Because Packardās decline was long and public, and because #Packard exited the stage almost a decade before #Studebaker, many people assume Packard was the weaker of the two companies when they merged - but that wasnāt necessarily so. In 1953 Packard was still relatively healthy and debt free - until a series of unfortunate twists of fate culminating in the loss of Packardās main body supplier, Briggs, to an acquisition by Chrysler. From there on, a merger was the only way to keep the company alive, and Packardās James Nance negotiated with both Nash and Studebaker (Hudson was considered moribund by Packardās board, and not worth the trouble). Packardās board refused to hear Nash boss George Masonās proposals for merging into the nascent AMC (Nash & Hudson) in 1954, and instead chose to listen to rosy predictions from Lehman Brothers, who arranged the merger between S and P. Packardās board, if not Nance, were so taken with Studebaker that they never even ordered an independent review of Studebakerās books - and were shocked to find that Studebaker was a debt-ridden mess that they were now tied to. New Packards with new V8s debuted for 1955, but production delays and quality ills took the rose off the bloom quickly, and while not a bad year, sales were way below expectations. In the next 14 months Nance did everything he could think of to get a new Packard to market, including approaching Ford about buying the tooling for the ā56 Lincoln (unsurprisingly, Ford said no). Production of the big new Packards ended on June 15, 1956. But that wasnāt the end. To make Packard franchises happy, a new Packard built in South Bend debuted in January, #1957 . Packardās ā55 V8 had cost $20M to develop. What became known as the #Packardbaker - little more than a lightly restyled Studebaker President with #PackardClipper badges - was designed for $1.1M, and it showed. Poorly received, just 4,809 were sold (down 70% from ā56), including only 869 ācountry sedansā - Packardās word for #wagon. The Packardbaker was actually not a bad car, but it was way too little, way too late. Packard production ceased on June 13, 1958. #wagonwednesday #ig_autoshow #stationwagon #finsandchrome
