Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

John, I braved the cold to go check the engine number on my car. The build date on my USA built Packard engine is 6-26-47 so the delivery date of the car must have been September not March unless of course the engine was replaced which is highly doubtful. It would appear that at least Wright Motors, the Winnipeg dealer which sold the car used the typical Canadian sequence of D/M/Y. More confusion?

Once again, I'm amazed at the wealth (and depth and breadth) of knowledge on this site...I had no idea this topic would take all these twists as more posted/added to the answers already posted.

So now I'm wondering...were Packards ASSEMBLED in other countries as well as Canada, whether in knock-down form or manufacturing?

Canada had a thriving branch plant auto industry very early on. Ford for example established a Canadian factory in 1904.

The reason was to dodge the import duties on cars which were quite heavy at that time. As a bonus, Canada being part of the British Commonwealth could trade with any other Commonwealth country duty free. In 1915 England enacted the McKenna tariffs which included a 33% tax on imported cars. Cars made in Canada could be imported with no tax.

So, if you find an American car from the classic era in any part of the former British Empire there is a good chance it was actually built in Canada.

No other manufacturing sites in the traditional sense for Packard other than Warren OH in the early years, Detroit, and Canada. Knock-down sites included the one already mentioned in Belgium in the very late post-war years (possibly only 1956), C. Dempers in South Africa, and no doubt many of the other foreign distributors such as Leonard Williams in London, Risch in Zurich, Kellow-Faulkiner in Melbourne etc. may have done similar partial limited assembly (attaching bumpers, etc.) but the extent of their activities is for our overseas buddies to comment on. Packard did have representation in nearly every major and most minor countries of the world from Albania to Yugoslavia and most everything in between. And probably what they had to do to prepare a car for delivery varied from place to place and time to time. But that's not really manufacturing or assembly from knock-down kits. Even in the US just pre- and post-WW II many cars were shipped to dealers minus bumpers and the like due to war-time shortages and those the dealers had more than the usual prep work to do at times.

Some good research into these activities would seem to be fertile ground for data-gathering and eventual publication.

Quote:

There were some' Canadian Built' 1932 Chrysler Imperial 8 model CH automobiles. They ranged from 9890001 though 9890041.

I have looked at several of these, several still survive, and I can see no unique features. They all had Budd bodies.

It is not likely that a separate assembly line was built for forty cars. More likely than not, they were Built in Detroit, moved across the border under the cover of night, and new serial plates affixed.

Ford, Chrysler, GM , Packard, Graham, Hupmobile, Hudson Pierce-Arrow and others opened assembly or manufacturing plants in or around Windsor, Ontario to avoid the import tariffs on automobiles imported from the United States.

Rolls Royce established a factory in Springfield, Mass. to avoid US import taxes. I don't know if they were as high as the British were charging, but having a plant here gave them an advantage to better compete with the US luxury marques. It was in production through most of the Twenties. Don't know how much was made here versus in Crewe, but suspect most of it was US made. I believe the plant closed due to the Great Depression.

Some years ago there was a reception at the Blackhawk Museum for the new US manager of a Japanese auto maker. While talking with him I mentioned that Rolls Royce had done in the Twenties what his company had done recently, opened a US plant. He was unaware of this activity. To illustrate, I showed him a Springfield-RR that we had on exhibit.

(o{I}o)

Funny story about a local LHD 120 owner whose Packard was built in Windsor. He was a real competative sorts of a fella with a vey nice car. Anyway he arrives at a local car show and sees that I'm already there. He tried to enter the imnport class because his car was built in Windsor Canada. The organizers wouldn't let him. In the end he was happy sort of when he won his class. But he only got the class trophy because I had won the class, but because I won Best of Show, they only gave one trophy per entry. He was not happy at that.

Anyway you can't take these shows seriously as the best fun is driving these packards.

"In the end he was happy sort of when he won his class. But he only got the class trophy because I had won the class, but because I won Best of Show, they only gave one trophy per entry."


Just a quick note because I don't wish to hi-jack the thread, but I have always had a problem with that kind of logic, as I have run into that type of squirrely thinking before. How can a car that did not win it's own class win a best of show. It does not make sense.

Friends


Oldsmobiles in the 1904-05 time period were assembled in Canada by Packard Electric Canada ! Someplace I may have a picture of some of the cars sitting in front of the plant.

These were the more exspensive one cylinder "French front" cars, not the Curved Dash. There are a number of articles in the current ]Horseless Carriage Gazette about French front Oldsmoblies. They mention Canadian production but I'll have to check if they mention Packard Electric .


Regards

John Harley