Packard Forum Index » Studebaker Built Packards (1957 - 58)

Interesting question. The trend to smaller cars began in 1957, in 1958 the only cars to post sales gains were the Rambler and the new 4 seat Thunderbird. So it seems there was a market for a smaller luxury car at the time.

I like the idea of the Loewy coupe body on a Packard frame and suggested it before. It could have answered the desire for a "Packard Panther" specialty car to be made in the Henney shops.

Could the SP merger ever have been made to work? What if they had gotten together several years earlier and had more time to work out their problems before the axe fell?

By 1956 and 57 they were in full retreat. But during the war they were going full blast like all American industries, an in the period 1945 - 1949 they could sell all the cars they made. Somehow the profits of that period were dissipated in a few years leaving both Studebaker and Packard in bad shape but especially Studebaker.

The real problems were the result of bad decisions or bad luck in the forties and early fifties. By the mid fifties they were so far behind the 8 ball it would have taken Superman to save them.

Esquireman makes a very interesting proposal. The car would have needed to be perfect... no hick-ups with anything - engineering, quality, craftsmanship, styling. Nothing. The '58 hardtop coupe might have been the only viable starting point. 2-door and 4-door hardtops and a convertible. No body insert between the front and rear doors on the 4-dr hardtops. Front and rear styling that said "wow".

On the mgmt comments, were Nance to have ultimately led AMC rather than Romney, AMC might not have seen the 60s. Why? Because everything automotive that Nance touched turned to rust. A fine man, I am sure, and a good banker. But not a car guy.