Retro pics, the good old days.

[1 Wild R/T]

How about a 5 year old Challenger with a manual trans and rallye wheels for $1695!

A 69 Chevelle 307, 4 sp selling for the same price in black w cragars!

A lot of black cars with Cragers...

Welcome to 1975, all those Day 2 cars driving around!

Yup... Only thing odd is the prices.... In 75 you could buy a super nice 1970 vintage muscle car for $8-$900...   $1695??  That was two cars.....   

[JS29]

  Off the street! car dealer gots to get paid.

[Brads70]

Can't remember if I had posted this one over here yet or not....
My first car, 1988ish?  Scary to think that's now "retro" 

[340challconvert]

How about a 5 year old Challenger with a manual trans and rallye wheels for $1695!

A 69 Chevelle 307, 4 sp selling for the same price in black w cragars!

A lot of black cars with Cragers...

Welcome to 1975, all those Day 2 cars driving around!

Yup... Only thing odd is the prices.... In 75 you could buy a super nice 1970 vintage muscle car for $8-$900...   $1695??  That was two cars.....

My recollection of that time; I don't think in 1975 they were quite that cheap just yet,
In 1975 I bought a 440-6pk Challenger, automatic w a shaker and dana 410 rear off a private person for $1850. Car had about 47k mileage on it.

Dealers were selling the last of the 1974 e bodies at discount just to get rid of them.
My friend picked up a new 360 1974 Cuda from a dealer w a 4 speed and paid $3400 for it

Right out of college 1975, I went to look at a 69 Chevelle hardtop, 350 4bll automatic w console ps/pb for my brother who was into Chevrolet.  Dealer had it priced at 2400.

A guy I knew brought his 70 hemi cuda automatic into the gas station I was working for a tune up before selling it (of course we beat the crap out of it-(another story) He was selling the hemi cuda for $3400. in the mid 70's.  He took 3 grand and the car was in great shape.

Prices really started to drop after multiple gas shortages with people dumping anything with a big engine.  Prices really started to get cheap in the late 1979'/early 80's when they were pretty beat up and on their 10 years old + mark.

I ran a Mopar parts business in the late 1979 /early-mid 80's (XTINCT Auto Parts)  This is when the cars started to go for cheap.  I would pick up cars at the time anywhere from $300 to about a $1000 depending on condition. Some I would fix and blow out and others I would break up for parts to make money. You could also find a ton of these cars in junk yards at the time which i would strip off parts to sell.

Cars typically lost about 1/2 their value over a 5 year period at time
If you think about it, a 69/70 car with a sticker price of about 3400/3500 would be worth about 1800 by 1975. Dealer prices were always a little higher for a decent "used car".

Really wish I had a time machine to go back, buy up cars and keep them for 20 years
I need a DeLorean with a flux capacitor!
Just my thoughts and experience.

[MEK-Dangerous]

How about a 5 year old Challenger with a manual trans and rallye wheels for $1695!

A 69 Chevelle 307, 4 sp selling for the same price in black w cragars!

Unlike the rest of you, I called the dealership and was told the Challenger had been sold. I was hoping for a bargain that was sitting on a lot for 43 years, but no dice.   

[1 Wild R/T]

How about a 5 year old Challenger with a manual trans and rallye wheels for $1695!

A 69 Chevelle 307, 4 sp selling for the same price in black w cragars!

A lot of black cars with Cragers...

Welcome to 1975, all those Day 2 cars driving around!

Yup... Only thing odd is the prices.... In 75 you could buy a super nice 1970 vintage muscle car for $8-$900...   $1695??  That was two cars.....

My recollection of that time; I don't think in 1975 they were quite that cheap just yet,
In 1975 I bought a 440-6pk Challenger, automatic w a shaker and dana 410 rear off a private person for $1850. Car had about 47k mileage on it.

Dealers were selling the last of the 1974 e bodies at discount just to get rid of them.
My friend picked up a new 360 1974 Cuda from a dealer w a 4 speed and paid $3400 for it

Right out of college 1975, I went to look at a 69 Chevelle hardtop, 350 4bll automatic w console ps/pb for my brother who was into Chevrolet.  Dealer had it priced at 2400.

A guy I knew brought his 70 hemi cuda automatic into the gas station I was working for a tune up before selling it (of course we beat the crap out of it-(another story) He was selling the hemi cuda for $3400. in the mid 70's.  He took 3 grand and the car was in great shape.

Prices really started to drop after multiple gas shortages with people dumping anything with a big engine.  Prices really started to get cheap in the late 1979'/early 80's when they were pretty beat up and on their 10 years old + mark.

I ran a Mopar parts business in the late 1979 /early-mid 80's (XTINCT Auto Parts)  This is when the cars started to go for cheap.  I would pick up cars at the time anywhere from $300 to about a $1000 depending on condition. Some I would fix and blow out and others I would break up for parts to make money. You could also find a ton of these cars in junk yards at the time which i would strip off parts to sell.

Cars typically lost about 1/2 their value over a 5 year period at time
If you think about it, a 69/70 car with a sticker price of about 3400/3500 would be worth about 1800 by 1975. Dealer prices were always a little higher for a decent "used car".

Really wish I had a time machine to go back, buy up cars and keep them for 20 years
I need a DeLorean with a flux capacitor!
Just my thoughts and experience.

In 75 I bought a 70 R/T SE Challenger U code loaded with options 70K miles $840.00
My buddy bought a 68 Charger R/T L code 4spd beautiful car, $700....
Another buddy picked up a 70.5 Z-28 Beautiful, $900....
New York cars may have been more expensive but in central California farm country they were cheap....

[Chryco Psycho]

My first Chall was a U code 4spd Vanishing point all white R/T $1100 in 78 I do have pictures but not here

[340challconvert]

How about a 5 year old Challenger with a manual trans and rallye wheels for $1695!

A 69 Chevelle 307, 4 sp selling for the same price in black w cragars!

A lot of black cars with Cragers...

Welcome to 1975, all those Day 2 cars driving around!

Yup... Only thing odd is the prices.... In 75 you could buy a super nice 1970 vintage muscle car for $8-$900...   $1695??  That was two cars.....

My recollection of that time; I don't think in 1975 they were quite that cheap just yet,
In 1975 I bought a 440-6pk Challenger, automatic w a shaker and dana 410 rear off a private person for $1850. Car had about 47k mileage on it.

Dealers were selling the last of the 1974 e bodies at discount just to get rid of them.
My friend picked up a new 360 1974 Cuda from a dealer w a 4 speed and paid $3400 for it

Right out of college 1975, I went to look at a 69 Chevelle hardtop, 350 4bll automatic w console ps/pb for my brother who was into Chevrolet.  Dealer had it priced at 2400.

A guy I knew brought his 70 hemi cuda automatic into the gas station I was working for a tune up before selling it (of course we beat the crap out of it-(another story) He was selling the hemi cuda for $3400. in the mid 70's.  He took 3 grand and the car was in great shape.

Prices really started to drop after multiple gas shortages with people dumping anything with a big engine.  Prices really started to get cheap in the late 1979'/early 80's when they were pretty beat up and on their 10 years old + mark.

I ran a Mopar parts business in the late 1979 /early-mid 80's (XTINCT Auto Parts)  This is when the cars started to go for cheap.  I would pick up cars at the time anywhere from $300 to about a $1000 depending on condition. Some I would fix and blow out and others I would break up for parts to make money. You could also find a ton of these cars in junk yards at the time which i would strip off parts to sell.

Cars typically lost about 1/2 their value over a 5 year period at time
If you think about it, a 69/70 car with a sticker price of about 3400/3500 would be worth about 1800 by 1975. Dealer prices were always a little higher for a decent "used car".

Really wish I had a time machine to go back, buy up cars and keep them for 20 years
I need a DeLorean with a flux capacitor!
Just my thoughts and experience.

In 75 I bought a 70 R/T SE Challenger U code loaded with options 70K miles $840.00
My buddy bought a 68 Charger R/T L code 4spd beautiful car, $700....
Another buddy picked up a 70.5 Z-28 Beautiful, $900....
New York cars may have been more expensive but in central California farm country they were cheap....

Wow, at those prices I could have made a fortune in my parts business a lot earlier
Not looking to belabor the point.
My first Dodge Challenger was a 70 RT 383 automatic in Y1. I paid 1000 for the car and it was already rough in 1974.  I got it cheap at the time with the 1st gas shortage hitting that year.  The car was beat and the driver's side floor and part of the trunk was already rusted out in some areas.
Clean 70 Challenger RTs here sold in the $1500 - $1700 range in nice condition when I left college in 75. Contingent upon the engine and condition of course.
I bought, sold and broke up a lot of e bodies, Camaros and Mustangs from 1975-1985 They were great years to find the cars cheap.

I did pick up my current 70 Challenger A66 in 1979 for $1200 and the motor and trans were out and had to be installed.
When the second gas crunch hit in 1979, that is when everything here went cheap with anything that had large motors.

If you had access to clean 5 year old e body mopars in the mid 70's for those prices; you were very lucky! IMO  I do know that e bodies sold for a higher price then the b bodies at the time (still the GENERAL case today.)
Chevy Camaros sold at the same price of the e bodies or many times, slightly higher/

May be the California weather also helped to keep cars cleaner and rust free.
Anyway, sounds like you were lucky to get nice cars under a grand for those mid 70's years

[Chryco Psycho]

 

[dodgemania]

 

[Chryco Psycho]

 

[340challconvert]

 

[anlauto]

We have a 1970 Challenger in our neck of the woods with a "flip front end" ....the car is an original "V" code so I cringe every time I see it out at a show....but that's what they did back then 

[dodgemania]

  sweet SE Challenger.

[dodgemania]