I received no historical paperwork or documentation when I bought my Sun Coupe, other than the original California license plates which expired in 1995. So I ordered up the Sloan documentation as well as Steve Caruso's information packet specific to the Sun Coupe. I was intrigued by the Sloan documents. Apparently they think my car is somewhat unusual. The cover letter said the following: "Microfilm records indicated that your car was likely a company vehicle or dealer demo of some kind as most VIN records do not show multiple invoice dates, dealers charged, invoice numbers or invoice amounts." My car was built the first week of December, 1971 in Fremont, CA. It was first invoiced on December 16, 1971, to Buick Motor Company for $4,092. It was not invoiced to a dealer until February 23, 1972 - Dave Mink Buick of Burlingame, California, for $3,751. Apparently this dealership is no longer in business, so that's a dead end. I am now wondering why my car was owned by Buick itself for two months. Perhaps it was an auto show vehicle? Or was this time period needed to allow for the ASC conversion into a Sun Coupe? I'm discounting the second possibility for two reasons - first, I wouldn't think the ASC conversion process would take that long. Second, why would the dealer be invoiced at a lower amount than Buick itself unless the car was used in some way? Does anyone else with a Sun Coupe have Sloan Documentation showing something similar?
My Sloan docs show nothing of that sort. One invoice to Lindsay Hopkins Buick in Marietta, Georgia and that's it.
Back in 1997 I restored one of the six `70 RAIV automatic Judge convertible for a guy who had documentation that the car was a zone car, or something like that. I don't remember the correct term anymore. This car was built early in the year and was sent to several dealerships to be shown in the showrooms and wasn't sold until late spring the following year. He's got copies of all of this. I also talked with a guy who worked at one of the dealerships it visited and he remembered the car. Perhaps your car is something of the same? On a side note, when I disassembled the car I found that it had chrome rear bumper brackets, something I had never seen before. We never got any documentation as to why. The car was otherwise original and never restored before but I still believe it came out of the factory like that. Because we couldn't get any proof that it may have come that way I painted them black to avoid loosing points at the show. Is there anything about your Sun coupe that is obviously factory but different than others of the same year? Just a thought.
It could have been a show vehicle. Or if it was used by a zone person, it's not unusual for them to have a car for just a couple of months. I worked for another manufacturer and depending on the sales situation at any given time, we would keep cars for 2 months to a year. It depended on what the sales situation was like, what models were scarce or in overabundance, etc.
Not that I know of. I'm hardly an expert on these cars, but everything about the exterior and interior looks like standard Skylark 350 Sun Coupe based on pictures I've seen of others. Also, the car was driven for 117K miles and then was cosmetically restored prior to my buying it. So although everything is in pretty good shape, I'm sure it's had some replacement parts over the years, and it's hard to tell what was there originally and what wasn't. It would be neat if I could find someone who remembers being at a west coast auto show in early 1972 and seeing an orange and white Sun Coupe... :grin:
Tom, I've been through the sloan paperwork (micro fiche) page by page and what happened to your car was not uncommon. It's also not unique to SunCoupes. I believe what happened was a simple dealer transfer. You can see where the dealer codes and invoice price changed on the lines below the original issued VIN number line in the micro-fiche data. Cars were only at ASC for about 2 weeks MAX for the conversion. By the way you should get the info packet Monday if you have not received it yet.
Thanks Steve, I got it today. It is certainly full of very helpful information. I also filled out the cowl tag data per your request and will be mailing it back to you next week, along with copies of the Sloan documents. :beer I guess what's throwing me off is that there are two invoices but only the second one was to an actual dealer. The first "dealer" invoiced was Buick Motor Company, Zone 23, #001.
My Dad Drove Buick Company cars for many years 1958-1974. They were know as PEP(Product evalution program) Cars. Usually they were drove for 3000 Mi or 3 Months what ever come first. They were then offered to employes or dealer at a discount.
True. Not unusual for Buick to provide cars to employees. Much like dealers providing "demonstrators" to salesmen and department heads.
Still an existing practice as my neighbor is a zone warranty exec for GM and is assigned a set of manufacturer plates. He drives new Buicks, GMC Trucks, and Pontiac's, usually assigned for 3-6 months and cannot exceed 10k miles, then they are sold as "demos" or "exec cars". He gets to pick what he wants to drive so long as it meets an internal sales / availability formula.
