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

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One wonders the same thing about Ford and GM today. Oh, I know, "corporate greed".

(Monday morning quarterback alert) One thing that amazes me when I read, and reread Ward's excellent book is the duplication of jobs that Packard left in place after taking over Studebaker. TWO executive departments, TWO engineering departments, TWO legal departments, TWO accouting/finance departments, etc........infinity. These days a merger goes down, there is a brief honeymoon where everthing stays the same (around 90 days) while the new owners figure things out and BOOM, the consolidations begin. This just points out how ill equipped Packard was from a mangerial standpoint to "get bigger", they had problems enough with what was on their plate in Detroit with the Packard line, and in contrast I would have to say that AMC was a better managed enterprise at that time given how they merged Hudson and Nash, even with the geographical distance between Detroit and Kenosha. We have always read that there was a struggle of wills between Nance and Rommney, neither wanted to be #2 in any lash-up of companies. I would have to say from the easy position of hindsight that Rommney was a better administrator and was the best man for the job had the final lash up of S-P and H-N/AMC occured.

Item number: 190305431700

For all the '58 fans might want to check this one out on ebay.

does anyone know how many 58 packard four door sedans there are around. there is not much i can find out on the internet even about the car. we own one. i would like to know about the history of these. i cant seem to find information on this kind of car. i would like to know if this car is as rare as it says on the internet?is there a fair number of 58 packards around. this is the only we have seen around this area(not saying there isnt more that people may have around here,dont know) and i wonder if this is isnt as rare as they say it is.

Agreed, not a terrible lot written about the 57-8's and they are fairly rare both when new and now.

There's a few pages in the Auto Quarterly Packard, A History of the Motorcar ... book and also in Dawes book The Packard 1942-1962 and a few mentions in others pertaining to Studebaker. Your local library might have some of them. Check out the bookshelf for quick reviews of a few Packard books.packardinfo.com/xoops/html/modules/BookShelf/

From Studebaker Turning Wheels January 1988 there were 2377 58 Packards built total 1027 4dr sedans ,645 2dr hardtops 546 Hawks 159 station wagons for US. Export was 73 4dr sedans 42 Hawks and 30 2dr hardtops all 58 Packards were assembled in South Bend.
SASCO in South Bend has quite a few NOS parts for these cars
Serial number on door jamb old start 58L-6101
The body number on firewall near top passenger side under hood should read 58L.

One reason that Studebaker ran out of cash was the decision of management to avoid union troubles by giving the unions whatever they wanted including high wages with low productivity.

I have read on the SDC forums that sometimes a Studebaker employee arrived for work, stamped their timecard then left to play golf and got a day's pay for doing nothing.

It was a difficult time for independents in any case after the war, the majors had good sources of steel the independents didn't. Packard also took a while to get back into production due to their stored machinery being damaged and having to be rebuilt.

When it comes to "experts", no matter what the subject, be it cars, firearms, dogs, etc., EVERY SINGLE ONE that I have met has been nothing more than an egotistical ass that knew just enough to get themselves noticed and called an "expert" by people that didn't know anything about the subject. Oh, by the way, this isn't limited by race, gender, religion, creed, age, and so on, and so on... I believe that anyone that calls themselves an "expert" is really just an attention monger. There are ALWAYS things to be learned. If you think you know it all, your'e just beginning....

Hi

Even without hard number to verify my opinion, I'll still go out on the limb. Yes, for a car of such relatively low production, the survival rate seems to be unusually high.

This is a good thing in my view. Fortunately, owners over the years have been reluctant to junk these cars, knowing they are among the "last Packards" whatever their pedigree.

When new, measured as a percentage of competitive models, and the overall market totals, these cars were just a handful of sand on a big beach!

The good survival rate somewhat guarantees that ocassionally, in the sea of popular collector cars at shows, a real rarity in the '57 Clipper will show to relieve the monotony!

Steve