Some automotive historians, who have written documented histories on Packard, have/had argued that Packard should have dropped the Ultramatic after 1954, and purchased a more modern transmission design from another manufacturer, such as Hydra-Matic. Such opinions fail to consider that Packard's use of a locking torque converter was not only up to date, but ahead of its time. And despite the problems, the transmissions worked beautifully when certain factors were ideal. In addition, the only truly new modern transmission in the 1950s, that was not a repeat of anyone else, (which did not appear until 1956) was the Dual Coupling Hydra-Matic but that had serious teething problems of its own similar to Packard, and their Ultramatic.