All Original 1956 Packard Patrician with only 4,700 miles since new! Review 

Oh my, what a beautiful automobile! Great walkaround and narration Doug.

Thar car is like art.Unlike the garbage they make today.You can tell some real thought went into the design. Just beautiful.😊

Believe it or not, the famous Packard Ultramatic is a *TWO-SPEED* transmission. What sets it apart from many other transmissions of the time is that it features a lock-up torque-converter, something no other US manufacturer did until the gas crunch of the late 1970's. The control is as follows: P for Park, R for Reverse, N for Neutral as you would expect. L keeps you in low gear. No automatic upshift into high. H starts you off in *HIGH* gear with automatic lockup engagement around 40-45mph. This is for those gossamer-smooth take-offs and no interruption of that smoothness by an upshift. As far as I know, with HIGH selected, there is NO downshift into low either. Low is essentially locked-out when the H button is pressed. D is obviously drive. Low gear start, automatic upshift into High and automatic lockup engagement. Interestingly enough, had Packard continued; they would have brought forth the first OVERDRIVE automatic transmission to market in 1958. Since Ultramatic was a 2-speed, Lincoln had a 3-speed and Cadillac had a 4-speed auto; Packard had devised a way of building an electric overdrive into the tailshaft of the Ultramatic. Yes, it was big, bulky and complicated but it worked!! Anecdotes abound that one was used in the "Black Bess" pre-production MULE car that was going to be the next Packard car. There were also two other engines being tested as well. A 395-cubic incher that was going to best Cadillacs' 390.... and a 425 cubic inch engine. The Packard V8 was designed to be bored and stroked to be even larger - capacity being set at 500-cubic inches!! However, it was found in testing that the larger engine produced so much torque, it was destroying the overdrive units. And then the rest of the story we know.... Studebaker-Packard decided to continue producing Studebaker's instead of Packards. That never made ANY sense to me. Packard was poised for a rebirth and Studebaker was foundering. Studebaker had not seen black ink on the books since 1950 and required a production break-even point of 350,000 cars.... a number they came close to in 1950 (with 342,000 I believe) but never came even close through the rest of the 1950's.

sir, what a car. we used a 1956 packard as a family car for years. as a young man i delighted in showing off what the car could do. our other family cars were buick and oldsmobile. the packard was the best. in fact it is still in the barn. my sister was a student at columbia and i would pick her up at the train station with our packard. i will always be proud that we had a packard as a family car. when it graduated from university, i drove home in the packard. you asked a question about the drivers piano, which is packard's term for that shifter. please let me explain as i did then. if you want a car like a buick with smooth torque converter drive press h. you will accelerate with the torque converter then lock.with the direct drive clutch. if you want to drive like an oldsmobile or cadillac press d and you will start in low, go to high then to direct drive. what some people think is a shift is actually the the direct drive clutch locking out the torque converter. packard was the only ...only independent car company to ever devise their own automatic transmission. i had the chance to drive some great men of auto fame in the packard and they always asked where they could get one. general motors built their lock-out converter after buying a packard. i am glad you have that car. i would not able to resist, i would drive it, and it needs to be left as the newest packard. the 1956 packard the greatest packard of all the packards including all the great packards.. ahead of its class in everything. those are their words. me, i believe. best wishes.

Thanks for sharing! Our family had a '55 Patrician. As a little kid, I loved all the neat stuff like the signal-seeking radio, courtesy lamps, etc. And oh, what a luxurious ride! What my siblings and I really liked, though, was the auto-leveling suspension. We'd go hop on the back and wait for it to level up, then run to the front and sit there so the back would go down and the front would go up. Back and forth until it stopped working. My dad could never figure out why the battery was always dying. We didn't know it used the battery, of course, and no one ever put 2 and 2 together. In late '62, the mufflers (I think there were four) went bad and my dad got a ticket for excessive noise. He couldn't find new mufflers anywhere, so he sold the Patrician to a collector. I cried!

I grew up in Southern California not far from West LA. In my grandparents neighborhood most of the homes were two story Spanish style with long driveways. About 3 blocks away from their place was a beautiful home with an arch over the driveway that connected to the house. The owners of the home drove a ‘55 Packard Clipper. It was two tone blue and white with the ship’s wheel in the center of the grille. Just parked there with that massive Spanish style home it just looked so classy. That was around 1959 or so but I remember it clearly.

That engine has a great, beefy rumble. My grandfather used to get a new Packard every two years. He had a turquoise blue 55 "400", (which was the two door model) and it was such a beautiful and thoughtfully designed car. He and my grandma came to visit us one weekend (a 5 hour drive) and that Friday afternoon, they pulled in driving a red 1956 "400", an equally beautiful car. My dad and I couldn't figure out why he now had a red car and a year newer. It hadn't been his year to trade. He explained that they had started the trip in the 55 car but developed some kind of mechanical problem along the way. He found a Packard dealer along the trip route and took the car in. The dealer explained how long it would take to repair it and my grandpa didn't want to wait that long. There was this brand new red 56 model sitting on the showroom floor, all serviced and ready to go. He just made a deal on it, wrote a check and off they went. His 56 model still had the column gear selector instead of the push buttons. 1956 of course was the last year Packard made a great luxury car. They merged with Studebaker after that and became just a Studebaker with a Packard nameplate for two more years (then went out of business completely). My grandfather switched to Cadillacs after that but while they were great cars too, he sorely missed his Packards. It's such a shame that like so many other great parts of this country's past, the company is no longer with us.

Much more solid build than todays vehicles. Legendary.

Bert has passed, but his Packard lives on :)

I would proudly own AND drive this Car over ANY Car built today!💕

That is the most beautiful Packard I have ever seen. That gorgous rich interior is better looking than today's high priced cars!

My neighbor had a tan/brown 1956 Patrician with about 60,000 miles on it. When he bought it the leveling system was broken from being put on a lift without turning it off, but he got it fixed. It was nearly this nice, but it had poorly blended paint touch-ups around the headlight bezels. I was sad for Larry when he had to stop driving. He sold all three of the cool classic cars he had in his garage and moved away to an assisted living facility.

Wow. Especially love those headlight and tail lights. Just crazy to see a car that old, that original and still so nice.

That Mobil sticker on the door jamb at 3:40 is incredible. Already 22 years old, when most cars would have already given up the ghost. Amazing originality.

I am in my late 50's, and have been a fan of Packards since I was 16 years old! I have always loved the 1955 and 1956 models the most. The 1956 has more refined styling over the 1955 and therefore is my favorite Packard of all. I just happened to see this video title right after watching something completely unrelated and couldn't wait to watch it!! I have seen a few nice survivor 1956 Patricians over the years, but this one is truly the best. I wish it had the three tone paint, but this paint scheme is much more uncommon!! If only it had power windows and power seat, it would have been my dream Packard. The 1956 models all came so diversely optioned. Some left the factory with every option available, some nearly fully optioned, and some with oddly chosen combinations of options. I believe that they just tried to empty out parts bins, since management knew the production line could be shut down at any time. The move to Studebaker's South Bend Indiana assembly line to produce the badge engineered 1957 "Packardbaker" was truly the end of one of the most illustrious automobile makes that America has ever known. I see from the comments that this beautiful Patrician has found a new owner already; from what was stated, the new owner sounds like the type of person who will be a great caretaker. I normally never ask what prices cars have brought when sold, but I am very curious if you could give a close range figure for what it did bring, if you don't mind sharing. Thank you so much for letting us see this true Time Capsule automobile!! I just subscribed to your channel and will look forward to future videos!!

My personal thought is this classic Marque is one of the most beautiful cars of '56. Sure beats the Cadillac by far, in my opinion. Packard and Studebaker were so far ahead of their time in design and engineering the public couldn't keep up, sadly. I also love the Studebaker Hawks. Today, they are works of moving art. What a find this car was. Thanks for sharing.

I love that hood ornament that doubles as a pedestrian harpoon

Just Beautiful ❤before i was hatch(born) mom drove a 1938 Packard 120 series 4dr. 🥰

Beautiful car... a few years ago I was lucky enough to ride in a very old 1928 Packard.

Oh, what a beautiful car, amazing in every detail, please take good care of her.

What a great piece of contemporary history!

The nicest looking dashboard since the Cord 810s. Awesome car, the penultimate Packard

Solex and Herculite are trademarks of PPG (Pittsburgh Plate Glass) Solex is the tinting and Herculie is a high strength tempered glass line. Cool video!

What a beautiful car Packard was a fine automobile 😊

Amazing classic vehicle. Thank you for sharing this video.. classy looking vehicle. God bless 🙏

Neighbor Wally drove a black on white '55 Packard from '65 thru '70. He was older than ourselves, but he and his pals would take us "yungun's" (10, 11, 12), out to the lakes here in B.C., Canada. Logging roads were especially fun while that ol' 4dr kept making its way up, down and all around switchbacks and countryside during those fun summers. Wally went off to college and we grew to appreciate what a good car was all about. Muscle cars became the next fad. A near new, forest green, 289 Cougar became my daily driver for most of the next decade. Wally came back from college with a '65 VW and a Honda 50 motorcycle (he was economically ahead of the times). The rest? Various power combos well into the '80's until family and good sense prevailed History, long gone ...

What a beautiful garage.....elegant and stately......built with the highest quality materials.

Wow - what a Beauty! And such amazing contrasts of attention to detail from those minutely-crafted dashboard switches and details to the couldn't-give-a-toss, slap-it-all-over adhesive man. How strange to think that such a wonderfully over-the-top vehicle that must turn heads everywhere it goes today, would've seemed just another run-of-the-mill automobile back in 1956...I just love the way that motor purrs. many thanks for sharing...

What a stunner! So much thought clearly went into its design. Packard deserved to survive. So tragic they couldn't.

I drooled throughout this whole video. Absolutely gorgeous!

Thank you for posting this video. I love everything about the interior of this vehicle! The quality and attention to detail stand out, even after all these years.

Always liked all Packards , My uncle drove them in the 1950 ' s & as a kid I thought they were special ! Still like seeing them at Classic Car Shows here in the Mpls , MN. Area ! ! !

That is an absolutely KILLER car! It's a real shame that Packard disappeared, and far inferior brands took over the luxury market.

'56! What a high end car! I never knew anything in '56 was this well thought out and functional. No idea how that was kept in such perfect condition, but very grateful that it was and to see this perfectly preserved museum piece!

If they only built new cars today like they use to. I would add Seat Belts to the Packard. Had a cousin who worked making Packard Cars. Early 1960's he went to Full time farming until he died. Great to see this car. I bought a 1957 Nash & totally restored it in the 1980's.

The details on this car are amazing, the exterior side marker lights for example! The Ultramatic push button transmission to right of the wheel was unique. The rear tail lights and exhaust design is beautifully done. Sadly though Packard could not compete with Cadillac and this was the final year.

They don't make 'em like they used to... beautiful car - 👍👍

When I was very young, I rode with my father to deliver a brand new 1956 Packard to an executive at the Smithfield Ham company in Virginia. It was one of the last Packards sold in central VA. My father was a longtime employee of the Packard dealership in Richmond, and he got the honor of making the delivery. It would be nice to see a full view of this beautiful car with no one in the way.

Thank you for sharing this Special car with us.

This is gorgeous car . Too bad they don’t make them like this anymore and the styling is superb.

The last living Packard dealer owner was a man by the name of Shelby Wendell Hawkins. He said the Houston market where he sold his cars was doing great but Packard dealers weren't aggressive enough when it came to promoting the cars. He went on to say the dealers were owned by wealthy old men who were set in their ways and the turnover rate was low since the cars were kept for years by the buyer. One of the things he mentioned was during its last days the cars would sit unsold on lots so long that the valves would be stuck. He was probably the youngest dealer in the area and he only sold them for about two to three years and then the company was gone.

In the mid-80’s, I bought a 1952 Chrysler New Yorker from the former head barber at Leavenworth Fed Prison. It had less than 2k miles on it, because he just used it locally. This makes me wish I had held on to that car (among many others lol) 🥺

The OHV V8 was late to the party, but an excellent piece. The bore-center spacing is a full 5 inches, unmatched until the 1968 Cadillacs, which adopted the same dimension. I have always understood the Ultramatic transmission to have two speeds, not three, with strengthening for 1956 after poor reliability in 1955. I was not aware a Patrician could be had with manual windows.

How the Packard went from such beauty in 1956 to an abomination in 1957 was the result of merging with Studebaker. The ‘57 & ‘58 Packardbakers were to be placeholders until Studebaker had the money to produce a true Packard. But that failed to happen, and it was lights out for Packard after ‘58. An inglorious end to one of America’s truly great automobiles. Many thanks for sharing this Patrician with the world and being such a good steward!

What a beautiful car! Made to last!

What a beauty!

What a find! I know the new owner and believe this classic could not have found a better home. It will be cherished and cared for.

A Masterpiece of legendary craftsmanship. R.R.

Gorgeous and very well built machine! Love this Packard.

Packard made awesome cars. My uncle was an auto, and aircraft mechanic in 40', and '50's. Hd felt that Packards were comparable in many ways to Cadillacs...idk about that first hand but i do believe they were really good cars. Too bad the company was apparently mismanaged. This car is a testament to the quality of engineering. Vision of designers, and the uniqueness of many features. Love the car. Not many cars that i recall that featured awesome tri color schemes...several years ago we were at the Packard grounds for a granddaughters wedding. There were a number of beautiful packards from different decades as well as the awesome Packard record setting speedboat on display.

There were no Packards in my lower-middle class neighborhood (north St Louis) growing up in the late ‘50’s, and I didn’t see many elsewhere around the city. When I went to college in 1972, one of the old semi-retired professors in my engineering department had a ‘55 Packard Clipper. My school was in a relatively small town, so he was easy to spot puttering around town. He died a few years later and I always wondered what happened to that car. It would have been a good one to restore since they rarely salted the roads in that town.

As an old timer I have a real soft spot for the "orphan" cars. Always wondered what they would look like if they had made it. There about 15 silver SUVs on my block all different models but gaggg they all look the same

A few days ago I had a nice surprise in my North Carolina hometown, when I could briefly admire moving ahead of me that awsome car that immediately identified as a 1956 Packard 'Patrician', like new in perfect conditions. Until Packard went down financially and joined Studebaker before both of them disappeared, Packard built one of the best cars. I guess that that 1956 Patrician model was its top creation, although I especially admired one of their 1950 models for its super aerodynamic and elegant design. Almost all Packard cars were way ahead of the competition and ahead of their time regarding technical advances, innovative designs, comfort and luxury. Around the time of its demise I heard that one of the company's main troubles was poor aftermarket service. Of course that Packard cars were very expensive and could hardly compete with powerful corporations with much higher mass producction scale like General Motors and Ford. And I also suspect that many people stopped buying them when Packard became the funeral car of choice because of its luxury and elegance. Now it can be remembered as one glorious historical icon.

In 1970 I drove '55 Patrician in upstate NY that was in rough shape. It had the torsion ride, non-push button shifter and power windows. Someone had previously added aftermarket sanders! It had two open metal boxes in the trunk over the rear wheels. There was a control for them strapped to the steering column. I never used them so I don't know if they still worked. The electrical system is a 12 volt positive ground. I had temporarily installed an 8-tract tape player which is not 12 volt positive ground. I made and attached it to a metal shell to fit over the carpet on the floor hump to keep the tape player from shorting out. I connected the tape player hot wire to ground and the ground to a power source under the instrument panel. Yes it worked! The power brakes on this car are amazing. When you applied the brakes, it felt like the vacuum system was pulling the brake pedal to the floor with very little foot pressure. The torsion ride is hard to describe. It is so soft it's like you are riding on a mattress. I miss this car.

Beautiful! I have a '55 Clipper, I'm the second owner, and a '58 Studebaker Silver Hawk, also second owner.

when i was 18,my dad had one of these.loved that car.his was.yellow with black top.

Beautiful ultra low mileage original. Thanks for posting.

Absolutely stunning! I love the showroom-new condition and the station-seeking radio. It's a shame it is not equipped with power windows; maybe the original owner didn't want the option. I love the side lights that go on when you open the front doors and the fact that rear seat passengers had their heat zoned by the driver! This car seemed ahead of its time for 1956! If you ever sell it, it will probably fetch near 100 grand. Thanks for posting.

The '56 Patricians fitted with the push button Twin Ultramatic Drive are also equipped with power door locks. The button to control the locks is under the instrument panel on the left side next to the button to control the Torsion Level suspension. Packard was the first to offer power door locks. Another industry first introduced by Packard with the '56 models is the Twin Traction limited slip differential.

Sweet Packard. I love it!

The Soviet Chaika was a "Me, too" to this car. They made theirs look like a cross between a Packard and a Buick.

Greetings from Turkey. Thank you very much for showing this beautiful car

This car was the inspiration for the Soviet GAZ-13 Chaika. The two look quite similar, although the GAZ-13 was a longer, limo-like car, What an amazing specimen you have there!

SIDENOTE: your garage looks fantastic!!! I love how it looks. The perfect home for such a marvelous piece of machinery! That Packard is absolutely amazing!!! I never realized how much similar a Packard dash is to that of an Austin Healy, in its design looks. That dash practically sells the car on its own!

This car is a piece of ART.

The transmission selector pod was an option in 1956 on the Patrician and Executive, with the traditional column shift as standard.

nice to see somthing different ...... in a sea of 55-57 Chevys

That is just a gorgeous car! If I could afford it, I would buy it in a heartbeat! Fabulous video, too! Thank you very much!

The Packard Clipper is one of the most beautiful cars ever made.

NOW THAT IS A REAL CAR !

Very cool! My boss has one with even lower miles - a pink and white '56 Executive with only 1861 miles (with an oil change sticker from 1973 showing 1715). I had the pleasure of driving a '56 Patrician once and the torsion bar suspension made it ride soooo nice...

Thanks for the great story!!! Upstate, NY and surrounding areas are tough on cars. Those "positive earth" electrical systems famous on older British cars gave a lot of inspecting owners much unfortunate trouble. And yes, correct, that tape player chassis would not be able to come in contact with any metal structure of the car or would ignite something!

I have my Uncle's 55 Clipper 4dr sedan. He was the cars second owner. He bought it the Ford Dealership in Kirksville Mo. in 1962. Picked it up on the cheap because it was a orphan car. It's got 78,000 miles on it now. It had 48,000 miles on it when I rescued it from going to the salvage yard. He was going to let them have it because it hadn't ran since my uncle died in 1965. It was parked in the basement garage of their home covered up in quilts and boxes. I got it to run and drive out of the garage under it's own power. I've rebuilt the engine, trans and rear end . Replaced the bushings ,hoses and brake lines. Gave it a repaint because the old paint had aged and it needed it. Still runs and drives like a new car. Super smooth ride and comfortable to drive.

A friend of mine told me one thing about the ride levelling. It was on all the time, so any prankster could bounce on the bumper when parked and watch the sensors go nuts trying to keep up.

Love your car! 1955 and 1956 Packards have such friendly faces

Maybe if you read the owner's manual you'll discover what the H and D buttons do. Beautiful vehicle !

My experience with cars of this era is that the Solex tinted glass was usually only on cars with the air conditioning option.

My Uncle who owned and restored antique cars during the 60’s bought a Caribbean. It was apparently all original but needed some cleaning and maintenance . I never knew what he ended up doing with it. It was parked in Grandma’s garage

Kinda what I was thinking. I was told to me to use H for normal driving as it is easier on the trans and avoids a potential weak point to avoid future failures.

I love the Packard and this one is magnificent.

I remember back in the late 80's when I was in highschool auto mechanics class one of our instructors Mr. Renfro was always talkng about Packards. Hell most of us kids had never even seen one but He sure loved them.

My kind great uncle WW1 veteran lived on the other side of the country from my family, had been an executive in a big industrial company and was pretty well off, certainly compared to my poor young parents. He had a pristine older, late 30’s Packard and a new 56 Patrician that was a salmon and white two-tone. Those were just his daily use cars, what he and my aunt drove around. It had air conditioning with these clear plastic vent things that came up from the rear window deck. I seem to remember that the side and back glass, and over the top of the windshield was very lightly colored sort of light blue green. I could be mistaken about that. But the way the windows and bodywork were integrated in the design is something that affected my sensibilities permanently. Nobody had a/c then and, together with the push button drive, the thing was sort of a mystical presence in our infrequent visits. It was a beautiful thing, sort of magic for a kid. The older late ‘30s car was classically stately in a way that didn’t seem to want the world to change and, in a different way, the 56 was classic too, but in a reluctantly, still only the best, but ok here is the modern-world way. A totally different world than the one I lived in. One summer, probably 1957, we were visiting and he opened up the giant trunk to reveal a brand new red schwinn tornado bike. I remember his tall-waisted pants with a skinny belt, rumpled pressed shirt and tie, jacket and fedora - on a hot summer day and he was retired! - while he took the bike out of the trunk (it was carpeted with a cream colored wool-looking carpet) and put it on the kick stand behind the car in the driveway. It was too much to have imagined even thinking of asking for such a thing at the time. Over the next week all I did was figure out how to ride a bike dawn to dusk on the long, looping road to his house. He died in, I think, 1960 or 1961. He quit buying cars when they quit making big Packards, 56 was it for him, so my aunt still had those two pristine examples until she passed many years later. These memories are imprinted with the Packard car sensibilities that I didn’t even really have any explicit sense or awareness of. It’s not nostalgia, more of an incredibly intricate collection of things that got remembered, out of all the things that got forgotten, partially because of the unusual setting that now is kind of “pegged” to those Packard-provided background shapes, sounds and smells. The car you show here is a real gem and time capsule.

Amazing Car, Thanks for sharing. The operation procedure for the push button trans selector should be in the owner's manual. Cheers.

Absolutely stunning vehicle!! Thank you for this video!

Absolutely wonderful. And the car plant is STILL there in Detroit 🤣smashed to pieces.

After watching your videos, I had to buy one. I am going tomorrow to buy it and drive it home (1-12-24). stored from 75 until 2010 !

Absolutely stunning car. I have always been a Packard fan. We visited the Packard museum in Ohio this past May and I have been wanting one ever since!

If you've not already made the second video about this car, then please -- next time show and demonstrate the front turn signal lamps. They look "very" interesting because unlike any other cars of the time -- they wrap around to the side of the car, almost looking like a prototype cornering lamp. It would be very interesting to see how these lit up at night or when the headlamps were activated, and/or when the turn signal is activated, etc. Thank you.

Very beautiful 56 Packard, imagine what Packard could've been had both Studebaker and Packard merged together with Hudson and Nash along with Kaiser and Jeep to create AMC in 1954?

Simply stunning rare car in such low mileage. Perhaps should be in a museum. I hope nobody ever drives this all over the country. I never knew the high end Packard with push button drive put the emergency brake light where the regular gear selector letters were on other lower level more models...if ANY Packard could be considered lower level, aside from separate make Clipper. I wonder was there a separate brake light for the those cars.

When craftsmanship was everything. In my youth this was an extremely upscale car. Wonder what brought about the company's decline. Wonderful video.

I was 10 when Hank next door got hi s new Packard. We kids killed the battery piling into the trunk to get the load leveler pump to ride us up and down...

Have a 1955 clipper all original with 3300 miles. It was a family Sunday car in Detroit! Great video

The solid click and operation of the push button trans is amazing. In fact, I don't believe it. The carb and the trans have been in storage for 40y without any deterioration? There is something we don't know. Packard means a lot to me. Just as classy as the best Cadillacs. Didn't a couple American Presidents choose Packard for their state parade vehicles?

Just found youre channel, subscribed Immediately!! Lifelong car guy and this is just gorgeous. Now the " Patrician" is that s top trim level for this car??

The pod selector was optional on that model. They had problems with the electric park on hills. If it couldn't disengage, it would blow the fuse and then you'd be stuck. Solex means the tint.

The 55s had some teething problems which were mostly fixed in the 56 models. But, it was too little, too late.

Beautiful old machine! Classy, too! Cheers!😁🤟👍🛠️

Cool survey sheet. At 16:48, it asks your income group. If you checked $15,000 and over, you were doing well. My how things have changed!

The pushbuttons were not to be used as in conventional shifting. D was for normal driving just as D is used on today's cars with automatic transmissions. L was restricted to the lowest gear for maximum torque when needed, and H was a kind of overdrive to be used at highway speeds for increased fuel efficiency.