Finding out how "rare" a vehicle is.

[rage2]

Originally posted by Graham_A_M
Its like, good job dad! That was a small investment 15 years ago that would have paid idiotic dividends today.

No capital gains tax either on selling cars!

[rp_guy]

Lotus provides a service called the Certificate of Provenance (40 GBP) where they will tell you how many were produced, and imported.

My car is 1/4 Canadian cars (as the elise/exige cannot be imported into Canada), and the only one imported for 2009 (the other 3 are 2010 cars). Of the whole Sport 260 range in North America, it's the only one made in that colour.

And as was said earlier in the thread, there's always going to be somebody who will find the production numbers on the cars. Here's the one that someone did for my Exige:

http://www.britishspeed.com/forum/sh...e-260-Registry


And my Acura CL is also 'rare' as well. While the CL had about 30000 vehicles produced, the manual transmission only accounted for 3500 of the total production. Again, on the acurazine forums, someone has found the exact production of interior/exterior colours and combinations.

[Sugarphreak]

...

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

My car is not rare at all, plenty of Lemans Blue 135i with M-sport and other options.

My mom's car, as far as we know, is a bit of a unicorn. From 2010 onwards you could not order a 135i in Bluewater Metallic with the M-Sport pack in Canada, and my parents put the order in before the dealers knew what was available to be built and spec'd but they built it for us anyway.

As far as we know my dad's Caterham is the only R400 model in Canada, all of the others are CSR260S, Hyabusas and slower models.

[Neil4Speed]

Originally posted by rp_guy

And my Acura CL is also 'rare' as well. While the CL had about 30000 vehicles produced, the manual transmission only accounted for 3500 of the total production. Again, on the acurazine forums, someone has found the exact production of interior/exterior colours and combinations.

That is a decently rare car, only made in 2003. I have heard they are pretty good too!

[clem24]

I think the distinction needs to be made between an actual rare car vs. one that just has a rare color and tranny/options combo. Rare car is pretty cool. Rare tranny and options is interesting (but only if it adds to performance but there are times when rare is NOT better, such as the BMW 325i SMG hahaha). Rare color I could care less about.

And Spikers, serious question: why do you care about how rare your truck is? You've got an F150, the best selling car in North America. Literally millions upon millions on the road. It's about as interesting as a Celica Panasonic edition.

[dirtsniffer]

Haha. Ya. And when people say. 1/xxxx produced they should say for the model year. It should be for total production. . Or for certain small options. 'But mine is one of twelve with the grey trunk mat.'

Now if you have a Dakar yellow e92 m3 then I would consider that rare.

[GTS4tw]

Originally posted by Twin_Cam_Turbo

As far as we know my dad's Caterham is the only R400 model in Canada, all of the others are CSR260S, Hyabusas and slower models.

Is it lime green?

[spikerS]

Originally posted by clem24


And Spikers, serious question: why do you care about how rare your truck is? You've got an F150, the best selling car in North America. Literally millions upon millions on the road. It's about as interesting as a Celica Panasonic edition.

LOL, I honestly don't.

It has just come up in so many conversations with car guys how they list how rare their vehicle is, or that they are the only one in YYC etc. I just wondered how they are able to come up with statements like that.

As for my truck? pfft, i know when I bought mine there were 4 more tucks exactly kitted out like mine on the one lot, just different colors. I know my truck is not rare. well, it might be in 50 years...

[G-ZUS]

My '95 E320 cabriolet is 1/6140 imported into N/A over 3 years

[Kramerica]

The numbers I've dug up for the SVX tend to hover ~1000 brought into Canada over its production run. For my model year I've seen numbers around 60-80 for Canada.

Like Spikers said I don't really get how people get away with saying they have the only one of a car in Calgary without some documentation. I ended up seeing an SVX sitting on a lawn down the street of where I park mine in winter so I can't even claim to be the only one of those cars on that street.

[R-Audi]

My Audi (2007 Audi S4 Avant Auto) is 1/150 of the entire model for that year.. and thats ignoring color and options.

[soccernut]

I know there are at least 3 more 1st gen Celica coupes in alberta. All Pre 1975.

I am the only one that I know of with 75 GT. I have been searching for more but this is all I have found so far.

[dirtsniffer]

Originally posted by R-Audi
My Audi (2007 Audi S4 Avant Auto) is 1/150 of the entire model for that year.. and thats ignoring color and options.

Is that 150 including manuals? It's true though, not many of those around.
On auto trader people with carbon blak m3s are calling it a rare color. Haha, ya right. It is one of the most common colors. Way more common than jet black.

[speedog]

Rare would be the 1957 Studebaker Commander (with the Safety-Eye magnifying speedometer) sitting in my uncle's garage - most have been long gone crushed and recycled by now.

Rare would be my Mom's 1980 gold turbo Pontiac Trans Am with no t-top sun roof panels - almost all were ordered with the t-top option.

Rare means nothing for most cars unless they become old or if they were rare from the start.

The late 70's red and white Chev half ton that sits in the driveway on the south side of 24th Ave NW just west of 14th Street - tons of them were around back then. Now it's rare as can be and that one is done up as classically can be done for it's era with the hood mounted red plexiglass bug deflector, gun rack, roof mounted chrome horns and the wood-grain vinyl sided topper out back - you most definitely won't see one of these driving around Calgary on a regular basis.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Originally posted by GTS4tw


Is it lime green?

It's Triumph Roulette Green yes.

[mr2mike]

Saw you guys driving up 19th St NW. Excellent car.

[Twin_Cam_Turbo]

Originally posted by mr2mike
Saw you guys driving up 19th St NW. Excellent car.

Haha thanks.

[R-Audi]

Originally posted by dirtsniffer


Is that 150 including manuals? It's true though, not many of those around.

150 Auto, 138 Auto in 2007.

From Audi:

Year Model Sold Units
2006 Canada S4 4.2 AVANT 4-DR 6-SPD QUATTRO 227
2006 Canada S4 4.2 AVANT 4-DR AUTO QUATTRO 200

2007 Canada S4 4.2 AVANT 4-DR 6-SPD QUATTRO 138
2007 Canada S4 4.2 AVANT 4-DR AUTO QUATTRO 150

2008 Canada S4 4.2 AVANT 4-DR 6-SPD QUATTRO 15
2008 Canada S4 4.2 AVANT 4-DR AUTO QUATTRO 8

[clem24]

There were something like 4,500 B7 S4 Avants worldwide. To me though, the problem with a rare trim is that it's just a trim. According to my chart, it's just 'interesting' because as cool as an S4 is, there are also a whole swack of S4 sedans, and then if you look at the how many total B7s (all A4 variants) were built, it's suddenly meh.

So I am with Speedog - rare has to be something that is truly rare.

So on that note, most 'rare' cars referred to in this thread are simply cars that are unwanted by most people.. They sold in small numbers, hence the rarity hahaha. I mean really, only one rare car (in terms of trim) that was mentioned and is truly rare is the C63 BS, where demand outstripped supply. I'll bet many of those S4s sat on dealer lots for a long time.

My Civic63 is 'rare' since it's one of the few 2011s ordered with the AMG pack but to me, it's nothing special since W204 C classes are EVERYWHERE!!! Well that and the fact that everyone on Beyond drives one.