Re: Pro's/Con's of the '51 Patrician and Ultramatic

Posted by HH56 On 2011/5/23 20:44:47

Granted, my experience with a 51 Patrician is not recent and the car was only 12yrs old at the time but I drove one in HS. At the hands of a teenager who treated it as just another old car--and not a desirable car for a teenager at that--the Packard had at least 8 of it's lives well used and nary a problem the car could be blamed for. As it's 60 years old now, you might want to drive it with a little more respect. Gas mileage is a bit on the low side, and the Ultra does like to be driven like it was designed--ie don't shift from low to high at full throttle--it doesn't like that at all (I even figured that out back then) but other than that, a great car. I did have a 54 Pacific a few years ago with essentially the same transmission and it also performed well and still does with it's current owner.