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I've made posts before about the number of '51-'56 Packards that are left (and that I think it's an astonishing number, given age, rust, wrecks, and low sales numbers!).

Any estimates on the total number of Caribbeans still around?

I remember in the Packard Registry done some years ago they worked out roughly that 1 in 5 Caribbeans survived. I know my vehicle wasn't on that list and suspect quite a few more would be in the same "boat"

You can arrive at an estimate of the # of remaining Caribbean convertibles by starting with those known to exist in hands of members of the two major national Packard Clubs. This of course does not account for those belonging to folks who don't belong to either club, or those yet to be "discovered", so make your own correction factor for that. Last time I bothered to do the sums of those known to exist was several years ago and just for the convertibles and just short of 18% of them were accounted for: 1953 = 81, 1954 = 63, 1955 = 95, 1956 = 90. I know that several more have surfaced since that time. The highest percentage of survivors is 1956 when the fewest (convertibles) were produced.

Mike Grimes has made a more recent and quite elaborate survey of 55/56 Caribs and may have more current data. Also PAC's roster keeper for the Caribbeans may have newer data.

I think there are more out there, as O-D suggests, outside of the clubs. I had a pushbutton client fly me to Georgia in November to fix a '56 Carribbean convertible that he had sold, the pushbuttons failed just as he was putting the car on the trailer to deliver it to his customer. Pretty nice car all around, about 35 year old paint on a California body, no rust anywhere to speak of. The car is black top and bottom with an orange mid-stripe, very striking. I'm fairly certain the new owner isn't in either Packard club.

To add to the "not registered" list, my friend Paul in Las Vegas has 3 Caribbeans: a 55 convert and 2 56 HTs. I'm pretty sure that neither of the national clubs knows about these.

Craig

Quote:

MrPB, any chance you got the VN from that car in Georgia? I'm wondering if the repaint changed the color scheme, I believe there was only one black/orange/black (VTV) 56 convertible and that's owned by the Kanter Bros.

Even if folks chose not to belong to a club which I can understand, it would be nice if they would at least make the existance of these cars known to folks who keep track of such things. Wishful thinking, I suppose.