How many of your car exist today?

I was at a car show today and saw a few posters in front of peoples cars stating things like 1 of 326 known to exist and I was just wondering can anybody tell me how to find out how many of a specific car still exist or at least still on the road ? I'm wondering about my car (1941 olds 78) but I'm sure I'm not the only one to think this about their car.

 

There's thousands of F100's but mine is a one and only.

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I heard that collecters consider cars to have a 10 percent survival rate for most cars. Take a look at the "sitting and rotting" thread. Seems to me there is a lot still out there.

 

There are 7 known examples like my '27 Pierce, but is mine still to be counted? It doesn't run, and its been cut from a 4 door sedan to a pickup.

 

There is no way of knowing. Almost every statement you see like that is an uneducated guess. The exception to this would be a car made in very few numbers like the Tucker or cars like the Thunderbolt or ZL1 CAMARO where almost every one is accounted for. On a regular production car run of thousands, how many are sitting in garages / barns unregistered. These cars could obviously not have been included and somebody knows about them. There are several registries trying to account for various makes or models , but they can only count info that has been provided to them. Some people don't or won't share that info and others have no knowledge or care of said registries.

 

Well said! There is absolutely no way to tell how many of any large production car still exists.

 

What body style?

 

I have a fairly rare Pontiac, one of 1583 built, and in the last thirty years I have only seen 4-5 on the road in driving condition, and another 3 in the bush. A lot were made into 55 Chevys, as back then, Pontiacs weren't all that cool.....

 

How about still registered?

 

Most of those claims of "one of x-number known to exist" should be taken with a grain of salt. With the exception of a few, well-documented vehicles (Tuckers and Futureliners come to mind), the numbers come from "someone who heard it somewhere."

I remember seeing an ad for a Chevrolet Nomad: "Rare, one of less than fifty Nomads known to exist." The funny part was, I personally knew of 42 Nomads in the Tulsa, OK area at the time.

Unless someone has hard documentation to back it up, consider it conjecture or exaggeration.

 

Our 41 Packard 110 Convert, the Packard club in Warrington OH stated that only 1500 or less were made due to the Gov. making the car plants starting to make war parts. They said they know of 50 and don't know how many are on the road. We have shown our car from AZ up to Montana, over to WA and down thru CA and back to AZ. We have never seen another car.

 

My info comes from the Pierce Arrow Society, it was a very low production car to start with. BUT, I sure ain't bragging about the car. It's possibly more than I can save, hence the disclaimer- I'm not sure I would count mine.. despite believing the info about the remaining limited production.
I'm still trying though- beverly hilly billies be damned, I wanna see it roll again

 

my 1912 OAKLAND flathead powered rdst pu. was never built, so i have one of none, must be pretty rare...

 

I assume you are not counting civilian rides?

1965 vette conv. spd 327 fuelie
1931 Model A (full fender)roadster 4 spd 327 vette motor
1936 Chevy 2 dr sedan streetrod
1938 Caddy Opera coupe 430 in3 Buick
1937 Ford conv LT1
1963 Chevy SS conv.
1966 Chevelle 396 4 spd.

 

963 of the Edsel Roundup 2 door wagons built

Less than that amount are around today

Thats my story

Oldmics

 

I wish I knew. My 1957 Custom Safari wagon is #444 of 1292 built and there was someone belonging to the Custom Safari chapter of POCI that stated there were probably around 125 of them still left;and that was many years ago.When I belonged to POCI there were approximately 30,000 members at the time and their roster showed who owned what.At that time there were 114 Custom Safari wagons from 1955-1957 in the club. Sure would like to find out.

 

I use the ten percent left rule of thumb, seems reasonable. There are so many variables though. I have a 71 Avanti II, the Altman/Newman ex-employee group had a bunch of 64s left, but no engines or transmissions so they bartered and swapped and finagled. They couldn't afford to build them on speculation so the customer sat down, told them body color, interior, accessories etc. and put down a deposit. So my Avanti, in its configuration, there is only ONE....

 

When I sell a car I always put in the ad "...one of 63 built...", it seems to boost the price up a bit.

 

One of One= My 33 Fordor Victoria Convertible Sedan ( With a Trunk )

 

Man I'd take a Pontiac over a chevy almost any day! Even though my car is a chevy.. Lol

 

My black n flamed 29 Hudson pick up, is the only one in New Zealand. Ha ha. My 28 Hudson Super Six is one of a few though.

 

My '35 Chevy phaeton is body 507 of 600 or so made by Holdens. Fisher only made 200 odd phaetons in '35. How many around today, well, when was the last time you saw one?

 

My car is one year only body style, still seems to be quite a few of them around though.

 

Roundbody Falcon? 'Round here, you'd think about 50%+ are still on the road.

 

I'm pretty sure there are at least double the number if 3w 32coupes on the road now than ever before............

Doc.

 

Thousands! And I'm lucky enough to have one!

 

Research on how many cars produced is pretty easy on most cars, the survival rate thru various clubs for a particular car count depends on membership, but I think most claims that I have see at shows, are usually on fairly common cars, then I refer to " The car show BS club" Huge membership. VERY popular club. John ref: The 32 Ford-The Deuce Site had production numbers. Cabriolet 6,091 Conv Sedan 926 5 W Std Coupe 51,794 Fordor Sedan 37,363 Panel Del 6,122 Phaeton 2,490 Roadster 12,597 Sedan Del 400 Station Wagon 1383 Sport Coupe 2,911 3W Delux Coupe 22,148 Tudor Sedan 124,101 Victoria 8,580......... WOW! Thats a lot of cars Love my 32. John

 

Ain't you special!

 

Far as Chrysler products go, it is pretty easy to find out how many of a particular combinatoin were built. When you get into option breakdowns, say 30% of a specific car were built with a 383, 22% were 4-speed, 20% had air conditioning, and 5% had power seats, and your car has each of those options, then you know that yours is one of five percent of that model. The "10% rule" remaining is pretty valid for MOST cars, not all. Remember, no one knows with certainty how many of a particular car remain, unless you are speaking of '70 - '71 Hemicuda convertibles, '68 Dodge/Plymouth A-body Super Stocks, or '66 Coronet 4-door Hemi cars; cars where there were so few built and all of the cars are absolutely accounted for, one way or the other.

Pontiac Historical Society provides very detailed info, as does the Marti Report for Ford products.

 

Civilian Automobile production did not stop until February of 1942.
There was no wartime interruption of the 1941 model year.