Ungrateful children: Cars that killed their manufacturers - Packard Hawk??

[Dan White]

Nice pic of red PH, sad commentary though!

http://www.foxnews.com/leisure/2012/07/22/ungrateful-children-cars-that-killed-their-manufacturers/?intcmp=features

[jclary]

True to what passes as journalism today...shallow, poorly written, and a gross oversimplification.

[Blue 15G]

The Packard Hawk just happened to be in Packard's final year lineup, but to imply that it was the Packard Hawk that killed Packard is not true. Just another superficial article written by someone who doesn't know cars or automotive history.

Dave Bonn
'54 Champion Starliner

[BobPalma]

What John Clary said.

Utterly stupid and simply wrong in the case of Packard, Pontiac, and Bricklin. I don't profess knowledge enough to weigh in on the other examples. Perhaps our International Authority Craig Parslow, especially on British matters, will pontificate on those.

If I sent a column reflecting that much ignorance to Hemmings Classic Car in a given quarter, I would hope they'd refuse it. BP

[556063]

I don't agree with the basis of the article, or the way the facts were used to explain the end result. Just as Bob Lutz said about the Aztec when he came on board at GM. "If it was a Honda, the "Press" would love it." I think the ungainly and now discontinued Honda Element kind of bore that truth out. What a mess our perceptions of reality are today.

[8E45E]

What John Clary said.

Utterly stupid and simply wrong in the case of Packard, Pontiac, and Bricklin. I don't profess knowledge enough to weigh in on the other examples.

Bob, I will agree with them on the NSU Ro80 and the Facel Vega Facellia, but not at all on the North American cars. Both those European manufacturers were small companies attempting to go places they never went before, NSU with the rotary engine, and Facel Vega tooling up for their own engines where they used proprietary engines previously. Both lacked the development time and dollars required to properly bring them to market without expensive warranty claims, etc.

Craig

[Chris Pile]

If you all go back and look.... someone at HAGERTY INSURANCE wrote the article for Fox.
So blame them..... not the journalists.

[PackardV8]

Of course the Packard Hawk had nothing to do with killing off Packard. Packard had been dead for three years and buried for two.

In today's media, there's precious little attempt to be factual, it's all about finding a hook for a story headline which will stop the eye passing over it. One of their favorite tactics is to make a strong statement which will stir up controversy.

As an example, many years back the daily agony aunt columns, i.e. Dear Abby, Ann Landers, et al were dropping in readership. To gain traction in the modern marketplace, they stopped giving conventional advice and began to choose the letters which were most likely to polarize their readers and then deliberately answered them in such a way as to cause many readers to disagree and respond argumentatively. Readership went up.

Same with the headlines on your local TV news teasers, headlines on your internet provider page; anything to grab your eyes before you move on. If the result causes you to respond negatively, at least they got you to read, think and remember the source.

jack vines

[DudeStude]

The bailout killed Pontiac. Pontiac was turning the corner with some good cars. Too bad we never got a G8 ST, Firebird revival, or a real GTO revival. Pontiac lasted a lot longer than the other companions.

That's just silly about Packard.

[JBOYLE]

Hagerty should know better...if for nothing else than NOT alienating some of its customers who love their marques and know their history.

However, let's take a look at what they said about Packard..."In 1954 Packard merged with another moribund U.S. car maker, Studebaker. Slowly, the unique Packard models were killed off and replaced by thinly disguised Studebakers (a much less prestigious brand). The final straw was the Packard Hawk..."
I don't see much wrong with that statement, albeit is heavily simplified for space considerations and general audience.
What it doesn't make clear is that by the time the Studebaker-based Packards came out, Packard was dead. They just hadn't told the corpse yet.

On the bright side, it's nice of Fox (or any other news outlet) to pass on the Hagerty columns...helps the hobby get exposure. That's a good thing.

[JimC]

Wow, it does make one think, if Hagerty knows so little about these cars, how much can they be trusted when it comes to insurance estimates? If they make the same inaccurate assumptions and almost speculative guesses with the insurance end of their business, you could never know if what they say your car is worth or how they pay out is representative of reality. I'm less likely to insure through them as a result of this article.

[warrlaw1]

Never even thought about using Haggerty or any other old car insurance underwriter. Paying to insure my car year round and driving it daily while the weather is fine. I really like the Packard Hawk. I wonder what they would be like as a Bonneville racer? If the 53 C/K was a fast body, would the PH be any faster?

[jclary]

Wow, it does make one think, if Hagerty knows so little about these cars, how much can they be trusted when it comes to insurance estimates? If they make the same inaccurate assumptions and almost speculative guesses with the insurance end of their business, you could never know if what they say your car is worth or how they pay out is representative of reality. I'm less likely to insure through them as a result of this article.

C'mon now...let's not get carried away here. I'm no more an insurance guy than I am a journalist.

I doubt that, as an insurer, the emphasis or valuations take much interest in the history of their charges. While they do attempt to keep themselves in the public consciousness as a matter of marketing their product, good business mathematics as it relates to profit is their main objective. They set their rates by gathering auction results, sales, and certified appraiser data. Liability rates are determined by region,driver records, etc. They are playing "Risk Percentages." They are betting that you will be much more careful with your beloved insured object than the averages and, for them, it is a winning game.

That hunk of steel, rubber, and glass, sitting in your garage, to them, is just a dumb object. They take the premiums you send them and play with it in other investments, while you do everything in your power to keep the wind from blowing the building down around it, or lie awake at night guarding it from your neighborhood thugs.

In this age of "tweets," so what if a little blurb contains a bit of inaccurate stuff. They get an advertisement disguised as a fun to read factoid" and, little in the crowd knows the difference. As we seem to be descending into the next period of "dark ages"...we on this obscure little forum aren't a noticeable speck in the vast intellectual dessert.

[dictator27]

If the RO80 had been conventionally powered, NSU very likely would have had a sales winner. In some respects I'm surprised NSU didn't offer it in two versions, conventional and rotary. The problem there was all of NSU's other cars were rear engined. As a matter of fact (since journalistic inaccuracies have been questioned here), the RO80 wasn't NSU's first Wankel engined car - this was:

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b2/NSU-Spider.jpg

The NSU Spider can claim fame as the world's only production rear engined Wankel powered car.

Terry

[Roscomacaw]

LOL!!! Consider the SOURCE It's not news, it's FOX news. You know - Fare un Balanced