1948 Packard Custom Super 8 - Original Window Sticker! Runs Good!

  • Location: Indianapolis, Indiana, United States
  • Condition: Used
  • Make: Packard
  • Model: Super Eight
  • Type: Sedan
  • Trim: Custom
  • Year: 1948
  • Mileage: 74274
  • Color: Red
  • Engine size: 356ci 8cyl
  • Number of cylinders: 8
  • Transmission: Manual
  • Interior color: Red
  • Vehicle Title: Clean

1948 Packard Super Eight Custom Description

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1948 Packard Custom Super 8 Offered as a buy-it-now. Make us an offer!

This unrestored original example is fully functioning, and runs and drives, but will require further sorting to be roadworthy. The paint is largely intact and has some good sheen to it, the chrome is overall decent, and the interior is is pretty good condition with really only the headliner exhibiting some moth damage. This is a car many would not restore cosmetically these days feeling it has just the right amount of patina. The Custom features the legendary 356 Senior Packard Straight 8 with the bullet proof 3 speed OD gearbox.
With a known history from new and even the original Bill of Sale from Packard of Lakewood, this car is a true piece of history that tells it's story like a restored car simply cannot.



We have many more photographs of this car, please click on any image to be taken to our full-size image list!
Packard was founded by brothers James Ward Packar, William Doud Packard and his partner George Lewis Weiss in the city of Warrne OH. James Ward believed that they could build a better horseless carriage that the Winton cars owned by Weiss (An important Winton stockholder) and James Ward, himself a mechanical engineer, had some ideas how to improve on the designs of current automobiles. By 1899, they were building vehicles. The company, which they called the Ohio Automobile Company, quickly introduced a number of innovations in its designs, including the modern steering wheel and years later the first production 12-cylinder engine.
While Ford was producing cars that sold for $440, the Packards concentrated on more upscale cars that started at $2,600. Packard automobiles developed a following not only in the United States, but also abroad, with many heads of state owning them.
In need of more capital, the Packard brothers would find it when Henry Joy, a member of one of Detroit's oldest and wealthiest families, bought a Packard. Impressed by its reliability, he visited the Packards and soon enlisted a group of investors that included his brother-in-law, Truman Newberry. In 1902, Ohio Automobile Company became Packard Motor Car Company, with James as president. Packard moved its automobile operation to Detroit soon after and Joy became general manager and later chairman of the board. The Packard's factory on East Grand Boulevard in Detroit was designed by Albert Kahn, and included the first use of reinforced concrete for industrial construction in Detroit. When opened in 1903, it was considered the most modern automobile manufacturing facility in the world and its skilled craftsmen practiced over eighty trades.The 3.5 million ft2 (325,000 m²) plant covered over 35 acres (142,000 m²) and straddled East Grand Boulevard. It was later subdivided by eighty-seven different companies. Kahn also designed The Pacakrd Proving Grounds at Utica, MI.
Throughout the nineteen-tens and twenties, Packard built vehicles consistently were among the elite in luxury automobiles. The company was commonly referred to as being one of the "Three P's" of American motordom royalty, along with Pierce and Peerless. Packard's leadership of the luxury car field was supreme.
Entering into the 1930s Packard attempted to beat the stock market crash and subsequent depression by manufacturing ever more opulent and expensive cars than it had prior to October 1929. The Packard Twin Six was introduced for 1932, and re-named the Packard Twelve for the remainder of its run (through 1939). For one year only, 1932, Packard tried fielding an upper-medium-priced car called the Light Eight. As an independent automaker, Packard did not have the luxury of a larger corporate structure absorbing its losses as Cadillac did with GM and Lincoln with Ford. However, Packard did have a better cash position than other independent luxury marques. Packard also had one other advantage that some other luxury automakers did not; a single production line. By maintaining a single line, and inter-changeability between models, Packard was able to keep its costs down. Packard did not change cars as often as other manufacturers did at the time. Rather than introducing new models annually, Packard began using its own "Series" formula for differentiating its model change-overs in 1923. New model series did not debut on a strictly annual basis, with some series lasting nearly two years, and others lasting as short a time as seven months. In the long run, though, Packard did average approximately one new series per year. By 1930, Packard automobiles were considered part of the "Seventh Series". By 1942, Packard was in its "Twentieth Series". There never was a "Thirteenth Series".
The first Post War redesign appeared in 1948 and continued until 1950. Unloved for many years, the Chassis is virtually identical to the Full Classic Custom Super Clipper. Often referred to as the Pregnant Elephant, we prefer to call them the "Bathtub Packard" and expect them to rise rapidly in value as they are way under appreciated, with the possible exception of the Station Sedan, which has always been a very desirable car. Our Ebay Policies:
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