Q: I'm looking at buying one and I wanted to know how many were made And I could honestly care less about how many are stolen every year.
A: None were made in '94. The Type R started in '96 but was only available outside of the US until '97 where it was introduced. The R went missing in '99 but came back for '00 and '01. '97 models are the rarest and hardest to find because they were limited (about 1k were made). The '98 is rare but not as much so the '97, but since they look just like the '00 and '01, I don't consider them rare. You'll likely find '00 and '01 models because they were made more available but can still be hard to find one unmolested.