Talk:Packard Executive

Clean up requested

I came across this article while placing the Packard Template on it. POV writing needs to be removed, more facts and references/sources, etc.; the whole article needs help in coming up to Wikipedia standards. Stude62 00:34, 7 March 2006 (UTC)

As I am new with Wikipedia, and this is my very first posting, I am not sure that it would meet Wikipedia standards. Facts are true to my best knwoledge, but I am not sure about they way I have done my additions. Please, advise me if this can be posted:

The Packard Executive was an automobile produced by the Packard-Clipper Division of the Studebaker-Packard Corporation in 1956. Introduced in April, 1956, Executive's were intended to fill a price gap between the Clipper (automobile) models, which were sold not as Packards, but under the Clipper brand name introduced for 1956, and the senior Packard line of automobiles.

Faced with limited financial capabilities, the Executive was created by combining a Clipper Custom with a senior Packard model's front clip. So, it used the clipper's 122 inch frame and suspension, and the smaller of the two V-8 engines available, a 352 cubic inch ohv unit developing 275 hp.

Outside, Executives were further distinguished from Clippers by a two-toning scheme of their own. It consisted of a straight line over the full side of the car, even using the Clipper's upper side chrome trim. Tail including lamps was pure Clipper, as was the interior. Clippers and Packard shared the same dash, but instruments differed. On senior models, they had white faces. Clipper instruments had light blue metallic faces. Some instruments in the clipper were replaced with warning lights that fitted in the same spots. Executives used the Clipper layout. Badging and scripts on the Executive, of course, were Packard.

While the car bore the Packard name, it was classified outside of the senior Packard model range. Executives received their own series designation, 5670. With it's introduction, production of the Clipper Custom (series 5660) was stopped.

Offered in two body styles, a two-door hardtop (model 5677) and a four-door sedan (model 5672), the Executive was priced, according to Packard advertising, to appeal to "the young man on the way up." However, Packard's marketing share and deteriorating financial picture limited the appeal of the Executive. Only 2,815 Executives were built for its shortened model year. Late introduction made the Executive the last automobile developed by Packard in Detroit.

When Studebaker-Packard closed the Packard plant in Detroit in the late summer of 1956, company discontinued the various Packard model ranges. When production resumed in the fall of 1956 for the 1957 model year, the badge engineered Studebaker that replaced the true Packards was designated as the Packard Clipper.

Executive decision

There's some confusion evident. Florey says the Exec was dropped in '55; the page says not even intro til '56... Absent better knowledge, I'd speculate it's the Clipper Exec that was dropped. Can somebody clear this up? TREKphiler ^{hit me ♠} 10:00, 13 September 2009 (UTC)