You only pay attention to details that seem to support your opinions. Packard probably would have survived with new management and a line of credit. They had a substantial quality problem caused by an inability to retool because they were out of cash.I am a "stickler" for the facts, the truth, and logic. YOU are the one suggesting that Packard's disappearance, after management ruined the brand during an expansion in auto sales by abandoning the high end auto space (because they were having their heads handed to them by…wait for it…GM's Cadillac brand), for the mass market auto space (where again…wait for it…GM already held a major share with their Chevrolet, Pontiac and Buick brands) and they couldn't grab hold, effectively becoming a brand without a constituency is the reason why GM would have "disappeared" in a bankruptcy resulting from management getting themselves into a cash crunch as a result of high fixed costs resulting from a bad union deal (rather than bought in bankruptcy by PE who could resurrect it as a non-union company), in a time when the entire auto industry was temporarily contracting in an economic slow down, after years of good sales goosed by home equity loans and pricing incentives - despite the fact that their major brands still held on to a solid share of a (temporarily) diminished market.
I'm the one arguing that the two situations are different - you are the one suggesting they are analogous. If they were it implies that Packard would have survived and thrived if the government had only stepped in and kept them alive - which is as absurd as suggesting that GM would have disappeared permanently simply because of a temporary cash crunch brought about by a bad union contract (that could have been dissolved in a Chapter 7 bankruptcy) amid a temporary slow down in overall auto sales.
GM would not have survived because even the guy you suggested might bail them out had bought Ford at $8 and sold out at $2. If he shared your optimism for a recovery, he'd have kept his positions and made a ton of cash when it hit $17 in 2014.