How many Classic Chargers are left out there?

[hatersaurusrex]

You guys have probably covered this before before, but a forum search doesn't show much, nor is Google very helpful.  Anyone have any estimates on really how many 1st 2nd and 3rd gens are still out there in at least driveable condition?

Allpar has a chart showing the sales figures... but if you were to put a number on it, would you say 10 or 20% of these cars have survived, or is that being optimistic?

[skip68]

30%-35%   

[1BAD68]

30%-35%  

I agree.
No matter what the old timer's say these cars weren't just "another car" they had great styling, power, performance, etc. Even back then, they were looked at in a different way.
Coronet's, Imperial's, Newport's and Dart's on the other hand were probably driven to the junk yards.

[rebby]

30%-35%   

I agree.
No matter what the old timer's say these cars weren't just "another car" they had great styling, power, performance, etc. Even back then, they were looked at in a different way.
Coronet's, Imperial's, Newport's and Dart's on the other hand were probably driven to the junk yards.

+1

Also, like it or not but the boost in the Charger's popularity in the early 80's at a critical time in a car's normal life span, at that time 10-15 years, also saved a lot of our beloved B-bodies from the bone yard. All of a sudden the "old clunker car" out back could fetch some real money from somebody dreaming to duplicate an icon.

[69CoronetRT]

You guys have probably covered this before before, but a forum search doesn't show much, nor is Google very helpful.  Anyone have any estimates on really how many 1st 2nd and 3rd gens are still out there in at least driveable condition?

Allpar has a chart showing the sales figures... but if you were to put a number on it, would you say 10 or 20% of these cars have survived, or is that being optimistic?

There is no way to know as there is no way to account for all of the cars. There is no way to know how many, if any, are still hidden away in any condition.

[Mike DC]

It GREATLY depends on what we are counting. 


Drivable is one figure. 

Restorable is a much bigger figure. 


What is restorable?  Maybe any car good enough (or just desirable enough) that it could be restored and nobody will ever buy it with the intention of parting it out.

[F8-4life]

That is quite a question to tackle. I know of one 69 in my garage, thats about all I can say...

[Daytona R/T SE]

I know where seven of 'em are

[ACUDANUT]

 I am guessing 15-20 percent

[tan top]

You guys have probably covered this before before, but a forum search doesn't show much, nor is Google very helpful.  Anyone have any estimates on really how many 1st 2nd and 3rd gens are still out there in at least driveable condition?

Allpar has a chart showing the sales figures... but if you were to put a number on it, would you say 10 or 20% of these cars have survived, or is that being optimistic?

There is no way to know as there is no way to account for all of the cars. There is no way to know how many, if any, are still hidden away in any condition.

thats true

[Ghoste]

The generally accepted figure for most musclecars is 20% but keep in mind that they overwhelming majority of Chargers were 318 powered so its hard to say if the 318 cars also fell into that saved number or just the high performance ones.   As for the early 80's boost, I don't about where you live of course but where Im from no such thing happened.  Mopars were very much still the outcast car and the DOH did not change that.  Make it more popular among Mopar guys and more recognized in general possibly but there were no Camaro lovers dumping their rides for a 2nd gen Charger.  They were just cheap used cars until the late 80's in my opinion and even then the price rise was slow.  I didn't see any Mopar mania personally until about the late 90's.

[Cooter]

Obviously, there must be some sort of abundance of Chargers out there, as folks still seem to think they all should be priced in the $1K-$6K range. Restored or not. 

[XS29LA47V21]

I know where seven of 'em are

At some point they say it is hoarding.  I do not what I'm impling or what you are talking about... one more would be cool in a particular color or option combo..

[stripedelete]

I think 30-35% is a high.  I'd say 15-20%.  I do believe the DoH had a positve effect. 

[skip68]

I'd like to change my original estimate to 15%   
Last night I got thinking ......say roughly 300,000 68 to 70 charger's were built, 15% would be 45,000 cars.   I think that's a more realistic number instead of almost 100,000 cars.   

[69charger2002]

There were about 221,000 chargers made between 68-70, give or take. My guess is closer to 20% survived after this long, which puts the total at 40,000 or so. Of course 10,000 of those 40,000 seem to have gone overseas now.   

[hatersaurusrex]

You guys figure it's drastically different for the first and 3rd gens, percentage wise?   I see more 3rd gens in person and for sale than either of the other two, but it could just be that people aren't so worried about hiding them away in dry dock as they are with the 1st and 2nd gens.

[69charger2002]

66-67's are relatively rare. Production numbers just aren't that high, especially 67's. They are very cool cars just never had the folowing/desirablility of 68-70's. Once 68-70's spiked, everyone that was hiding in the woods or a garage forgotten aboit was drug out by people to sell(myself included). 66-67's are probably still sitting around untouched. Look up production for 1973 chargers alone. It almost equals 69 and 70 charger production combined!! so That is a main reason 71-74's seem to be everywhere.. and the fact they were made 4 years while the other generations were made for 2..

[lloyd3]

If you go with the 221,000 figure for the 68 to 70 cars, 15% is 33,150 surviving examples.  That seems like a high number to me.  Many of those are largely stored-but-abandoned hulks or are high-miles rolling heaps.  Restored and healthy examples are far fewer, like maybe 5%.  That gets the number down to 11,050.  Of that number, I'm guessing the majority are either R/Ts or R/T clones. So actual surviving R/Ts in good condition?  If you told me 5,000 to 7,000, I'd believe you.  

[Dino]

We will speculate until we drop, but we will never know.

Plenty for all of us is as close as I can get.

[hatersaurusrex]

Interesting feedback... considering Chevy built like a million first gen Camaros and Ford built like 3 million Mustangs before they ruined the body in '71... I'd say the 2nd Gen Charger is well worth the extra premium since that means assuming there are 20% of all makes left, then for every Charger you're going to see 15 of Brand X (and I'm not even counting all the Buicks and Mercurys).    Since they don't cost 15 times more to build (though some days I think it's pretty close) then I'd say you get the best muscle car bang for the buck from the Charger

[tan top]

I'd like to change my original estimate to 15%   
Last night I got thinking ......say roughly 300,000 68 to 70 charger's were built, 15% would be 45,000 cars.   I think that's a more realistic number instead of almost 100,000 cars.   

been thinking about this too , when you actually put the percentage in to actual car numbers , then  visualise them all ligned up  in a parking lot ,  i doubt there is anything like 45 thousand left    

[71 SE3834V]

There is no way to know as there is no way to account for all of the cars. There is no way to know how many, if any, are still hidden away in any condition.

I've always said "I wonder how many classics are out there, hiding in someone's garage/barn waiting to be discovered." Then I found one last year (seen above), that had been store away for a couple of decades 2 miles from my home and brought it home!  

[stripedelete]

Given a 200K production number, I'm revising my guess to 5%.

[greenpigs]

My guess is about 25%

2nd gen Chargers are not THAT rare(see 5%) above.