JP’s A to Z Challenge – P is for Packard

A century ago, there were three claimants to the throne for the top high-end car in America. Sometimes called “the 3 Ps”, they were Pierce (maker of the Pierce Arrow), Peerless and Packard. Packard was the only one that made it through the great depression and WWII. Unlike the other two, Packard made it by branching into less expensive models that made the brand accessible to more buyers.

This one, which I believe to be a 1952 Packard 200, was what you got in the early 1950’s if you wanted an “entry level” Packard. At about $2,400, this car was priced along with mid-line Buicks or in the hole between the Oldsobile 88 and 98.

For that money you got Packard’s excellent, smooth inline 8 cylinder engine and a 3-speed manual transmission, though its “Ultramatic” automatic transmission was available at extra cost.

Grille emblem on the featured car is above left, and a piece in better condition offered for sale online is above right. Plastics have come a long way since 1952.

Packard was an old-school company, one that prized quality of construction and a high level of engineering know-how. But by the time this car was made, Packards were also seen as cars for old fuddy-duddies, usually men in their 50s or 60s who were, well, let’s just say not attuned to the latest styles.

This generation of Packard, introduced in 1951, was the last all-new body style the company would offer. They made a mighty effort with a major restyling for 1955-56, but then everything fell to pieces following a 1956 merger with the Studebaker Corporation, which went all kinds of wrong.

My dad grew up in an affluent household, and told a story about how his father once came home with a new Packard, and how his mother (who was anything but a shrinking violet) lit into him something fierce. “A PACKARD!?!? Nobody drives Packards!” was what he remembered his socially-conscious mother yelling in utter disgust. It could very well have been a car like this, which would have suited my quiet grandfather, a man who preferred quality to style every time, to a perfect “T”.

Packard’s slogan from its earliest days used to be “Ask the man who owns one”. Unfortunately, I did not get to meet the guy who brought this car to a small lunch place one weekday when a friend and I happened to be there, so I didn’t get to ask him anything. But I suspect that he was highly satisfied with his lovely (if slightly plain) old Packard.

Photos by the author, March 7, 2012, on Massachusetts Avenue, Indianapolis, Indiana

21 thoughts on “JP’s A to Z Challenge – P is for Packard”

      • The older brother of one my best friends in high school drove a 1958 four-door Commander. This was in 1978 (he graduated from high school that year). That car certainly stuck out in the high school parking lot. When he graduated from college in 1982, he bought a brand-new…Renault Fuego. He was the only person I knew who bought a Renault that wasn’t either a LeCar or Alliance/Encore.

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  2. Packard was already in trouble when this car was built, although company management didn’t yet realize just how dire the company’s position was. Packard needed a new OHV V-8 to keep up with Oldsmobile and Cadillac, and within two years it would lose its source of bodies when Chrysler Corporation bought its body supplier, Briggs.

    This generation of Packard is clean and handsome, but parked next to its contemporary GM competition – Oldsmobile, Buick and Cadillac – it looks plain. It could just as easily be a Dodge or even a Mercury. A Cadillac looked like a Cadillac, and nothing else. Same with Buick and Oldsmobile.

    In the early 1950s, people buying premium and luxury class cars did not want cars that looked like less expensive brands.

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  5. Wow! I do like a blue car! I think it had a quiet kind of dignified style. Have you written about the Pierce Arrow yet? I would have hung around to meet the guy and find out the story behind it….

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  6. What a striking-looking car and I like the muted blue color. It sure does look solid, so low to the ground with those nice whitewalls. In the second-to-last photo it looks like there is snow in the background. I’m thinking not because this would be a classic car, not an every-day car, so only driven in the best weather conditions. This Saturday is the 30th Annual Woodward Dream Cruise. They cruisers are lucky as it will be a clear, dry day but very hot, near 90, which I suspect will have some of those classic car owners pulling off to the side and having their cars admired there, rather than tooling down Woodward Avenue.

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      • Yes, a very subdued blue. We both like those whitewalls! Whenever it’s high temps and humidity as predicted. there are several garages on that route that cater to the vintage classic cars and they are always busy. With no A/C either in many of those cars. At least it won’t rain until the evening.

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  7. I have not seen Packards from this era roaming the streets of my youth, mostly seeing the pre-war vintage stuff in car shows. I have to say I really like this body style, and take a look at trunk! I really wish cars like this existed today, just for the ability to enter and exit the vehicle. I look at the suburban Karen’s driving $75k pick up trucks for zero reason, that they can’t even get a 4×8 sheet of wall board in the bed flat; and I think for the same amount of metal, they could probably be making these: easy in and out, luxurious seating, and a trunk for 5-6 peoples luggage.

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    • I think both you and I are in the age demographic that would have found one of these appealing back then. I know I would look hard at something like this if it was available.

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    • I think it was the least well known of the 3 Ps. It was built in Cleveland, Ohio and lasted until 1931. I said a couple of weeks ago that the Marmon Sixteen was one of only 2 V-16 engine designs sold in the U.S. (Cadillac offering the other). There is a footnote to that factoid – Peerless had a prototype of its own V-16, but it was not yet ready to introduce when the company went under.

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  9. What a wonderful old Packard. Back in 2010, before we bought our illustrious Ford van, Mrs. Jason found a ’53 Packard for sale at a higher end used car lot (which isn’t oxymoronic in this situation) in St. Louis. I was sorely tempted – it’s bulletproof, would be comfortable for her post-operativeness, and would not depreciate.

    It sold before I got there.

    However, my grandfather also once owned a ’39 Packard…briefly. It was in great shape by the early to mid-50s but he could not get it sold (he was dabbling in used cars and attempted auto salvage, only to get vetoed by my grandmother). He was becoming financially embarrassed, so one morning he got out the chopping axe and they had an interlude with that Packard. He hated to scrap the car, knowing it would one day be valuable, but he didn’t have time to wait.

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    • Ouch!! That is a sad story on that 39! I agree, one of those early 50s models would be great to own, though probably less great to sell these days.

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