The 250, 300, and 400/Patricians were Packard's flagship models and comprised the majority of production for that year. The Patrician was now the top-shelf Packard, replacing the Custom Eight line. Original plans were to equip it with a engine, but the company decided that sales would probably not be high enough to justify producing the larger, more expensive power plant, and so the debored (previously the middle engine) was used instead. While the smaller powerplant offered nearly equal performance in the new Packards to that of the 356, the move was seen by some as further denigrating Packard's image as a luxury car.