Re: '58 Lincoln-based Packard idea

Posted by Mahoning63 On 2011/8/1 15:44:03

You raised a number of points that I think are worth exploring. Keep'm coming.

The first was design, the Packard being an improvement on the Lincoln, which I agree. Tried to make the rough alteration look fairly close to what Packard was planning so as to demonstrate that Packard's design strategy could have largely been realized had they hitched their wagon to this horse. The question is, was the Packard design a winner? That I don't know. We know the Lincoln squarebird look didn't fly. How much of that was due to its overall shape and how much was due to the garballygook smeared on that shape is an open question. The fact that the '61 Lincoln did so well might answer the quesiton, but not completely. I went to the Concours at St. Johns in Detroit yesterday and got a good look at a '59 Lincoln cruising around the grounds. It was whisper quiet - perfect for a Packard - but looked extremely low, flat and gargantuan. The '61 Lincoln dimensions were greatly trimmed down. We also know the Edsel front appearance didn't fly, although that car probably torpedoed for a lot of other reasons having nothing to do with design.

On your comment about the '57 Lincoln shell, personally I think it would have been a nightmare to adopt. What exactly was Packard planning to do, mount it to a Packard frame? The only way to make it a straightforward adoption was to use Lincoln's frame, which would have started a chain reaction of borrowing with no end, except probably Ford's and the bankers' patience. And what would it have done to help Packard? The '57 Lincoln design was good but getting old. Might have been throwing good money after bad. My sense it that Packard should have tried to convince the money people that, in return for carrying the company through a very ugly 56 and 57 model year using the 55 car, Packard would then sell Utica, shutter Conner except for stamping outer panels for future products, fire most of the salaried and hourly workforce and become a lean machine with low overhead. Brutal but maybe the only chance at survival.

A 25% markup would have resulted in a $6,000 Lincoln and a $7,500 Packard. The $1,500 would have been large enough to give the Lincoln enough breathing room to make it on its own but not too high to prevent Packard from making 5000 - 10,000 sales in its own right. Am not sure what you meant by Lincoln economy of scale. If both cars were priced similarly and the Packard design went over well while the Lincoln didn't, there would have been real heck to pay in Dearborn.