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A Packard friend owning a car similar to my '47 Super wondering if his gas consumption was on par prompts me to pose this larger discussion. Sure now, we know Packards weren't "economy" cars, but optimum fuel economy is a sign of mechanical health and smart driving.
Packard ads junior and senior extolled thrift of operation for their class, even exceeding lesser machines.
Buick, hardly a paragon of fuel sipping, marketed their rare, no-cost 3.6:1 cog available only in the Century and Roadmaster on the basic wheelbase beginning 1939 as the "economy rear axle."

A 4,375-lb. (curb weight), '51 Lincoln, 121-inch wb. sedan, with the 331-ci flathead V-8 truck engine used in 1949-51 Lincolns, won its class and the Sweepstakes award in the 1950 & '51 Mobilgas Economy Run, running a 3.31 rear axle and overdrive for a final drive ratio of 2.39 overall, with average mileage over nearly 1,000 miles of 25.448 mpg.
Even after Chrysler complained and the above Lincoln was impounded and torn down after the race, it was shown to be 100% stock, unmodified.

So, we'd love to hear of real world gas mileage for various Packards; for me, specifically, the 356, the One-Twenty, both traditional bodies and Clipper variants, and the 473-ci later Twelves. Please tell us your axle ratio, body style, curb weight, and whether you have overdrive, and any deviations from factory stock.

I'll start the ball rolling by recounting 31 years ago after topping off the gastank of my '40 120 sedan, overdrive but with 4.09 non-overdrive axle in lieu of factory 4.36 in OD cars, running Denman bias plies inflated to 32 psi cold pressure, returning 22.5 mpg, much of that at speeds of 60-65 on largely level East Bay Area (corporate 'burbs east of San Fran/Oakland) freeways, driving with a light foot, the usual attention.

My friend with a '47 Custom Clipper, overdrive and factory 4.09 axle, reports not being able to best 15mpg no matter what he does, asked if that was acceptable for our cars. I assured him he was in tall cotton, as my '47 Super, overdrive with the taller non-overdrive 3.92 rear cog, 2.82:1 overall vs. his factory 2.95, well-inflated 7.00 x 15 bias sized Bridgestone radials, can't get out of the low teens downhill with a tail wind, despite tuned on the button, Carter WDO-531S rebuilt according to Hoyle by a master mechanic who worked in Packard and Hudson garages since leaving Pacific theater of War II where he ran motor pools, he knowing all the arcane service bulletins over the decades, every trick.

Friends with late '30s Twelves say they've never gotten better'n single digit mpg, which may simply come with that territory, even as our above cars, and so be it, as they're only driven once in a blue moon for pleasure cruises.

So, it'd be interesting to hear from any of y'all who've checked your fuel mileage at some point in various Packards. But please, p l e a s e , spare us any exaggeration, or chest-thumping real men don't care about the environment/fuel economy, if you can't afford the gas, yadda, yadda; all that faux macho Car & Driver/Fox "News" ecoweenie jazz.

As Sgt. Joe Friday respectfully requested,

"Just the facts, ma'am."

My experience with my 1947 Super Clipper with identical gears as yours and rolling on 235R15 (Canadian Tire All Season) tires got about 12-15 MPG (US gallon) on road trips cruising in O/D at about 55MPH.

My 56 400 weighed at truck scales is 5,000 lbs with me in it.
3.54 rearend with one 4gc carb. I run DB radials.
The best I ever got was coming home from Warren Ohio. I carefully maintained a 65 mph limit on the Ohio and Pa turnpikes.
I had all the windows rolled up and tires inflated to about 42 lbs. I actually got 17.1. I have never been able to duplicate that and usually get 15.4-5 on a trip. I get 8-9 mpg going to local cruises.

According to the information of the day the post war Packards pretty much uniformly consumed around 15 mpg at a measured 60 mph and around 10-20% less overall.

Advertised mileage for 1934 was 10.5 mpg for the Eight, 10 mpg for the Super Eight, and 9 mpg for the V-12.

In 1937 the 120 was turning in under 14 mpg according to Packard and the 110 was reporting as high 18.

A long time ago I was at a party and it went like this: "Oh we had a Packard. You couldn't go around the block without putting gas in it."

The late Ted Kavenagh was working in a service garage after WWII and a Cadillac V-16 came in. The owner was using 10 gallons of gas every 30 miles. So Ted and his friend swapped out the carburetors for Zenith BB1's. They threw the original Johnsons in the trash. The owner came back a week later and tipped them $20 because the car was going 30 miles on 3 gallons of gas.

According to engineers up to 40% of motor power is used to turn the motor through compression so for those undersquare long stroke Packards the penalty is going to be higher.

I find the Lincoln story amusing because Chrysler was always an arrogant corporation. Those Ford V-8's ran great. You get behind the wheel of one and in the words of John Dillinger "it's a real treat." However, the Mobilgas runs always generated high numbers. I think they claimed 29-30 mpg for the Corvair on the run which seems impossible. But I've known lots of Ford V-8 owners who claimed over 20 mpg on a regular basis.

Like Who is going to tell the truth about this???

The Duchess gets 16 mpg on trips of 200 miles roundtrip, same day. 356 with R9 overdrive. Okay 15.9.

My 56 Carib with Ultramatic and a 3.54 rear axle and the dual Rochesters gets about 14.5 mpg on Interstates at a reasonably steady 65 mph. Correcting for the mileage penalty with ethanol-containing gasoline, this would equate to about 15.5 mpg with the gas of the era.

I've never managed to average anything near 65 mph in my 34 Eight; it gets about the same around town as it gets at a steady 45 mph, about 8.5 to 9 mpg.

A friend who owned and toured in a 37 Twelve claimed he got about 8 mph at sustained highway speeds.

My old 48 Custom Eight with overdrive used to get about 17-18 at highway speeds but that was with ethanol-free gas, so with today's gasoline that would be perhaps 16 mpg, pretty much agreeing with JoeSantana's result.

I think the fuel consumption numbers from Packard demonstrate a remarkable fidelity for an unregulated publication.

What is interesting though is that before World War II there were only 10 years of proven reserves and yet most cars, save Ford and Willys, were gas guzzlers. The typical six was getting less than 19. The Buick Eight guzzled gas as well.

Heck, there wasn't even much research on the topic.