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

anyone know of any 57 or 58 packards for sale?

Three for sale on collectercartrader.com.58 Hawk,58 sedan and 57 Clipper.

Quote:

Only coach built SENIOR models built before 1940 of course! (sniff)

I hesitate a bit to get into this discussion as I'm really ambivalent about it. Perhaps I'm paraphrasing but it was Bill Clinton who said those famous words it depends on what your definition of "is" is. In the case in point, it depends on what your definition of Packard is. Built by a company whose name included Packard? - Yes. Built in a plant constructed by Packard? - NO. Based on any engineering by Packard? - NO. To me the latter is probably the most meaningful, but as they say, youse pay your money and takes your choice.

Sorry, you've lost me with your direction on this one.

Related by marriage. Or the mother-in-law of cars.

Both yes and no, Yes as they were built by the corporate entity created when Packard purchased the Studebaker Corporation in 1954, No in the sense the last "true" Packards ie Detroit built cars (and Canada I guess too) descendants of the Packard Motor Company founded in 1899 (hope I got the year correct) ended with the closure of the Conner Avenue plant in Detroit in June 1956 on the orders of Roy Hurley of Curtiss-Wright Corporation, who had a management agreement with S-P at the time.

To be fair, Packard sales were small in 1956, Studebaker sales were greater so it was Packard that shut. One could speculate that S-P may have kept it going had no management agreement existed. The other difficulty was the size of Studebaker's South Bend factory which could not cater for cars as wide as the Packard.

They did what they could and, had people accepted the 1957-58 cars as perhaps a stopgap until a unique Packard could once again be funded maybe we'd still have Studebakers and Packards today.

History records otherwise, Studebaker dealers and the Canadian plant in Hamilton were the ones really "shafted" as they were led to believe the closure of South Bend meant continued Automobile production, whilst the Board of Directors had already decided to stop their production and continued primarily to avoid dealer lawsuits.

It seems to me that S-P was in reality (not in name) the Packard Motor Car Company, until the closure of the Hamilton plant in 1966 and the creation of the new Studebaker-Worthington Corporation.

Hi

As much of a '57 or '58 Packard as we'll ever have. They're good cars, just not what everyone would want a '57 Packard to be if they could have been continued in Detroit.

Thanks John, that is a good summation of events. The financial Waterloo of '56 forced decisions no one wanted to make, maybe not even Hurley. But the whole objective was to salvage some portion of the corporation, and since it's main products were cars, and Studebaker had the better chance of volume sales.....lead to the consolidation in South Bend.

I truly wish we could have had at least the '57's that were on the verge of production, and Packard could have lasted through the '60's into the early '70's but then die before we had to have Packard versions of cars such as Lincoln Versailles and Cadillac Cimarron.......Ugh! Shutter!!!

Steve

I personally like the 1957 Packards because they incorporated so many of the Packard hallmarks, the oxbow grille, the beautiful 56 Clipper taillights, the chrome side strips, a miniature 56 dashboard. Only wish they had used the hexagons on the hubcaps. The Studebaker V-8 was pretty good. Plus it was supercharged. No, it wasn't a luxury car, but to be truthful, most of the cars Packard made postwar were not. May be one of the best cars built in South Bend. We've got a 58 Studebaker Champion (minus engine) for sale near by. Like the looks. Same basic body as the Packards. Wish I could buy it. But I've got enough on my plate as is.
kens53clip
Ken Dunning

Thanks for the comments Steve, you can look at it this way -What do you do when your factory has closed and all your documentation has been burnt but you still want to offer a Packard in the hope of keeping the Marque alive? Why, you use what you have and so we got what we did.

Cheers

John

People can fantasize all they want that Packard died before WW2 etc, the car died in 1958.