(Updated 3/23/2026) The immediate post war era was when Cadillac found Eldorado, claimed the luxury car title, and left the others in its dust. Curtis Perry found this 1946 Series 60 Special at the Cannery Pier Hotel in Astoria, OR, at the mouth of the Columbia River. It appears to be one of a number of cars they display from their collection, and the salt air is making its impact felt on the rear wheel cover. But it marks the beginning of Cadillac’s ascent to utter dominance of the luxury car field, and is worth a moment of reflection.
As a point of comparison, this was the most immediate competitor to the Cadillac 60 Special: the Packard Custom Super Clipper, looking still very elegant and barely changed from its mid-1941 introduction. Meanwhile, the 1946 (and 1947) Cadillac were also virtually identical to the then-new 1942 models. The Cadillac is the more modern looking of the two, especially from the front where its greater width and lower stance is fully apparent, and took full advantage of that right up to the all-new 1948s. Meanwhile, Packard decided to make do with a makeover, which put it at an even further disadvantage, stylistically. The Custom Super Clipper cost $3,047 and had the mighty 365 CID flathead inline eight rated at 165 hp.
The Series 60 cost $3,095, and like all Cadillac models, it had the 346 CID sidevalve V8 rated at 150 hp. A minor plus for Packard, but Cadillac more than made up for it with the optional Hydramatic automatic transmission. And this power train combination was hardly something new and unproven like certain ones it would field in the 1980s: this V8 and Hydramatic were used to power huge numbers of tanks and other motorized weapons during WW2.
Cadillac sold 5,700 Series 60 Special sedans in 1946; Packard sold 1,472 Custom Super Clipper sedans and coupes in 1946. Although the two brands would trade places a couple of times in the annual sales charts, that was strictly because Packard’s main volume came from Clipper Six sedan, which competed against mid-level Buicks and such. In the true luxury price segment, Cadillac had already taken the gold, and wouldn’t lose it again for quite some time.
Wonderful pictures, but from my prospective the Cadillac has a very dated appearance while the Packard is almost timeless. No question as to which I would prefer, although perhaps in 1946 when my father bought a new, two tone gray Olds 76, I would have chosen differently.
Yes, the Packard definitely aged better than the Caddy. It’s an almost British design. Very classy with very clean lines. Indeed, a timeless design.
Sure. But that’s from today’s perspective. Folks wanted modern design then, not classic.
From the side profile, I agree that the Packard is more impressive-looking from a modern standpoint. Maybe that has to do with the Cadillac’s chrome ornamentation, which doesn’t do the design itself many favors stylistically. But from the front angle, I think the Cadillac is more imposing, while the Packard appears more dated.
Just checked a few pics and you are right. From a front perspective the Packard’s traditional tall grille, though still very stylish, looks a bit dated next to the Cadillac’s wide horizontal design.
Packard never really knew how to move on from the traditional grille until perhaps 1955/56. In some sense this is part-and-parcel with the design issues they struggled with starting in the late 1930’s, symptomatic of this is they never really came up with a consistent logo. The 1940’s Clippers tried to have it both ways, as did the elephantine styling era of 1948-50, none of which succeeded, though the 1940’s Clippers were better in that area (as well as everywhere else). The 1951-54’s tried to do a wide grille with an overarching “oxbow” motif, which wasn’t very successful either, though the 1953’s were better.
Sedan to sedan from the side, yes, coupes and ragtops are a draw
Both those cars look superb – it was a very stylish time for American cars. Packard got it terribly wrong for few years with those ‘bathtub’ bodies.
Beautiful car and great pictures – but to pivot to the hotel, we stayed there just after it opened while on a road trip from CA to WA back in the late 00’s and it is a marvelous place to stay with most rooms overlooking the water and huge ships passing by seemingly feet from the window. I highly recommend it if you are in the area.
The hotel intrigued me also. Their website shows some very nice rooms with great views. You’ve confirmed my suspicion that it is indeed a great place to stay.
The 1942 Cadillac (and other GM C bodies) completely eliminated the bulge at the bottom of the doors which had concealed what was left of the old running board. The Clipper concealed the running board in the “normal” way of the 40s, but the Cadillac design was the future.
Lincoln’s new 1940 body was woefully behind both Cadillac and Packard when it came out, and even more by 1946.
I’ve loved these since I was a child and read a book called Susan and her Classic Convertible in the school library, in which she inherits Grampa’s 1947 Caddy and then challenges gender norms of the late sixties as she decides to rebuild the motor herself in shop class! https://www.amazon.com/Susan-Her-Classic-Convertible-BUTTERWORTH/dp/B00CM9CSOS
Great pics – I’ve been to Astoria a couple times, it’s an interesting place.
I like how the Sixty Special’s ‘B’ pillar has the rounded top edges as it did when it debuted as a ‘38 model. I prefer the’ 46 Packard, IMO it’s better looking and less like a rolling jukebox. The ‘pregnant elephant’ Packard sold fairly well and was considered fashionable. There is a great vehicle exchange scene in the 1950 film noir “Gun Crazy” that involves a Packard – the car seems as desirable as another scene that used a late forties Cadillac.
If I were buying a post-war luxury car I would choose a ‘49-‘51 Lincoln Cosmopolitan (not the baby Lincoln) while a bit of a bathtub, in my eyes it was the most modern looking car on the road. Lincoln was smart dropping the Zephyr in ‘46 (as Cadillac did with La Salle before the war), then Lincoln brought out two lines in ‘49. Packard should of dropped the idea of selling a mid priced car with their new ‘51 or spun off a separate Clipper division as they would try doing later.
It’s a shame Packard ended production in ‘58. Maybe the reason I don’t like most Cadillacs is because it was such a successful and desired brand.
That long bridge from Oregon to Washington is a fun drive, even more so at night with fog enveloping you. You’re feet above the water (after crossing the high bridge for the cargo ships) for ages until you get to land and it feels like the world disappeared.
I would take a pre-war Packard like the one I found in Salem, OR (https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/car-show-classic-surprise-airshow-unicorn-by-packard/) or this Caddy if I had to own a luxury car from that era. Seeing the styling helps me understand why Cadillac achieved supremacy over Packard and Lincoln post-war. It fills me with pleasure to look at it, I don’t see a bad line anywhere.
Next time I’m in Astoria, I’ll be sure to look up this place! Cadillac’s styling was a predictor of what was to come- lower, wider and little more “3 box” with the more prominent decklid compared to the Packard. Both are beautiful in their own ways and they serve as good “before/after” examples of post-war styling.
The model 60 is what later became known as the “Fleetwood Brougham”. It’s the top of the line “owner driven model”. Referring back to the ’77 Pontiac Bonneville post one of the comments asked what was wrong with living room comfort in a car. These Cadillacs delivered that combined with the best roadability of an American car. In many ways they were like the Mercedes referred to in the test. Unfortunately American cars grew bigger and flabbier over the next twenty years. I think drivers still value comfort and space except that now the luxury cars are SUVs and cross overs.
Cadillac having an automatic was a huge advantage. Wasn’t the take rate for automatics on Cadillacs nearly 100 % by 1950?
Agreed. The styling of the Packard may have aged better, but back in 1946, who would buy a top-tier luxury car with a manual transmission when they could get one with an automatic?
At the end of the 1953 Mickey Rooney film ‘Drive a Crooked Road’, one of these Packard Clippers gets flipped over onto a beach. Painful to watch!
Mickey Rooney plays a foreign-car mechanic who gets suckered in to drive the getaway-car at a bank heist. Some great scenes early in the film of the service bays at an actual foreign-car dealer – I believe International Motors of Long Beach Ca, which still exists.
From the top picture I can clearly see where Dad’s 48 Chevy got its lines. But without the grace of this car. The Chevy looks too short and too fussy, while the Cadillac is just right in so many ways.
Packard’s volume cars were indeed the mid-priced models but not the six cylinder versions that were only as taxis and for export. All domestic Packards were eight cylinder — 288 ci. 327 ci, 356 ci.
Black Cadillac, 1947, as shown, much the same as a blk 1947 four dr sedan my father bought late 1959. The older ladies from whom he purchased it claimed that the sedan belonged to the late Senator FULBRIGHT of Arkansas of which they were related. I drove it to high school a few times, but got called the “undertaker” so I went back to my 1948 Plymouth(s) to save my rep and shag that nickname. He sold it to Paul Kernodles who owned a private club in south K.C. From there it was rumored to have been sold to a collector in CA. What I remember the most…polishing the porcelain exhaust manifolds.
I love these bumptious boats–the Cadillac and other GM bodies of the period with their fenders fearlessly encroaching on the passenger compartment, doors and all. It must have pleased the stylists to discover that they could design doors that opened even when burdened with such excess baggage ?
(In my opinion the word “pontoon” as applied to automotive design could have been reserved for these fenders, not ones which extend the entire length of the car.)
What’s special about this Cadillac is the fact that the fender line doesn’t descend to the (now jettisoned) running board, but instead completes its arc back toward the front wheel, giving the whole affair some extra buoyancy.
PaulChgo mentions the rounded tops of the doors, descended from the ’38 60 Special, an early Harley Earl coup. Here they contribute nicely to a veritable symphony of voluptuous curves. With today’s eyes, the three-quarter view of the car trips over the excess body width relative to track, perhaps—but the side elevation is a nearly perfect automotive composition.
Here’s another example, in an appealing green; I caught this one at a Sonoma County concours at least a dozen years ago.
The steering-wheel angle visible in the convertible photo catches my eye. Could that possibly be right ? Tell me this car didn’t have a tilting steering column/wheel. Buicks of the period, with their big three-spoke ivory-rimmed wheel, seem in my memory to have a much more horizontal column—or am I nuts . . .
-Cadillac’s dominance of the volume luxury car segment was firmly in place by 1946. The tipping point came in 1939, add up the comparably priced Packard Super Eight: 3,962 versus Cadillac 61 & 60 Special: 11,426. The gap only widened through 1942.
The 1942 and 1946-’47 60 Specials are essentially stretched C-Bodies with roof shell, floors, b-pillars and doors unique to the model, everything cowl forward and aft the rear doors is shared with other C-Bodied Cadillacs, Buick Supers and Roadmaster and Oldsmobile 98. The concept prototype for this configuration was the custom 1941 Cadillac “The Duchess’ Sloan gave to the Duke and Duchess of Windsor.
As soon as I saw the hotel I was reminded of our trip in 2018. The second night of our Seattle- Yellowstone- Mt Rushmore- Vegas road trip. Alas we were in the Motel 6 nearby, not the Cannery Hotel. Anne & I were walking the waterfront and I saw this ’54 Mercury.
We caught the well dressed driver’s attention as we walked over. It turned out he was the driver and it was one of a fleet of cars used to shuttle guests.
He kindly drove us over to the hotel, and offered us a glass of wine. We spent an enjoyable 20 minutes in his company. One of many highlights of a great trip,
This Packard was also part of their fleet.
A friend played in a local rock band and had one just like it in 1967.. Used to haul his band equipment in it… Beautiful car it was.. I was 15 or so..
What a beauty .
I remember driving over that long bridge in my Metropolitan Nash DHC, my Sweet was terrified, I would have stopped to sight see had it been allowed .
-Nate
The Cadillac had better passenger-compartment length to overall length ratio than the straight-eight Packard.
Yes, the Packard is better proportioned as a shorter-hooded 6.