Packard Station Sedan 1948-1950

Station Sedan 1948-1950 Featured Image
 
1949 Packard Station Sedan

The Packard Station Sedan was a pseudo station wagon model produced by the Packard Motor Car Company of Detroit, Michigan between 1948 and 1950, using the Packard Super Eight platform.

By offering the Station Sedan, Packard could market a vehicle with station wagon attributes, but without the full investment costs associated with a full-blown station wagon program development

The Station Sedan used a combination of steel framing and body parts along with structural wood panels to create a "woody" station wagon-like car. Unlike other woody wagons of the day, which used wooden passenger compartments mounted to chassis of a particular car, the Station Sedan used a steel subframe and steel passenger doors onto which hard wood panels were mounted. The only wooden door on the vehicle was the rear gate assembly.

Neither a sedan, nor true station wagon, the Station Sedan enjoyed limited success and was discontinued when the 1951 Packard models were introduced.

It is amazing how quickly a tradition can catch on. Packard offered its first factory station wagons in 1940, and they were rather magnificent hand-crafted creations on the six-cylinder 110 and eight-cylinder 120 chassis. While production would last only two years, Packard’s wagons made an impact among buyers who had long favored the company’s limousines, and now they had a suitable companion for the country house. After World War II, Packard took opportunity of that brand loyalty by offering a new wood-trimmed model, which would cross the borders of town and country.

The new model was dubbed the Station Sedan, and it was essentially a Standard Eight Sedan that featured beautifully hewn white ash paneling over an all-steel body, a unique semi-fastback roofline, and rear quarter panels. While it looked for all the world like the “woodies” of old, wood played a structural role in only the tailgate, which pioneered the two-piece gate that would become a feature of most all 1950s wagons. The model was lush, evocative of a bygone era, and one of Packard’s most elegant offerings. 

Unfortunately, the buying public that Packard executive and styling guru Edward Macauley saw for the model just was not there. The vast majority of Station Sedans were produced in 1948, with leftovers being renumbered to sell in 1949 and, finally, in 1950. As the wooden body required proper care that many examples did not receive, the majority of the few built have not survived, and as a result, the last of the wood-trimmed Packards have become a great rarity.