Packard Forum Index » Pre-War (1899-1942)

My father was a long-time Packard dealer in Santa Fe, New Mexico but don't know what was used by the state for the vehicle identification to register vehicles prior to the current VIN system. My 115C was registered in Oklahoma (oiginally) and New Mexico (1990) using the engine number. Texas (2009) accepted the engine number to register it. My '47 Clipper was registered in Nebraska (pre-1985) and New Mexico (1985) using the 2122 xxxx number from the cowl plate. Texas (2009) accepted this number to register the vehicle.

To complicate things further, I believe that some states listed the year of the car by the year it was sold. I have a 1949 that was issued a title dating the car as a 1951. The story seems to be that the dealer kept the car for his wife to drive but never titled it until he sold it in 1951.

That doesn't sound correct, every car manufacturer issued a OEM (original equipment manufacturer's) certificate of origin to the first dealer who sold the car and that's the document that the dealer transferred to obtain the original owner's title.

But both Packard and Chrysler caused a lot of confusion after WW II by continuing essentially the same car from one year to another. Those Packards that are 22XX-9-XXXXX could either be a true 49, or a left-over 48 with a new VN plate and certificate issued to avoid having to sell it as a left-over. The same thing happens again with 23XX-5-XXXX which could either be a 1949, a 50, or a 1949 renumbered by the factory to sell as a 1950. There are well-documented cases of these things occuring. The only way to tell with absolute certainty is if you can find the build slip over the glove box and check the VN as built. A 23rd series with a sequence number of 70,000 or higher (for example 2392-5-77,777) is with almost alsolute certainty a 1949 23rd series renumbered. It's easy to spot a likely (but not absolute) case of renumbering by noting the difference between the Briggs body number and the vehicle number.

If a state titled a 1949 car as a 1951 I'd say it was nothing more than a clerical error.

Could easily be just an error. My car is a 22nd series 2279-9. The story I have came from the owner of the car I bought it from. He knew the dealer. He is the one who told me that Arkansas titled the cars by date sold. I don't know.
I do know that it has made it rather difficult to get it straightened out here in Missouri.

My '41 Clipper with the engine no. on the title was sold new in Ohio, but spent most of its life in Michigan before going to Indiana. I brought it back to Ohio and had to have it inspected for title transfer (because of crossing state lines) and they accepted the engine number as valid. I don't know how long that number had been the official title number as I only have access to the current one and the Indiana title it was transfer from. It sounds like this was a common practice so I'm somewhat relieved. It just seems odd that a VIN number stamped on a cowl plate so obviously issued for vehicle id was ignored for a hard-to read number stamped on the block. Curious . . .