Re: How bad WERE the '55 Packards?

Posted by Loyd Smith On 2008/12/23 10:42:56

Never heard of a frame-weld failure on any of the cars. My 55 Pat's body actually impressed me when I first got the car. Even though all of the window guides were worn out and all of the body rubber on the car was either gone or so brittle that it might as well have been, the doors trunk, etc. all closed with a resounding, "thunk," and tightly. Packard owner's children (and some of the owners themselves) drag-raced the T/U trannys out of some of the cars. The T/L system was exposed to road moisture/dirt and gave problems. All, as you say, first year model teething problems. The main kicker was oiling system, valve train clatter and early failure of main and rod bearings. Although initially well received by the public and Packard's old customers in the oilfields of far west Texas and eastern New Mexico, by about mid 1955 the cars were seen as not being adequate to the 200 miles, and up per day hard service required of them in everyday use in that area at that time. I sort of think that, other than the oiling problem (which Packard could not fix) everything else might have been passed off as, "first year model teething problems." Our local Packard dealer did not survive the 55th Series cars and was gone before the 56th Series came out and (I might add) Packard had been well thought of and prevalent in the oilfields up through about 1950. There were still a lot of 15 or 20 year old Packards in general use there until the early 1960s.