1950 Packard at the Drive In Photograph by Janette Boyd

1950 Packard at the Drive In

by Janette Boyd

Canvas Print

$0.00

Framed Print

$0.00

Art Print

$23

Poster

$23

Metal Print

$0.00

Acrylic Print

$0.00

Wood Print

$0.00

Throw Pillow

$26

Duvet Cover

$95

Shower Curtain

$73

Bath Towel

$35

Tote Bag

$26

Weekender Tote Bag

$44

Zip Pouch

$22

Portable Battery Charger

$49

Greeting Card

$6.95

iPhone Case

$27

Beach Towel

$35

Round Beach Towel

$80

Weekender Tote Bag

$44

Men's Clothing

$25

Women's Clothing

$25

Youth Clothing

$21

Toddler Clothing

$19

Baby Clothing

$23

Title

1950 Packard at the Drive In

Artist

Janette Boyd

Medium

Photograph - Photo/texture/digital

Description

Photo of 1950 Packard, taken in Hutchinson, Kansas and digital additional texture of old wooden drive-in theatre added for effect..

Featured by FAA Group, "Monthly Themed - August"

Packard was an American luxury automobile marque built by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan, United States. The first Packard automobiles were produced in 1899, and the last true Packard in 1956, when they built the Packard Predictor their last concept car.

Packard bought Studebaker in 1953 and formed Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana. The final Packards were actually badge engineered 1958 Studebakers.

By the end of World War II, Packard was in excellent financial condition, but several management mistakes became ever more visible as time went on. Like other U.S. auto companies, Packard resumed civilian car production in late 1945, labeling them as 1946 models by modestly updating their 1942 models. As only tooling for the Clipper was at hand, the Senior-series cars were not rescheduled. One version of the story is that the Senior dies were left out in the elements to rust and were no longer usable. Another long-rumored tale is that Roosevelt gave Stalin the dies to the Senior series, but the ZiS-110 state limousines were a separate design.

Although the postwar Packards sold well, the ability to distinguish expensive models from lower-priced models disappeared as all Packards, whether sixes or eights, became virtually alike in styling. Further, amid a booming seller's market, management had decided to direct the company more to volume middle-class models, thus concentrating on selling lower-priced cars instead of more expensive—and more profitable—models. Worse, they also tried to enter the taxi cab and fleet car market. The idea was to gain volume for the years ahead, but that target was missed: Packard simply was not big enough to offer a real challenge to the Big Three, and lacked the deep pockets with which a parent company could shelter them, as well as the model lineup through which to spread the pricing.
As a result, Packard's image as a luxury brand was further diluted. As Packard lost buyers of expensive cars, it could not find enough customers for the lesser models to compensate. The shortage of raw materials immediately after the war—which was felt by all manufacturers—hurt Packard more with its volume business than it would have had it had focused on the specialty luxury car market.

The Clipper became outdated as the new envelope bodies started appearing, led by Studebaker and Kaiser-Frazer. Had they been a European car maker, this would have meant nothing; they could have continued to offer the classic shape not so different from the later Rolls-Royce with its vertical grill. Although Packard was in solid financial shape as the war ended, they had not sold enough cars to pay the cost of tooling for the 1941 design. While most automakers were able to come out with new vehicles for 1948–49, Packard could not until 1951. They therefore updated by adding sheet metal to the existing body (which added 200 lb (91 kg) of curb weight). Six-cylinder cars were dropped for the home market, and a convertible was added. These new designs hid their relationship to the Clipper. Even that name was dropped—for a while.

The design chosen was a "bathtub" type. While this was considered futuristic during the war and the concept was taken further with the 1949 Nash—and survived for decades in the Saab 92-96 in Europe—the 1948–1950 Packard styling was polarizing. To some it was sleek and blended classic with modern; others nicknamed it the "pregnant elephant". Test driver for Modern Mechanix, Tom McCahill, referred to the newly designed Packard as "a goat" and "a dowager in a Queen Mary hat". Despite a few detractors, most seemed to like the design. It won fashion and elegance awards, and more importantly for the company, it was very popular. Packard sold 92,000 vehicles for 1948 and 116,000 of the 1949 models leading the prestige class.

1950 Packard Eight four-door sedan
Packard outsold Cadillac until about 1950; most sales were the midrange volume models. During this time, Cadillac was among the earliest U.S. makers to offer an automatic transmission (the Hydramatic in 1941), but Packard caught up with the Ultramatic,[36] offered on top models in 1949 and all models from 1950 onward. Packard's Ultramatic automatic transmission was the only one developed by an independent automaker was smoother than the GM Hydramatic. However, while the Ultramatic was competitive, Packard was not able to immediately respond to Cadillac's introduction of a powerful overhead valve V8 in 1949. Also, when a new body style was added in addition to standard sedans, coupes, and convertibles, Packard introduced a station wagon instead of a two-door hardtop in response to Cadillac's Coupe DeVille. The Station Sedan, a wagon-like body that was mostly steel, with good deal of decorative wood in the back; only 3,864 were sold over its three years of production. Although the Packards of the late 1940s and early 1950s were built in its old tradition with craftsmanship and the best materials, all was not well. The combination of the lower priced Packards leading sales and impacting the prestige of their higher end brethren and some questionable marketing decisions, Packard's crown as "king" of the luxury car market was at risk — and it would eventually be stolen by a rising Cadillac. In 1950, sales dropped to 42,000 cars for the model year. When Packard's president George T. Christopher set course for an evolutionary styling approach with a facelift for 1951, others wanted a radical new design. In the end, Christopher resigned and Packard treasurer Hugh Ferry became president - he demanded a new direction.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Packard