Packard: A History of the Motorcar and Company

Packard: A History of the Motorcar and Company by Kimes, Beverly R.. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780915038114.

From the Preface: It was in late 1972 when thoughts at Automobile Quarterly turned to Packard. To Packard as a book, that is. Packard had been on our minds for a long time before that. On July 2nd of 1962 by official decree of the Studebaker-Packard board of directors the name Packard died because, as a company spokesman said, it no longer held magic...Ten years later the "proud name of Packard" remained no less compelling to us. And to virtually everyone else who cared about superb automobiles; the passage of time had utterly negated the contention that the name held no magic. But remaining, too, were the "many and varied suppositions as to why the Packard motorcar is no longer with and the unanswered questions" which we noted in 1962 would "keep Packard mourners busy for years." We hope this book will answer them. But it is equally the intention of this volume to celebrate the life of Packard as to examine the reasons for its death. For Packard seems to use to be much more than an automobile. There has always been an intangibility about it, as once intriguing yet definable. For nearly a half century the motorcars from East Grand Boulevard provided a metaphor for that strata of the contemporary social scene which reflected the finest that was America.