The Packard Six is a •2-door roadster / •2-door coupé / •2-door convertible Victoria / •4-door sedan / •4-door phaeton / •4-door dual-cowl phaeton & Sport Phaeton / •town car / •landau from Packard, built from 1913 to 1947, as the assembly line was turning motoring into an industry.
How it came about
The Packard Six was a series of luxury automobiles built over several generations by Packard from 1913 until 1947.
The name was originally used to describe the car in general terms, while Series numbers were initially used and changed every year to denote wheelbases, then the number classification changed as market conditions changed so as to keep competitive with other luxury brands. There are three generations that used a six-cylinder engine before World War II, with varying engine displacements and periodic mechanical changes.
Under the skin
The record carries the shape — a •2-door roadster / •2-door coupé / •2-door convertible Victoria / •4-door sedan / •4-door phaeton / •4-door dual-cowl phaeton & Sport Phaeton / •town car / •landau — 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.
Family and rivals
Its family tree is legible: it took over from the Packard Four; its successor was the Packard One-Ten; assembly was at Packard Automotive Plant, Detroit, MI. Its contemporaries in the catalogue — the Lancia Theta-35HP, the Alfa Romeo A.L.F.A 40/60 HP, the Bugatti type 13 torpedo — show what else the money bought that year. Its Packard stablemates include the Packard 160 and the Packard 180.
What it costs now
There is no federal ownership record for the Packard Six — it predates the complaint database or was never sold in the United States — so MotorJury publishes no running-cost figure for it. For a car of this age the price is set by the collector market and the condition of the individual example, not by a formula.