(EXPANDED FROM 12/18/2020) The 1956 Packard Executive has received a recent boomlet of attention by automotive historians. In a Hemmings Classic Car column, Patrick Foster (2021) suggested that this model could have “saved Packard” if […]
(EXPANDED FROM 10/23/2020) Old Car Brochures has an unusual marketing piece from Packard. “Story of a Living Legend and the world in which it grows” showcased the automaker’s history as well as its last-ditched effort to […]
(UPDATED FROM 7/24/2020) The 1955 Packard Request is a good example of how “retro” styling doesn’t always work very well. This show car took too literal of an approach in trying to evoke Packard’s classic […]
(EXPANDED ON 1/20/2023) The 1955 Packard’s styling was nicely done in many ways — but it was also an evolutionary dead end. The designers of the last “real” Packards deserve credit for two things. First, […]
This letter is a response to our story, “The 1955 Packard’s styling was an evolutionary dead end.” Your need to read more thoroughly what actually happened in the mid-1950s. In that era, Cadillac was the […]
“George Mason’s invitation to Packard to join AMC was lost in Packard’s and Studebaker’s rush to embrace. Mason knew about the negotiations, but gamely showed up at East Grand to make a formal presentation to […]
“In late 1958, Printers’ Ink conceded that ‘there is a widespread feeling that ‘they don’t make cars the way they used to’ — either mechanically or from the point of view of interior decor.’ And […]
“The makers of lower-priced lines, under pressure to find new buyers, had introduced longer, fatter, more expensive, more powerful, and more luxuriously designed models that competed directly with their traditional superiors in status such as […]
“I do think Packard would have been the more salvageable of the two brands, but Packard was already having trouble making ends meet (which is why they went looking for a merger with another company […]
This is a scholarly book with a bit more product information than typical of the genre. Robert R. Ebert’s prose can be stilted but offers nuances not found elsewhere due to his careful parsing of corporate documents […]
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