Young Charger guy needs help!!

[mikes68charger]

Hey, Im not trying to start anything just have a question on my mind that some of the older (well aged) fellows on this fourm may be able to answer.

When the 68 charger, new body style from the corrnet came out. Was there as much druma as with the new chargers?

I quess what Im asking is, when the charger came out, what were peaple saying about it???

Its not a mucle car, but a cadlic wantabee??

A wast of money when you can buy a roadrunner cheaper and it gose faster??

(Im sure there was not much a desire for a 4 door car back then) But If its a luxry Mucle car it should have 4 doors??


Im just wonder?   Don't get me wrong I have a 68 charger and a 07 sublime RT

PS: If your pissed and you want to bash my spelling, you rock!!!  I want to be like you 

[Mike DC]

It wasn't like the 2006 reaction, I can tell you that much. 
I think the overwhelming response to the '68 was, "My gawd, that thing looks really awesome & sleek for such a big car!"

The sales of the 1967 Charger was something like 15,000 cars that year. 
The sales of the 68 car, which was an almost identical frame/chassis & drivetrain to the first-gens, was 96,000 cars. 

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------


It's interesting, because the original '66 Charger was already a case of a much-loved concept car being carried almost unchanged into production.  I think the '66-67 Chargers were already considered a very good looking restyle of the Coronet chassis when they first came out. 

The auto industry guys in 1966 would probably have been very surprised to hear that the Charger would sell 4x as many cars a couple years later simply by getting another restyle. 

 

[Brock Samson]

one cool story i read was that the auto testers at the '68 chargers sneak peak at the chrysler test track wouldn't come back at the end of their alloted time on track,.. and that the day went intill well after sundown cause the magazine testers wouldn't surrender the Charger R/Ts to the next in line.
The second gen. was to use another phrase, "a perfect storm".   

[Chad L. Magee]

While I am not old enough to remember them new (I was born in 1973), I have read many vintage car magazines of the era, plus two of my uncles bought Mopars during that time.  Basically, I got the impression that the looks basically sold the regular model 1968 Chargers to the public.  After the performance numbers got out, alot more people jumped into the RT crowd.  It was a great redesign, as I have read in quite a few musclecar books covering all makes that the second gen. Chargers were the best looking musclecars from that era.  I know that will be debateable, but if you look at the production increase alone, that tells you something was going on.  When I was really young, I got the first gens confused with the AMC Marlins and Mustang fastbacks when I just looked at the back side of the cars (don't take that as an insult as I was just learning car stuff back then).  The main problem with the newer Chargers is that they suffer from an identity image problem that has been occurring since the 1990s on a majority of the cars produced.  Heck, the viper and corvette have begun to look almost like each other, too much for my taste.  Way too many cars don't stand out from the rest like they should.  If you take a 1968 Charger and set it alongside any other car from that era, it is pretty easy to tell which is the 1968 Charger due to the stying differences.  Try that with a modern Charger against modern cars and the differences are not as great.........

[69_500]

Hey, I'm not trying to start anything just have a question on my mind that some of the older (well aged) fellows on this forum may be able to answer.

When the 68 charger, new body style from the corrnet came out. Was there as much drama as with the new chargers?

I guess what I'm asking is, when the charger came out, what were people saying about it???

Its not a muscle car, but a Cadillac wannabee??

A wast of money when you can buy a roadrunner cheaper and it goes faster??

(I'm sure there was not much a desire for a 4 door car back then) But If its a luxury Muscle car it should have 4 doors??


I'm just wonder?   Don't get me wrong I have a 68 charger and a 07 sublime RT

PS: If your pissed and you want to bash my spelling, you rock!!!  I want to be like you 

Figured someone could correct the spelling errors for you. Didn't take that long. I didn't correct all of the grammar errors though. That would have taken more time.

[hemihead]

What sold the Charger ( even the R/T 's ) was not so much the performance but the looks of it . They were more expensive and heavier than the Road Runner which the street guys and racers preferred . They sold well to young office types and guys in mid life crisis . It didn't have to go fast for them , just look like it was .

[moparnutty]

My sister and I talked our parents into looking into buying a 68 Charger for our family car. By the time they agreed we had to order a 69 model. Oh well we still had a Charger for our family car.

[triple_green]

The public thought so little of the 68 Charger that sales rose from 26,000 67 Chargers, to 90,000 68 Chargers. yeah they hated it.

I was 9 Years old when it came out and I thought it was the coolest car i had ever seen. Of course my dad bought a Dodge Dart GT...so in 1999 I "righted that wrong" by buying  my 68. I'm still amazed at how many exotics and even a couple of local Viper owners fear my little ole' 68 383 HP bone stock Charger.

3X

[68RT4ME]

Hey, I'm not trying to start anything just have a question on my mind that some of the older (well aged) fellows on this forum may be able to answer.

When the 68 charger, new body style from the corrnet came out. Was there as much drama as with the new chargers?

I guess what I'm asking is, when the charger came out, what were people saying about it???

Its not a muscle car, but a Cadillac wannabee??

A wast of money when you can buy a roadrunner cheaper and it goes faster??

(I'm sure there was not much a desire for a 4 door car back then) But If its a luxury Muscle car it should have 4 doors??


I'm just wonder?   Don't get me wrong I have a 68 charger and a 07 sublime RT

PS: If your pissed and you want to bash my spelling, you rock!!!  I want to be like you 

Figured someone could correct the spelling errors for you. Didn't take that long. I didn't correct all of the grammar errors though. That would have taken more time.

[Tilar]

I was 11 when they came out and I thought they were the coolest thing since the shirt pocket 

Dad had bought a new 66 GTO. Jade green metallic I believe was the color name. 389 tri-power with a 4 speed. But he only kept it a year and traded it in on a 67 Ford F-100 because we needed a pickup instead of the GTO.    Later on he talked about buying a family car so I tried talking him into a 68 Charger but he ended up buying a 69 Newport Custom with a 383. It still ran good but man that thing was a boat.

[bull]

I think the huge increase in demand and the 500% jump in production for the 1968 model to match that demand speaks volumes about how well it was received. That and the fact that very, very few of them were purchased for things like fleet cars, taxi cabs, cop cars and rental cars (like the new one) says a lot about what the car meant personally to many people back then and what it still means today.

Like I've said from the beginning, can you see people dragging '06 "Chargers" out of barns, brier patches and wrecking yards to restore them 40 years from now? Not very many would be my guess.

[bull]

PS: If your pissed and you want to bash my spelling, you rock!!!  I want to be like you 

Wouldn't it be more productive to you personally to learn to spell instead of throwing out blanket, preemptive put-downs to everyone who has a hard time understanding what you're trying to say? I mean it's one thing to be assumed an idiot by your spelling errors but then to back it up with a jackass comment like the one quoted above just makes you look like more of a fool.

[onebadmopar]

A wast of money when you can buy a roadrunner cheaper and it gose faster?? ok 1st off i love all mopar but you cant compare a charger to a roadrunner looks wise charger just kicks butt in that dept further more if you think about it why didint hollywood use roadrunners and put  the 01 and rebel flag on those ..remeber it would have been cheaper ...ok ok i,ll tell you why CHARGERS RULE  they RULED then they RULE now and they,ll RULE 100 YEARS FROM NOW i had a chevy guy say to me onetime ..us chevy guys buy camaros cause we cant afford a charger lol

[bull]

A wast of money when you can buy a roadrunner cheaper and it gose faster?? ok 1st off i love all mopar but you cant compare a charger to a roadrunner looks wise charger just kicks butt in that dept further more if you think about it why didint hollywood use roadrunners and put  the 01 and rebel flag on those ..remeber it would have been cheaper ...ok ok i,ll tell you why CHARGERS RULE  they RULED then they RULE now and they,ll RULE 100 YEARS FROM NOW i had a chevy guy say to me onetime ..us chevy guys buy camaros cause we cant afford a charger lol

I hate to say this because I'll probably get flamed to a crisp but I think a lot of the support for the '06 comes from people who could take or leave the classic Charger. I'm not going to argue this opinion because it's not something I can prove but it just seems to me majority of those who don't care that Chrysler attached the name to a four door sedan are the same ones who would just as soon own a Roadrunner, Cuda or '67 fastback Mustang as they would a '66-'74 Charger. That's not me. I guess I'm too sentimental but I fell in love with the '68-'70 body style as soon as I saw it and although I would own another muscle car in addition to a '68-'70 Charger I would never own one instead of a '68-'70 Charger. Nothing ever has or will outdo the looks of one and I feel very fortunate to be able to own one.

[RECHRGD]

Well, being one of the few people on this board that actually bought a new '68 R/T in 1968, I can tell you a few things based upon actually having been there:
People just fell in love with the new body style, period.  One week after I saw the car advertised, I had one on order.  In R/T form (440) it would out perform most of the other muscle cars of the day (including 383 Road Runners) and look better doing it.  The non R/T cars still had the same appeal, appearance wise, and were just as at home taking people to an opera or kids to a baseball game.  I think they were named Motor Trends car of the year in '68.  The styling, as we all know, still knocks people out to this day.  The car just makes people smile.    Bob

[Brock Samson]

FYI:
road runner was the Car of the Year in '68 the cougar in '67 and the grand prix in '69...

[RECHRGD]

FYI:
road runner was the Car of the Year in '68 the cougar in '67 and the grand prix in '69...

I didn't believe you, so I went to the Motor Trend web site.  We're both wrong!  The GTO was their Car of the Year in 1968.  I know the Charger got some kind of Car of the Year award.  I just don't remember the source.  Maybe I should research that.  Bob

[Brock Samson]

I'm wrong?.. Motor Trend is wrong! It should'a been the Road Runner, how dare they pick a Poncho,.. Think it's too late to file a protest?..

   

[71ChallengeHer]

Roadrunner was Car of the Year in 69.

[Brock Samson]

well there was also sports car illustrated and car life, i dont think road and track did COTY awards...
there were several other magazines then as well... i don't have time to research it now, perhaps later i can get to it..
be interesting to see...

[mikes68charger]

Thanks guys I actually learned from reading your posts!!!  I now wonder what was the sale increase of the 06 charger over the magnum??  I mean if you use a increase in sales as a marker of customers liking a picture model. 

I do agree that there is not any new car currently on the market that grab my eye, except the new Challenger. 

I just feeling like there was a diffrents in what people wanted from a car in the old days, compared to what they are looking for now.   When you compare it to a new home, back in the days a 10X10' room for your kids was more than enof, but now its way below new home standards. But now everthing is bigger, houses, cars, rims, debt etc....  Part of me wishes it wasn't this way, or the 06 charger wouldn't be so heavy. = 4,540lbs race wight ( did not remove anything even the spare, 1/2 tank gas )

I love my 68 charger and my 07. I hate the fact its such a big car, but love the fact my little girl can open her own door, and put her self in. It puts a huge smile on my face when I can wop all over mustangs and spank corvettes, with grocery's in the back. 

Its kind of amazing to me, a younger guy that with a cam, heads, and headers my 07 345 cubes dynos 410hp and 425 tq at the rear wheels with a dynojet runs 11.40s, when you look in the year one mag and they sell a 426 hemi pushing around that much hp at the crank.  From what I understand, for every 1,000 lbs you save in weight you will run a second faster at the track. Thats why I'm building a 392 (06) stroker motor for my 68 charger.

I'm just saying it seems like a lot has changed, I laugher when I look at my 68 that came with 15in rims and my boy with his 07 charger running 24s!!

The spelling comment was there because my boss was walking in and I didn't have time to fix it, and I have had SOOOO many people criticize my spelling on this forms in the past.

[mikes68charger]

pic before my hood broke in 1/2 dong 154mph trying to cach my boys 07 charger.

[mikes68charger]

Pic of my 07 next to someones ride a meet.


I just want to see photos of both his rides.

Mark

[charger_mike75]

pic before my hood broke in 1/2 dong 154mph trying to cach my boys 07 charger.

where's the "after" pic   

[FastbackJon]

Even though '66 Chargers had great sales figures considering it was a mid year release, '67 was not a good year for the Charger.

To the untrained eye it was the exact same as the previous year, and you also had the new competing Camaro, and resdesigned Mustang and Barracuda to compete with, not to mention the GTX and Coronet R/T.

Then '68 rolls around and yes, a great looking vehicle, but you can't exactly equate sales numbers with how cool a car is. Maybe it was just more practical or cheaper in price than the previous year? Look at how many Vipers are sold compared to Dodge minivans. Does that make the minivan a cooler car since it sells better or is it just more practical? The rear bucket seats in the first generation Charger are awesome I think, but I bet they scared lots of regular people, and families of 5 or 6 away from the car.

I think advertising helped out too, the '67 Charger didn't have any kind of Scat Pack, bumblebee stripes, or R/T badges. That stuff I think appealed to a lot of people.

Remember that they sold more '73 Chargers than '68 Chargers as well. I would argue the '68 is better looking, but there's a reason there too that sales went up. Maybe it was more practical, maybe more people liked the body style, maybe not as much to compete with, maybe lower price or wider range of options? I can't say.

[Charger Steve]

I was in Vietnam from 1968 to 1970 so can't say what the public reaction was when these cars were introduced but I could not wait to get back stateside to get one and I did. A 1968 in 1972 and I still have it 36 years later.

[CLONEDXS29]

One thing you gotta understand about back then with the charger vs roadrunner: A roadrunner was an ENTRY level musclecar, or to put it into a young mans terms, it was the neon srt-4 of its time. Quick, yes. Luxurious? NO. Most roadrunners(especially 68's) had no carpeting, just a rubber mat like a taxicab, manual brakes and steering, dog dish hubcaps with steel wheels, etc. These cars were built for a guy who wanted to ga fast but didnt have a lot of money to do it and didnt care about creature comforts. The charger was more like a GTX, aimed at the guy who had more money to spend to get some creature comforts like buckets, a rally dash, power brakes and steering. And thats not even mentioning the looks dept.

[Ghoste]

Another thing to consider is that the 68 restyle remained true to the original Charger inasmuch as it was still a two door personal car.  That is to say that it was stylish no matter the drivetrain and could be had with a mild or wild drivetrain.  The car looked like it was meant for no other name but "Charger".  It looked exciting no matter how it was optioned out.
The 06 was a four door family car upon which the name Charger was forced (not earned) because a marketing focus group determined that a large number of people asociated "Charger" with "Dodge" (well duh).  The styling and options became a lot more mainstream and family sedan oriented.  The perfromance could be had in spades but the cachet was missing.
All of that combined with the suits at DCX telling us how we were nothing but stupid dinosaurs if we refused to drink the Kool-Aid and go absolutely nuts about how this was the greatest Charger that ever was left the bulk of the enthusiast crowd ice cold.

[1969chargerrtse]

Well, being one of the few people on this board that actually bought a new '68 R/T in 1968, I can tell you a few things based upon actually having been there:
People just fell in love with the new body style, period.  One week after I saw the car advertised, I had one on order.  In R/T form (440) it would out perform most of the other muscle cars of the day (including 383 Road Runners) and look better doing it.  The non R/T cars still had the same appeal, appearance wise, and were just as at home taking people to an opera or kids to a baseball game.  I think they were named Motor Trends car of the year in '68.  The styling, as we all know, still knocks people out to this day.  The car just makes people smile.    Bob

This man says it all, he was there.  Best testimony yet to the times.  I remember the 66 and 67's being super cool as Elvis was driving one  in Speedway.  I also remember everyone in the neighbor hood seemed to own a 69, and for some odd reason most were green.