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Hi all,

I'm a newbie living in South West England and I will soon be in a position to fulfil a dream and buy a Packard from the 1930's.

The link below is the sort of car I'm interested in and I would really appreciate some honest advice about the do's and dont's of owning one of these great cars.I'm only interested in purchasing a car that I can use as my days of major restoration work are now behind me.

What a great site this is, thanks in advance.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=160339164199

Can't speak to the specific car, but the 1938 Eight (which is the junior 120 renamed for 1938) is a really fine driving car. One of my good Packard friends who owns one often tours with me and his car is a delight to drive with excellent handling qualities and even though it does not have overdrive is quite capable with care of touring on the major high speed highways. Parts are reasonably plentiful if needed and I think anyone would find one of these a most enjoyable ownership experience. 1938 was a mini-recession year in the US and perhaps that's the reason the 1938 models are a bit less common than the preceeding or following year's production. A very nice car indeed.

G'day Limey52,
First up to PackardInfo, a great Site.

Second, interesting choice of Forum name, is there a story to it?

Third, pity I live on the bottom of the world. I've just consigned my '38 for auction next month and would be happy with a price about the starting bid for the UK eBay one you showed us.http://www.shannons.com.au/pages/auctions/lot.jsp?id=YD7409P4FBV1Q1AA But shipping costs would cruel such a deal.

Fourth, the '38 on UK eBay has column shift. I thought '38's came with a floor shift? Maybe it's a '39 being registered very late in '38 probably after the '39 models were released? I'm certain the real experts can help out here.

Lastly, when you buy your Packard, please include it in the Owner Registry together with a pic, any known history and how you acquired it.

Guscha I think you are confused by a poor use of language. Let me rephrase the seller's statements a little:

"This car was first registered in England on the 22nd december1938"

"As part of the requisition for the war effort, this car is believed to have been stationed at the famous 'national codes' and cipher centre' at Bletchly park."

"Was with the same owner for 32 years and went through a major restoration in the 80s"

"I purchased the car in February 2008"

This would mean there were 4 registered owners of the car, from the time it was sold by the English importer to the present time.

The above is my interpretation of what the seller meant to say. I am not sure this is correct but it makes better sense.The seller's statements confused me too.

A question to the seller might clear this up.

By the way it is well known that the English military establishment was not well prepared when the war broke out. They requisitioned many large cars from private owners for official use.

Some had the bodies cut off and were converted to wooden bodied "estate wagons" or station wagons, others were turned into light trucks.

The Packard might have been one of the cars requisitioned, but in this case it was used without modifications.

Hi all and many thanks for the helpful responses.

Gusha, I don't think this is the car I shall buy as I do not have the funds just yet. I just used this particularly nice one as an example of what I would like to get. ABW 157 pops up on quite a few web sites and it was sold at auction in the UK in June 2007 for a hammer price of ?10350 GBP. I think you are also right about the date being wrong as the UK was certainly anything but prepared for the declaration of war!
Ozstatman, I chose Limey52 as British sailors were traditionally known as Limeys because we discovered that eating or sucking Limes on long sea voyages was a good way to prevent the dreaded scurvy, the common disease of 18th century seafarers. Although we discovered the benefits, nobody knew how the Limes prevented scurvy as the understanding of how vitamin C deficiency affected the body was some years in the future. The number 52 is simply the year I was born, 1952. So here I am, a 57 year old Englishman who loves Packards!
Thanks also for the link to your lovely car but, as you say, the shipping costs would be huge.

I'm gradually building up my knowledge of pre-war cars and I have a 1971 Rover P5B v8 as my current classic. I shall be very interested to see what the Ebay car finally sells for and whether it meets the reserve.

Regards to all

A closer analysis of the ownership history:

First registered December 1938

Requisitioned by the government late 1939 or early 1940. In government service until 1945.

Owned by the same owner for 32 years.

Bought by present owner in 2008.

By my reckoning there is a gap of 63 years between the period of government service and the present owner, of which 32 years was spent in the hands of one owner.

Where it spent the other 31 years I do not know.

RustyO\'Toole, those are the sort of questions I would be asking the vendor if I was buying the car. I would also expect a file full of papers covering the very professional looking restoration which must have cost a fortune.

The period of described ownership seems to take us to 1977 and I think we can assume that the car was in need of major work by that time probably taking several years. It would be interesting to know something of its history from say 1980 to 2007 when it appeared for auction at Goodwood UK in June 2007.
http://www.motorbase.com/auctionlot/by-id/1453467550/

I'm surprised that the vendor has not shown any questions on the auction site as I'm sure a serious buyer would have quite a few to ask. Perhaps he has chosen not to show them.

Despite some gaps in the history, it's certainly a handsome beast and the work done looks like it has been done to a high standard.

I see that the car has been withdrawn early from the auction.The vendor must have sold it elsewhere or got a bit worried about the lack of bidder interest as evidenced by the lack of any questions.

Hi again all.
Still keeping my eyes open for the 1930's Packard but they don't come up for sale very often here in the UK. I don't have an unlimited budget and can't spend more than about ?13000 GBP so this excludes me from many of the beauties shown on this forum.

I have been casually looking at Buicks from the same period.Is this an inferior motorcar compared to the Packard or is that a dangerously stupid question to put on a Packard board?

Here's a Buick on Ebay.

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&ssPageName=STRK:MEWAX:IT&item=330336604682

It's very similar to the Packard 8 I originally posted on here a few weeks ago. It also has a straight 8 engine.

I really do not think that whether Packard built a better car than Buick should really be of concern unless you want a car that you drive every day. You are not comparing a Toyota Echo to a Ford Focus. Antique car ownership is more about what you want to own than what might have been an issue when buying these cars 70 years ago when they were new. Personally I think that Packard made a better car than a Buick in any price range in which they competed at the time but I would not hesitate to buy a Buick if it suited my fancy and I had an interest in this make, which I do to a lesser extent than Packard. Certainly a Buick of the same era as Packard was a good performing car and could do most things favourably well in terms of acceleration, braking and top speed etc.
King Edward V111 later Duke of Windsor was a big fan of most things American (including women it seems) and from what I have read was a fan of Buick cars much to the chagrin of Rolls-Royce. I once read somewhere that RR bought several Buicks in the 1930's to make comparisons between their products and Buick and found that all in all the Buick performed better and was quieter so they obviously were a good contemporary car! Someone once said to me that "Buick was a Packard with a better engine." Obviously some people thought/think that the OHV Buick engine was better than Packards L head eight. My advice is to buy the very best example of whatever make you have an interest in with whatever funds you have available and be happy.