Time to rev up your search engines. According to Wikipedia, Subaru produced a mere 10,346 Saab 9-2x’s between 2005 and 2006. In today’s 9-2x Capsule post, I produced a list of cars that I was surprised to find were produced in larger numbers than the 9-2x.
Think you can do me one better? Go find the rarest or most surprising car that is actually more common than the 9-2x, and then come back here a post it in the comments. Remember, it has to have at least 10,346 copies manufactured.
A circa 2005-2009 Mitsubishi Raider. I have no idea where most of these were sold, but in Oregon they are rare. Also, just found a stick shift Raider.
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mitsubishi_Raider
https://www.cargurus.com/Cars/l-Used-Mitsubishi-Raider-d761#listing=161806995
I am not going to include the 1st generation Camry even though I have not seen one in months since they used to be quite common.
First year, 1967, Cadillac Eldorado: 17930.
If we are talking about USA sales only then the Mitsubishi I-MiEV seems to be one of the least sold in the USA with less then 4000 sold from 2011 to 2014 (there was no 2015 model year sold here)
As rare as the amount sold makes it out to be, I have seen several in the last few years. I have seen only 2 Saabarus in the last few years
The MiEV does beat the Saab globally, though, with around 37,600.
(Leon beat me to posting about the Mitsu by a few minutes! :))
My daily driver is an i-MIEV and it replaced a 9-2x. What do I win?
Obscurity
You might be the only person in the world who could say that. Which is kinda cool.
I’ve never even seen an I-miev in person.
Nor have I, but there’s one for sale at the local Carmax…
Ford Skyliner,
1957: 20766
1958: 14713
1959: 12915
1960 Edsel Corsair convertible, 1,300 made.
Plymouth + Chrysler Prowlers Produced: 11,702
There’s a great one right there. Talk about surprising!
This one actually is surprising.
I work on Cape Cod in a car storage facility, we have one Prowler ( mostly BMW, MB, and Vettes)…. people come in and see the Prowler and mostly say,”Who would buy that”. 🙁
The beautiful but ill-starred Triumph Stag, with 25,000+, according to Wikipedia.
The Buick Grand National almost doubles the Saab at 20,193.
Ford produced about 33,000 first generation (1989-1992) Taurus SHO’s, but they’re pretty much ghosts now. I can use one finger to count how many times I’ve encountered them.
The Merkur XR4Ti is a similar story, with roughly 42,000 produced.
Just realized I misinterpreted the post thinking it meant something like “what car seems just as rare as a 92x?” The Merkur may still be a worthy entry though.
Lancia Thesis. Around 16,000 of them were built, according to the Italian Wikipedia site.
Others that come to mind are the Alfa Romeo 166 (the brand’s last executive car) and the Citroën C6 we saw here the other day.
The sophisticated, opulent Cadillac XLR, with 15,000+.
Scratch that; already noted in the original article. Should’ve had my reading glasses on and thinking brain in before commenting.
How about this instead: the anything-but-opulent Isuzu Axiom, with over 18,000.
And FOUR different exhaust set-ups through the production run. Try piecing together a replacement exhaust for one to pass PA state inspection sometime. I have. And failed. Nobody makes all 3 parts that will work together, and Isuzu’s parts stockpile is dwindling. The car was traded, no clue what became of it.
The price for custom-fabbing the Y-pipe to go with the readily available mid and tailpipes brought the total to over $2000 and it needed other work.
How about a Cimarron D’ Oro ? My aunt had one.
Jonathan – have you seen the articles here? https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-american/curbside-classic-cadillac-cimarron-doro-convertible-this-little-piggy-went-to-market/
Maybe this only surprises me, but here’s another one that sold way more than I would have thought- the Saturn Sky with 34,415.
Only 8 were produced for the 2010 MY, though, along with 12 Solstice coupes, 8 Solstice convertibles, and 2 Opels.
I’ve seen, like, three Toyota Mirai in the past couple of days. Don’t know the numbers, but you can’t even get one if you don’t live close to a Hydrogen station.
Maserati Quattroporte V, introduced in 2003, around 24,000 (built from 2003 to 2012).
1993-1998 Toyota Supra MK4: 11,239 in the US alone.
2003-04 Mercury Marauder: 11,052
Second generation Oldsmobile Aurora. ~74,000 produced. I see the same one maybe once or twice a week and an odd one maybe once every two months.
I got a picture of one of these or one similar at least
Keeping it in the Saab fold, GM squeezed out 86,000 9-7Xs. I seem to see more 9-2Xs.
That one does surprise me. I’ve seen what seems like quite a few 9-2X over the years, whereas I feel I’ve seen far fewer of the 9-7X. Maybe I just don’t notice them?
They seem equally undifferentiated from their donor vehicles on the outside. I see a decent number of 9-2Xs in eastern PA, and remember that Jim had one on The Office in top spec Aero trim. A Pennsylvania thing perhaps?
People are insane about Subarus here.
I see quite a few final generation 9-5s around. In fact, one today at the grocery store. And I have sold tires for 4 different ones. Total production was 2200.
And I have seen two 9-4Xs, and sold tires on one. Total production was 267.
Relatedly, I have sold tires on two of the roughly 300 AWD Dodge Avengers. I have a list of very rare cars that have come through our shop at work.
I also see two last gen 9-5. I even know their license plate letters. I didn’t know there were less than 2500 globally. That did suprise me a lot!
It’s still one of by biggest life goals: to buy one and keep it mint. And get the pic I want: of it parked next to a Volvo S90
No clue about production numbers, but I have sold tires on a 9-3 cross wheel drive sedan, and written an inspection sticker for a 9-3 SportCombi crossover thing (cannot remember the name) and a Volvo S60 XC sedan.
There is a high volime Volvo-Mazda dealer across the street from me that used to sell Saab, Saturn and Isuzu.
Two other ultra rare cars with higher production than either Saab: Cadillac ELR and Mercedes SLS AMG-both with 3,000 produced.
And a third: the first generation Ford GT with 3,500 produced.
Or how about the 9-4X? It came out about a month or two before GM and Saab went blotto. I saw a dealer ad for it, so it definitely existed. According to wikpedia, 814 units were produced.
There also couldn’t have been more than a few thousand last-gen 9-5s made.
Lexus sold 56,000 or so second generation SC430s in the US.
Chrysler sold 76,000 Crossfires. It’s been awhile since I’ve seen one.
Infiniti US sold 16,000 final-generation F50 Q45s. I would have guessed under 5,000.
Acura so far has sold 12,000 RLXs. I have seen maybe 3 on the road.
And the previous generation RL scored over 40,000 sales which is equally surprising.
The Acura Legend was the best selling imported luxury sedan during its first and second generations.
I would love to know what deranged marketing guru convinced Acura to replace its legendary model name w/ “RL.” The RL became an almost instant sales dud. And each succeeding generation has become dudlier.
I’d also love to see what would happen if Acura suddenly renamed the RL as the new LEGEND. I suspect sales would spike even if the car was little changed.
Anyone know the genius behind the demise of the Legend name? I know it was done to build “Acura” but after two decades of failure I think it’s time to recognized it and bring back the winning name.
The stupidity about customers focusing too much on the “Legend” name and not enough on the “Acura” name probably came from some committee…er, focus group. To me, that is like saying Ford should rename the Mustang the “MSG” because customers focus (no pun intended) too much on that name.
Kia sold nearly 65,000 Amantis in the US.
Cadillac Allanté? ~21,000 over seven years.
Saw one today, as a matter of fact!
Didn’t exactly beat the 9-2X but Acura made 7,700 first generation NSXs.
Lexus HS250h: 20,000
Infiniti J30: 87,000
Mercedes-Benz R-Class: 54,000
Chrysler Aspen: 65,000
Pontiac G8: 38,000
Chevrolet SSR: 23,000
This one, like the Prowler, is genuinely surprising. I guess cars that tend to sit in retirees’ garages and get polished with a diaper seem rarer than they are because they aren’t on the road.
Volkswagen Routan: 59,000
Ed Stembridge (if my memory isn’t cheating on me), long time editor, owns one of those…
Yep! Wife still loves it, at ~80K miles now.
Not bad for a rebadged, Dodge Caravan, eh, Ed? 😉
Alright, so I know this isn’t a car, but I keep thinking of the Isuzu Hombre. JPC did a post a few years ago and he couldn’t find production numbers, and I can’t today, either. But I bet there were more than 10K made, although I very rarely see one around here, and they’re not getting any more numerous as time marches on.
I can’t find any Hombre sales figures, either. I did find sales figures for all lines 1995-2001, when presumably all Hombres would have been sold (prod. 1996-2000MY). After subtracting out the other nameplates (including 15 Stylus sold in 1995), I come up with:
1995-231
1996-12,392
1997-11,600
1998-23,310
1999-16,435
2000-11,348
2001-145
For a total of roughly 75,000, assuming I accounted for all the other nameplates produced.
For comparison, in 4 years of sales of its successor i-Series, there were 11,600 sales.
i-Series is a good mention. I’m not sure when I last saw one.
Wow, that’s far more than I would have guessed, and I live in the SF Bay Area where rust is not an issue. I have seen very few, and as a former S10 owner, I probably notice these more than most people.
I’m an Isuzu fan, or at least a Trooper fan and I always thought the Hombre made the S-10 look classy. And the S-10 looked like cheap crap.
Also, the Edsel. I had no idea ~116,000 were made! I would’ve guessed 30,000, tops from the way people talk about them; granted, the last one came off the line over three decades before I was born.
I present the Mercedes Benz 600 Royale. I believe it’s only a production run of one. Yes, I know it’s not a MB car. Take a look at the workmanship on this thing.
Talbot Tagora was around 20,000 in 3 years
Suzuki Kizashi: 19,800
Steep depreciation means you see the Kizashi in some strange places. Even when Suzuki was a going business you didn’t see many around here because the nearest dealer was about 130 to 160 miles away (although there is a Suzuki motorcycle dealership in Gallup).
I have a classroom aide who is an old lady with a heart of gold but doesn’t own a car and never learned to drive. Due to lack of public transportation around here she relies on others for rides. When her daughter picks her up from work she is always driving a light blue Kizashi.
I was surprised to see that Suzuki also sold a relatively large number (100,000+) of SX4s, which are pretty scarce around here. I see maybe one or two in a month, if lucky. Apparently they weren’t bad little cars, just swamped by the marketplace.
The SX4 is EVERY-freaking-where in Erie, PA. Lots of Grand Vitaras, XL7 (mostly the Equinox-based version but also the stretched-Tracker/Vitara version), and even some Kizashis as well. You’d wonder why Suzuki would even think of leaving the US market if you never left Erie. Mitsubishi Outlanders are also freakishly common.
I also remember seeing quite a few of the SX4 in Vermont last time I was there.
Similar in the Allentown area. Subarus are insanely common here, so it makes sense that AWD Japanese cars from another brand would sell.
Too bad Suzuki couldn’t wait a couple more years for the small crossover explosion with the SX4. I bet it would be selling like crazy right now.
They dumped a decent amount of Kizashis and SX4s into Hertz and Avis rental fleets back in the day, so I have driven an inordinately large number in my time.
…and no sooner do I post that, an SX4 (from PA, no less) parks next to me this evening. The Suzuki and CC gods were listening, I guess.
Come to VT. Tons of Subarus and SAABs, I think a quarter of the 9-2x’s remaining must be here, as I see a different one every week. At this point that generation Impreza only outnumbers it about 2 to 1.
I don’t think a tenth of the SX4’s produced are here but I see them every day. When we test drove one I thought they were just a slightly more comfortable, slightly more civilized JEEP Wrangler for on road only use. Given their cheap and cheerful nature, as well as prevalence of dirt roads and snow they are a pretty good choice for central VT.
My memory, possibly accurate, tells me that only 13,000 Citroen SMs were sold in the U.S.
Nissan Pao. Around 52k made.
I’m having trouble coming up with production numbers for all four years, but the Acura TSX Sportwagon probably sold about 12,000 units during its 2011-14 production run.
There were about 15,000 AMC Eagle two-door sedans (the ones with the landau roof and opera windows) made.
http://www.n0kfb.org/homepage/amc/eagle/spotting/
The Mercury LN7…The Ford EXP’s twin sibling.
Sold only from 1982-83… Surprisingly, sold 40,000 units.
Yet, they are virtually extinct in the wild. 🙁
The Isuzu Stylus, sold from 1990-93
406,000 total produced, 17,000 sold in the US, alone…But where are they?
They were rare even when new.
Unless I’ve missed one I’m still “winning” with the Marauder if we’re looking for lowest total production above that of the 9-2x. Some of the other examples are more surprising (I’m still shocked there were that many Prowlers and SSRs, personally) but purely by the numbers we haven’t seen anything between 10,346 (9-2x) and 11,052 (Marauder).
Can’t beat the Marauder, but another comes close: the facelifted 1997-2000 Lexus SC300/400. 11,381, according to Wikipedia! (That doesn’t include 1997s built in 1996, though.)
Wish I could find reliable numbers for the TSX wagon, it can’t be far behind.
The Saturn Astra: 18,000 produced over about a year and a half, before being shut down with the Saturn brand. I see one every single day.
That might be because it’s my own car, though. I see maybe one or two others per month; I don’t even remember the last time I saw a 9-2x, but, as the post points out, that may be because of its resemblance to the Subaru it was based on.
The car was sold under five different brands on six continents, generally being a successful compact car, yet the Saturn version seems to be the least common by far. At first, this was because the public had realized that the Astra’s predecessor, the Ion (related to the Chevy Cobalt and HHR), was crap, and there was a surplus of the model. Later, it was because of uncertainty towards the Saturn brand’s future that seems to have kept customers away. Another problem that consumers had was the price: about the same as a Golf and about as well equipped, but with a less powerful powertrain and the baggage of the Saturn badge.