand and Maserati is too sports oriented. The Quattroporte platform could be a good starting point.