How many Fiat 124 spider exist in the world

[Snoopy]

KBA: This is the number of currently registered cars... pay taxes. Not the garaged cars...

[clbrenta]

http://www.fiat124spider.it/tabellaMotoriEuropa.asp

Total cars sold: 197,807 of which 170,720 in the US.
the table accessible from the link - data easy to read.

Most of the 124 spider in Europe are in Italy and Germany (In Sweden many American cars)

Many american 124 (those with plastic bumpers) have been re-imported into Europe

[mscafide]

Yes, many cars are going back and they are worth more there than they are here.

Buy the good ones while you can. Buy because you like it and it's something you want, not just as a potential investment.

[zachmac]

This thread seems to come up every few years and I must say I always find some of the speculation and ciphering somewhere between amusing and specious. For example I could apply the Phoenix example to my town of 30,000 in Aiken, SC where I know for sure there are four running, driven Spiders. So from my limited perspective the nationwide ratio must be at least one running Spider for every 7500 folks! With roughly 360 million Americans that means there are 48,000 running Spiders!!!!! You can see where I'm going here? Never mind that I am personally responsible for 3 of the 4 being here in Aiken and running (different owners but brought to Aiken and revived and sold by me).

Fact is no one knows. I suspect people mostly ask this because at some level they want to find out our cars are "rare". I think the subtle (not very) hope is that if we can prove they are rare then they will magically increase in value?

Personally I wouldn't like that as I am attracted to Spiders precisely because they are undervalued! I've owned E-type Jags, Ferraris, Austin Healeys, 60's Corvettes, American muscle cars and lots of others. What all of those have in common is that they've become too expensive to drive to WalMart on an errand, park and run in without a second thought. The Spider is a competent, accessible, fun vintage sports car you can still enjoy.

Having said all that, wouldn't the most accurate estimate of running cars in North America be best arrived at by asking the top three parts vendors how many regular customers they have? After all, to keep them running you have to buy parts now and them. Plus I find it hard to believe that AR, Bayless and Vicks can all survive selling parts to a total of 2000 owners out there? Does that really sound like it makes sense?

[clbrenta]

Yes, many cars are going back and they are worth more there than they are here.

Buy the good ones while you can. Buy because you like it and it's something you want, not just as a potential investment.

I agree

PS: I visited Pompano Beach and Florida in 1990. I love FL
Maybe I will return with my spider

claudio

[DieselSpider]

I believe that there are more than we think since you can find parts for them in stock locally through the regular parts stores and yet despite that there are enough out there being restored to keep several specialty vendors in business along with a number of shops that specialize in stockpiling empty chassis and restoring them to order.

On Craigs for sale locally there are currently 6 listed for parts along with 6 that are roadworthy with tags on them so there would appear to be quite a few out there.

[garion]

I think 10 might be low for the Phoenix area... I occasionally run into a few.. Plus the number of ones that come up on Craigslist seems to indicate that. Hell. I have 2 road worth ones myself, although I only have one registered.

[azruss]

that was a typo, John. I meant 20.

[DieselSpider]

I wonder how many aluminum radiators Mark sold from his first container? Now he has orders already stacking up against the second container so how many Spiders are on the road that enough are needing new radiators in such quantity to clean out Marks inventory so quickly. Of the Spiders needing radiators what percentage of the owners are going to pay the extra premium for the aluminum ones?

[Redline]

+/- 100 running around in the UK (government registration figures)

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/family/fiat_124

For information, the S.O.R.N. means Statutory Off Road Notification, and as you can guess by the seasonal variation, it reflects people taking them off the road for winter.

There are always about 10 for sale in Switzerland at any time, so I imagine there is a disproportionately high number here, given the population. Maybe 50? There was a nice article on the 124 Coupe in a Swiss classic magazine this month.

[DieselSpider]

+/- 100 running around in the UK (government registration figures)

https://www.howmanyleft.co.uk/family/fiat_124

For information, the S.O.R.N. means Statutory Off Road Notification, and as you can guess by the seasonal variation, it reflects people taking them off the road for winter.

There are always about 10 for sale in Switzerland at any time, so I imagine there is a disproportionately high number here, given the population. Maybe 50? There was a nice article on the 124 Coupe in a Swiss classic magazine this month.

So about 233 counting the full time and seasonal registration of cars originally registered from 1972 forward so it appears to exclude any purchased and originally registered before 1972.

Anyways from registration information and what we see of used roadworthy cars listed for sale along with the current availability and volume of sales of repair parts that there are still a good number of them on the road and being maintained currently.

[spiderrey]

I would have to say there are way more spiders around then you people think. Im in So Cal and I see different ones all the time. plus when ever I go by Marks shop there are new ones that have been sitting in garages for years, and someone brings them in out of no where for a full restoration. There are enough out there that he cant buy them because he cant store them all.

[spider2081]

There are enough out there that he cant buy them because he cant store them all.

I would say that is the same here in the North East. I had 8 at one time Now down to 6. I know a few folks with a lot more than that. I heard there is a 12 Sept program for Fiataholics in the North East area of the USA I am just not ready yet.

[scrapironchef]

Short of accessing DMV records there is probably no way to tell. Estimates based on Phoenix and Akins are highly speculative since they won't match up with survival rates in other climes.

Initial numbers sold, service availability and quality, environmental factors, economic cycles and population migration also play a part. All in all so many factors muddy up the numbers it seems impossible to guess. One collector with a barn full of projects can skew the whole thing.

[aj81spider]

We will probably never know exactly. However you can do some analysis to determine an order of magnitude.

As of last week there are less than 250 listings on all the Craigslists in the United States. I did not correct out for duplicate posts in multiple cities (e.g. Boston and Worcester). Nor did I do a great job of filtering out temporal duplicates (posted on August 15, reposted on September 9).

This is probably peak selling season, as in cold climates people are trying to get rid of them before they have to store them for the winter.

You can take that number and apply whatever factors make sense to you to derive a total. Based on watching Craigslist in my area I make some assumptions: it takes 6-12 months to sell a Spider (frankly that's optimistic - it took me 2 years to sell one); people sell them on average after 7 years of ownership. Multiplying that out you get:

~200 Spiders (a pretty conservative derating of the 250 listings; the real number is probably lower) x 2 (turn over the list every 6 months) x 7 (average holding time) = 2800 Spiders in the US.

If instead you assume they turn over every 3 months and people hold them for 10 years you get 200 * 4 * 10 = 8,000.

You can apply whatever math makes sense to you, but the limited data available would seem to indicate it's much less than 10,000 Spiders in the US.