1949 Packard Station Sedan The Packard Station Sedan was a pseudo station wagon model produced by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan between 1948 and 1950, using the Packard Super Eight platform. By offering the Station Sedan, Packard could market a vehicle with station wagon attributes, but without the investment cost associated with a complete station wagon development program.
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The Station Sedan used a combination of steel framing and body parts along with structural wood panels to create a "woody" station wagon-like car. Unlike other woody wagons of the day, which used wooden passenger compartments mounted to chassis of a particular car, the Station Sedan used a steel subframe and steel passenger doors onto which hard wood panels were mounted. The only wooden door on the vehicle was the rear gate assembly. 1949 Packard Station Sedan cargo area Neither a sedan, nor true station wagon, the Station Sedan enjoyed limited success and was discontinued when the 1951 Packard models were introduced.
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Collectively, the two cars were known as the Holden utility and panel van. From March 1957 the sedan, utility and panel van body styles were complemented by a new five-door station wagon. The wagon was marketed as the "Station Sedan" in both Standard and Special trim levels.Davis, Kennedy, Kennedy (Part One), p.
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Holden Special (EJ) station sedan In 1962, Holden launched a completely new, lower-profile streamlined body with more interior space, new foam-padded seating and better all-round visibility. The "Premier" model was introduced and the name "Premier", was to be identified with luxury Classic Holden Cars for 16 years. The EJ Premier, first with standard metallic paint and auto transmission, offered leather trim bucket seats, heater, carpet, floor console and whitewalls. The EJ had Duo Servo brakes, strengthened front suspension, safety belt anchorages.
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The money spent on the facelift, as John Reinhart and others maintained, should have gone into an expansion of Clipper body styles to compete with Cadillac. Packard recognized this too late when it brought out a convertible as the first 1948 body style—a model it should have had by 1947 at the latest. Eighteen months later Cadillac was already out with the Coupe de Ville hardtop, while Packard's newest model was the Station Sedan. By 1948, it was clear that the future of the car business belonged to the giants.
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Also, when a new body style was added in addition to standard sedans, coupes, and convertibles, Packard introduced a station wagon instead of a two- door hardtop in response to Cadillac's Coupe DeVille. The Station Sedan, a wagon-like body that was mostly steel, with good deal of decorative wood in the back; only 3864 were sold over its three years of production. Although the Packards of the late 1940s and early 1950s were built in its old tradition with craftsmanship and the best materials, all was not well. The combination of the lower priced Packards leading sales and impacting the prestige of their higher end brethren and some questionable marketing decisions, Packard's crown as "king" of the luxury car market was at risk — and it would eventually be stolen by a rising Cadillac. In 1950, sales dropped to 42,000 cars for the model year.
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