Packard was a United States based brand of luxury automobile built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, and later by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899 and the brand went off the market in 1958. Packard automobiles are highly sought after by collectors today, and the marque enjoys an active collectors club system.
Packards were advertised with the slogan "Ask the Man Who Owns One".
1899-1929
Packard was founded by brothers James Ward Packard (Lehigh University Class of 1884), William Doud Packard and his partner George Lewis Weiss in the city of Warren, Ohio. James Ward believed that they could build a better horseless carriage that the Winton cars owned by Weiss (An important Winton stockholder) and James Ward, himself a mechanical engineer, had some ideas how to improve on the designs of current automobiles. By 1899, they were building vehicles. The company, which they called the Ohio Automobile Company, quickly introduced a number of innovations in its designs, including the modern steering wheel and years later the first production 12-cylinder engine.
While Henry Ford was producing cars that sold for $440, the Packards concentrated on more 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.
In need of more capital, the Packard brothers would find 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. Packard moved its automobile operation to Detroit soon after and Joy became general manager and later chairman of the board. One of the original Packards is still located at the Packard Museum in Warren, Ohio on Mahoning Avenue. The original is located at Lehigh University in Packard Lab.
The Packard's factory on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit was designed by Albert Kahn, and included the first use of reinforced concrete for industrial construction in Detroit. When opened in 1903, it was considered the most modern automobile manufacturing facility in the world and its skilled craftsmen practiced over eighty trades.
The 3.5 million ft2 (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.
Throughout the nineteen-tens and twenties, Packard built vehicles consistently were among the elite in luxury automobiles. The company was commonly referred to as being one of the "Three P's" of American motordom royalty, along with Pierce-Arrow of Buffalo, New York and Peerless of Cleveland, Ohio. Packard's leadership of the luxury car field was supreme.
1930-1946
Entering into the 1930s Packard attempted to beat the stock market crash and subsequent depression by manufacturing ever more opulent and expensive cars than it had prior to October 1929. The Packard Twin Six was introduced for 1932, and re-named the Packard Twelve for the remainder of its run (through 1939). For one year only, 1932, Packard tried fielding an upper-medium-priced car called the Light Eight.
As an independent automaker, Packard did not have the luxury of a larger corporate structure absorbing its losses as Cadillac did with GM and Lincoln with Ford. However, Packard did have a better cash position than other independent luxury marques. Peerless fell under receivership in 1929 and ceased production in 1932; by 1938 Franklin, Marmon, Ruxton, Stearns-Knight, Stutz, Duesenberg and Pierce-Arrow had all closed.
Packard also had one other advantage that some other luxury automakers did not; a single production line. By maintaining a single line, and inter-changeability between models, Packard was able to keep its costs down. Packard did not change cars as often as other manufacturers did at the time. Rather than introducing new models annually, Packard began using its own "Series" formula for differentiating its model change-overs in 1923. New model series did not debut on a strictly annual basis, with some series lasting nearly two years, and others lasting as short a time as seven months. In the long run, though, Packard did average approximately one new series per year. By 1930, Packard automobiles were considered part of the "Seventh Series". By 1942, Packard was in its "Twentieth Series". There never was a "Thirteenth Series".
To address the depression, Packard started producing more affordable cars in the medium-price range. In 1935, it introduced its first sub-$1,000 car, the Packard 120. Car production more than tripled that year and doubled again in 1936. In order to produce the 120, Packard built and equipped an entirely separate factory. By 1936, Packard's labor force was divided nearly evenly between the high-priced "Senior" lines (Twelve, Super Eight and Eight) and the medium-priced "Junior" models, although more than 10 times more Juniors were produced than Seniors. This was because the 120 models were built using thoroughly modern mass production techniques, while the Senior Packards used a great deal more hand labor and traditional craftsmanship. The Junior models were very fine cars; they were just not in the same quality league as the Seniors. Although Packard most certainly could not have survived the Depression without the highly successful Junior models, the Juniors did have the effect of diminishing the Senior models stellar and exclusive image among those few who could still afford an expensive luxury car. Adding insult to injury, the 120 models were more modern in basic design than the Senior models. For example the 1935 Packard 120 featured independent front suspension and hydraulic brakes, both features that would not appear on any Senior Packards until 1937.
1937 – 1942
Prior to 1937, Packard was still the premier luxury automobile, even though the lion's share of cars being built were the 120 and Super Eight model ranges. Hoping to catch still more of the market, Packard decided to issue the Packard 115C in 1937, which was powered by Packard's first six cylinder since the Fifth Series cars in 1928. While the move to introduce the Six was at once brilliant – the car arrived just in time for the 1938 recession – it also tagged Packards as something less exclusive than they had been in the public's mind, and in the long run the Six hurt Packard's reputation of building some of America's finest luxury cars. The Six, designated "110" in 1940-41, continued for three years after the war, with many serving as taxicabs.
During World War II, Packard again built airplane engines, licensing the Merlin engine from Rolls-Royce. 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 one of the fastest non-jet fighter planes 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 hp V-12 marine engines that powered American PT boats (each boat used three) and some of Britain's patrol boats.