Christmas is nearly upon us and it’s time to get those wish lists in to Santa, or your signification other! I’d say I’d like to find this 1942 Packard 180 Touring Limo under the tree this Christmas, but truth is I want this one to come a bit early. Hopefully Santa can get it to me in time to take the sleigh above it out for a Christmas Eve sleigh ride. If he can get it to me early enough, I might even have time to load up the entire family to go cut down a tree! Alright, so maybe I’m dreaming a little too much, but seeing this Packard with the sleigh, wagon, and artificial tree conjures images of a ’40s Christmas. This Packard can be found here on Hemmings with an asking price of $7,500. Thanks goes to Mark E for the tip!

In its day, this Packard was one of the finest cars you could buy. Everything about this car was top notch luxury, from the fine interior to the big straight eight. Packard introduced the 180 series for the 1940 model year. The 180 was Packard’s crown jewel and featured impressive features for the time, including optional air conditioning, the first power windows, and partition glass in limo models that completely disappeared when lowered. Sadly, when war time rationing and production began in 1942, Packard was forced to stop production of these lovely cars. Before making the change over to war manufacturing, they managed to build about 2k of these big limos. Of those built, very few remain today.

As with any limited production car, restoring this 180 is going to be expensive. The seller claims their Grandfather was an avid Packard collector and purchased it in ’75. He never got around to restoring the car, but he did keep it stored in a climate controlled garage. Before passing away, he told his grandson that 90 percent of the needed parts to restore it were in the car. I’m not sure if he means that the car was 90 percent complete or if he had 90 percent of the needed parts. I’m sure either way it is going to require a lot of work and loads of money to finish it. The asking price actually seems quite reasonable for the last of the pre-war Packards to be built, but restoration costs put it outside the realm of affordability for many of us. For the time being I might just have to be happy with restoring the sleigh that’s on top.

For a 70 year old car, this Packard is in surprisingly solid shape. It is starting to show it’s age, but I don’t see serious cancer. Of course I would want to inspect it closer, you just never know what might be hiding underneath it or in the areas you can’t see. I hope someone saves this piece of classic American luxury. It was built in one of the most interesting time periods and is a symbol of a bygone era. This is one of the few cars I could justify spending the money to restore. I can only imagine all the incredible stories this car could tell and I’m sure the next owner will create countless memories with it. So, would you tackle a project like this?