Packard owner disgusted

[clonelark]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pLEtTUNhkVc

[rjohnston79]

Yeah, right...

Ron Johnston
1963 Studebaker Daytona HT

[Invalid User Name]

Everybody is an expert. Where were these barrons of business at the time?


Doug
Venice, Florida
1950 Champion
9G F1

[Chris Pile]

Well, we're not thrilled with him either.

Chris Pile

http://midwaystudebakers.tripod.com/

[StudHawk60]

Rhymes with "boron".

[Neal in NM]

Wow Studebaker destroyed Packard!!![}] You learn something every day from the internet.[V] Neal

[Bill Pressler]

quote:Originally posted by Neal in NM

Wow Studebaker destroyed Packard!!![}] You learn something every day from the internet.[V] Neal

Packard folks always say this. I believe that Studebaker was in worse shape than they let Packard in on, at first, but everything I've read says it was Packard's rapid decline in '56 that threw S-P into the hands of Curtiss-Wright.

I like '56 Packards, but with no 'real' Packards in '57 and only a slightly revised Studebaker line, S-P's loss went from $43 million in '56 to $13 million in '57. Sale of the Packard plant on E. Grand in Detroit only brought in $750,000. I think herein is the real story of where the problems were in '56. Packard only built 200 cars in Feb. '56.

S-P (formerly Packard) President James J. Nance went to run the M-E-L division at Ford. Edsel, like Packard, had a 'junior' and 'senior' line of cars. We know what happened to them, while Studebaker had a minor hit with the '58 Scotsman and a bigger hit with the '59 and '60 Larks--albeit short-lived.

"Studebaker Killed Packard", yet Studebaker continued to build cars for a decade after Packard was gone.

Bill Pressler
Kent, OH
'63 Lark Daytona Skytop R1 (sold new by Cordell Motors, Moorhead, MN)
'64 Daytona Hardtop (sold new by Carl E. Filer Co., Greenville, PA)

[PackardV8]

FWIW, research will show anyone wanting the facts both companies were equally burdened and both inevitably destined for failure. Their financial statements exchanged were the classic, "You lie and I'll swear to it."

thnx, jack vines

PackardV8

[Studedude1961]

"Like two drunks helping each other across the road." I remember reading that quote, or something close to it regarding the merger.

[Thomas63R2]

Its not hard to go to a car show and find a car exhibitor or show spectator who knows little real history on the cars they own or are viewing. I am a student of auto history: with ~ 600 books on cars of all makes, and thousands of magazines.

With that as background, I always find it interesting to understand how such ideas like in the video emerge. The "Studebaker killed Packard" storyline is easy: the casual observer sees that two companies join together, and only one emerges - presto; the victor killed off the other.

If you want to have fun with someone who believes Studebaker killed Packard then I suggest you go straight for the conspiracy theory and suggest: That Studebaker "killed" Packard in payment to Cadillac for "stealing" the Stude V8 design as a close copy of the Cad V8. That will make their heads swim.

Thomas

[PackardV8]

quote:If you want to have fun with someone who believes Studebaker killed Packard then I suggest you go straight for the conspiracy theory and suggest: That Studebaker "killed" Packard in payment to Cadillac for "stealing" the Stude V8 design as a close copy of the Cad V8. That will make their heads swim.

lagniappe- to add insult to injury, Studebaker then sold the Packard V8 design to Rolls Royce

thnx, jack vines

PackardV8