SQL and ORA-1722 error?? Seeking Your Help

Hi Netters..I am serching the following table for a series of records which match the SQL stmt below...but I eventually get an ORA-1722 error..and I can't seem to get around this..Maybe someone can help me out??

Here is the desc of the table
SQL> DESC LS_DBA.CAR

 Name                            Null?         Type
 ------------------------------- -------- ----
CARID                         NOT NULL    CHAR(10)
CAR_TYPE                                      CHAR(8)
WHEEL_TYPE                                 CHAR(1)

I am searching this car table for records based on some criteria...and I am having trouble getting back all the records that I expect.. above is the table desc.

ok...now what I am basically looking to do is get all the CARID's from the latest release of the car database...so I can fish out other car related information..
This table has a huge number of records..about 1.2 million or so..as you can tell the CARIDs are of CHAR(10) datatype...The reason this was done (and not declared as NUM) is because a small portion of these records have CARIDs that begin generally with two alphabetic chars (AB1334 or f93495 and etc)

the problem is that when I try to run the sql listed below.. I get this

result of SQL
stuff snipped out

'
'
'

39961067                                                                        

39961080                                                                        

ERROR:
ORA-01722: invalid number

7969 rows selected.

SQL> here is my sql..I have tried a variety of things..when it comes to the part where I want to select the range of CARIDs for which I am searching..

such as
and car.carid
between 3000000
and 40000000

or
and car.carid
>3000000

and car.carid
<40000000

or
and car.carid
>'3000000'

and car.carid
<'40000000'

It seems that Oracle just can't cope with automatic data conversion from char to num when doing its comparisons and it runs into a carid that begins with alphanumerics and not numbers.......you have any idea how I can get over this ORA=1722 error?? I have fooled around with the to_number function..but no luck there...what I was thinking of doing was nested select stmts where I would select all CARID's that where LIKE ..and would have digits in the first position..but I can't find a pattern matching operator that is valid for only digits..

Have any thoughts that would help me out???.>Thanks!!!!!!! Dan

The complete sql query

select car.carid
from
ls_dba.car, ls_dba.bodytype
where
ls_dba.car.carid=ls_dba.bodytype.carid
and car.car_type is NULL
and bodytype.carfabricmethod =500
and car.carid
between 3000000
and 40000000

-- 
Dan Roberts
BRISTOL-MYERS SQUIBB PHARM. RES. CENTER      "Nature is last at Bats"
PRINCETON, NEW JERSEY U.S.A. PLANET EARTH, MILKY-WAY GALAXY
<<<<INTERNET ADDRESS>>>>Roberts_Daniel_G.PriLVMS3_at_MSMAIL.BMS.COM