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History of the Packard Motor Car Company(Continued from Main Page) James Ward Packard and William Dowd Packard were unhappy with the automobiles they had purchased from other makers, and James, a mechanical engineer, had some ideas on how to improve the designs. There are several versions of the story, but by 1899, the brothers were building automobiles in their native Warren, Ohio. The company, which they called the Ohio Automobile Company, quickly introduced a number of innovations in its designs, including the modern steering wheel and the first production 12-cylinder engine. While Henry Ford was producing cars that sold for $440, Packard concentrated on upscale cars that started at $2,600. Packard automobiles developed a following not only in the United States, but also abroad, with many heads of state owning them. The brothers needed more capital and unexpectedly found it when Henry Bourne Joy, a member of one of Detroit's oldest and wealthiest families, bought a Packard. Impressed by its reliability, he visited the Packards and soon enlisted a group of investors that included his brother-in-law, Truman Handy Newberry. On October 2, 1902, Ohio Automobile Company became Packard Motor Car Company, with James as president, and was moved to Detroit. Joy became general manager and later chairman of the board. The Packard factory, designed by Albert Kahn, included the first use of reinforced concrete for industrial construction in Detroit. At its opening, it was considered the most modern automobile manufacturing facility in the world. Its skilled craftsmen practiced over eighty trades. The last Packards rolled off the assembly line on June 25, 1956. The 3.5 million ftm² (325,000 m²) plant covered over 35 acres (142,000 m²) and straddled East Grand Boulevard. It was later subdivided by eighty-seven different companies. Kahn also designed The Packard Proving Grounds at Utica, Michigan, which is being developed into a historical site. By World War I, Packard was also producing engines for aircraft and boats. In the 1930s, devastated by the Great Depression, Packard started mass-producing cars. In 1935, it introduced its first sub-$1,000 car. Car production tripled that year and doubled again in 1936. Packard produced its final hand-built car in 1939. During World War II, Packard again built airplane engines, licensing the Merlin engine from Rolls-Royce and simplifying and improving it. The Packard engine powered the famous P-51 Mustang fighter, known as the "Cadillac of the Skies" by G.I.s in WWII. It was the fastest non-jet fighter plane ever built, and could fly higher than any of its contemporaries, allowing its pilots a greater degree of survivability in combat situations. They also built 1350, 1400, and 1500 horsepower V-12 marine engines that powered American PT boats (each boat had three) and some of Britain's patrol boats.
By the end of World War II, Packard was in excellent financial condition but suffered from a shortage of raw materials needed to manufacture automobiles again. The firm introduced its first post-war body in 1948, prior to its competition in the major firms (Cadillac, Lincoln, and Chrysler). However, the design chosen was of the "bathtub" style predicted during the war as the destined future of automobiles. Although startling at first, the influence of what were nicknamed "whales" soon vanished. And the post-war seller's market ended in 1951, the industry slumping as a whole in 1952. Nash Motors president George Mason approached Packard about a merger in the early 1950s, believing that the days for independent car manufacturers were numbered. Packard was reluctant. 1953 brought about a short-term reversal of fortune and prospects looked better, but 1954 was again a down year for Packard. On October 1, 1954, Packard merged with Studebaker creating the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Initially, Packard's executive team had hoped Studebaker's larger network of dealers would help increase sales. The newly combined company had plans to merge into American Motors after AMC and Studebaker-Packard had achieved financial stability. The latter merger never happened. Studebaker-Packard was devastated by the loss of millions of dollars in Studebaker's Pentagon contracts after the Korean war ended, which contracts were awarded to GM after that war. George Mason died in 1954, and George Romney killed any hope for a merger with AMC. Packard's up-again and down-again sales continued, with a profitable year in 1955 thanks to the introduction of Packard's first V-8 engines that model year--although a complete retooling for the 1955 models resulted in products so poorly made that hundreds of cars had to be repaired by dealers before they could be sold to the public. This set the stage for a disastrous 1956, which saw production drop to its lowest levels since World War I. Packard had been selling engines and transmissions to American Motors, but a parts dispute with Romney ended this arrangement in April of 1956. The company severely in debt, its creditors ordered the old Packard plants to close on August 15, 1956. In 1957 and 1958, a Studebaker-based car bearing the Packard Clipper nameplate appeared on the market, but sales were slow. These badge engineered Studebakers were derisively referred to as Packardbakers by the press and consumers and failed to sell in sufficient numbers to keep the marque afloat. Studebaker pulled the Packard nameplate from the the marketplace in 1958 to focus instead on its compact Lark. In the Early 1960s, Studebaker-Packard was approached by French car maker Facel-Vega about the possibility of rebadging the company's Facel-Vega Excellence sedan as a "Packard" for sale in North America. Daimler-Benz, which was under a distribution agreement with Studebaker-Packard, threatened to pull out of the 1958 marketing agreement, which would have cost Studebaker-Packard more in revenue than they could have made from the badge-engineered Packard. Packard had an engineering staff that always designed good, well-made engines. Their early success was with a six-cylinder, copied by a certain British firm. This was doubled into their twelve-cylinder engine that they called the "Twin Six." They also built a low-compression straight eight, but never a sixteen-cylinder engine. After WWII, they were one of the last US firms to produce a high-compression V-8 engine, the "352", named for its 352 cubic inch (5.8 L) displacement, but it had no problems. However, they built their own automatic transmission (unlike Ford) which, although it had some advantages over Buick's, had its own deficiencies. Their last major development was the "Torsion-Level" suspension, a four-wheel torsion-bar suspension that balanced the car's height like an air-bag suspension, which its American competitors of the time could not get to work and ceased offering. Modern Packard The new Packard company aims to be the only "ultra-luxury" car manufacturer in North America, aiming for spots above the niches currently occupied by Cadillac, Lincoln, and Mercedes-Benz, and competing with such marques as Aston Martin, Rolls-Royce, and -- particularly -- Maybach, a fellow-resurrection from decades past. Models
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