This 1972 Dodge Challenger coupe is yet another the current owner wants to unload rather than stuff away in winter storage. Asking price is $29,500. Whoa, nellie. That's a lot of (don't say it) green!
If the muscle car party was waning by the time Dodge introduced the "Challenger" in 1970, it was all but over by 1972. On the Challenger, the HEMI was dead, the 383- and 440-cu. in. V-8's were gone too. The R/T was replaced with something lame called the "Rallye" that supposedly made them more "insurance friendly".
That was funny considering for 1972, they could be ordered with a "340-Six Pack", Chrysler's 340-cu. in. V-8 topped with the three two-barrel Holley carburetors that supposedly cranked out 290-horsepower and 345-lb. ft. And those were net numbers too. Pundits believe those numbers were underrated as a '72 Challenger Rallye with a "340-6" was clocked zero-to-sixty in 5.8-seconds. For '73, the Six Pack was history, the 340 sent to the dumpster by 1974, the last year for these tender morsels.
What killed the muscle car? It wasn't the gas crisis, safety or emissions regulations, kids. It was insurance company surcharges on anything remotely construed as a performance car.
But this green machine is not a "Rallye" not to mention it doesn't have a "Six Pack". It has a 318-cu. in. "station wagon engine", at least it doesn't have a sixer. Not throwing shade at our beloved "Slant Six" either; these cars weigh some 3,500-pounds, there's only so much you can ask from six carbureted cylinders in the early '70's. That there's fresh paint on it in a car with just 85,000-miles on it is a little disconcerting. Oh, there's warning signs and red flags everywhere here. CarFax data only goes back to 1991.
I don't see any signs of a power steering pump so along with no A/C, so, hoo-boy, this one is going to be one hot and steamy handful in summer. If my wife was to approve the purchase order for this, it would be under protest.
Geezle Peet, for thirty grand they couldn't have sprung to fix the driver's side bucket?
The '80's vintage audio system looks as out of place as Culture Club opening up for Bob Seger too. I know thirty-grand doesn't buy what it used to but c'mon.
Green is my least favorite color for cars, so, I don't know if there's a price that would make me fork over any of my green for it.
Good news for buyers, seems the market for "classics" is flattening these days. That's also bad news for when they go to sell them. For the last forty-years, nostalgia has driven the market on cars like this, perhaps their timeless "cool" as well to some degree but the harsh reality is, they're not good cars. They handle like trucks, they're noisy, uncomfortable break easily and often too. You better be handy or know someone who is.
Those under 50-years-old, especially those under 40 especially, have a limited or no sense of context for these cars. They get behind the wheel of one and they're most likely to say, "cool car but what the hell is wrong with this thing".
