Packard Forum Index » V-8 (1955-56)

Came across this ad on another Auto related site.

It is a Mercury-Comet Dealer Ad from 1962.

The used car section has a '56 Packard listed for $595.

This car is 6 years old at this time. Is this a good price for a car that old?

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dang i shoulda gone here....i got screwed..i paid 1000. lol j/k

i do notice that it is the cheapest car in the ad.

dang i shoulda gone here....i got screwed..i paid 1000. lol j/k


You got screwed twice. I'll bet the one in the ad could be driven off the lot. Packards were not highly thought of in 62 but am surprised the English Fords and Vauxhall beat them out.

True, it is the cheapest car in the ad.

I am kind of torn. If I were alive in 1962, would I buy a used car that basically had no dealer support because they went out of business?

I would probably not.

My father had the same thoughts. In 60-61 I wanted to trade the 51 Packard in on a 56 that was on the Chevy lot in the worst way. I can't begin to count the ways he said NO--mostly because the dealers were gone. I don't remember seeing English Fords or Vauxhalls unless they were Americanized & sold under a different name.

In the small town I came from in that time frame, foreign cars in the high school parking lot consisted of several VW bugs, a Nash Metropolitan, an Opel station wagon which I think was sold by the Buick dealer and a Renault Dauphine. Nothing else foreign I remember in town except a doctor that drove a Triumph roadster and a lady with a Jag -- I think it was an XK120. The Metro was the most fun--8 teenagers could squeeze in but don't ask how. The kid that drove his grandparents Renault didn't get many riders because all too frequently, the passengers had to get out and help push or the car was sitting empty on the side of the road. I don't know if they ever did figure out why that car was so temperamental but he and it moved out of town our senior year.

In 1961, my Dad bought a 55 Clipper Super off a used car lot for $374. It definitely was the cheapest "recent" used car there.

Craig

Becoming an ophan-brand really eroded values. In 1967 I bought my low-mileage creme-puff 1954 Patrician from a Buick dealer for $65.

In 1962 I bought a good 56 400 for $150.00. It had a problem with the PB tranny. The guy gave me a 56 shop manual with it. I fixed the trans about a week later and drove it for four years until some woman tore up the whole passenger side with her 57 chevy. I really came to appreciate that car in the four years I drove it. That's the reason I purchased another 56 400 in 1972. Never looked back.

I bought my first Packard the summer of 1975, I was between my junior and senior year of high school.

It was a 1955 Clipper constellation I paid $200.00 for it. I had to tow it home on a chain behind my dad's pick-up because it had not run in a few years and the owner had lost the keys.

I had it running before noon the next day,(a Saturday) and drove it to work on Monday. I loved that car, but it ended up having the low oil pressure problem.

A funny thing at the time, I decided to drop the pan and look at the oil pump and crank bearings, so I went to the local Napa auto parts store and asked for a pan gasket. The guy went into the back and came out with a whole engine gasket kit for a V8 Packard, blew the dust off it and handed it to me. He only charged me a few bucks for it, said it had been there for years. I only used the pan gasket, but had the whole kit including head gaskets. Wish I could remember what ever happend to the rest of those gaskets,I must have given them away when I sold the car.

G'day all. Sydney, Australia, in 1967 at 18 years of age, I invested in my second Packard and was the proud owner of a low mileage 1952 packard 200 for which I paid $A500. In 1968, in melbourne, I sheared the (would you believe bonded) rear brake shoes during a panic stop and was directed to a wrecking yard and purchased a set of shoes for $A10. It struck me twenty years later that there were two rows ( perhaps 30 vehs) of 55-56 Packard "trade-ins", all Clipper, Custom, etc models. I suspect no actual Packard Senior Models as these were not available in RHD in 55-56. They were all V8's except for a few 51--54 models, from one of which I was directed to get the rear shoes. O-D is very correct that orphan makes are very hard to move .....until they realise that they are good cars, easily maintainable and good fun! Best regards peter toet