Would a car built in large(ish) quantitles elsewhere but imported in limited quantities to the United States be a reasonable answer? Because I doubt that any of the German Gogomobiles exist that were imported during the car’s production. There may be one or two that were brought over later because someone wanted something WAY out of the ordinary.
One other import idea: The Renault Dauphine was notorious for burning out its engine when driven on highways. That car damaged Renault’s reputation to such an extent that the Company left the U.S. market for a number of years.
Hmm, I see that the OP specified a car that would be IMPOSSIBLE to see today, regardless of continent.
President Johnson had a fixation on some economy measures. According to “Upstairs at the White House” he would go around shutting off lights in unused rooms. He also complained that there were too many Cadillac/Imperial/Lincoln limousines used to transport VIP’s around Washington D.C., and ordered the various government departments to economize. One of of the limousine companies responded by producing limousines on stretched Ford vehicles. I’ve never seen a surviving vehicle, but wouldn’t it make a great addition to the Johnson presidential library?
My dad and his best friend (“B”) are retired Chrysler engineers. When those turbine cars were being loaned out, they were kind of finicky, so needed frequent repairs and tuning. No dealership mechanic knew anything about them. B, then a newbie engineer, was given the job of flying around the country, fixing the loaner turbine cars.
Skip forward several decades. Leno bought the car from the museum, but he wanted it to run, and it didn’t. The museum couldn’t make it run; neither could anyone at Chrysler, but someone there knew that B had worked on them back in’64. B had retired, but they connected him with Leno. Leno flew B and his wife out to Leno’s home in CA, grilled steaks for them, and showed them around. B stayed for several days, working on the car. B says Leno is very personable and not full of himself.
and the fact that Leno drives (and gives rides in) the cars he owns, no matter how old or rare. There’s a guy local to me who’s an attorney and car guy who wrote a book about the development of the Turbine car, and Jay Leno invited him onto his show a while back.
if you’re interested in seeing/hearing a running Chrysler Turbine Car:
I had a model kit of that Chrysler Turbine at one time. Only 1:24 kit I’ve ever seen where the body wasn’t essentially in one piece. Kinda glad I never tried to build it, looked like work.
and the fact that Leno drives (and gives rides in) the cars he owns, no matter how old or rare. There’s a guy local to me who’s an attorney and car guy who wrote a book about the development of the Turbine car, and Jay Leno invited him onto his show a while back.
if you’re interested in seeing/hearing a running Chrysler Turbine Car:
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Are you referring to the book by Steve Lehto? That’s Dad’s best friend on the jacket cover.
back then things were even murkier, because there were chassis manufacturers and coachbuilders, neither of which manufactured complete vehicles. For example, Duesenberg. They manufactured the engine and rolling chassis and would order a body from one of several coachbuilders made to the buyers specifications.
Hmm then maybe for the purposes of the OP, that’s too early. Do you know when they started doing more like how most vehicles are today?
I realize there are still situations like Ford providing an incomplete vehicle to an “upfitter”, although that seems less piecemeal than what you describe.
The 1913 Swan Car apparently is the last surviving example of any road-going vehicle produced by Brooke. According to Wikipedia, they switched almost exclusively to ships after that year.
1966 model year Pontiac sold just over 96,000 GTOs, 174 of which were known as “Ram Air” or “XS Code.” The XS was the first two digits of the VIN. None are known to exist. They were rated at 360 HP, but with a hotter cam, transistor ignition and other goodies they HP number was low. I had a couple fun years with mine…until I was “invited” into the Marines. Oldsmobile made a similar model (W-30) in 1966. Built 54. I believe 8 remain.
I haven’t seen a Nissan Stanza (sedan and two-door), Toyota Tercel EZ, Sterling, Fiat Brava, or Subaru Justy on American roads for at least two decades.
I think the Suzuki Kizashi will be extinct in 2030. Great cars, but so few were sold before Suzuki bailed on the US market.
I saw a pristine Ford Aspire in the parking lot of a local Staples a few weeks ago. It must be the last one on the road in NYS.
This R5 (the European version of Le Car) sold at an Aston Martin dealer near me not too long ago.
I wonder how many Acura ZDXes are left? .There were only about 7,000 made, from 2009 to 2015. I think I’ve only ever seen one. I’m sure there some left, but that’s a ridiculously small production run for a major automaker.
