It takes some stone-cold swagger to roll out in a gold drop-top ride with a matching gold vinyl interior. It’s all about you in this 1971 Dodge Challenger convertible from Oklahoma City, Oklahoma. After spending most of its life with one family, the 318 V8 automatic Dodge comes for sale here on Craigslist, where the never-restored classic can be yours for $37,500; that’s about 1.3 pounds of gold according to CalculateMe. Highly original with a claimed matching-numbers original engine, the honest-looking rag top caught the eye of reader T.J. who submitted the tip on this interesting ride.
One of the first cars I remember was a double-gold Dodge, but my Grandparents’ 1969 Coronet sedan didn’t seem nearly as cool as this swanky Challenger. Air conditioning adds refrigerated air to the fresh wind you can get anytime by lowering the power top. The bucket seats may wear seat covers, but the console with wood grain looks salvageable.
Throw some dust on that brake master cylinder and you could pass for all-original, except maybe for a few rogue wires. How often do you see a factory air cleaner cover on a never-restored Challenger? The 318 cid (5.2L) V8 made 230 HP (gross), enough to make a nice V8 sound and keep up with traffic. Speaking of unusual originality, the air conditioning compressor is usually bypassed by the time an engine compartment achieves this level of… authenticity. While driving behavior escaped the listing, it looks to be a driver, and the 318 “fires right up,” according to the listing.
Torque-thrust wheels and wide tires look great, and check out that trailer hitch! My grandparents towed a small travel trailer with their 318 Coronet, so why not tow with a Challenger? The more I see these pictures, I wonder if maybe it doesn’t need a full restoration. That said, $37,500 is a hefty starting point for a classic that needs attention just about everywhere to be camera-ready. If I inherited this car, I’d leave it as-is for sure. If you had to speculate, what future do you predict for this solid gold Dodge?
And the reason it is on a trailer? Still could be a great deal!!
On a trailer or pulling one ? Whats withe Hitch ? And no cup holder? Get that soda off the seat:)
The price I would offer is $30,000 reason it’s a survivor and it’s a convertible! It’s getting harder to find any 60’s early 70’s in original shape. Yes this needs works if you want to go down that road. If I owned it. Love the wheels and detail the whole car. Even the engine compartment. I would get the seats redone and new carpet. The dash I would leave it alone until a full restoration to the body. I would drive it on weekends and enjoy it. It’s the real thing. Oh.. put dual exhaust with the turn down tips. 🐻🇺🇸
Had one. Met girl. Proposed to girl. Sold car. Still have girl.
Girl long gone, still have the convertible Challenger. I don’t ever regret how that worked out.
I love it just as is and if I had some extra money I’d try and get it for about 25,000. or close to that!!!
Wow, I love the look and the uniqueness of the solid gold look. I’d look to do a full restoration but as such try to beat them down price wise as in the end at that price unless the new owner was doing all of the work themselves, they’d likely be upside down value wise for quite some time after the restoration was complete.
Oklahoma City vehicle on Detroit Craigslist!?
Perhaps I missed that in the article…
Sadly it’ll probably become yet another Hemi clone or pro touring car on eBay for $150K in the near future unless some average Joe already has the home equity loan in process and in route to pick it up.
I remember seeing a rust free 71 convert for sale around 1980. Red, 318 3sp. About 70K miles, asking was under a grand, $800 I think. It looked like a lot of fun, but we had small kids at home at the time, and it made no sense in our lives at the time. That car looked a lot better than this one, of course it was only about 10 years old at the time, this is over 50. Lets see, adjusted for inflation, the ask was under five grand. Wonder what I spent that money on, diapers, mortgage, popsicles?
Kind of reminds me of mine, except unfortunately long ago when I bought my tired, smokey 318 ragtop, the engine instantly grew to 440. The unit otherwise remains as it was, including its wheel covers. Fun car for several years before I squirreled it away. Neat to see others out there. Not sure if it will bring the asking price as I have never been offered anywhere near that but the one here sports its original driveline where mine does not. Non numbers matching in many realms equals junk. Typical 70s earth tone. I knew a guy with a chocolate colored one that was still pristine in the late 80s. His was a slant 6. I often wonder if that one survives today.
I have a feeling that this car does not move under its own power. Looks like a fresh buy, seller unloaded it in front of a fast food restaurant and snapped a few photos.