The Studebaker Avanti was the car that wouldn’t die. Even after the company stopped making them in two short model years (1963-64). Two former dealers pooled their resources, bought inventory and equipment, and launched the Avanti II in 1965. Production of the Avanti II averaged just a few hundred copies a year for 40 more years. The seller got this 1979 Avanti II in a divorce, and the interior needs to be redone. Located in Tacoma, Washington, this Chevy-powered artifact is available here on craigslist for $15,000.
Studebaker execs cooked up the Avanti as a “halo” car for the company in hopes it would sell 20,000 copies a year and refill the company’s dwindling bank accounts. Yet the car only managed 4,600 units before Studebaker discontinued all U.S.-based auto production in the middle of the 1964 model year. When Avanti Motor Car Corp. started up shortly thereafter, the cars were pretty much the same except for the drivetrains. With the supply of Studebaker power now exhausted, the new company sourced engines and transmissions from Chevrolet.
The seller’s car is 1 of 142 assembled mostly by hand in 1979. The odometer reads 37,900 miles, but there’s no claim that’s legit. It has a 350 cubic-inch V8 and a TH-350 automatic transmission, typical of the Avanti II of this era. There’s no indication of whether the car runs, though it has been stored indoors until recently. That would help explain why the exterior of the car looks rather good, but fiberglass doesn’t rust.
We gather that the seller’s ex-husband dismantled the interior for a restoration, but never got very far when a divorce ensued. So, the buyer will have to put it all back together and perhaps redo some of it in the process. This Avanti II has loads of extras, including a moon roof and leather upholstery, which made it a $22,000 vehicle when it was new. The Magnum 500 wheels look like an afterthought. Avanti IIs are a bit cheaper to acquire than the Studebaker versions and easier to get parts for since the Chevy hardware is everywhere.
Won’t be worth anything with the windows being down… It got kicked to the curb by the x wife!!\\ so she could park in the garage…
@Russ: Those are not Magnum 500 wheels, the pictures shows an original type 14″ Magnum wheel, with an upsized 15″ one piece Magnum beside it, that I put on my car. :-)
Dixon is that a yellow 💛 bikini 👙 on the driver’s side floor ?
The bikini could be involved in the divorce.
Tools all over the floor too. Looks like someone was in the middle of something and just walked away.
At least it’s not the 4 door.
Unknowledgeable seller often think rare and/or expensive when new means valuable, they don’t understand that desirable and sought after does. Sitting under a tarp in the backyard, not running and partially disassembled isn’t likely to see any interest with a $15,000 asking price. Lots of downside risk for potential buyers even at a fraction of the asking price. She’s going to regret not making her husband take it in the divorce.
Steve R
Steve, said exactly what I was thinking, “Great minds think alike”.
If I was closer I’d make an offer – where else ya gonna find a 37000 mile Avanti with chevy engine. it would take me a weekend to put that interior back together. There may be a few other fixes, but that would be fun. Of Course I’d check under for rust before buying. A cool good looking iconick type car for reasonable price. I’d negotiate to pay full price if it included shipping.
All Avanti IIs from ’65-on had small-block Chevy V8 engines, tho’ the exact displacement/spec varied over the years, depending on what GM had available to sell as crate engines at any given time.
I was service manager at a large metro Chevy dealership. In the mid 1980s our dealership groups owner decided it would be a good idea to sell Avanti IIs. We had a split level showfloor so stocked 5 Avanti IIs in our “Prestigious lower show room” they sat there for close to 2 years with almost no interest (I don’t think the sales force tried very hard) before they just disappeared. I never heard the story of what happened to them. They were really just expensive rebodied Chevy G bodies, Monte Carlo and I think the 4 door used an ElCamino chassis. Nothing wrong with them, just expensive for what they were.
’87 Avantis (they lost the “II” by then) used the Monte Carlo chassis, but GM canceled the G-bodies after that year, so following years switched to Caprice chassis, which was also used for the short-lived 4-door sedan variant.
But prior to all that, up to about ’85, Avanti IIs were still being built on remaining NOS Studebaker Lark convertible chassis and otherwise essentially still Studebakers, aside from the GM powertrain and slight changes to the front-end styling to accommodate their taller intake stack.
Alice Cooper has one and loves it. Count’s Customs did some upgrades on it several years ago. The ghoul is a hardcore car guy.
The ad says $9,900 now, reduced.