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Regardless of where the suggested page would be posted, it duplicates an existing "Cars for Sale" AOAI forum feature and monetizes the process. Having two features doing the same thing (one free, one pay a fee) on the AOAI site makes no sense to me. Dropping the free sale forum and adding a pay as you go feature is an idea, just not a good one.

Yes, I agree. In a few conversations that I have had with those who listed their cars in the AOAI magazine and this forum, they were successful in selling their car without going to Facebook or a dealer. My thoughts are that AOAI members are a focused group of individuals who either are interested in their next car or may know someone who is interested, so it makes sense for anyone who wants to sell their car to offer it in this environment. My recent experience with selling the 89 thru Gateway Classic cars was that there were many interested calls from lookers or potential buyers who didn't know what an Avanti was. The gentleman who bought the car didn't know either, his wife just loved the look.

The goal would be to create the selling page on the AOAI website, not this Forum.

I feel this idea goes beyond the scope of the Avanti forum. There are already numerous established venues available for selling an Avanti. Turning it into a business venture and monetizing a "Cars for Sale" aspect that already exists on the forum is a step backward.

People who buy and sell vehicles regularly will be sensitive to the cost of a listing. Widows and/or geezers like me who are just considering thinning out their herd of vehicles won't care much about whether the fee is $25 or $100 -- they just want to get rid of the car.

KISS Method. Me personally I've bought 2 Avanti's right off this sites "For Sale" section. It's cost the Sellers $0.oo. Take that as You will. The 2 Avantis are the 2002 and the 1973 (which is listed now). On a different front I'm on a (semi) popular Porsche 928 site... I've had the same car up "For Sale" 2 separate times.. Both times there have been ''lookers'' (35-40 views) but I've never had so much as a comment or question..So why would I use such a source of that manner to sell an item? From a Buyers point of view, It's an easy way to find a good priced vehicle... since no one else reacts to the ad's. I suspect the same happens here.. No serious lookers.. But I really don't know that to be true. Seems research needs to be done to track effectiveness.

Selling an Avanti can be challenging for many and sometimes an interested buyer never sees a car that is for sale. Since these cars are being sold through fragmented methods throughout the country, one thought is to create a marketplace connected to the AOAI website (not forums) to bring sellers and buyers together to facilitate the selling and purchase of these cars. While this would take quite a bit of effort and time to get started, it could end up benefitting all concerned. Besides the back-end programming of the website, we would need to contact anyone who is selling an Avanti and encourage them to list their car with AOAI. This includes individuals, used car dealers and national classic car dealers. A thought to go along with this is to charge a nominal fee for the listing. Just thinking out loud this could be a simple $25 fee paid to AOAI as a basic 12-month sales membership for a single car sale, or a higher $$ multicar fee for a dealer who could list as many Avanti's as he had for sale over a period of a year. These low-cost memberships would keep AOAI as a non-profit automobile club yet provide some income to offset the ever-rising cost of doing business. In addition, what if some of you were interested in becoming a paid expert advisor for a buyer who is looking at a car but needs help due to a lack of knowledge? The advisor would charge a fee to discuss the vehicles condition, review photos and make suggestions as to what the buyer should do next. On the reverse side, a seller could ask the advisor for help as well. The advisor would have a profile on the site with fees advertised and the ability to take internet payments such as Zelle, Venmo, Cash App, etc. I am interested in positive thoughts and comments from you about how this could work in your mind and ideas not mentioned here. I know all about the amount of work and time that this would take and about the number of sellers who wouldn't want to spend the time or money to participate. So please, if this is not of any interest to you, then thanks for reading. One more thing to support this. I have worked for nearly 18 months trying to locate the owners of 2001-2007 Avanti's. In this journey, I have personally contacted every owner of these cars that we have found and had really good communication with them by phone or email. The last 2 that I found this year are widows who own these cars and would like to sell them. I mentioned the AOAI magazine and how they could use it to advertise their car for up to a year for free by joining AOAI for a year. Or they can pay AOAI $30 plus $15 a photo to list the car in the magazine for 2 issues. (this was the pricing that Lew provided on my inquiry). Within a couple of weeks, the 2 women became members. It seems to me that this is an opportunity here.

Nice solution/bracket. Thanks, --Dwight

Yes I believe it is. At some point the factory changed the wheel rims to Mustang Cobra ones. Also in the same book there is a photo of what I believe must be mine in Cancun being color sanded. The photo depicts it as a 2007 but I think that is an error.

Here is your car with Jeff Grohs at the factory! It's also on the "Avanti's 2000s" Facebook page.

I recently installed 51r in mine, was able to use factory mounting points, I made a bracket for across the top out of aluminum it has abit of a twist at the end to accept the hooked end of the hold down which angles down to factory reinforced hole in fender. Other than having to turn a few more threads on factory verticle hold down post no modification to car is needed.

Excellent review Ron of the development of the Mustang based Avantis. To confirm what you stated, John Hull's book "Avanti the Complete Story" shows several 2006 Avantis, some in prime coat, loaded on a transport destined for Mexico. I'm quite sure my 2006 coupe #4006 was one of them.

(Oh lord)

Thanks to all who responded! that is some important info that I was looking for!!!

Dwight… you are, of course, correct here. Grade school English really. It’s sad when technology replaces common sense!

Well, here we have the final answer. I wouldn't disagree with an English teacher. There is no better way to learn a subject (any subject) than to teach it. --Dwight

Dwight, nicely stated. It brought back memories of my years (or is it year's) as an English teacher. 😎

I agree with psdenno. Word and spellcheck don't check for errors like "Avanti's For Sale". You would have to use a grammar checker. Also, "Avanti's" can also mean "Avanti is...." An example: The Avanti's running now, OR The Avanti is running now. That is called a contraction. Avanti is a loan word; i.e., an Italian word borrowed from the Italian language into the English language. So, once the word Avanti is accepted into the English language the rules of English apply to it (not Italian rules). There are many loan words in the English language. Here is AI's answer (to pluralizing a noun): To make a noun plural, follow these guidelines: Add "s" to most nouns (e.g., cat → cats). For nouns ending in "s," "x," "z," "ch," or "sh," add "es" (e.g., box → boxes). Change "y" to "ies" for nouns ending in a consonant + "y" (e.g., baby → babies). For nouns ending in a vowel + "y," simply add "s" (e.g., toy → toys). Some nouns have irregular plural forms (e.g., man → men, child → children). For compound nouns, make the principal noun plural (e.g., mother-in-law → mothers-in-law). So, if we were listing cats for sale on the AOAI Forum the heading would be "Cats For Sale". The word Avanti is treated no differently than cats. So, the heading should be: "Avantis For Sale". --Dwight

Probably just confusion by an English spell check dealing with the plural version of the Italian word Avanti. "Avanti's" would be the possessive form of "Avanti" as in "This is my Avanti's spare tire."

Dwight, I run my comments through Word and spell check. Last night it showed correct, so I ran it again today and it shows Avantis as being an error and Avanti's being correct.

Would you please correct the spelling of the heading "Avanti's For Sale". The plural of a noun does not have an apostrophe ('). One simply adds an (s) at the end of the noun. So, the heading should be the following: "Avantis For Sale". Thanks, --Dwight FitzSimons, AOAI member continuously since the late 1960s, and Editor of Greater Va Chapter of SDC.

The Annual SDC International Meet will be held at Waxahachie, Texas this year. There will be 3 days of events including tours to locations of interest, car show and judging, swap meet and plan old fun. Please consider attending and bring your Avanti! Registration and event information is available here: https://sdcmeet.com/

Many don't know that Avanti had to make 2 different Ford based cars between 2004-2007. In 2004 Avanti had run out of Firebird donor cars and had to make a new body to fit the current SN95 chassis. Production began in late 2004 and continued through most of 2005. Ford announced in 2005 the discontinuance of the SN95 and the introduction of the S197 car. Once again, Avanti had to recreate a completely new body to fit the 2006-2007 chassis. The prototypes were actually initially created in Villa Rica, Georgia while the Cancun, Mexico factory was being built and then transported to Cancun to begin production. Here are photos of each donor car and the resulting Avanti car. Notice how the 2004 red car is narrower than the 2007 silver car. The 2004 also has a longer front overhang than the 2007.

Courtesy of our editor:

As a second moderator for the forums and website, we will be upgrading both sites over the next few months starting with the forums. We have made some changes to the forum categories to separate the topics better for both members and visitors alike. We hope you find these changes beneficial!