Ask the Man Who Owns One: Packard Ads from 1908-1953

Packards were the dominant luxury vehicle in the first half of the twentieth century. Here are some of our favorite Packard ads from the magazine.

This Packard Model Eighteen was one of the first Packard ads carried in the Post.

 

 

The Packard Twin-Six claimed to make “the twelve-cylinder car the world’s standard of automobile sufficiency and value,” and could be yours for less than $3,000.

 

 

“Like the beautiful proportions of Eastern architecture which centuries have been unable to improve upon, Packard lines have set a standard which the whole motor industry has been unable to more than copy.”

 

 

“Packard takes each individual Twin-Six to its Proving Grounds and there, on the world’s fastest concrete speedway, scientifically breaks it in.”

 

In 1934, Packard tried an early version of “social media,” creating a booklet with the names of people in the local community who had bought Packards. “Ask them the questions given, and any others you may think of. Then follow their verdict.”

 

 

This Packard Convertible Victoria “boasts no less than 160 horsepower. The most powerful 8-cylinder motor in any American passenger car whispers beneath its bonnet.”

 

 

“The Electromatic Drive, for example, is a revelation in simplified automatic driving. The clutch operates itself with uncanny skill…And available in all closed Packards, at extra cost, is a sensational new Packard “first” — real, refrigerated Air Conditioning!”

 

 

Packard had an early hand in co-branding. This ad features “Two star performers: the globe-girdling Pan American Clipper and the beautiful new Packard Clipper.”

 

 

This Packard ad features Alicia Markova, “Universally Acclaimed World’s Greatest Ballerina,” although she is neither interacting with nor endorsing Packards. Packard stopped making cars five years later, in 1958. The last Packard ad ran in the post in February of 1957, after the company had purchased Studebaker and changed its name to Studebaker-Packard.