1963 VIN #

[Guest dapy]

There is an attractive 1963 R1 on eBay. The seller lists the Serial/VIN as R3898B. What does the "B" mean and does anyone know this Avanti? Seller is in Sacramento CA area.

[Gunslinger]

California required the use of a serial number of at least six characters back in the day. Avantis shipped to CA dealerships had the extra letter added to the serial number to comply with CA law...or so I've been told. That's one way to verify it's an original CA sold car.

[Paul K.]

My 63 R1 was delivered new in CA to Bob Francisco Studebaker in Rancho Santa Fe, CA. There is no "B" in my VIN. My VIN is 7 characters and is 63R2569

[Packard8]

Might be a typo in the eBay listing or maybe the seller is mistaking the body tag for the S/N on the frame?

My '63 R2 was sold new in Burlingame CA and the CA title lists the VIN as A63R3287.

[Gunslinger]

If the body number was erroneously listed as the serial number, it would be "RQ-xxxx". A number beginning with "63R-" would be appropriate as that's how Studebaker numbered them for the first part of production. When sales failed to meet hopes and projections Studebaker eliminated the "63" year designator from the serial number to allow dealers to title unsold stock as 1964 models. That's why there's a number of Avantis registered as '64s that are significantly older by serial number than true '64 cars are. There may well be more '63 Avantis titled as '64s than there are true round headlight '64 cars.

As far as an "A" added to the beginning of the serial number, that's a new one on me. It's one thing if it's a DMV error, but if it's actually that way on the serial number plate, that's different. The build sheet would show the way it left South Bend for California.