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January 4, 1955

New Packards roll out
The 1955 Packards were introduced to the public on this day. Corvettes and Thunderbirds were upping the horsepower ante, and Packard struck back with the Packard Caribbean, the first V-8 Packard and the debut of highly stylized cathedral taillights. The era of the mighty tailfin was beginning.

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(Yes, I know this is a '56 executive, closest I could find)

What a strange coincidence! I made a post in the V-8 forum asking what model '55 was the first production V-8 Packard just the other day!....

I'm a little shocked that the 55s did not debut in the fall like every other car. This can't have been good for sales.

Quote:

If I recall my Packard history correctly, they were SUPPOSED to, but there were a lot of bugs needing worked out, what with all the engineering changes and getting the Conner Ave. plant going, etc...

I'm with MIDan. When you think about how they stopped production of the 54's and whatever was being built at Briggs in late summer then essentially picked up the factory and moved it across town to start making a reasonably different model boggles the mind. That they were able to get anything out even by January is impressive. Wonder if any of the mfgs today could do that.

The 1955 models were late to the showrooms due to the problems and complexities of starting up the Connor plant.
The AQ/Kimes/et al book states that the first cars rolled off the lines on Nov. 1st, 1954. I wonder if the January 4th date was when the publicity machine at Packard was finally ready to begin the new model Ballyhoo. November 1st would have been almost three months later than the competition began their production of the next-year model (back then).

To have cars in November after that move is even more impressive. It's no wonder they built a few clinkers.