58 Karmann Ghia. I think only 2500 imported in 58, but mine was bought in Germany and shipped over, so I am not sure what that does to the rarity. It does have a factory accessory basket (wicker looking thing that sits under the dash). I am told those are pretty rare.
81cpcamaro wrote: Rarest cars for me probably were the 1971 Firebird Formula 400 and the 1992 Achieva SCX W41. The rest of them have been just run of the mill average vehicles.
Has anyone ever recognized the SCX for what it is?
1969 Chevrolet Impala with a 396 and 4 speed. Rare??? you question. Why yes, because it was a Big Block, 2bbl, Muncie 4 speed, 12 bolt car. 1 of 10. It was ordered that way to pull a horse trailer. I had the original engine and rear to sell with the car. I swapped in a 454 T400 9" and ran mid 12s before I found out it was rare....saddly, rare for the wrong reason...thus making it no more valuable.
Our $2005 Challenge 1962 Fiat is one of less then 300 with a removable hardtop.
Our $2014 Challenge 1980 Pontiac is one of 1987 with the Formula W66 option.
1955 Sunbeam-Talbot Alpine - I think around 1500 made
My '97 TJ is a SE trim with all the Sport options but the good ones. Previous owner had to have special ordered it. Sport cloth interior, sound bar, over head light, wheels, tape deck, automatic transmission, A/C, etc. All of that, but it's still a 2.5l with a D35, no Trac Lok, and no center console. Sport seats front and rear but they didn't spring for the console? It's "unique."
I had (most of) two Lotus Europa Twin Cams, out of ~4700 sold world-wide.
I also had 1-1/2 '77 Dodge Colts. While I imagine total production was much higher than the Europa, I expect far fewer survive today.
1969 Mercury Cougar XR-7?
1968 Suburban 3-Door?
My 87 Shelby CSX #106 of 750 built.
and my 88 Porsche 944 Turbo S, one of 339 Silver Rose cars in the US.
I'm glad I sold both of them though. Rare cares are a pain in the ass if you actually care about the rarity.
'57 MGA. Not that rare at 59k built
1966 Kaiser Willy's Jeep CJ5 V6 with factory hardtop and dealer installed AM radio. Still had original owners manual and those little steps on the side. So early in the production run that the owners manual had stickers to cover the 4 cylinder stuff where applicable.
It would pop the front tires off the ground if you speed shifted it between 1 & 2
The rarest would be a toss up between my X3 6 speed and my Cagiva Gran Canyon. The X3 was 1 of 1500 imported to the US and Cagiva was rare in Europe much less here.
I had the first year of supercharged mr2... 1988 iirc
I also was going to say my '88 MR2 SC would have been the rarest. 1,000 per year for two years offered.
Of course, Q45's were never really a sales hit, even when new. Here we are nearly 25 years later and I have owned two in the past 11 months that are nearly identical.
Probably my Innocenti Mini Cooper.
Growing up we had a handfull of rare(oddball) cars. 1981 Audi 5000s Diesel 5-speed 1984 BMW 733i 5-speed 1987 MB 190e 2.3-16v 5-speed
i currently drive an 03 BMW X5 5-speed
My 64 Spitfire is rare now but my 81 Alfa GTV-6 was rare over here.
I have a 1961 Pontiac Bonneville, with factory tripower and a four speed manual transmission. The engine is the '425A Trophy', which had four bolt main bearings, special exhaust manifolds and some other stuff. In addition, it was painted in 1959 paint colors (the color code on the firewall trim tag is 'special'.) As such it's pretty much one of one.
My summer daily driver is a 1986 BMW M535i. They built about 4500 of this particular version from 1985 to 1987, but no one knows exactly how many are in the US since they were never officially sold here; my guess is there are less than 50 of them here.
My winter daily driver is a 1988 BMW 325iX. Numbers are a little fuzzy but my understanding is there were around 600 of them sold in the US that year.
Depends on the definition of rare. I had a '67 Cougar XR7 GT that only a few were optioned like it, but they made a ton of Cougars. I had a '70 Boss 302, and then some that weren't particularly rare when new, but are rare now. Such as a 105 series Alfa GTV, TR4A, Fiat 600D, or even my dozen or so X1/9s.
I think MR2 Turbos are somewhat rare now, but I don't think of them that way. The 944 Turbo may qualify, but I've owned nothing that might be considered rare in truest sense of the word however.
I drove a bananna yella '69 442 W-30 in college, transmission gave up, and sold it for $2,000. 1 of 121 W-30 convertibles.
Seemed like a big ugly pain in the ass at the time.
I bought cdowd's dad's 1987 Mercedes Benz 190e 2.3 16v and drove it for several years. I now have a 2009 RX-8. Both are rare in the USA and both are great driving cars.
Neon acr coupe in lapis blue. One od about 750 acr coupes in 97, one of four in lapis blue according to what I was told.
The other would be a 64 el Camino. Can't be that many left.
2001 Subaru Impreza 2.5RS Sedan and a 2009 Mazda RX8 R3 were my two rarest from a production standpoint. Seen on road rare were probably a 1986 and 1984 Audi 4kq.
In reply to mazdeuce:
Thread derail regarding the CTS-V wagon. This guy sure had fun with his at Grattan last weekend. Kept overheating the diff though, until he and his instructor decided to turn the nanny's off.
I'm not sure based on production numbers that any of my cars were rare. The 82 BMW 320is may be the rarest, or the 96 impala SS. I know they weren't really all that rare. They built tons of 77 Monte Carlos but it is extremely rare to see one as clean and original as mine was.
It would either be my two 1974 TVR 2500M's (approx. 160 made):
Or my '91 Acura Legend sedan with a 5 speed manual trans (Don't know how many built, but rare).
My old Lotus Esprit S1. They made 894 S1's world wide. If you count the color (Oxford blue) and the factory AC it was a single digit production.
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