Packard entered the 1953 model year with a new label for its mid-range sedan:  Cavalier. But it was a short-lived nameplate as the strategy soon changed again.

James J. Nance was an automobile man by appointment rather than background  He’d come  to the Packard Motor Car Company in May of 1952 from General Electric, where he turned around the Hotpoint appliance brand. With his instinct for retailing, the new CEO determined that Packard’s number-based model designations (100, 200, 300) were too abstract, that distinctive names would connect better with consumers. So for 1953 the 100 and 200 series became the Clipper, and the 300 sedan became the Cavalier.

Vance envisioned the $3,244 Cavalier as the top mid-range Packard, the last stop before the ultra-deluxe 400/Patrician, which would now represent the grand senior Packards of years gone by. The Cavalier shared the long 127-in wheelbase chassis and body shell of the Patrician, but was powered by a 327 cubic-inch L-head straight eight with five main bearings and 180 hp. Cabin appointments were a step below the Patrician as well, minus the deep-tufted upholstery and Wilton carpets of the considerably more expensive Patrician.

The Cavalier was offered in a single body style, a four-door sedan. (While the Mayfair, Caribbean, and Convertible were technically part of the same series, they weren’t really  marketed as such.) Along with the Patrician’s body shell, the Cavalier shared much of its exterior trim theme as well, though without the Patrician’s massive bright-metal stone guards in the rear quarters. And while the Ultramatic automatic transmission was standard in the Patrician, in the Cavalier it was an extra-cost ($199) option, as were power steering ($139) and Easamatic power brakes ($39). In pricing and equipment, the new model dropped in right between the Buick Roadmaster and the Cadillac 62 Series.

The Cavalier exterior received only minor changes for 1954, with the hockey-stick side spears replaced by a straight-line theme with three hashmarks in the rear doors (above). Paint choices included 13 solid lacquer colors (four blues, including Cavalier Blue) and four body/roof two-tone combinations. The five main-bearing straight eight was treated to a Carter WCFB four-barrel carburetor, bumping the output rating to 185 hp.

At not quite 11,000 cars, the Cavalier’s volume was modest in 1953, especially by Motor City standards, though it contributed a fair chunk of the automaker’s total volume that year of around 81,000 cars. But in 1954, only 2,580 Cavaliers moved off the lots as Packard’s total tumbled to 27,593 vehicles. The Cavalier name was dropped,. On October 1, 1954, Packard finalized its deal to purchase Studebaker in a stock swap worth $35.25 million, forming the Studebaker-Packard Corporation with Nance as CEO. But in the end, the merger-acquisition only hastened the death of Packard as an automotive brand.