Long Island Proud: Least Owned Cars Registered On Long Island

Last year a major daily paper of Long Island did a detailed story of the most popular car registered on Long Island. The Honda Accord, followed by the Honda Civic and Jeep Grand Cherokee were the most owned car of the 1,940,601 cars registered on the island as of March 2017.

What the reporter failed to discuss were the cars ranked last (tied for 636th ) on the list. So I dug into the data and picked the following cars to write about.

Amazingly enough on all of Long Island there is only one Plymouth Caravelle! That’s tough to argue because I haven’t any clue what that car looks like besides Plymouth stop making the Caravelle in 1988.

On the other side of the spectrum also tied for 636th with just one registered on Long Island is a Rolls-Royce Park Ward. The Rolls-Royce Park Wards were built between 1995 and 2002. I wonder if it’s in some garage with less then 10,000 miles on it. If you know, please comment.

Under cars I never heard of, of which there is only one registered on Long island was a vehicle called a “Panther Kallista,” of which only 78 Ssang Yong models of the Panther Kallista were ever made, all in Weybridge, England between 1982 and 1990.

I was fascinated to see that on all of Long Island there is only one Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera registered. Heck, I owned one of these turkeys back in 1988.

For all of you Japanese car lovers there is only one “Suzuki Equator” registered on Long Island. For folks not in the know the Suzuki Equator is a small pick up truck discontinued in 2012 and sold for $17,700. If you see this pick-up on the road, please honk.

For movie fans there is one “Tucker” still registered on Long Island. Only 51 of these babies were ever made, all in Chicago back in 1948 by Preston Tucker. Who can forget Jeff Bridges portraying Preston Tucker in a 1988 film about the car?

There is one “Vickers” car registered on Long Island. Vickers is a 1901 British company more known for their tanks in WWI. I wonder if this two-seat sports car has been modified with special armaments?

Back to the arena of more mainstream automobiles again Plymouth strikes with just one Plymouth Turismo and one Plymouth Laser registered on the island. Had to look them up. The Turismo is a 1980s product and the Laser was a sports coupe discontinued in 1994.

There is but one Pontiac T1000 registered on Long Island. This car was called the “penny pinching Pontiac,” when it came out in 1981. General Motors marketing really missed the boat with this car but someone on the island still has one, and probably loves it.

There are many more cars registered on Long Island tied for 636th with just one car registered; however, to end this piece I choose the “Spyker Spyder & Laviolette," basically because it had the longest name and a cool story. This car is a 2008 LeMans Series car built by the Dutch, and engineered by Reiter Engineering. It costs somewhere between $350,000 and $500,000 depending on the accessories such as floor mats, fog light, and radio options.

If you see any of these only one registered on Long Island cars do leave a comment on the site.

T.J. Clemente is a Patch columnist.