Re: vin id

Posted by Dave Brownell On 2015/11/15 9:22:48

My 400-based Esquire's VIN number ends in 4121, making it the 3,121 400 hardtop produced, or about a hundred or so hardtops from the end of the Detroit production. I figure, with the help of others on the PI Forum, that my car was produced in very late May to mid-June, depending on the demand from dealers or the need to use up bodies and get rid of parts.

Your car could have been easily registered on June 30, 1956, depending on where that first dealer was, or when your car was produced. A Detroit or Chicago dealer could have been waiting anxiously for it to come in and put it in the hands of its new owner. I don't know if the factory was still doing factory deliveries in those final months, but if they were, then this is another possibility.

My car could have been a cancelled delivery or a bad call if it was produced "on spec." From what I can tell, it went directly to a Northern Virginia dealer (DuBois, Arlington) where it languished on the dealer's lot until late December 1956. Getting rid of it caused some serious discounting for an "orphan" car, perhaps almost a $2000 discount off of the original selling price. It eventually was sold to a Virginia dentist who kept it for almost ten years before it was sold to the fellow I bought it from. The only modern comparison I could make is me buying a left-over Fisker sedan last year. Great cars but no longer being made. Will that Fisker be treasured in sixty years?