What Muscle Cars Were Around When You Were Born?

By Mark Weisseg

I saw this photograph the other day and it struck home. Why? Well, it was the year I was born (yes, it was AD not BC!).
So, to view some of the cars on sale the year I was born is interesting, like it is for anyone else.

The obvious standout features are the car designs. Notice how big everything is, but even more interesting is how much these cars are now worth. A Caddy Eldorado convertible just sold at an auction recently for over 200k. I find it interesting in that with my collector cars I always display what the car / truck cost new. People always gasp that a new Road Runner in 1969 was less than 4K.

Obviously everything is relative with wages but it still is a bit alarming. Look at interest rates here in the US. They are at there lowest since World War Two! Who would have thunk that? I remember crawling into a bank in the early 1980’s and begging for a loan. The manager at the end of the desk granted me the loan amount plus a 14 percent interest rate. The credit cards were about 18 percent. Gadzooks what a change. But let’s refocus on cars.

These barges were big, fancy and very identifiable unlike the generic cars of today. It’s hard to tell one from another and they all sound like a pair of tennis shoes in a clothes dryer.
Cars back then had more focus on individual styling. You could argue technology has made today’s vehicles as streamlined as possible in the wind tunnel, but it’s also made them very generic.
Many times you hear that cars from the last century had more ‘character’ than today’s cars and that couldn’t be more true.
Which leads me onto the idea of why some major car manufacturers cannot stick their necks out and bring back some of the old styling. As our road networks get more busy, we don’t necessarily need a vehicle that is to be streamlined, especially for city driving. So why not bring back some of these old designs with a few modern tweaks.
They may not be big sellers, but it sure would break up the automotive landscape.

So, go look up your birth year and marvel at what was being offered. It’s fun.

More Muscle Cars For Sale – http://fastmusclecar.com/muscle-car-for-sale/

 

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