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Just for fun I plotted up how many cars are in the owner registry for each year. I also plotted Packard production numbers for the same year.

I know, I should have done it by series, but that is much more work, and I was doing this for fun!

I think it is interesting the high number of cars in the registry from the depression years 32-34, and in the last year of detroit production 1956.

Again, just for fun.

Tom

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UH, wouldn't it make more sense to have the scale the same on both sides of the graph? I.e., # registered vs number produced in direct comparison. Or if that is too far off because of number skew, then how about logarithmic?

I found this graph confusing and I used to be an engineer.

Upon reflection, I don't think the graph shows anything useful. Sort of like a political poll. It only shows people motivated enough to register on PackardInfo and then register their cars.

Craig

I'm no rocket scientist, but the graphical depiction makes perfectly good sense to me.

This is but one example of the kind of things that I've been hoping for as we get more cars in the registry. In this case, the author is just trying to show a difference in the number of surviving, registered cars compared to actual production.

Regardless that not all surviving Packards are registered here (yet), the number of surviving cars is a fraction of production, per year. If you had both y-axes set to the same scale, bars for too many years would be imperceptible.

Yet, there's always room for improvement. Perhaps, as more cars are registered, the range for the left y-axis could be doubled to improve perspective a bit.

It would be fantastic if such charts/graphs could be generated dynamically from the database. Similar demographics could be presented from the dealer database. Yet, I understand that this needs to wait until BigKev can restructure the features.

So, I tip my hat to Tom for taking the initiative and time to show what's possible and thanks, again, to Mal for encouraging members to register their cars.

Tom, Thanks. Very interesting graph.

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That's because you're an engineer. Has anyone anywhere ever known an engineer to make anything that makes any sense whatsoever?

Tom, your graph makes perfect sense to me. The thin brown line is the # produced, and the blue lines are the number of cars registered on this website. Take 1948 for instance, your graph shows that there's roughly 33 cars registered that year. Easy.

BUT, and there's always a but, you should have done every year instead of just the odd years, it would have been easier to read that way.

I take my previous statement back, I DO know of ONE engineer that made sense on everything that he designed. His name was Leo Goosen.

Thanks Tom, i appreciate it for what it is. ;0)

Eric -

While Tom did plot figures for every year, it looks like the x-axis only labels every other year - perhaps because of space limitations. Is that what you're talking about?

Maybe Tom could use a two-digit label for the years - 99 (as in 1899) and 00 to 58 - with a slightly smaller point size for the x-axis labels. Else, orient the x-axis label text vertically.

Meanwhile, it's interesting that V8 Packards appear to be more popular than any other year.

Of course, we have to be mindful that, even with Mal's vigilance, the owner registry may be a bit skewed, as it is roooted in membership. IMHO, membership and participation tends to follow the availability of materials. Yet, it seems like we've picked up more members with prewar interests, lately, as the archive has collected more material that is relevant to their needs. Things tend to snowball from there.

I am thinking that many of the prewar people either don't know of Pinfo or prefer the AACA site rather than here which may also skew the results.

Ironically, I remember when, years ago, some whiner at the AACA Packard DF complained that it was dominated by V8 owners. Now, what little particiption that forum gets is mostly prewar - thanks in no small part to PackardInfo.

Now, I'd like to think that the recent site review in HMN helped promote awareness of P'Info among enthusiasts of all years.

Yet, is BigKev still handing out P'Info business cards to Packard owners at various shows in his area? Has anyone else been doing that?