It is said that all good things must end. This proverb dates back to at least the time of Chaucer (although in his usage he left out the word “good” and talked about all things in general). However you look at this saying, it is certainly true of automobile companies, as the vast majority of which that have ever existed are now defunct. This means that there are an awful lot of “last cars” waiting to be found in the wilderness on this and future expeditions.
I’ve already dug deeply into the last DeSoto while on a previous unicorn safari, so let’s grab our rifles and try to bag some more famous big game last cars.
Packard
1956 Packard Patrician – Alas not the last one
When discussing the final Packard, there are really two “lasts” to consider: The last Packard bodied 1956 model, which many would consider to be the last “true” Packard, and the last actual car to bear the Packard name, which would have been a rebadged Studebaker produced in 1958.
The last “true” Packard came off the line of the Connor Ave. assembly plant on June 25, 1956. Some sources claim that it was a four-door Patrician model, but no photographic or written documentation evidence exists to support this (at least that I could find). Packard production records from this period are sparse, and no concerted effort has been made that I am aware of to locate the last 1956 Packard-bodied Packard.
Production record of final Packard
The Packard name would go on to be applied to lightly modified Studebakers for 1957 and 1958: The last car to bear the Packard name emerged from Studebaker’s South Bend Plant on July 25, 1958.
Mountain Blue 1958 Packard Sedan. 58L-8134 would have looked like this photo.
Fortunately, the Studebaker production records from this era have survived, so we know a great deal about the final 1958 “Packabaker.” It was a four-door sedan bearing serial number 58L-8134, and it sported a Mountain Blue metallic paint job. Options included A/C, overdrive transmission, and whitewall tires.
As was the case with the final DeSoto (and so many other final cars), the ultimate Packard was accorded no special treatment – it was sold to a dealer and delivered to a customer like any other car, neither of whom were likely even aware of the car’s significance. Unfortunately, the current whereabouts of this car are unknown.
Edsel
Thanks to contemporary news reporting, we know that the last Edsel rolled off the line of the Louisville assembly plant on November 19, 1959. It was a tan Villager wagon (unknown as to whether it was a six- or nine-passenger model). Either way, it was a pretty rare ride, as only 275 Edsel wagons were produced for the abbreviated 1960 model year.
The whereabouts of this last Edsel are unknown, but it would have looked identical to the car pictured above. According to the Edsel registry at edsel.com, which has been tracking hundreds of extant and scrapped Edsels for the past several decades, no Edsels produced in the final month of November 1959 are known to survive. The 1960 Edsels with the highest surviving serial numbers all have October 1959 production dates, so at this point, any Edsel with a November 1959 production month would earn the de facto title of last surviving Edsel.
Studebaker
I figured it would be good to end this piece on a high note. Unlike Packard and Edsel, the last Studebaker (from 1966) is present and accounted for, thank you very much. It is currently on display in the Studebaker National Museum in South Bend, Indiana, as photographed and attested to by our own Jim Grey (and countless other museum visitors).
Part of the reason the last Studebaker survived while so many other final cars have not is that Studebaker was not going out of business when they stopped producing cars, so the shutdown was a little more orderly.
Studebaker was in fact a highly diversified conglomerate by the time they stopped producing cars in 1966. Contrary to popular belief, Studebaker was not losing money on their car business – it actually turned a small profit in its final year thanks to the use of GM Canada engines and the overall frugality of the manufacturing team. However, the Studebaker board realized that in 1966 their automotive business was small (less than 9,000 1966 models produced) and shrinking fast. Turning this around would have required a significant outlay of cash, with no guarantee of success, especially since Studebaker was essentially a Canadian market-only car by this point.
Studebaker continued as a going concern even after the last car was produced and the Hamilton, Ontario plant was shut own. In 1967, Studebaker merged with the Worthington Corporation to form Studebaker-Worthington. “Studebaker” remained in the combined company name for over a decade, only finally being retired in 1979 when S-W was acquired by McGraw-Edison in 1979.
The man who made ‘Eraserhead’, ‘Mulholland Drive’ and numerous other strange, wonderful and diabolical films, David Lynch, drove a Packard Hawk.
Just one more admirable thing about the guy.
In more recent times, the last Panther as it meandered through Wixom Assembly received a good bit of attention and documentation.
I wonder if once out of the gate it simply mingled into the rest of the herd?
Regarding the last “true” Packard – I recall reading that it was shipped to a dealer in a southern state.
No effort was made to save the car, or even the mark the occasion. Corporate leadership was desperately trying to stay afloat amid the ongoing chaos at Studebaker-Packard. Potential customers were already being scared away from Studebaker and Packard dealerships by media coverage of the company’s struggle.
The last thing corporate management wanted was widespread national coverage about the closure of the Packard plants and phase-out of the “true” Packards. The closure of Packard was deliberately kept as low-key as possible.
BaT recently had the last Plymouth ever, a Neon which went for I believe $18,500. It was well equipped with very low miles as the original buyer I think wanted to have the last Plymouth ever.
It would be a nice addition to any Mopar lover’s collection.
At least we know the exact last Plymouth ever. Oldsmobile did a run of last vehicles in a special color. What was the last Pontiac and where is it? The last Mercury? I sense a series of articles coming!
You sense correctly!
Interesting that Studie was still making money on cars. I hadn’t heard that before. The Canadian crew was certainly trying hard, inspired by patriotism. (It’s OUR car now.)
There is a story floating around out there that the final straw that led to the stoppage of production part way through the 1966 model year was that the sole die for stamping decklids broke, and the decision was made that it would not be replaced.
I am going by memory but I believe there are two other “last Studebakers” at the museum in South Bend – the last South Bend-built car is a red 1964 Daytona hardtop and the last Studebaker wagon from 1920 is there as well as part of the company’s “original” historical collection.
I do know that deck lids for ’64 to ’66 Studes are a rare find, bolstering this story
What about Australian assembly Chevrolet powered Studes were over there when they stopped assembly Ive got no idea but I guy I worked with had a 66 with Chevy engine.
I wonder how this plays into the wide availability of NOS Studebaker parts. Unlike other manufacturers (Lee Iacocca infamously and unceremoniously simply dumped off all of the old Chrysler parts inventory to cut costs), Studebaker actually went to the trouble of selling off their parts inventory when they went under. They surely didn’t make much on the sale but, more importantly, a lot of Studebaker parts are still around.
So, maybe the line stoppage in Canada due simply to not wanting to recreate the trunk lid die also contributed to a good supply of Studebaker parts still in existance to this day.
You may be onto something about parts availability for an old Stude.
In a CC Effect kinda way, when I walked up to pick up my wife’s Lancer from our neighborhood shop today, I was greeted with the car pictured below.
I asked the guy who manages the place how he could even find parts for that thing, and he said, “oh there are still plenty of parts around for an old Stude.”
The last Detroit 1956 Packard was a Patrician sedan 5682-4775 which has yet to be found.
The last Detroit 1956 Packard 400 hardtop and Caribbean convertible are extant in PAC members collections.
The last South Bend 1958 Packard, a manual shift, Mountain Blue Metallic sedan 58L-8134 is rumored to still exist in a private Packard collection in dilapidated condition.
The last Packard was the last one that was a Packard, and not a Packard Clipper, right? By 1941, Packard was pretty much a fancy Clipper, as much as it was a fancy Studebaker in 1957. Anything you could have bought as a Packard after 1941, you could have bought as a Clipper too. So why would “aficionados” consider the 1956 to be the last Packard, when you could have also bought it as a 1956 Clipper as well? Only in 1955 is Clipper a stand-alone marque. Way before then, Packard based itself on the Clipper.
Was the Clipper a cheaper Packard? No. By the time the 1940s ended, Packard had become a fancy Clipper. Packard’s biggest sellers were Clippers, and management make a Packard, by starting with a Clipper and doing to it what GM did for Cadillac, or Ford did for Lincoln. Those surviving brands don’t usually begin life as the luxury brand – they begin as the bread-and-butter Chevy and Ford. By Post-War era, the Packard began life on the drawing pad as a Clipper.
What killed Clipper was the fact that Packard dealers didn’t want to give them up. So the stand-alone Clipper marque had only a one year existence – 1955.
Also by 1954, Packard was made by Studebaker-Packard, not Packard. Studebaker owned Clipper and Packard. So why would the 1956 Packard be the final Packard? There are arguments that the last true Packard was the one that wasn’t based on being sold as a Clipper almost twenty years earlier.
This also means that contemporary Packard in 1956 didn’t see the 1957 Packardbakers as the last version of the Packard and Clipper. They had been designing the Packard Predictor for 1960-1961. You see, Clipper was euthanized for Studebaker. You could bet that there would have been a Studebaker version of the Predictor, had the money been there.
Finally, the Lark makes sense. By 1960, Packard would have had the Predictor, and Studebaker would have had the Clipper role at the corporation with the Lark. Two distinctively different automobiles from the same company. If you consider how low it takes to bring out a new car line, that Packard Predictor was on the drawing table while the Lark was being finished. Had things worked out, Packard would have had another birth as a full size luxury car and Studebaker would have the low-price field.
I would guess that the 1956 model is viewed as the last true Packard because it was the last model completely styled and engineered by Packard personnel, and powered by a Packard-engineered and built drivetrain. The 1955 and 1956 Packard and Clipper shared a body, but they didn’t share a body with anything else (including Studebaker).
The corporation was officially Studebaker-Packard starting in 1954, but the new company operated two sets of facilities until the Packard portion of the corporation was either sold off or shuttered in the wake of the 1956 financial crisis that resulted in the Curtiss-Wright takeover.
The 1955 and 1956 models were really the final products of the old Packard Motor Car Company.
Also, the original prewar Clipper from 1941 that all 1946-50 models were based on was very much a real Packard. True it wasn’t one of the handcrafted “senior” Packards that the company was built on, but neither were most of their 1930s cars.
It was 1956, not 1955, when Clipper was registered as a separate marque from Packard. That didn’t go well with Clipper buyers for whom being able to call their car a Packard was significant. Packard badges returned to late-1956 Clippers, and dealers were allowed to apply them to existing Clipper-badged cars on dealer lots.
+1, Its a subtle distinction but important to recognize the difference. The 58L-8134 is the last Packard branded automobile built under the auspices of a remnant of the original Packard company. When that ended on July 25,1958 that was the final end for the cars.
The Studebaker-Packard corporate title was changed to delete Packard on April 26, 1962. In a statement for public consumption. Studebaker management called the Packard portion of the corporate name “an anachronistic hinderance to our corporate image.” Ironic, huh?
When I was a kid, anyone who owned a Studebaker was seen by us as weird in the most extreme. Part of it was that I started noticing cars at about age 6, or in 1970. The last Studebakers were in 1966 so the ones I saw were inevitably battered rust buckets. In Quebec circa 1970 cars did not last much more than five years, so for us car loving kids a Stude was just about as odd as one could get, Rambler being a close second.
I only learned about the 1960 Edsel about 10-12 years ago. And the first time I saw it I was struck by it. I think it’s a very attractive car – in stark contrast to the original model. In fact, I think it’s one of the most attractive cars of the turn of the decade. The Edsel and the Starliner, in fact. I see them as more restrained than the GM and Chrysler cars in the class.
The only problem I have with it are the tail lights. They look like they were designed in isolation by a different team than the rest of the car.
I have always liked the ’60 Edsel since I was a kid and it was a new car. Have you ever seen their version of the Starliner? I remember a white one in a neighboring town. Our little Indiana town that I grew up in even had 2 of the two door sedans when they were new.
The rear end of that 58 Packard is just hideous, sorry. A sad end.
It seems the last Packard-branded vehicle wasn’t a car, but rather an Argentine-market pickup truck sold in 1959 but probably still built as a 1958 (according to most online sources, including a feature here at CC and also at the Studebaker Drivers Club site (https://forum.studebakerdriversclub.com/forum/your-studebaker-forum/general-studebaker-specific-discussion/109300-the-last-packard). These were Studebaker Transtars badged as Packards apparently to meet a Packard franchiser’s legal clause.
Likewise, the last Studebaker built actually came off of Kaiser-Ilin’s assembly line in Israel in 1967, built from a previously shipped Canadian CKD kit. I won’t post that common photo of the proposed 1967 facelift with the square headlights that has floated around the interwebs, that they supposedly wanted to keep building even after the Hamilton assembly plant closed; I can’t confirm any of the speculation about it.
Way back in the late 80’s I owned a ’64 cCuiser purportedly a Granatelli family owned car and a ’66 Commander. Both were decent driving old cars. They were sold to finance a different Studebaker project.
The info on the last 1958 Packard 58L8134 may be correct, I am pretty sure I used to own it. Here is what I know about it:
First, the factory build card is in error, as it has the automatic transmission [all 57-58 Packard sedans came standard with the automatic]. It was loaded with all options including power windows, power seat, & air conditioning.
Second, it was sold new to Dr. Fred Y. Donn in Washington, DC. I serviced and repaired the car for Dr. Donn until his death about 30 years ago. He died while it was at my shop, and his family didn’t want the car. it sat in my shop’s back lot until 2000 when I retired and it was sold at auction to a fellow Packard collector here in MD. I believe he’s still got the car, but it’s in poor condition. The car had severe body rust by the mid 1970s.
Third, back then had I realized it was the last Packard off the assembly line, I would have kept it!
For the record, the last Rover…..2005
Interesting and fact filled article, thanx .
-Nate
This ’58 Packard Hawk has a body plate which I believe indicates that it is the 503rd out of 588 produced, which is pretty close to the end.
You can see how ” ’53 Stude” this car is with all the “Packard” trim stripped off!
https://www.ebay.com/itm/284298881515?hash=item423188a9eb:g:9L0AAOSwvcpgpChI
Picture of car, in case the eBay listing disappears:
Regarding the last Edsel
The wagon was a 9 passenger model with either a 292 or 352 v8– it was a two tone model not solid tan- the car you show is white or yellow not tan. We suspect the roof was Alaskan gold.
Lastly- the car came off the line in November 20 not November 19….
If Job Number #344 was the last Edsel, and featured in the newspaper clipping, what is the Edsel that is immediately behind it?
Ford.
Notice the car following 344 on the line has Ford lamp of trapezoid shape rather than Edsel’s round lamp.
Hello: Please contact me. I need your permission to re-print 2 of your ’57 Packard renderings in my book. Thanks, Dwight Heinmuller 410-329-3022 in maryland or packardparts@comcast.net
These are all from the web. But help yourself. We dd. 🙂