Earliest cars still around

[Kevin M]

I’ve been wondering for a while what the earliest surviving cars of each model year are? (If anyone knows for sure) I’ve seen threads and Barney’s list saying some of the real early ones of various years are scraped. My 91 is number 68. Does anyone know of something earlier than that, at least for 91 that’s around?

[Barney Eaton]

We know that 900039 prototype 1988 convertible is now in Auburn Indiana

The database you can access at www.reatta.net was updated in the last 3 weeks. 

anyone can send me info on their Reatta......or Reatta for sale in their area, .........or Reatta they found in a salvage yard and I will add the info to the database.

I need the vin number,  colors and options.    I cannot add a car without the vin because I do not know where to put it in the database.

[Kevin M]

Didn’t realize you updated that guess I’ll take a look at it

[Barney Eaton]

We update the online database based on input activity........if we are getting little or no new information it might be 6 months between updates.   Sometimes only a month.

Tom Jenkins that owns the site is in the process of a major upgrade.

We will have the original database that was started around 1996 and now contains 7,000 Reattas.  it has provisions for top color, sunroof, CD  last know owners name and location by state, mileage and asking/selling price.

Tom is adding....

1988 Factory database that contains every 1988..... info is limited to...exterior color, interior (color & w/without 16 way)  and in many cases,  the dealer that received the car.

1989 Factory database with all 1989's listed..........same info as 1988

1990 Factory database with all 1990's listed..........same info as '88 & 89

1991 database (the Factory database was lost) but all 1991 Reattas are listed.   This was extracted from the original database.

 

What I call the Factory database is a 443 page list of every Reatta built.  This list was loaned to me by Larry Gustin, GM employee in the Buick sales/marketing group.   Larry wrote many of the Reatta early information

documents sent to the dealers.  Larry is also the co-author of the big book "The Buick Complete History".   As Buick was moving headquarters from Flint to Detroit....Larry requested this print-out.   There were problems using it as-is,  the Reatta were in groups by year but not in any order,   so if you wanted info on a car, you sorted thru hundreds of pages to find that vin number.

Roy Faries that does most of the BCA National meet registration,  works for a company that had the ability to scan the pages...digitize them and then convert to an Excel file so they could be sorted.  Roy did the 1988, then the 1990.

It was a slow process because there were scan errors that needed to be corrected.   Roy finally became too busy to finish the project and sent the masters back to me, but could not find the 1991, so we consider it lost.

This all started around 2008.....fast forward to 2016 and I took the 1989 file to the FedEx store and ask if they could scan, & convert the files.  FedEx did the scan......equipment improved in 8 years and there were few errors with the scan.   So that is the story on how we have the 1988, 1989, and 1990 Factory databases.

 

The only changes we made to the factory database were to help the viewer.   Example...the exterior color and interior were coded.  So we changed to color code to a color you could read, same with the interior.

There are some number columns we left unchanged,  I believe they are dealer code numbers but have yet to find anyone that can decode them....if you can help let me know.

[padgett]

err my 88 seems to be on line 810 and 811. Correct VIN is -3681