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HomePackard

Packard

1949 Packard Super Eight
Data Dive

Packard kept a bigger foothold in the luxury-car field than commonly assumed

June 5, 2025 Steve 9

Our discussion in the comment thread about the 1956 Packard Executive story all but inevitably brought up one of the most common criticisms of the automaker’s management — that it did not do enough in […]

1956 Packard Executive
History

Did the 1956 Packard Executive represent a strategic shift?

May 29, 2025 Steve 23

(EXPANDED FROM 2/1/2022) Back in 2021 Patrick Foster suggested that a 1956 1/2 Packard model called the Executive could have “saved” the brand if it had been introduced a year or so earlier. In contrast, […]

1958 Packard
Design Notes

The 1958 Packard went too far in styling, size and pricing

May 6, 2025 Steve 17

(EXPANDED ON 9/30/2022) Indie Auto doesn’t generally dwell on collectible cars, but a restoration of a 1958 Packard shed light on what I have found to be one of the bigger peculiarities of the postwar […]

1954 Packard Clipper
History

1954 Packard Clipper: The car that ended the automaker’s independence

April 9, 2025 Steve 69

(EXPANDED FROM 7/15/2022) I can’t usually tell in advance whether an article will hit a nerve. As a case in point, I didn’t think this one about the 1954 Packard Clipper would generate much notice. […]

1956 Packard plant
Literature

1956 Packard booklet hints at how James Nance got too big for his britches

March 24, 2025 Steve 11

(EXPANDED FROM 11/1/2021) A 1956 Packard booklet hints at how its head James Nance got too big for his britches. A marketing piece titled, “Story of a Living Legend and the world in which it […]

1957 Oldsmobile
Auto Paedia

How the greenhouse on US cars has evolved from the late-40s to present

January 28, 2025 Steve 0

(EXPANDED FROM 10/27/2021) Greenhouses have not typically changed as frequently as other parts of the American automobile’s external styling, but they go a long way toward summing up the dominant design approach of a given […]

1957 Packard proposa
Multimedia

Film shows Fred Hudson’s design talent — and groupthink

January 2, 2025 Steve 9

(EXPANDED FROM 1/25/2023) When rechecking links I was disappointed to see that Hemmings has apparently deleted one of the better comment-thread discussions about late-50s American car design. This illustrates a downside of the digitization of […]

Data Dive

Did African-American car buyers save Cadillac in the 1930s?

November 25, 2024 Steve 8

(EXPANDED FROM 4/18/2023) According to Ed Cray’s (1980) Chrome Colossus, in 1932 Cadillac was in danger of being discontinued when a young service manager named Nicholas Dreystadt crashed a General Motors’ executive committee meeting to […]

1953 Hudson hood emblem
History

Would Hudson have been Packard’s best merger partner?

May 15, 2024 Steve 15

(EXPANDED FROM 10/13/2021) A decade ago Curbside Classic commentator Steve (2014) offered one of the more thoughtful merger scenarios for Packard: He concluded that Hudson would have been the best choice. I think that Steve’s […]

1955 Nash
History

Would American Motors under George Mason have done more poorly in the late-50s?

April 9, 2024 Steve 3

Kim in Lanark makes a useful point in arguing that if American Motors had “kept the Nash and Hudson nameplates any longer, the AMC executives could drive their 1959 Nashes and Hudsons to bankruptcy court.” […]

Posts pagination

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  • 1967 Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme
    Was the 1966 Olds Cutlass Supreme the first mid-sized brougham model?
    March 5, 2026 21
  • 1976 Plymouth Volare 2-door coupe
    Splashy new cars often were the biggest disasters during the postwar period
    March 3, 2026 1
  • Reader questions Chrysler’s future as it passes 100th anniversary
    March 2, 2026 12
  • 1968 Chevrolet C10 pickup
    Was the 1967-68 Chevrolet C10 the ‘first modern pickup’?
    February 27, 2026 7
  • 1941 Studebaker Commander 2-door coupe
    1941 Studebaker Commander: Ending its big cars on a high note
    February 26, 2026 11
  • 1961 De Soto
    Video histories of DeSoto and American Motors aren’t as good as books
    February 24, 2026 3
  • 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk front with hood open
    Four lingering questions about Aaron Severson’s take on the 1956 Studebaker Golden Hawk
    February 20, 2026 6
  • Thank yous, power outages and format changes
    October 31, 2025 0
  • 1956 Buick hood scoop
    Readers brainstorm ideas for future Indie Auto stories
    October 14, 2022 134
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