Packard Forum Index » Post-War (1946-54)

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Agreed, my suggested approach fails to take into account the entire picture of what Packard was facing at the time. It has been said that many were expecting an economic downturn in the years immediately following the war; this soon turned out to be exactly the opposite and there was a brief period when there turned out to be a great demand for anything on wheels. With hindsight being 20/20 it seems it would've made sense for Packard to concentrate on strictly high-end cars with the highest profit margin - but then I have the benefit of knowing how things turned out vs having to guess. Designing an entirely new body for '48 that only took some design elements from the Clippers but shared no common sheet metal would have most certainly been a gamble but it's nice to think what it would be like if it paid off.

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Yeah, I can easily picture a squat Packard-style grille on that Chrysler. For the longest time I believed the Ghia Chryslers to be a 50/50 design collaboration but turns out they were simply "European style" designs that were all Exner only executed by Ghia because that turned out to be the least costly manner for Chrysler to get them built. Some of those Ghia Chryslers may have a couple elements I don't care for but there really aren't any I can say I dislike entirely. Hell, Ghia liked the D'Elegance enough that it acquired the design rights to it so it could sell it to VW.

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That Chrysler C-200 convertible and a '34 Packard Model 1106 LeBaron sport coupe were my dream cars in college, cue harp strums. The closest i came were a '40 One-Twenty sedan and a couple years later, a '70 Dodge Polara convertible.

When Exner and a couple Chrysler execs visited Ghia in 1951, they saw teenaged boys hammering sheet steel over tree stumps in the courtyard.

Right. In coupe form, the Chrysler C-200 became the Karmann Ghia.

Hear you, O Danny. Packard's stylist John Reinhart, later company design chief responsible for the '51s, was among those opposing the bathtub, wanting to keep and, his word, "sweeten," the sleek Clipper. Packard management ordered him to drag a Chevy-based '49 Olds 88 into East Grand's small styling studio, use that for the '51 Packard's cowl and roof heights. Steel being cheaper than glass resulted in the "high pockets" look marring Reinhart's design to his everlasting regret, retained of course through the 1956 end, despite Dick Teague's busy, shoestring, last-gasp '55 facelift.

Thought 1955-56 Chrysler New Yorkers cleaner, more handsome than Packard's V-8s, and, the heresy continuing, 1931-33 Imperials the best-looking of all the early '30s heavy iron "Classics." Like the woefully underrated concurrent Auburn V-12, the best buy in automotive history -- Packard's Twelve engine a de facto copy -- the Imperial like all Chrysler products had hydraulic brakes, which Packard wouldn't adopt 'til the terrific '35 One Twenty -- their best ever product, certainly from a driver's standpoint -- the seniors not 'til '37. Packard's '30s seniors won the fine car decathlon, but Pierce-Arrow's 385 eight and 462-ci V-12 had the edge in the engine bay.

Off subject, mayhaps, but despite little interest in domestic cars after the war, would rather a Chrysler than a Packard, Cad, anything else from the 1950s. Chrysler's Oriflow shocks and patented two-leading-shoe front brakes, faster steering; 16.2:1 steering gear over Cad's clumsy 25.5:1, controlled a road car balanced front and rear when heavy engines usually resulted in nose-heavy boats.

The only facets of the '51 200 also owned in my 20s were good ergonomics and a hood design apparently cribbed from the postwar Cisitalia. Body quality below Hudson Hornet or Oldsmobile, cabin as heartbreakingly drab as an ordnance vehicle; Bob Lutz not around to explain to the penny pinchers at East Grand the folly of not putting your best interior trim in all your lines. The debut '41 Clipper and even my '47 Super so suffered.

Your Alfa 6C 2500-based Packardette lovely. You missed your calling.

The New Yorker's E.B. White likened the new domestic cars for 1940 to "badly formed eggs."

Below, an artist rendering of 22nd series. Very appealing. Nice belt and roof lines, smooth flowing fenders. What was produced was a ugly Nash clone.
No wonder Caddy outsold Packard.

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I think ‘49 was the last year Packard outsold Cadillac, and had over 100,000 sold

Oh, and don't overlook that the vast majority of Packards sold in those years were NOT in the Cadillac price class. Think Buick and Oldsmobile.