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Concept
Packard
Summary
Packard (formerly the Packard Motor Car Company) was an American luxury automobile company located in Detroit, Michigan. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last Packards were built in South Bend, Indiana in 1958.
One of the "Three Ps" – alongside Peerless Motor Company, and Pierce-Arrow – the company was known for building high-quality luxury automobiles before World War II. Owning a Packard was considered prestigious, and surviving examples are found in museums, car shows, and automobile collections.
Packard vehicles featured innovations, including the modern steering wheel, air-conditioning in a passenger car, and one of the first production 12-cylinder engines, adapted from developing the Liberty L-12 engine used during World War I to power warplanes.
During World War II, Packard produced 55,523 units of the two-stage/two-speed supercharger equipped Merlin V-12s engines under contract with Rolls-Royce. Packard also made the versions of the Liberty L-12 V-12 engine. This updated engine powered United States Navy PT boats.
After the Second World War, Packard struggled to survive as an independent automaker against the domestic Big Three (General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler). Packard merged with Studebaker in 1953 and formed the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. This merger was intended to be temporary while an eventual merger with American Motors Company (AMC) was planned. Disagreements among the firms' executives thwarted the consolidation with AMC, so Studebaker-Packard remained a separate company. The Packard brand was phased out in 1959 after two years of declining sales of the Studebaker-built 1957 and 1958 model year Packards.
Packard was founded by James Ward Packard, his brother William, and their partner, George Lewis Weiss, in Warren, Ohio, where 400 Packard automobiles were built at their factory on 408 Dana Street Northeast, from 1899 until 1903. A mechanical engineer, James Packard believed they could build a better horseless carriage than the Winton cars owned by Weiss, an important Winton stockholder, after Packard complained to Alexander Winton and offered suggestions for improvement, which were ignored.
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