Re: Should I Make the Trade?

Posted by humanpotatohybrid On 2022/5/14 14:45:13

In my opinion, this is what I can tell you for 50's Packards in terms of what you might want/not want:

- Unsurprisingly, the Seniors (Patrician, 400, Caribbean, etc.) are generally worth more than the Juniors (Clippers). If you don't care much about the differences between them, consider both. However, if you're buying a car that needs a lot of work, Seniors are usually less of a "money pit" as they're mechanically almost identical but worth a bit more once you're done.

- The 1955-56 Packards tend to be a bit more in demand because of the styling differences compared to 51-54; at the same time 55 and 56 are a bit more common year-by-year. However, don't count out the earlier styling . The biggest difference on these is the drivetrain: 51-54 use a straight-8 engine and the original Ultramatic transmission. 55-56 use V-8 and the "twin" Ultramatic drive. There's pro's and con's to each. Ultimately I don't think one is much better than the other overall. Many prefer the sound and feel of the I8's, along with better part availability because Packard used them for so long. Note that some 54's used the twin Ultramatic (then called the Gear-start), and all years there are cars with manuals, though not on all models and they tend to be pretty rare. For example in '56 less than 700 cars out of almost 29,000 were manuals, only around 2%. Estimates of the actual number are as low as 30. Anyway...

- There's nothing against wanting one with all the options, just don't be surprised at the inevitably higher cost of maintenance. Realistically, the cars were built well enough that they should drive well with NO options. That being said, some common ones and what to look out for. Good checklist of stuff to check when you see the car. I'm sure more people here will add on and add some better tips than I'm aware of.
- Heater (standard and/or under-seat) though in Cali you may not even need one. Check for heater core leaks before you buy.
- Power brakes are nice for safety reasons.
- Power steering is really not needed. Packard steering was already best-in-its-class; while power steering is not bad to have, I don't many would say that it's something you'd specifically want to try to get.
- Radio. Very common option. Packard had I think 3 different radio styles in this year range. Unless they've been rebuilt it probably won't work.
- Clocks were standard but FYI they almost never work unless rebuilt.
- Electric windows.
- Air conditioning was a very expensive option ($650 on a $2500-6500 car). I don't know if they usually work or not. They're somewhat rare.
- Automatic transmission. As mentioned, extremely common in these years.
- Torsion-level. Test as described earlier in this thread.
- Power seat.
- A bunch of other random accessories that you can check by model year on the "Model Information" page... click a year then scroll to the bottom.

Hope this is helpful.