1946 – 1956
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 the postwar Packards sold well, the ability to distinguish expensive models from lower priced models disappeared as all Packard became virtually alike.
By the time the firm was able to re-style again for 1951, the post war seller's market was coming to an end and again, the design failed to resonate with the public at large. Conceived as the antithesis of the bulbous post war models, the motoring press derisively named the new design "high pockets".
Packard President James J. Nance was also struggling with what he felt was the only way to reestablish Packard as a luxury car brand, which was to divorce the lower priced models from the luxury models. To do this Nance applied the model name Clipper to the least expensive Packards starting in 1953. Ultimately, Nance planned to spin Clipper off as its own automotive brand targeting Oldsmobile and Mercury, while a target date of 1956 was set for the new automotive brand.
Nash Motors president George W. Mason approached Packard about a merger for the first time in the late 1940s, believing that the days for independent car manufacturers were numbered. Packard's board of directors, believing Mason to be incorrect, was reluctant to merge. 1953 brought the return of the buyer's market, and 1954 was again a down year for Packard; still, Packard's directors delayed.
Meanwhile, Mason found a more receptive audience at Hudson, and the two companies merged to form American Motors Corporation on May 1, 1954. This left Packard, whose directors had finally seen the light, seeking a merger partner. After briefly considering joining the merged Kaiser-Willys organization (which was formed solely to take the two struggling firms out of the U.S. auto business in order to concentrate on Jeeps), and seeing no possibilities there, Packard's directors settled on Studebaker.
On October 1, 1954, Packard purchased Studebaker creating the Studebaker-Packard Corporation. Initially, Packard's executive team had hoped Studebaker's larger network of dealers would help increase sales. At first Nance believed that Studebaker's volume could sustain the companies, however Nance and other Packard officials discovered that Studebaker's finances were more dire than previously believed, primarily because no one took the time to actually study them in depth prior to the sale.
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.
1956 saw the launch of Clipper as a stand-alone marque as well as the launch of the Packard Executive, Packard's new mid-level car priced to compete against Chrysler and Buick. The Packard Executive was essentially a Clipper with the senior Packard front clip and interior. However, Packard dealers began to complain that consumers weren't buying Clippers because the cars weren't Packards. At first Nance refused to rebadge the Clipper as a Packard, but the dealers pushed back. In the end, Nance begrudgingly agreed to start badging the Clippers with the "Packard" script.
Packard had been selling engines and transmissions to American Motors for installation in 1955 and '56 Nashs and Hudsons, 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, and Nance left the company which then entered into a contractual management agreement with aircraft maker Curtiss-Wright.
1957 – 1958: Packardbakers
In 1957 and 1958, a Studebaker President-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.
While the 1957 Packard Clipper was less Packard than it was a very good Studebaker, the cars sold in limited numbers – which was attributed to Packard dealers dropping the franchises and consumers fearful of buying a car that could be an orphaned make soon. Of note: Former Packard designer Richard A. Teague, seeing the new "Packardbaker" for the first time, commented that seeing his beautiful Packard taillights "…on that tired old Studebaker body, was enough to make a maggot vomit!"
The 1958 models bowed with no series name, simply as "Packard". In addition to the knowledge that these cars were the last gasp by what had been thirty years before the biggest selling luxury car in the United States, their annual make-over on a budget usually set aside for a door-handle design at General Motors was awkward.
The end
Studebaker-Packard pulled the Packard nameplate from the marketplace in 1959 to focus instead on its compact Lark.
In the Early 1960s, Studebaker-Packard was approached by French car maker Facel-Vega about the possibility 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 engines
Packard had an engineering staff that always designed good, well-made engines. 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 in³ (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.
Packard also made large aeronautical engines. See the articles on the Merlin engine and PT Boats for its contributions to the Allied victory in World War II
Attempted Packard Resurrection
A new company bearing the Packard name, but having no legacy affiliation with the established Packard Motor Car Company or the Studebaker Corporation, attempted a started up of the Packard nameplate ca. 2000 and produced at least one prototype Packard, featuring a V12 engine. The prototype was shown at the Pebble Beach Concours d'Elegance in 2003. Despite public interest in the car, plans for the automobile haven't emerged, and its continued existence (and/or planned production) is undocumented as of March 2007. As of mid-May 2007, the company website is still in existence and notes that the company is for sale.