From the Archives: October 1948 Packard Eight Ad

In honor of “low” gas prices (at least as I type this) here’s a nostalgic ad from the Minneapolis Star that ran in October of 1948. The fatter wallet is always a good advertising hook and Packard opted to go the mpg route in this ad. These bathtub beauties were available for an affordable $2,150 for the Eight series and $2,375 for the Deluxe line. Thriftiness has always been a selling point for cars and it’s interesting to see mpg used as a tool decades before CAFE regulations and emission standards would become the norm for the automotive industry. A gallon of gas sold for 16 cents in 1948; with a 17-gallon tank (which would whistle just before fill up), that would come out to $2.72 a fill-up, or about $26-27 in today’s dollars. Does anyone remember fuel economy as a selling point during this era or was it an afterthought for most car buyers?

We featured a nice comparison of the 1948 Packard Deluxe Touring Sedan with an entry-level 1948 Cadillac Series 61 sedan in the April 2012 issue of Hemmings Classic Car. In it, the Packard owner stated he was getting 14.7 mpg.