R5643

[murph the surf]

Joe Erdelac offered R5643,the last Avanti to go down the production line,for sale for the then princely sum of $ _______ in the mid 1970's????????????

[lschuc]

Joe Erdelac offered the last production Avanti for sale in the early 1970s for $100,000.    

You could have bought this car in 1965 from a Motor Trend magazine ad for just over $7,000.    Missed out again!

[murph the surf]

$100,000 is correct-and you're right-seems I'm always a day late and a dollar short.....This is the full page ad that appeared in a 1976 issue of AOAI magazine.

[studegary]

I knew the answer, but have not been online in that period of time.  I believe that advertising it for sale for $100,000 was not really an attempt to sell the Avanti, but rather, an attempt to establish a price/value for tax purposes for when he donated it to the Crawford Museum.  I believe that it was also advertised in the New York Times for that amount.  I "visited" this Avanti, and others, many times when Joe still had it at his dealership.

EDIT:  Joe was a fairly private person even though he owned a public dealership.  How I got to him and attracted his interest and friendship was by showing up in my restored 1953 Studebaker Commander Starliner.  When the salespeople saw my car, they went to Joe's office and got him to come out.  Joe would bring me out to the rear of the dealership and uncover the Avantis for me.  He wanted me to "bird dog" Avantis for him.

Edited January 16, 2018 by studegary