Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

update,

I am able to use the plates, after 15 emails, I sent a copy of bill of sale for tires, back in 1984, plate number was on it,

but, sup5, said no, need reg. sent that email to director and said this is it, I will file a complaint, if this is not changed,,

that bill of sale is a legal document....so another email from a manager ,,,,they are making an exception,,

this still needs to be changed...their policy,

they won't give me an updated pink, if I pushed it, I could get, ,but I will wait and get another..the plate number on pink will go to plates on car/

Hi all,

How to read and decode the VIN number ?

If I understand the posts forward, the numbers begin on 1001 ...
so my car 3002 will be the 2002th produced (of all 56 Packard of only of 400 model ?)

But the first registration in June, 30, 1956 ...
the last Packard was produced on Jun 25 ??

Thanks for help.

My 400-based Esquire's VIN number ends in 4121, making it the 3,121 400 hardtop produced, or about a hundred or so hardtops from the end of the Detroit production. I figure, with the help of others on the PI Forum, that my car was produced in very late May to mid-June, depending on the demand from dealers or the need to use up bodies and get rid of parts.

Your car could have been easily registered on June 30, 1956, depending on where that first dealer was, or when your car was produced. A Detroit or Chicago dealer could have been waiting anxiously for it to come in and put it in the hands of its new owner. I don't know if the factory was still doing factory deliveries in those final months, but if they were, then this is another possibility.

My car could have been a cancelled delivery or a bad call if it was produced "on spec." From what I can tell, it went directly to a Northern Virginia dealer (DuBois, Arlington) where it languished on the dealer's lot until late December 1956. Getting rid of it caused some serious discounting for an "orphan" car, perhaps almost a $2000 discount off of the original selling price. It eventually was sold to a Virginia dentist who kept it for almost ten years before it was sold to the fellow I bought it from. The only modern comparison I could make is me buying a left-over Fisker sedan last year. Great cars but no longer being made. Will that Fisker be treasured in sixty years?

My '56 400 was #4134, and it was built June 22, 1956. At 4121 you are going to be very close to my (former) car.

That's helpful info for me to know. I like to think when my car is in the midst of all sorts of Packards, it may not be the most beautiful or special but it is probably the newest Detroit-built Packard there.

As I understand it, the end came the following Monday afternoon with a black Patrician.

https://packardinfo.com/xoops/html/uploads/newbb/thumbs/15023_552181e79ab82.jpg
From one of my previous threads.

Wow, I hope"4200" has survived. According to Packard accounts in the Dawes book, that 400 HT is 24 from the end of the 1956 hardtops. I wonder if Mal or O-D have VIN records of 5687s to top those?

Mr. Pushbutton's 5687-4134 is the highest known in my database.

There was an article in the Cormorant recently with a list of Packard company cars, executives and managers. Dick Teague had a '56 400 as a company car, two serial numbers higher than my former car, 5687-4136. I knew Dick back in the 80s, and I think I had the car at an event he attended. It would have been cool to know that factoid back then!