It is ironic that Packard should fail just as the company introduced what may be the most innovative and well-designed product line in the history of the company. The blame lay not with the product, but rather a series of management misadventures, including the ill-fated merger with Studebaker.
The Caribbean featured a new, high output OHV V8 with dual 4 bbl carburetors which produced 275 bhp. A new push button Twin Ultramatic transmission was also debuted as was an innovative new torsion bar suspension featuring self-leveling, giving the 1955-56 Packards the best combination of handling and ride among full- size American cars.
New styling was modern, fresh and attractive. The Caribbeans featured striking three-tone paint schemes with matching leather interiors and a lavish anodized dashboard design.
This particular car has benefited from a full professional restoration. The paint, chrome and interior condition are excellent and the engine bay is well detailed.


SCM Analysis

Detailing

Vehicle:1955 Packard Caribbean
Years Produced:1955-1956
Number Produced:776
Original List Price:$5,932 f.o.b. Detroit
SCM Valuation:N/A
Tune Up Cost:$250
Distributor Caps:$50
Chassis Number Location:driver's door hinge pillar post
Engine Number Location:next to distributor at rear of engine
Club Info:Packard Automobile Classics, Inc., PO Box 28788, Dallas, TX 75228-0788
Alternatives:Cadillac Eldorado, Continental Mk. II

The car described here sold for well below its pre-auction estimate of $40,000-50,000, when it brought just $30,800 at the RM Auction at Meadow Brook Hall in Rochester, MI. In SCM’s report on the auction it was noted that this car carried the attractive option of Kelsey-Hayes wire wheels. We also called it “A decent restoration with less-than-perfect body panel fit” and pegged its overall condition a 2-.
The 1955 series were the long-awaited “modern” Packards. Brilliantly restyled by Dick Teague and his design crew using Packard’s 1951 body shell and a pin-money budget, the cars were, as noted in the RM catalog description, modern, fresh and attractive. They managed to look thoroughly up-to-date yet unmistakably Packard.
Full credit to Packard, too, for their efforts in making the car utterly forward-looking mechanically as well. But in their rush to present an “all new” car too little development went into these innovations. The first year V8 engines developed noisy hydraulic lifters and too soon these proud automobiles could be heard coming down the street sounding like a concert of castanets. The Dual Range Ultramatic was a great idea on paper but it became known for blowing seals and dumping fluid on highways, byways and driveways. The third leg of the innovation stool also was shaky in its execution-the cars could be seen driving along in a nose-down attitude like chrome-plated Bloodhounds or tail-down like a James Dean Mercury due to lousy electrical connections in the overly complex suspension system. This, needless to say, is not the way Mrs. Plushbottom expected her expensive new Packard to behave and the 1955 cars lost the company an immeasurable amount of good will among long-time marque loyalists. Inevitably, this was reflected in Packard’s dismal 1956 sales and brought Packard to the brink of extinction.
The shame is, nearly all of the faults of the ’55s were corrected by Packard for the ’56 model year and these later cars are relatively bulletproof compared to their immediate predecessors. Also, modern-day restorers have found a number of fixes for the cars over the past 40-plus years that should make such un-Packardlike behavior a thing of the past if the restoration has been done right.
This car sold for a bit under the right kind of money considering its rarity (only 500 1955 Caribbeans were produced) and condition. With all of the recent work, it should be a pleasant car to drive to meets and also be a crowd-pleaser in the show itself. The price likely represents just the cost of the car’s restoration-these cars require acres of leather and buckets of plating material as well as the aforementioned mechanical attention. And a rusty body-for which they are also well known-can chew up money faster than a college tuition bill. This car and its 1956 brethren also represent the top of the range of the last of the “real” Packards, a marque which surely deserved a better fate than ending its days as a rebadged Studebaker.

Comments are closed.