Is there some way to find out how many of a particular vehicle are still around? It is easy enough to find out how many were made. Maybe dept or licensing or something. Thank!
Oh you could request a search from your DMV and those of the other 49 states and 200+ countries of the world, and after receiving it you would know. But that wouldn't count all the ones unregistered becasue they never get driven and the junkers. Can't be done.
The rumor i heard is there are more 32 fords registered in CA than henry ford ever made, anyone know if that's true?
Yep, you don't want to know how many cars they claim there's like a dozen left anywhere in the world and I then went out and found two or three of them without even looking hard. I did some rough math a while back and figured that you can reasonably assume that between 5-10% of most postwar cars are still with us, and 5% or fewer for most prewar cars, Ford products excepted. The newer they get, the more are around.
It sure wouldnt suprise me with all the repro stuff out there, but i doubt it. Think about it though, how many times have you gone to a car show and seen "Millner's coupe"??? I usually see 3-4 a summer. And if its a Goodguys show 3-4 a day.
This bull shit has been debunked on here about 20 times. Anyone with some basic math skills could figure this one out with just some common sense. Of course when you consider common sense is just about as common as rocking horse shit I suppose some might think it could be true. Frank
Folks who claim that their car is one of only XXX surviving models really tick me off. I see it all the time in for sale ads, as if putting that bogus information will make some potential buyer think "oh wow, there's only 33 of these *insert make and model here* left, I better offer full price!" What a crock. I know right off the bat that the owner is full of shit if they make some BS claim about how many of their particular make and model are left. ***now I can understand, if you are making the claim about a car that was super rare to begin with, say, perhaps, a 1936 Cadillac dual cowl, v16 Limo, which only had 2 of that particular type produced. even still, quoting a production number when selling a car is a much better way to sell someone on the rarity of a car than some BS claim about "how many are left"***
Short answer...No. Even if you were to somehow access ALL the DMV files of every state and country,how many of a particular vehicle are actually registered? SOME vehicles are able to be decoded as 1 of x # of vehicles built. How many "barn/garage/storage/behind a house" haven't been registered in years/decades? If someone tells you it's 1 of x # left,your BS meter should peg.
Once in a while for some super rare valuable cars, they might actually know. Like some rare model of Bugatti Royale or Hispano Suiza or something where they only made 6 or 8 of them, and they knew that one burned up in a fire and they know where the other ones are still because they're all in museums or famous collections or something. Sometimes there will be an organization of owners of some rare model, and most of the people who have one might be part of the organization trying to share information and scrounge up parts or something, so they might have a rough idea how many exist or at least a minimum number. For the rest, it's just somebody's wild guess, and probably B.S.
I know you will think I'm grumpy, but who cares how many 1949 Whatevers are still around, it won't change the value of yours. Massproduced cars were spit out to make money, high end custom built cars like Bugatti were limited production and records were kept, so they are traceable. Just enjoy your car, make up numbers if it makes you happy, nobody will question them.
What kind of car? in 1950 they made 12000 or so plymouth convertables I have 1 of them I have seen 1 other than mine so that makes 2 so far ..Start counting
Even if you count you'll never find them all. Defining existant as being more or less complete and all in one piece or at least all in one barn/garage, there will be cars even the next door neighbor doesn't know is there until they turn up for sale, or you stumble on them in the back of some junkyard where no one's walked in 20 years.
A buddy of mine has a set of 2wd conversion hub made by Warn for Willys jeeps back around 1946. He was telling me that he read an artical saying there were only 5 known to ever exist. Well he has a pair, and he aint included in those 5. So dont believe everything you read. I know they keep a registry for Tuckers, but whos to say they didnt make a few more that no one knew about? Duezenburgs? There are 2 of them in the Norwich Car Museum in Norwich, NY. I hear Leno is a collector as well. Im sure there are experts out there that "know" how many of them were produced, but how could they really know for sure?
....and where is this junkyard that nobody has walked in 20 years? I want in! It would be a refreshing break from the Neons, minivans, and grand ams.
I have several big books of American made cars that show production numbers of all models of all makes..we always figgered on the 10% theory, look at the production number and probably 10% are left..The pre WWII cars are a little tougher because of the Huge scrap metal drives to melt them down into weapons,airplanes,tanks etc..it gets a little screwy with popularity to, 57 Fords far out sold 57 Chevrolets but it seems like alot more Chevys survive...
after last summers scrap prices its a wonder we still can find stuff. Imagine how many good cars went to the crusher. I've noticed the farther away from the scrap yards you get the more old tin you find.
When I saw the header,,... I thought you were referring to HAMBers,... or... old girlfriends ... or.... LOL.
ive got a 32 buick cpe rumble seat car. the numbers book i looked it up in said they made 1903 of this model ,,77 years later i think that number is much smaller.......
If there's a registry for the make and model you're researching, that's usually a good bet. Also national "make" clubs have a pretty good handle on survivors.
Just like how some biologist will claim that there's only 50 of the such-and-such bird left in the wild. How could they possibly know that? Even the production numbers aren't always accurate. There were 7 '71 Hemi 'Cuda convertibles made and that's what the production numbers said, then some guy found two more in France that had been exported. Another analogy I like to use is that Ford made more 2 door Ranch Wagons in 1959 than all 1959 Edsel production combined. I have one of those Edsels and I've seen a lot more of them, I'm not sure I've ever seen a '59 Ford 2 door Ranch Wagon. It's all relative.
That's one of the silliest things I've ever heard, and am surprised it's quoted on Roadster.com, David shouls know better! There were almost 277,000 32 Fords made and there is no way in Hell there are that many registered in California!
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