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I'm 31 and have been interested in cars since high school and really didn't know about Packard. I was thinking that I would eventually get a Buick as I liked the style and didn't want something that you always see at shows.
. I came across Packard as I was looking through the vehicle section and just searching by years and saw a 1951 packard 200 and began to research the company after that. Then one day my current packard 300 came on Craigslist and was surprised that my wife said go for it. Got my 51 300 for $1,300 and is my long term project. It is running and drivable now but motor smokes a lot.

I am 55 and 15 years ago, back when I had 6 kids at home and 2 of which had a drivers license, my wife said, "We need a 3rd car." So I started looking. I wanted a car from the 50s and not a tri-five Chevy, too easy. I did not know much about Packards, but I found an ad for a 1955 Packard Clipper. I fell in love with her at first sight and she made my wife gag. I thought I could fix her up for $5k. Boy did I get a lesson in fixing a car! It took me 4 years and lots of love and headaches and an empty wallet. So far I have over 55k miles on her and my wife and kids love her. My wife will drive the Clipper. Since then I've added to the stable a 1940 160 Sedan and a 1953 Patrician that I am currently working on for my wife, because she wants one. You gotta love a gal who wants you to fix her a Packard!

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Treat your lady well and thank the Gods that be!

hmmmmm my wife needs a Packard too me thinks!

lol. ;0)

Well, I'm a year past 60 ... but close enough. I have liked Packards ever since an old lady brought one in for an oil change at the Mobil station where I worked in San Marino, CA while I was in high school. The mechanic told me if I wanted to see a really well-built car, I should take over the lube and oil change, which I did. And it was really well made. I think it was of the 1951-54 generation. When I went to Arizona State University in Tempe in 1970, I continued to regularly see Packards cruising around the streets of Phoenix. I liked their style. Sometime around that period I made a promise to myself that someday I would own a Packard. It took me several decades to achieve my goal, but I am happy that I did.

I talk to young guys I work with who like cars and they tell me they think Packards are cool. They see them at car shows and I show them pictures of them and explain the mechanics and they are impressed. One of the reasons you do not see many 20-somethings with Packards or other antiques is due to the fact that a decent car tends to be expensive, or they do not have the time and garage space/equipment to restore such a car. I am assured, however, that the interest is still there and just like in the case of Boomers, this interest will rise along with the disposable cash needed to buy and keep one of these beauties.

When I go to shows, I regularly see folks with Willys-Knights, Franklins, Moons, Durants, Auburns, Huppmobiles, etc. None of these companies built cars in the numbers of Packards, but they are still around and cherished by their owners. I think young folks will eventually get the bug to have something that they can actually work on and that has a style like nothing you see on the road today.

Oh yeah ... one more thing. I think you need to tell any young person interested in acquiring a Packard that he or she should first get buy-in from his/her significant other. This is not an especially easy thing to do, considering the amount these cars cost, their maintenance costs, storage, etc. One thing that works is to explain that in general, a Packard in good condition is definitely less expessive to own than a comparably priced boat! Maintenance costs for a boat are sky-high, and depending on the size, you have to pay for docking. A Packard is more practical too; you can actually drive it around, as opposed to having to go to a lake or river to take a boat out.

One thing that I did that I think was a good idea was to emphasize the social factor in owning a Packard. There are fun clubs offering tours, get-togethers, and swap meets that bring a non-mechanical spouse into the event. Despite that fact that we are generally younger than most of the members, we have always felt very welcomed and enjoy the company of fellow owners. You know they have your back, so if anything were to happen on the road, they would be there to help. They give great advice and can steer you to good deals as well.

A few weeks ago, as we were driving our Clipper along a stretch of road, my wife smiled and told me that she was so glad that we bought this wonderful car. That made the whole thing worthwhile.

I got my first Packard when I was 26, me and my dad were going around buying old cars, fixing and selling them. We saw an add in the paper for a 1952 Packard 250 for $500, I knew of Packards but I didn't know a whole lot about them. The car didn't run and it was very rusty but I loved the style and the big straight 8, we talked them down to $250. Looking up all the stuff to fix her was looking expensive. I came across another 1952 Mayfair in Old Cars Weekly for $100, no one was going after it because it was way up in the upper peninsula of Michigan buried up to the rockers with no wheels. It was about 500 miles one way but I hooked up the trailer pulled the wheels off my packard and headed north. After a few years of not doing much to my pair of packard coupes I seen a 1951 300 on craigslist, I have seen and heard this car before at a car show about 6 months earlier. I took what money I had and picked it up. Now I had a solid running and driving packard that needed a little work yet, but it was awesome to finally drive a packard. I traded my pair of mayfairs in exchange for work done on the 300. I'm not sure where they are now but I heard another Packard owner picked them up.

There was a time honestly that I didn't know what a Packard was, but that all changed when I met and later married Micha. With my wife, came her father Mitch, and with Mitch, came all things Packard. Since then, I lived and breathed Packards each day to the present time. I love the marque, all its cars and of course its history, but my father- in- law was critically important to my Packard journey. As a youth with his brother Mike, they often found themselves sanding cars at the Packard agency in Tucson. Mitch and Mike's father Harry used to keep the boys busy when they veered off course! Mitch often laughed prior to passing away about how much he and his brother disliked Packards when they were young. But as they aged, each came back to their early foundations and embraced anything bearing the Packard emblem. Between Mitch and Mike they restored several Packards to include, a '41 Packard 160 coupe, a '42 Packard 160 convertible, and a Panama Clipper and Caribbean from 1955. Prior to Mitch's passing in 2004, he and I would spend hours talking about Packards, chasing down Packard leads and going to all kinds of car shows.
I first saw my 1955 Packard 400 on the internet in 1998. Mitch and I drove to Buckeye Arizona to see the car. Pictures in certain cases can hide a multitude of things, and this was certainly the case when we first viewed this Packard. The owner at that time had started a very limited cosmetic restoration and the closer you looked the more concerned Mitch became. We in fact almost lost control of the car the very first time we drove it on the roadway. The brake pedal went right to the floor as we attempted to slow before entering AZ Highway 85. It would have been helpful for me to scout out the location of the E-brake before I drove the car. The engine compartment was also found to be great disarray and someone had sacrilegiously brush painted the engine "Chevy red"! There was no Packard Ivory anywhere to be seen. I initially thought maybe someone had put a Clipper 320 engine into it. But after the road test and talking price on the car, I decided to pass and keep looking. The firm $6500 asking price was not acceptable given the condition of the car.
The following May in 1999, the owner telephoned me and asked if I was still interested in buying the car. I was indeed still interested, so Mitch and I drove back up to Buckeye. We looked at car again, and given that the owner substantially lowered his asking price, a bargain was struck and I put the car on the trailer that I had previously purchased expecting such a day to come. And with that, I brought the 400 to my mid-town Tucson home.
With the 400 now residing at my home, just under a carport, I quickly learned that restoring a car could be a challenging endeavor. Luckily, Micha and I were in the market for a new home, and in 2001 we purchased our present home in northeast Tucson. Here I have a fully enclosed separate garage just for the Packard. I also have a 6' deep mechanic's pit which can be both helpful and troublesome for different reasons, but that's a story for another time.
Mitch and I got serious about freshening up the 400 in late 2002. My initial idea was to continue with a limited restoration and only restore and fix things forward of the firewall. As the interior was decent and from 20' away because the single stage paint still looked good, I thought I had a good candidate for a decent driver. But as time went on, things didn't go that way for a variety of reasons. First and foremost, Mitch passed away in January 2004 from brain tumors. He waged his battle through most all of 2003 and by January 2004 he departed for home. And with his death, the Packard went into repose inside my shop. You see, Mitch was my teacher and I never had been mechanical to any great degree. There were times that I would tinker etc., but nothing substantially related to rebuilding took place. In retrospect however, I was on the Internet almost daily and making friends via the World Wide Web.
By 2005, I had encountered my own serious health challenge and the Packard lay patiently still tucked away in my garage. As I cleared my personal struggle, husband and wife had some serious conversations about many topics, one of which was about the 400. Micha realized that should something happen to me prematurely, she would simply have a 4250 lb. paper-weight on wheels inside the garage to contend with. We decided that the Packard should get restored and I began the project in earnest. That certainly doesn't mean that I completed this car on my own, because I have very many people to thank for their gracious and helpful assistance. Outside of Micha, who has always been my biggest cheerleader and supporter, I need to acknowledge Mr. Tom Higgins of Tucson, Mr. Craig Hendrickson of Pahrump Nevada, and Mr. Art Butler of Phoenix. Each of these men played very important roles in getting my Packard roadworthy.

As an aside, Duane's '53 Patrician above was actually the first Packard I ever purchased. I bought it with a '55 Patrician that later served as a parts donor for my 400.

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P.S. I am 54 years old.

Very nice story Kev and a few others as well. Let's see, I'm 52.

It all started when I was about 6 and I started eyeing my father's 39 12 convertible sedan. For the record I am still eyeing it, that's about as close as I'll get to it I reckon.

The other day he came over to help my try to get the 55 Constellation running again so i can sell it. It sat for about 3 years.



It wasn't getting gas and it looked like it had a new fuel pump on it. I also knew I had to burn through the tiny amount of old gas before the new gas started hitting the carb. Anyway, he finally clued me in that he wasn't sure the fuel pump he put on it worked so here he is testing a rebuilt pump before we put it on.



I have always dreamed of the day we could drive one of our Packards to the Packard meets. It wasn't until a few years ago that I came to the realization that that day will probably never happen. Dad, it seems is quite content to work on Packards. It seems his idea of fun is taking something apart and sending me on a 2 hour hunt to find one of his tools like a 5/8ths inch closed end wrench. He would and still does tell me to look in the garage, or it might be in the basement. It could also be in the trunk of the 55 Clipper or the 51 300 or the van or the 56 400. I should also look in the bag under the Facel Vega.Needless to say i am damaged beyond repair. I have people work on my cars now.

He still enjoys the hunt though, he has countless parts in his garage, cars that were getting scrapped that he/we rescued valuable parts from.

Speaking of hunts, we're off to Delaware to look at a 52 Packard this morning. Gotta run