Studebaker Avanti vs Buick Riviera — American Personal Luxury Rebels

The Buick Riviera argues on design purity, driving dynamics, and the breadth of its collector community. Bill Mitchell's 1963 Riviera design — the "Gentleman's Express" — is one of the three or four most important American automotive styling achievements of the postwar era, alongside the 1955–1957 Thunderbird and the C2 Corvette. The first-generation Riviera (1963–1965) is the purest expression: no vinyl top, no opera windows, no chrome excess — just clean lines, a concealed headlamp design, and a Gran Turismo character that the Avanti, for all its drama, cannot match as a grand touring car. The 1965 Riviera with the 425 Super Wildcat is a genuinely driver-focused grand tourer. The marque registries for the Riviera (Riviera Owners Association) provide complete documentation, and the restoration parts ecosystem is more developed than for the Avanti.

The Studebaker Avanti makes a singular case that no other American car can match: it is the final production car from South Bend, designed in 40 days by Raymond Loewy's office, built in a fiberglass body that has proven remarkably resistant to the corrosion that plagues steel-bodied contemporaries, and available in Paxton-supercharged R2 and R3 variants that set 29 speed records at Bonneville in 1963. The unrestored survivor in original livery commands an authenticity premium from concours judges that the Riviera — produced in 40,000 units in its first year — simply cannot match on scarcity. The Avanti's production of 4,643 units across two years makes every surviving example a documented rarity. From a marque registry perspective, the Studebaker Drivers Club's complete VIN documentation means provenance is verifiable to an exceptional degree. The fiberglass body's survival rate is also significantly better than comparable steel-body cars of the era — more original-surface Avantis survive than original-surface Rivieras.