Anyone have an idea of the number of cars built in Lansing per week during model year 1964? When production began (month) and ended (month) for this year?

Just trying to gauge where my DY88 #55047 was built in overall production?

Thanks

 

Such information does not exist. Oldsmobile production records prior to 1977 are famous for being basically non-existent other than number of each style of each model. We can tell you how many Dynamic 88 convertibles were built in 1964 (10,042), but that's where the story ends. There's no breakdown by options, color, where produced, where sold, or anything else. Back in 1964, no one gave a @$% what people 50+ years later might want to know.

The cowl tag will give a month/week assembly date, so you'll know when it was built down to the week level. If you can assume that production of Dynamic 88 convertibles was relatively constant during the entirety of the production run for 1964 cars, you can get a rough idea of where yours was among the 10,042.

For example, I don't know if production actually extended an entire 12 months each model year, but, assuming it did, 10,042/12 = about 837 D-88 convertibles produced per month. If your car was built in, say, January 1964, and production started the previous August, that's five months of production, or 4,185 D-88 convertibles produced prior to your car being made. So your car was the 4,500th (plus or minus a few hundred) D-88 convertible produced.

Just playing with numbers here. I could be way off. Don't get your hopes up. Just enjoy the car. It looks very nice.

 

Yes and No

It's not published in a one stop manner like one would hope to find, but with a little detective work and knowledge of a specific model year & car you can get a good grasp on the answers to the questions you have.

What info is contained in the '64 VIN & body tag?
How many plants built '64 Dynamic 88 convertibles?

I could answer your questions if your car was a '61 Starfire, as I did the research when I owned one.

 

Thanks guys. I know my D88 was a 12C build (3rd week of December). It was just something I wanted to have in my bag 'o tricks.

I tracked down similar information on my Corvette, including a trip to Union Boulevard in StL.

I know the Lansing plant is long gone. Heck, with just 10042 D88 Verts built and assuming a 10% survival rate, there can't be more than 1000 of them left.

I'll enjoy what I brought to the dance for years to come.

 

If you can tell me what month your car was built I can tell you how many of your models were built in that month. Production began in September with the exception of pilots being built in August.
Was your car for sure built in lansing?

 

More like 1% after 25 years is the average survival rate, perhaps a bit more for convertibles, a bit less for station wagons, that sort of thing. I would say that there are more likely 100 to 200 1964 Dynamic 88 convertibles still in existence today.

 

1% is the average survival rate aver TEN years. It's considerably less after fifty years, though it probably asymptotes out. Of course, that's a fleet average, so the percentage of surviving four doors and wagons is likely lower than the percentage of surviving hardtops and convertibles.

And of course, the survival rate of some cars, like 70-72 442s and W-cars, is over 100%...

 

attached are numbers for the F85 production

 

Only 1 in 100 cars built in 2005 are still on the road today? That just doesn't sound right.

I don't remember exactly where it came from, but I got the attached survival rate diagram from a government website of some type. It shows survival rates for cars built in 1970, 1975, 1980, 1985, and 1990. The later the car was made, the more the trend line shifts to the right (longer life), which isn't surprising given that newer cars tend to be made out of longer-last materials (more plastic). I apologize for the smallness of the image, but it's all I have.

The diagram suggests a 10-year survival rate of 55 to 75% across the 1975 to 1990 span of model years. Get out to 25 years, and you're in the low single digits.

 

Keener, where's that thing from?

 

64-f85-production-numbers-2.jpg

 

Correction in my data, my D88 is a 4C production (3rd week of April 64) and it is a Lansing build. My VIN ends with 55047 while by body plate is 2112. Obviously the VIN tells the production sequence (less 1001) and the body plate tells me where I was in the 10042 of total D88 Verts built in that model year.

Good information here - that production schedule on the F85 is very impressive!