Absolutely more expensive if it were a phaeton. I'd have to guess that the only reason a seller would misidentify a car is so that the novice will go to the value guide and look at values for phaetons rather than tourings. There is a super-big difference in values, because there is much more desirability for a phaeton. The phaeton is a much more sexy-looking body.

Wow, tough crowd. When it's in my garage, I'll keep it under cover!

I wonder what the reseve is? Per the NADA giudes which I find more realistic, the high retail is $238K for a Phaeton and for a Touring it is $316K. Obviously a mistake. I would think the reserve would be in the 175K area.

I found it interesting that the seller states that the wood graining is correct in his description of the car when in fact it stood out like a sore thumb.

However I would buy it at the current bid of 82K and live with "all" of these problems.

Yep life would be tough having an ugly Packard in your garage

One of these days I'll take mine to a Packard meet to see how it does.

Ken
Do I still get to ride with you on the Glidden Tour next year?

How and when do you sign up for that tour? I suppose the 12 Cadillac be the car to take on that tour. You are more then welcome to ride with me.

By the way, I just decided to go to Hershey this year. I'll be there either Thursday or Friday and maybe for the show on Sat. I'll be staying with a friend about 90 mintes away in West Chester.

I don't think sign-ups start until AFTER the current year Glidden. In fact, I think that if you are on the Glidden, you get an application for the next year's tour before anyone else. I could be wrong and will check into that.
However, if you know the right person and offer to lend him a certain Packard, your chances could improve.

For some reason I keep seeing scenes from the "Godfather" flashing throuh my mind

What is more appropiate for the Glidden, the 12 Cad or 32 Packard? Which would you take if you were in my shoes?

Glidden Tours are set up so that you go at your own pace. The folks driving in modern vehicles, such as your Packard, tend to "sleep in", while the older vehicle driver's are usually up and out of the hotel much earlier in order to be at the right place at the right time. I know that the people who take the pre-teen cars have an awful lot of fun, and they usually travel in packs. I like to get up and out early anyway, because I like to stop along the way if I see something that looks interesting.
So, you take the Cadillac, I'll take the Packard.

West, curiosity on my part---what is the cut-off year for the Glidden tour? thanks, B

1942

West,

We might be able to work something out...unless you want to stretch out on the back seat of the Cadillac.

Theres a standard 8 for sale on Ebay. The guy must have been color blind when he picked the green for the motor. It's more St Patty's day green plus he painted the engine block. So I guess we can be too hard on the Phaeton.

Ken
In my opinion, calling the car a "phaeton" is a huge deceiving issue.

We have made many sets of top irons for Packard Tourings and Phaetons over the years. People (even Packard people) sometimes do not know that there is a difference, assuming any 4 door open car without roll up windows to be a phaeton. Wishful thinking at its best. If it has jump seats it's a touring.

Knowing the value and desirability of the different cars is the hardest thing when getting into the car buying end. Doing the proper research when buying a car is a step that needs to be done. If you remember back in 2005, I was in the market for a 30s Packard but I had no idea what was what and the value of the cars in relation to body body style and year etc. However again I must thank those from this group who pointed me in the right direction and the resulting choice. When I started in 2005 I didn't know the differenc ebetween a Phaeton or a Touring let alone what a Phaeton was.

Ken
That's exactly the reason its deceiving to call it a phaeton when it's not.
I'm going to tell Novice A (you, a couple of years ago), that a phaeton is more valuable than a touring. Novice A will then make a decision as to weather or not he wants to spend the extra money for a phaeton. He finally says, "Why not? Life is short," and proceeds to search for a phaeton. He stumbles upon this eBay sale, perhaps at the last minute, cannot get a hold of me to get my opinion, and presses the "buy" button thinking he's found the car of his dreams. Granted, he looked at it and liked it, but ended up paying phaeton price for a touring.
Is that fraud on the part of the seller? I don't know. I'm not a lawyer.

West,

Yes, it is fraud if the seller knew he had a touring car. If he honestly thought it a phaeton, than things get messy.

It would be the same thing as saying that you were selling a car with 50,000 miles on it but you knew the car's odometer had been reset from 150K.

Yep, Messy......

I agree that the seller should not call it a Phaeton nor should he state that its got correct woodgraining or is a mint car. But as you say, calling it a Phaeton is worse as that can not be corrected for any amount of dollars.

This sounds a lot like the "Classic" vs. "classic" debate. It's all in how the words are interpreted. Like classic, "phaeton" is also a highly misused word--Buick called their convertible sedans "phaetons" in the late '30s and early '40s. I've always kind of though of any Full Classic open 4-door without windows as a phaeton. While it probably boils down to what, exactly, the manufacturer called it, I wonder if there's actually a dishonest act involved in the misuse of a vague and variously-defined word like "phaeton."

If you're going to drop that kind of coin on a car like this, then you'll do your due diligence and find out what a 7-passenger open car is worth, phaeton or not. Nobody is buying this car on a whim, but if you can afford to do that, you won't care.

It's also worth exactly as much as a buyer is willing to pay for it, regardless of what it is called (a rose by any other name...). It's possible to overpay for something and still feel like you got a good value. Case in point: I suspect I overpaid for my latest car based on comparative market values. However I decided what the car was worth to me, and I don't feel ripped off.

Fraud? Hard to say, and harder to prosecute. Things like value are always subjective.

Just my inflation-adjusted $0.02.

Matt
I was a professional appraiser for many years. It does not surprise me any more at how many people do their research AFTER they bought the car.
While many manufacturers may have butchered the term phaeton (as you said, Buick called their Touring a Phaeton, and later on their convertible sedan), Packard did not, so I don't think this is a "Classic" vs "classic" debate. It's pretty cut and dry.

Here's another car that the seller claims to be original and a candidate for preservation. Seems odd that there would be no wood graining or a blue engine. Or the coils are mounted on the firewall, incorrect door panels and there is a bunch of rubber tubing in the engine compartment. It's interesting the price that is also be asked for a car that needs a restoration, $150K.

It's also missing the automatic choke (some sort of manual hack has been put in place), the oil cooler and filter, and the top mechanism looks like it is missing big parts.

On the plus side, it looks like it has the correct distributor, carb, the manifolds look to be ok, and the decorative bits look pretty complete and in decent shape.

Really, overall a pretty complete and restorable car. 150K, however, seems really really steep.

What color does it look like to y'all... looks grey to me, and they say it's green... Are my eyes that bad???? B