First…I must acknowledge the 126th anniversary of the birth of Babe Ruth. Although I am not a baseball fan or follower in any way, shape or form, any more, growing up as a baseball fanatic in the city of his birth I was a huge fan of his achievements. From, of all places, The Hollywood Reporter, a picture of The Babe:
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In On The Wing Wednesday I stumbled onto a comparison of Cadillac and Packard sales. (I readily admit that Cadillac vs Packard is a less “sexy” title than Ford vs Ferrari.) Ever since then, I have wanted to make a table showing the sales/production of both makes from after World War II to Packard’s last year as a real car company, 1956. Here it is:
| CALENDAR YEAR PRODUCTION | ||
| YEAR | CADILLAC | PACKARD |
| 1946 | 28,144 | 42,102 |
| 1947 | 59,436 | 55,477 |
| 1948 | 66,209 | 98,897 |
| 1949 | 81,545 | 104,593 |
| 1950 | 110,535 | 72,138 |
| 1951 | 103,266 | 76,476 |
| 1952 | 96,850 | 62,988 |
| 1953 | 103,538 | 81,341 |
| 1954 | 123,746 | 27,583 |
| 1955 | 153,334 | 69,667 |
| 1956 | 140,873 | 13,432 |
As the title of the table reads, this is calendar year production and not model year. I used calendar year to put Packard’s decline into sharper focus. Using calendar year also shows a sharp break from when Packard was competitive with Cadillac to when they became less so. Instead of using a compendium book, these figures came from Cadillac at 100: Legacy Of Leadership and Packard: A History Of The Motor Car And The Company.
Note that in the first four post-war years in total, Packard outsold Cadillac by 27.9% AND outsold Cadillac for awhile even after the tail fins were introduced on the latter. The next four years Cadillac outsold Packard by 41.4%. Of course, in those last three years there is no comparison.
Less than a decade before its demise, Packard was competitive, at least based on these sales figures. Whether the seeds for its eventual destruction had already been sown is a matter for Packard “experts” to debate. Despite all I have read and written about Packard, I don’t think I am qualified to give an authoritative opinion on why Packard failed.
Regular readers know I am a fan of both makes. This picture of a 1948 Cadillac was the spark that got me blogging about cars almost every day.
I have written about Cadillac concept cars like the Elmiraj, the 1967 Cadillac Eldorado was part of Ultimate Garage 2.0, and my wonderful wife and I just purchased a 2015 Cadillac ATS.
Sadly, we can’t buy a relatively new Packard. The 1956 Caribbean convertible was also part of Ultimate Garage 2.0 and I have often written about Packard and other defunct American makes, although not so much in recent months.
Cadillac vs Packard, too bad that’s not a current battle in the automotive marketplace.
#BabeRuth
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Disaffected Musings 
Happy Birthday to the Babe. One of my prized possessions is an autograph of Babe Ruth on a baseball program given to me by my father.
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Thanks for sharing, C/2.
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Love that 1948 green Cadillac. I must admit that “Eldorado” and “Fleetwood” are much more attractive monikers than XT4 or CT5. At least they have one model with a name still, the Escalade. I see their soon-to-be-released EV has a name, “Lyriq”. Say, what?
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Thanks, JS. I have written about my disdain for Cadillac’s 3-character names for their models.
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With the my move and recent surge in business projects, I’ve fallen behind in my reading. But, this post makes me think I need to put aside the Auburn-Cord-Duesenberg history I had started and pick up one of my Packard histories. I am intrigued by wanting to know all the ins and outs of Packard’s eventual demise. Safe to say, no one thing likely caused the end of Packard, but a series of decisions and events that just made it too difficult for an independent to survive.
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Glad to read you have survived your move and that business is increasing. The two seminal works on Packard, IMO, are the acclaimed Packard: A History of the Motorcar and the Company (winner of the prestigious Cugnot Prize) and The Fall of the Packard Motor Car Company.
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I will have to add those to my wishlist. I’d assume they are fairly rare nowadays, as I’ve not seen either title ever crop up when I look for old books.
The 2 Packard books I have are ‘Packard’ from the Crestline series by George Dammann, and The Packard Story by Robert Turnquist, which I recently acquired. The Crestline book gives a decent accounting of the year-to-year corporate goings on, though it’s a tough slog to read it. I hope the other book is a little more of an easy read and still informative.
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The Cugnot Prize winning book, edited by the late, great Beverly Rae Kimes, is quite the tome at over 800 pages. I am not able to read it word-for-word; can you say ADD?!
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