Start with what the Packard Four Hundred is: a 2-door hardtop coupe, built from 1955 to 1956, at the height of the post-war boom. What it meant takes a little longer.
Where it came from
The Packard Four Hundred was an automobile built by the Studebaker-Packard Corporation of South Bend, Indiana during model years 1955 and 1956. During its two years in production, the Four Hundred was built in Packard’s Detroit facilities, and considered part of Packard's senior model range. Between 1951 and the time the final Detroit-built Packard rolled off the line in 1956, Packard’s marketing strategy and model naming convention was in a constant state of flux as the automaker struggled to redefine itself as a producer of luxury automobiles, and separate itself from its volume selling Packard models which it designated the Packard Clipper.
As a result, Packard fielded several models which existed for a single year during this period. In 1951 and 1952 the automaker attempted to use a numeric naming structure that designated Packard’s junior models as Packard 200 and Packard 250 and its senior vehicles as the Packard 300, and bearing the highest trim level available, the Packard Patrician 400. The Patrician 400 replaced the previous model year’s Packard Custom Super Eight model range. The 400 model name was dropped from the Patrician model range at the beginning of the 1953 model range, however the Patrician name continued to occupy the premium trim level Packard from 1953 through 1956.
Under the skin
The record carries the shape — a 2-door hardtop coupe — and the layout: a front engine drives the rear wheels, the classic proportion — long bonnet, cabin set back — that most people picture when they picture a sports saloon or a grand tourer. The engine, output and weight have not yet reached the open record, and MotorJury does not guess at them.
In context
The cars a buyer would have weighed it against include the Mercedes-Benz 300 SL, the Mercedes-Benz S-Class, the Nissan Skyline. Nearby in the Packard catalogue sit the Packard 160 and the Packard 180.
Owning one today
MotorJury scores cars on the United States complaint and recall record, and the Packard Four Hundred has none: too old, too rare, or never sold there. Its value today is a collector's question, decided by provenance and condition rather than by a class average.