Skip to main content

The Last Packard

March 2023
1min read

Brock Yates’s nostalgia-laden tribute to the U.S. auto industry of the 1950s (October) was a refreshing, welcome commentary. Mr. Yates embodies many of the best qualities of automotive journalism, and 1 am a long-time admirer of his work, but there was one statement that should be corrected: “Once-proud Packard ended production in 1962. …”

Production of the large, luxury cars that created the Packard legend stopped in 1956 at Packard’s Detroit production facility. During 1957–58 several hundred “Packardbakers,” heavily optioned Studebaker Hawks with Packard nameplates, were manufactured at Studebaker’s South Bend facilities in an effort to keep the Packard name alive.

In 1958 this Studebaker-cloned Packard was discontinued because of dismal sales—the last time the Packard name ever appeared on a production vehicle. Mr. Yates was probably referring to the April 26, 1962, annual meeting of the StudebakerPackard Board of Directors, when the Packard name was officially dropped from the corporate logo.

We hope you enjoy our work.

Please support this 72-year tradition of trusted historical writing and the volunteers that sustain it with a donation to American Heritage.

Donate

Stories published from "December 1991"

Authored by: Peter Andrews

The American army that beat Hitler was thoroughly professional, but it didn’t start out that way. North Africa was where it learned the hard lessons—none harder than the disaster at Kasserine. This was the campaign that taught us how to fight a war.

Authored by: Robert Pierce

An Airman’s Sketchbook

Authored by: Nathan Ward

Tuffy’s Day

Authored by: Nathan Ward

To Set the World on Fire

Authored by: Nathan Ward

Hollywood Jumps the Gun

Authored by: Nathan Ward

Beginning of the End

Authored by: Roger J. Spiller

A MEMOIR OF THE SECOND WORLD WAR
Seeking the answer to a simple and terrible question: What was it like?

Authored by: Fulton Oursler, Jr.

He wanted only what every journalist of the time did: an exclusive interview with the Duke of Windsor. What he got was an astonishing proposition that sent him on an urgent top-secret visit to the White House and a once-in-a-lifetime story that was too hot to print—until now.

Authored by: John Lukacs

In 1941 the President understood better than many Americans the man who was running Germany, and Hitler understood Roosevelt and his country better than we knew

Authored by: Elliot Rosenberg

It took us longer to name the war than to fight it

Featured Articles

The world’s most prominent actress risked her career by standing up to one of Hollywood’s mega-studios, proving that behind the beauty was also a very savvy businesswoman. 

Rarely has the full story been told about how a famed botanist, a pioneering female journalist, and First Lady Helen Taft battled reluctant bureaucrats to bring Japanese cherry trees to Washington. 

Often thought to have been a weak president, Carter was strong-willed in doing what he thought was right, regardless of expediency or the political fallout.

Why have thousands of U.S. banks failed over the years? The answers are in our history and politics.

In his Second Inaugural Address, Abraham Lincoln embodied leading in a time of polarization, political disagreement, and differing understandings of reality.