Packard resurrected the Four Hundred (or 400) nameplate toward the end of its run as an automaker. For 1955, the name was assigned to the automaker’s senior 2-door hardtop. It would appear as gold anodized script on a band between the front wheel well and door edge. For 1956, to help distance the Four Hundred from the lesser Clipper, the car would share its body and chassis with the more expensive Caribbean hardtop. This car originated in California, spent some time in an Ohio museum and ultimately found its way to Signal Mountain, Tennessee. It’s available here on eBay for $19,500 (Buy It Now) or offers will be considered. Larry D gets the nod for bringing this tip our way!
Studebaker and Packard would merge in 1954, so the Four Hundred would become one of the last new cars from the marque before it disappeared after 1958. They would be built at Packard’s Detroit facilities, which would quit building cars in 1957. The Four Hundred would get an upgraded motor for 1956, with the V8 displacement increasing from 352 to 374 cubic inches and 290 hp. Packard would build 7,200 of the cars for 1955 and just 3,200 or so for 1956.
The seller bought this Four Hundred from the curator of the Americas Auto Museum in Dayton, Ohio. We’re told this car is unusual in several ways, starting with its paint job. Most of the photos you see of these cars show them wearing two-tone paint jobs, while this car is a single color. Also, the auto has a straight-shift overdrive transmission. The car also comes with a security system, also unusual for 1950s cars, but the seller has yet to figure out how it works, so the buyer will be on his own.
It’s hard to assess the condition of the car’s exterior and interior from the photos provided, but it’s not rust-free. There is some corrosion at the bottom of at least one fender and door. The rear bumper side pods are rusty, but replacements some with the car. The lower half of the front bumper is not repairable and another one should be sourced. We’re told the interior is in above average condition, having been redone in a ‘60s-style roll and tuck pattern. The door panels and headliner are original, and the former will need some repair.
We’re told this is a smooth-running automobile, so whatever work that is need sounds as though it will be cosmetic. Because of their scarcity today, show quality versions of these 1956 machines can go for north of $55,000, according to Hagerty. Restoring this car might not be a huge undertaking and may leave the buyer with some equity when all is said and done.
Too much “cancer” and better pictures of the interior must be shown.
Does it have a posh button control for the transmission or the more desirable lever?Too many things are left out of this ad for a car that had major issues when it was new.
Bob,
You must have missed this in the description? “Also, the auto has a straight-shift overdrive transmission.” I know Packard was advanced in many areas, but don’t think even they had a push button straight drive?
Car is way overpriced. Mint, two owner ’56 400 recently sold on e-Bay for $19,900.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/1956-Packard-All-Models-/353408724515?hash=item5248cd2e23%3Ag%3AzQwAAOSw5J5gQWtL&nma=true&si=sep3Ml2TKDj7jHKjTH9rAbUvzgU%253D&orig_cvip=true&nordt=true&rt=nc&_trksid=p2047675.l2557
Scottymac,
I DID overlook the standard with over drive and IF it is an
original factory installed unit it is VERY rare.Our local Packard dealer told everyone a standard shift of any kind wan no longer available in the 1955 and 1956 cars.A local man went to to a nearby dealer in Kentucky and bought a new one off the showroom floor as did a booker keeper for a local sawmill and both drove them for years after Packard
closed.
Thanks for your correction of my misreading the ad.
Bob Roller,
You are correct, only a few hundred V8 Packard & Clipper cars were actually assembled with stick shift, and only about 150 included overdrive. The only Packard that actually included Twin Ultramatic for ’55 & ’56 was the Caribbean.
I was one of the lucky persons to own a V8 Packard with stick shift & overdrive. It was a 1955 400 hardtop, purchased new by a home builder who was worried about getting stuck in the muddy streets in his new residential neighborhoods. He also ordered the car with factory air conditioning, and I believe it was the only V8 Packard with A/C and O.D. And I might add, I added the factory 2 4-barrel carb setup, along with a set of custom made exhaust headers!
Are there any guys left who aspire to own a Packard 400. I mean outside of retirement homes? And will there be any auto museums in 50 years when gasoline will be as hard to find then as it was for Bertha Benz??
Your comment is insulting!
Who was insulted by my comment and how?? There’s certainly nothing there intended to hurt anyone’s feelings. And if you don’t think gasoline will be hard to find in 50 years, I hope you’re right! But I wouldn’t bet on it. Look how quickly cell phones have replaced land lines for instance, and how quickly film cameras have become obsolete
I would love one and I’m not in a retirement home! My parents and grandparents drove them until 1955. I bought an air-conditioned 1955 Patrician in 1985 when I turned 30. It was cool and that ride was truly advanced. However, the Packard featured needs totally restored. It is far from pristine. That rust is terrible! $20,000 is $15,000 too much for this Packard. $40,000 needs thrown at that car to bring it back to Detroit new.
AH…1985. I bought a ’56 Ford 2dr Mainline when I 18. Saved for a year. Sold it in ’90,regretfully, but I know where it is.
Stick and the dual quads are interesting.
If this was the way it was when new then someone realized the Ultramatic was bad news and insisted on something that kept on
working.
According to Packard, the History of the Motor Car, Ultramatics teething concerns were corrected by the 1956 model year along with other quality issues. Also, the 1956 Packards were the best built Packards ever and the most advanced. 1956 was the last year for a historic true American standard of excellence. 1957/8 models were Studebakers marketed with a Packard nameplate. That was where any comparison ends. Packard was the automobile of Presidents and movie stars. Funeral homes too! It was a sad day when Packard’s Detroit plant closed. There would be no more Packards, ever!
By 1956 nobody cared and the 1955’s were total duds.Had I known how easy it was to change my 1955 Patrician to standard
I would have done it.The 56 was a magnificent failure but it did go out in style.
Interesting comments. I’d like to see the build card on this car. It was most likely a Pushbutton/Ultramatic car when new, with a single Rochester 4GC carb. I’m amused at the hatred of the pushbutton hatred. I rebuild the system for Packard owners, I have rebuilt over 100 of these systems and my clients are very happy with their reliable car when set up properly.
John,
Would be nice to correspond with someone familiar with the last great Packards. I’ve lusted after them since I saw my first Caribbean. Unfortunately, my window for Packard ownership closed more than 20 years ago when the wife discouraged me from purchasing an all black 400. I checked the ’56 sales brochure, it states the 400 came from the factory with a single four barrel and the Ultramatic. Doesn’t mean someone couldn’t build a factory hot rod with Caribbean dual quads and a Clipper overdrive. We’ll probably never know whether to credit a factory special order or a later connoisseur.
Scottymac,
Packard did advertise the senior Packards [non clipper cars] as having Twin Ultramatic as standard equipment, But I’ve see several window stickers that charged for the TU.
The company also had the policy of “If you want it, we will build it”, when it came to options, colors, interiors, and more.
In August of 1972 I found [and bought] a 1956 4-door Patrician that was manufactured with 3 tone FULL leather interior including door panels, 3-tone paint with the ribbed stainless panels deleted and the body painted as if it was a Caribbean. It also had the Caribbean engine and a Caribbean hood with the twin fake hood louvers.
Mr. Lawson, the original owner [I bought it from him] said he wanted a 1956 Caribbean 4-door, so the selling dealer {Follin Packard in College park, MD] worked the order form in such a way the car would look like a Caribbean, but nowhere on the car was a Caribbean nameplate to be found, and the side name plates for “The Patrician” were missing, along with an absence of holes in the fenders or trunk lid for the emblems.
The car was in a large dairy barn where I was storing my car collection while in the Army. The barn was hit by lightning on May 5, 1973, destroying all my cars, including this one-off “Caribbean sedan”. Sadly, all I have left are a couple of polaroid photos of the car.
I am so thankful that I have been able to buy, own, maintain and drive all the vehicles that I have in my lifetime. The sound and smell of a new car is something you never forget , and if all these climate clowns get their way it will be ashame. Petroleum runs the world and there plenty of people who will buy the oil we will refuse to use. I lived at a good time, and thank god automobiles were a big part of it.
Vance – I guess you’re an old guy with maybe 10 or 15 years left and don’t care at all about the world you are leaving for your grandkids.
You are insulting and disrespectful. You should apologize to all of us on this thread!
I lived in Tucson for 25 years, I figure ” chinga” is probably a good nickname for yourself. Failure to see what the automotive industry has done for our standard of living and the rest of the world, shows your inability to understand how things really work. Go live somewhere else and see how they exist without affordable energy. Go plug in your car and blame big oil for everything. I am only 57, don’t plan on checking out for a while, but guys like you provide me with much laughter.
I hit 85 yesterday and our grandbrats are young adults and have NO interest in any car other than the ones they now own.The names of Packard,Nash,Hudson,Willys and Studebaker mean nothing to them.
Since July of 2018 I have been giving a young history teacher lessons about American industrial accomplishments and while it is not her strong area of interest she was amazed at the accomplishments of the automobile industry as it pertained the the Second World War which IS her area of focus.I am a retired machinist/tool maker and was able to show her just how these car makers,both the current ones like Ford-GM and Chrysler were able to shut down car production and retool for the needs of all branches of our military machine and the way it furnished all that was needed for the USA PLUS our allies.Most Russian soldiers who carried the brunt of the Nazi onslaught until June of 1944 knew two words of English and they were Studebaker and Roosevelt.Packard’s big V12 and the people that designed and built them can not be thanked enough,even posthumously for their successful efforts tp
help America win the war in both Europe and Asia.Chrysler built the Sherman tanks in numbers that could,at great cost overwhelm the heavy German Panzer Six (Tiger)tanks.Chrysler also made small trucks called weapons carriers that were also makeshift ambulances as needed.
I will close now but I doubt if any of this type of history is being taught today.
I would bet the farm that there is way more tinworm there than these photos show.
I was insulted by your comment. How old are you? Why do you believe that anyone else who actually remembers Packard is in a nursing home? I am not. My family had money and that’s what it took to own a new Packard. I remember the Lincoln Continental Mark III. That took money too. I remember our neighbors new 1966 Oldsmobile Toronado. I remember riding in the backseat of my grandfather’s Mercury Turnpike cruiser. I remember my uncle’s new 1959 Pontiac Bonneville convertible in a parade. My memory goes back in time as living memory. Your nursing home comments are certainly insulting to me. You going to come beat up a senior with disabilities? You will be in jail for a very long time because this old and will press charges and sue the crap out of you and I can! What do you know about libel? Nothing? Keep insulting me and you will find out.
My goodness you got your knickers in a twist young man – I suspect I’m older than you and I’m into cars for the fun of it! Lighten up, or is that grounds for a lawsuit too – Haha.
Chinga, you are at fault here. Man up and apologize. It never pays to be a hater.
Tone it down, you have issues with yourself, these are peoples opinions, no one is wanting a libel suit, control your emotions and enjoy life.
RULES: No profanity, politics, or personal attacks.
If people with money had rejected these marvelous relics of a bygone time we would have nothing left but low end mediocrity but they didn’t reject them and
a decent number of Packards of all kinds and Auburns,Cords.Duesenbergs,
Pierce,Marmon and other mid range cars survive today.I will never work on another Duesenberg but have great memories of these cars that did NOT represent any common lines of thinking and THAT at least to me means a lot.
If you get to where you want to be it is probably in a car.
Robert Scott – “Hater?” How do you use that term?? Who hates what here? I made an observation, that I stand by, that the generation that grew up aspiring to Packard ownership is quite elderly. Guys who weren’t even born in the early ’50s overwhelmingly are more interested in “tri-five” Chevrolets than Packards and that has nothing to do with being a “hater.” Not meaning to boast but I owned one of these cars, and when I sold it, Barrett Jackson set a still standing auction high price record! So don’t tell me I hate Packards! I just recognize that the collectibility has changed and thus the economic reality is not the same as when I sold my car nearly 20 years ago.
One note for anyone wanting to change their V8 Packard to stick shift, or has an existing stick shift without OD & wants the OD trans, the OD transmission is the same identical one used in V8 Fords.
The later 1960s Ford OD transmissions have a 1st gear that’s synchronized, so that’s the trans to use.
Also of note: the door panels are the correct materials, and should match the seat materials. The fabric is known as Dark Gray Matlase and as the armrest top material is black leather & the lower part of the door panel is white, the other seat materials are black leather, and white “Patent leather” [early vinyl]. The fabric is not available new, but good used material can be sourced from other Packard back seats that have good fabric.
Chinga, you are at fault here. Man up and apologize. It never pays to be a hater.