The history of this set is VERY interesting to me as I personally blame Briggs for a large part of Packard's ultimate undoing.....he convinced Packard's management that he could sell them bodies for less money than they (Packard) could build them themselves.

At first the prices WERE below what Packard could build them for, but within a short time the prices were raised and raised again till they exceeded what Packard could build them for. At this point Packard had scrapped their tools so they were stuck with having to continue buying from Briggs.

Then after the war old man Briggs died and apparently hadn't drawn up a very good will as the family was faced with ruinous inheritance taxes which forced them to sell the company (Chrysler bought it). In short order, Chrysler informed Packard that they would no longer continue to supply them with bodies.....Packard then scrambled and spent huge money on getting back into the body building buisness.....this came at the same time that they had tooled up their automatic trans and V8 engine, along with the new torsion bar suspension system. And the topper is that they lost their Korean war contracts......less money coming in and lots going out.

Trouble is that someone at Packard should've looked harder at the deal Briggs first presented them.....if Packard couldn't build bodies for less than a firm that was in business to make a profit for doing this, then why should Packard even be in the car business in the first place? I suspect that greed played a big part in this decision......one which lit a very long burning fuse.

Anthony