Re: '55 or '56 body style

Posted by Craig Hendrickson On 2009/10/30 8:36:30

Like others, I own both 55 & 56. I personally think which year is better is a toss up. As no doubt this thread will prove, it depends upon who you ask.

If pressed, I would answer the question this way: let the public (a crowd in these examples) decide. As I have related in other threads on PackardInfo, twice recently I have had over 40 people at one time presented with one 55 or both 55 & 56 Senior Packards. In both cases, the reaction was wildly positive.

In the first situation, I randomly encountered over 40 French tourists off a bus at my local supermarket parking lot. Even though my 55 Pat was hardly "show ready", I was surrounded by high enthusiasm, thumbs up, many camera snaps and more questions in broken English than I could understand. And these French people did not even know what a Packard was, much less a 1955!

The second situation was the B-movie shoot in Crystal, NV involving the Harley Davidson bikers. I and Paul drove our 55 and 56 Packards there as background for the movie. Upon arrival we both were surrounded by about 100 people, mostly bikers and their babes. Bikers are not usually "car people", but they loved both cars. As you may know, my 55 Pat is an original survivor and Paul's Exec is a restored beauty with lots of engine bay chrome. The difference did not seem to matter to the bikers. If I had to make one observation about the different reactions, I'd say the guys liked Paul's a little better and the babes liked mine a little better.

Craig