Packard Model A History

The Packard Model A was the company's first automobile, completed on November 6, 1899, in Warren, Ohio. James Ward Packard, a mechanical engineer dissatisfied with a Winton he had bought, set out — famously goaded by Alexander Winton's advice to 'go build your own car' — to build something better, with his brother William and partner George Weiss.

A simple single-cylinder runabout, the Model A established the engineering-led reputation that Packard would carry into the luxury field. Only a handful were built before the line evolved into the Models B and C, and the company's early single- and twin-cylinder cars carried it through the move to Detroit in 1903.