Why give visibility to a book that was last published almost a quarter century ago? There are apparently so few copies left of Beverly Rae Kimes’ Packard: A History of the Motor Car and the Company that they currently sell for around $100 on Amazon.com. That may put the book out of reach of all but the most dedicated auto-history buffs.
Even so, I think that this book is still worth mentioning partly because it reflects something that I fear has been lost in the American auto history field: A commitment to publishing substantive analysis rather than vapid, old-car porn such as Patrick Foster and Tom Glatch’s (2024) AMC book.
It’s no surprise that Kimes’ Packard book received a prestigious award from the Society of Automotive Historians because it represented the Olympics of auto history books: 800-plus pages of detailed business analysis, production information and photography. Its 32 chapters were written by 16 contributors under the editorial auspices of Kimes.
Who would publish this caliber of book today?
Packard: A History of the Motor Car and the Company was an exhaustive effort by the book-publishing arm of the late, great Automobile Quarterly magazine that in many respects still towers above more recent books. Even so, only some of its historical analysis has withstood the test of time.
For example, in Chapter 29 George Hamlin and Dwight Heinmuller offered a more nuanced assessment of Packard CEO James Nance’s production-related decisions (pp. 595-597) than a subsequent book by James A. Ward (1995). However, their siding with Nance on a lingering historical debate over whether he or American Motors head George Romney undercut a parts-sharing alliance (p. 599) has been convincingly debunked by Foster’s (2008) book about Studebaker.
Also see ‘Five (arguably) unresolved mysteries of postwar independent automakers’
One of my biggest criticisms of Kimes’ book is that, as the second excerpt below illustrates, it perpetuated one of the biggest myths of the postwar period — that Packard had a snowball’s chance in hell of surviving as an independent automaker if it had concentrated on luxury cars (go here for further discussion).
One does not have to agree with the conclusions of individual writers to appreciate the exceptional depth of research displayed in this book — and wonder where this caliber of historical analysis could occur today. Perhaps the most prolific current producers of auto history books are the auto editors of Consumer Guide, but they seem more focused on pumping out pop-culture confections such as Muscle Cars: Kings of the Street From the Golden Era (2007). Making that cash register ring is now apparently more important than saying something meaningful.
Packard: A History of the Motor Car and the Company
- Beverly Rae Kimes, ed.; 2002
- Automobile Quarterly Publications
“It has been said that the Clipper, intended as a medium-priced car, could never be upgraded to a luxury car. Yet it was a luxury car in all the best aspects of, for example, the Lincoln Continental, differing from other Packards only in line of style. The 1941 One-Sixty four-door model 1472 was priced at $1795 against the 1942 One-Sixty Clipper model 1572’s $1812.” (p. 499)
“Packard had devoted a significant percentage of its manufacturing to lower-priced cars, even though it could have sold as many vehicles as it could build in any price class. The company could make only so many cars, and it made more money per car on luxury models than on junior versions. Why then did Packard continue its prewar policy of building inexpensive models? The reason, and the blame, can be laid largely at George Christopher’s door, for it was Christopher as president who frittered away Packard’s place in the luxury field at a time when Packard had a golden opportunity to recover that place — perhaps to assume it as never before since the Roaring Twenties.” (p. 543)
“The ’57’s suspension was highly refined — though Allison had joined International Harvester when his consultant’s contract had expired, an alternative to accepting a full-time job at Packard which was, as it happened, the right decision. At I-H Allison developed a torsion bar suspension for trucks but the project did not succeed because fleet owners weren’t willing to spend the extra money for the sake of driver comfort. Allison agrees that the refinements for 1957 were good ones. They were accomplished by Forest McFarland, John DeLorean and Herb Misch and would have set new standards of comfort, roadworthiness and reliability. DeLorean even tinkered briefly with a hydraulic leveling device, but it proved more costly than the existing system and was dropped. When DeLorean later went to Chevrolet as a vice-president and then president, the hydraulic leveler reached production there.” (p. 619)
OTHER REVIEWS:
RE:SOURCES
- Auto editors of Consumer Guide; 2007. Muscle Cars: Kings of the Street From the Golden Era. Publications International Ltd.
- Foster, Patrick R.; 2008. Studebaker: The Complete History. Motorbooks International, Minneapolis, MN.
- Foster, Patrick R. and Tom Glatch; 2024. The Complete Book of AMC Cars: American Motors Corporation 1954-1988. Motorbooks, Beverly MA.
- Ward, James A.; 1995. The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company. Stanford University Press, Stanford, CA.
Does this book touch upon the Packard compact model proposed by Jesse G. Vincent in 1948 and refined in 1949 (to be introduced in 53-54 before it was killed by management in 1950), with a 100′ inch wheelbase and a four cylinder that was mentioned in the Robert J Neal book?
Interested to know more about this project and the specifics of the 4-cylinder engine.
I didn’t see anything on it.
Now that’s intriguing. The proposed Packard compact sounds like the Rambler of the era. Now the Rambler, which was a quite well appointed car for its day was a perfect complement to the mid-price full=sized Nash. But could they pull that off at a luxury level? I think not.
As a collector of books on radios, railroads, motor sports, all like Kimes epic on Packard, I shall scrimp and save to find and purchase one in the coming months. A book that I can recommend is Mark L. Dees book on the life and inventions of Harold A. “Harry” Miller (1875-1943), certainly one of the most creative racing car designers in the early history of motor sports.
Oh, the title of the Dees book is “The Miller Dynasty”.
The Packard history by Beverly Rae Kimes is still available from America’s Packard Museum in Dayton, OH for $60. I bought my copy there in 2018.
Link: https://www.americaspackardmuseum.org/store-at-americas-packard-museum/p/packard-history-motor-car-kimes
Thank you for the info, David. This is one of those books that is worth the extra cost.