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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Forum Ambassador
 
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Rusty-you touched on something that really rings true, the crucial '57-'60 time period was a very difficult time to be in the business, not unlike today, but hey, at least GM still controlled GMAC at the time. The market went soft in the middle and top, and barely held its own at the bottom, the public did one of those "I'm good with what I have now" things (REALLY going on now) and Detroit could not predict this, nor react to it fast enough.
You have to remember that everything we look at today and laugh, gasp or cluck our tongue at was at one point in history, the right idea, you and I weren't there (as decision-making adults) to understand it in its then-current context. My late friend Dave Holls designed the '59 Cadillac fin in 1954 as almost a joke, a "hey what if we took the fin thing to this level"? The really cool thing back then was, you could dream something really far out, your boss would look at it and consider it, it stood half of a chance of being rendered in clay and some kind of chance of going into production. Packard would have been severly screwed during this phase, again (not to sound like a broken record, but............) their lack of a deep pocketed, multi-bracket sugar Daddy would have been a serious problem had they managed to get that far.
Posted on: 2009/12/29 22:14
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Anonymous
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Forum Ambassador
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What is this? Covert advertising again?
Posted on: 2009/12/30 3:41
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Mal
/o[]o\ ====  Bowral, Southern Highlands of NSW, Australia "Out of chaos comes order" - Nietzsche. 1938 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD 1941 One-Twenty Club Coupe - SOLD 1948 Super Eight Limo, chassis RHD - SOLD 1950 Eight Touring Sedan - SOLD What's this?  Put your Packard in the Packard Vehicle Registry! Here's how! Any questions - PM or email me at ozstatman@gmail.com |
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Home away from home
 
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You really get a different slant on the past when you go back to contemporary sources.
Just reading car mags from the 50s and 60s makes it plain they saw things differently from what we do now,some things that we wonder what they were thinking were really cool at the time. Some things we think are important, they didn't even notice and some things we don't notice were deal breakers back then.
Posted on: 2009/12/30 4:28
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Home away from home
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Quote:
What is this? Covert advertising again? Yup, the same guy is over at Classicar.com mucking up the threads there. 1952 Packard sedan
Posted on: 2009/12/30 11:28
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Just can't stay away
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Quote:
I have to disagree with a lot of this. Continental humps started on the 1956 Mark II as a modern interpretation of the original Continental's rear mounted spare. Not only were they carried over to all following Mark series Lincolns, but there was a huge aftermarket supplying Continental humps for everything from Eldorados to Pintos. The Mark series outsold the Eldorado every year in the 1970's. So I may be biased, but I don't see how this is a vestigal element that should have gone away. Buick portholes were not only requested by Buick customers, but they became such a must have bling thing that you can now buy them at Walmart and put them on anything. I don't see how Buick using their own trademark is a mistake. Currently some of the most critically acclaimed cars carry vestigal styling cues. The Challenger, Camaro, and Mustang rely very heavily on retro styling. Even the new Cadillacs retain verticle taillights and an eggcrate grill. The original Taurus copied heavily from the 1949-51 Ford, right down to the lack of grill and badge placed where the bullet would have been on the 49-51. Cadillac carried over its tailfins from 1948-1964 with more modern interpretations of them every year. They absolutely clobbered everyone else in the luxury car field with these vestigal remains. Many cars have looked to the past for inspiration and then used a modern interpretation. Many of these designs are quite successful. So since Packard customers were actually requesting a return to a verticle grill, I think that means they would have wanted a verticle grill on the 1957.
Posted on: 2010/1/5 13:42
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Home away from home
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The '57 Packard isn't very appealing to me personally, but there were other '57 models that did have vertical grilles that were successful. I also happen to like the '59 Edsel front Grille very much. I think if the '59 Edsel bodystyle had been introduced as the 1958, the Edsel would have been very popular.
The Packard Grille for '57 could have been done a little better, (I like the '55 Packard Request grille more) but could have been kept in the Senior body styles and kept the Clippers with a more conventional horizontal grille. That way the market could have gone with both styles. Attach file:  (25.85 KB) (16.58 KB) (24.68 KB)
Posted on: 2010/1/5 14:58
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Just can't stay away
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classicandperformancecar.com/front_websi ... /picture.php?getid=13632&table=cars
Even though the styling was more dated, I can't see Rolls Royce using a horizontal grill.
Posted on: 2010/1/5 17:11
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Re: Your Opinion Whether the New '57 Packard Vertical Grille Would Have Been a Marketing Hit?
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Forum Ambassador
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Quote:
...could have been kept in the Senior body styles and kept the Clippers with a more conventional horizontal grille. Don - The 1957 Clipper proposal did have a more conventional horizontal grille:  Other styling elements of this clay were a bit more flamboyant - hence, controversial. However, there is more than one rendering that has the '57 Clipper looking more like some sort of "Batmobile", as seen on this page: 1957 and 1958 Packard Concept Cars As such, the clay shown above is a bit more down to earth, but it probably could have been tempered a little further. The Studebaker edition of the shared body/platform was even more restrained, but I don't have a pic. BTW, in one of the Packard books, there is a pic of a clay done (prior to the facelift for the 55th Series), with a front-end and grille treatment that looks similar to the Facel-Vega, but it was rejected for production.
Posted on: 2010/1/5 18:44
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