There’s no question that the 1980’s were the decade of kitsch and bad taste, although it got a start in the mid-seventies. Among all the other retro-revivals, there were the Bayliff Packards, based on a Cadillac chassis, not surprisingly. A bit overdone, perhaps?
Here’s the coupe, convertible and even the semi-truck to haul them:
That was a horrible way to start one’s morning. Is it possible in the future to hold off those posts until noon, Pacific Time?
Actually, the semi doesn’t look too bad. There are no words though, to describe the hideous cars.
Hideous? Tumorous? Benighted? Vile? Cursed As If By God?
+1
I’d have to agree. These are certainly not the most attractive. But if I was forced, I’d take the red/white one first and then the white/gold convertible. They don’t look “as” bad.
Or put a trigger warning in the headline?
+1
Look up Bayliff Packard on Google. The photos Paul has posted with the article are actually the nicer cars.
Some of the later cars – the black-and-green Lincoln-based sedan in particular – are downright pathetic, but they did make one really good-looking “1949” roadster. How it lays claim to that model year, with early ’30s design cues and just a bit of the modern core body showing, is beyond me but that’s what Mecum called it when it came up a few years ago.
That side trim treatment on the later ones is reminiscent of the early Buick Skylark. But I will join the chorus – Ugh!
Did these come from the factory with properly fitted white belts and shoes?
Which Cadillac’s are the basis for these cars? Is it the full size Deville? Or the smaller Seville?
Looks like the Seville to me.
It’s the DeVille. There was no coupe Seville. And the DeVille was BOF, much more suitable.
What does BOF mean?
Body On Frame. The Seville was a unibody.
That you. My mind went to the Buick, Oldsmobile, F???? type acronym. I wasn’t sure how much of the original car body is under there. Is it a totally different body put on the frame? Or is it parts being tacked into the existing body?
Gingerbread tacked onto the GM body. You can see that the whole upper body (roof, doors, glass, etc. are essentially stock Cadillac.
Looks like a ELVIS PRESLEY’S STUTZ BLACKHAWK
That “Packard” is the automotive equivalent of painting a mustache on the Mona Lisa.
Henry Joy would not be amused…..
I find myself very curious about the truck.
Looks like a mid ’70s Ford W series that has had the same subtle, tasteful craftsmanship inflicted on it that the cars suffered….
I had briefly considered that the had used something more exotic like a Marmon but a bit of image searching confirms the Ford origin.
Road kill cormorant.
I don’t normally think about this, but I’m reminded that in a free-market economy I’m not required to buy a car I dislike. Thank goodness.
There’s an interesting article on Hagerty’s website about the re-revival of the Packard brand in the late 90s with a completely bespoke car (it failed). It briefly covers the Bayliff Packard story. Read it here:
https://www.hagerty.com/media/buying-and-selling/if-you-want-to-buy-packard-ask-the-man-who-owns-it/
The interesting bit is that after the end of Studebaker-Packard, no corporation did anything to protect the Packard name/trademarks, so the name was in public domain, and Bayliff just *took it*. When the operation described in this post ended, Bayliff sold the name and rights for $50k to a Canadian named Roy Gullickson who built 1 prototype of the new-new Packard and then failed. According to the 2020 post, Gullickson still owns the name and is trying to sell it.
https://www.packardmotorcar.com/
Come on , people! Homer Simpson likes it!
Nice article! I was not aware of these (perhaps thankfully). Now, though it would be fun to have one and go to cars & coffees.
I recall riding by Dreisbach on the way downtown and back to Livonia when I was a kid. My dad often preferred Grand River to the Jeffries freeway. The building was right off the sidewalk so it was easy to see all the new Cadillacs inside from the road.
Dreisbach & Sons was sold to a bigger local Metro Detroit Cadillac Dealer, Don Massey:
https://www.encyclopedia.com/books/politics-and-business-magazines/don-massey-cadillac-inc
Thomas Dreisbach passed away the same year:
https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/detroitnews/name/thomas-dreisbach-obituary?pid=182843784
If you want to see one parked curbside, here it is:
(219 Division St., Boonton NJ)
Nice to know there’s still one around.
What a monstrosity! I can’t even pretend to find that appealing.
Good grief…
AAAGGGHHH! My eyes! How do you build a replica of something that never existed?
I am the lucky one! I did not open this post until 4:15 PM EDT. Still, i need to reach for the Pepto-Bismol. Thanks for at least for bringing this to our attention.
Wow, just wow .
I like weird cars but this is nasty .
-Nate
It costs a lot to look this cheap.
-Dolly Parton
I actually like the truck.
Looks like this hearse started as a Riviera?
Who turns a coupe into a hearse? It just isn’t done. No wonder the tent over this circus collapsed.
When you can see a “deville “ under all the tacked on glamour, they definitely stopped short. I admire the “classy “ ideas here, but to REALLY sell these, a lot more design and thought needed to go into the project. Especially when you look at the price tag.
Postwar Packards, starting with the bathtubs, were to my eye, pretty ugly and like Zils often looked like cobbled up designs from the Big Three. The early Caribbean looked good except for that godawful grille. They should have got rid of the handlebar moustache look.
The Packardbakers were an atrocity.
I can’t see past the Beetle headlight bezels.
if I’m driving this I fully expect a SF motorcycle cop on a Moto Guzzi to pull me over and open fire as I try to offer him a bribe.
Hate to admit it but Im digging the semi truck. Thought it was an International at first glance but definetly a 70s Ford after googling.
As for the cars, damn what a mess. Which is a shame because the early 80’s Deville was a great looking Cadillac. I know people hate on that era cause the cars had garbage engines under the hood, but the styling was spot on IMO
This looks like something someone would buy if their deal for a Stutz Blackhawk fell through.
Oh, give it a break, you lot. Let me explain.
In 2022, Australia is a very multicultural society, and a vastly better one (to me) than the Anglo-mono from when I was kid in the ’70’s.
Now, if this country was a car, I strongly suspect it would look a good bit like this unholy mess.
But you haven’t driven a Bayliff – by another spelling, you may have had one knocking on your door if tardy in repayments, but I digress – and neither have I.
And it may well be that for those whom it suits, it really, really suits. To complete the (clumsy) analogy, it’s just like Australia’s history, which Mark Twain famously described as being like a series of beautiful lies, but they are all true.
So who are you to judge?
That the Packard name, once among the most tasteful and respected to appear on cars, was reduced to ‘slutting’ on this pimpmobile-reject design is a stab to auto-lovers’ hearts.
I needed a good laugh today and there it is, a packard for blind people.
These abominations remind me of when the Japanese motorcycle manufacturers tried to copy Harley Davidson. There was “something” special, or at least unique about a Harley in the 1980’s. If you were familiar with American motorcycling history from the 1920’s forward you knew that Harley was very like their competitors: Indian, Excelsior, and some others, large V Twin touring motorcycles. By the ’80’s they were like living fossils. The Sportster model was introduced in the 1950’s to compete against the British twins.
Initially the Japanese did copy the V Twin configuration and certain cues like shrouded fenders and headlamp nacelles, buckhorn style handle bars, and large oval gas tanks. The first attempts were almost caricatures of what the Japanese manufacturers thought of what a Harley was supposed to be like. Did they fool anybody?
Eventually the copies got closer to the original. I’d say that of the Japanese makes, Yamaha/Star actually became a legitimate contender, they found their own “essence” and became a desirable line of bikes.
Polaris tried to match HD with their Victory brand of V twin touring bike, and they developed a strong following, but they never had the “heritage” that the buyers of these premium bikes wanted. It took Polaris/Indian to really commit to bringing the defunct marque back from the dead, with their fantastic Chief. The Indian engine is a masterpiece that captures so much of the mystique in a modern design.
If the Packard is ever to be resurrected, it would have to be along those lines. Thoroughly modern, with outstanding quality and performance, and only a subtle reference to any heritage design cues.
Looks like a knockoff of the Stutz Blackhawk especially from the front.