The 2nd Generation Dodge Charger is a car that was blessed with tough and aggressive styling. The Charger R/T was designed to deliver the sort of performance to back those looks, and original examples are proving to be exceptionally popular. This 1969 Charger R/T-SE is an essentially unmolested original that is in very nice condition. It is ready to be driven and enjoyed immediately, and with a 440 Magnum gracing the engine bay, it should provide enough performance to plaster a mile-wide smile on anybody’s face. It is located in Bonnefoy, California, and has been listed for sale here on Craigslist. The asking price for the Charger has been set at $62,500. I have to say thank you to Barn Finder Ikey H for referring one of America’s great classic to us.

With the Charger, some of the paint colors were bold and aggressive, while some added a classy edge to the car. Copper Metallic would fall into the latter category, and the paint that is on this car is largely original. It isn’t perfect, but it seems to present quite well for a vehicle of this age. The owner says that about the only non-original paint is on the left rear quarter panel, which was repaired following some accident damage many years ago. The remaining panels wear a few minor scars compliments of people who don’t know how to open the doors of their cars with anything resembling care and finesse in car parks (gotta love those people!). The only rust that has been identified is the fairly common rust in the bottom corners of the rear window. However, the owner does provide some clear photos of this, and repairing it should not be an expensive proposition. The Charger has spent its entire life in the San Francisco area, so that will maximize its chances of having no significant rust problems. It features a vinyl top, and this actually started life white but has received a dye job at some point. The dye is starting to wear away, so the next owner could choose to apply more dye, strip off what remains of the black, or replace the vinyl entirely. The last option sounds like the most sensible to me, especially when you consider the value of the car.

The SE Package brought a few welcome additions to an interior that was already pretty special. This included a woodgrain wheel, wood on the dash, and some leather upholstery on the front seat. The dash looks like it is original and in good condition, and while the upholstery on the front seat is beginning to show its age a bit, it still looks quite reasonable. There have been one or two changes made to the interior over the years. The most obvious of these is the fitting of speakers into the front door trims and the rear parcel tray. The ones in the rear would be easy to remove, and a replacement parcel tray is a pretty cheap investment. The ones in the doors don’t actually look bad, and if they were removed, then new door trims would need to be sourced. The dash features the rally gauges and the rather cool Tic-Toc-Tach. There are some issues with this though because the clock doesn’t work, and the tach doesn’t read accurately. The Charger is fitted with a factory radio, but this also doesn’t work. What does work is the air conditioning. The owner recently fitted it with a NOS compressor, so it should blow nice and cold.

The Charger is a numbers-matching classic and features a 440ci Magnum V8, a 3-speed TorqueFlite transmission, along with power steering and power brakes. While the 440 doesn’t have the outright power of the 426 Hemi, it still brings 375hp to the party. That should mean that this is a car that is capable of demolishing the ¼ mile in 14.3 seconds. Pure acceleration off the line is not the 440’s only attribute, because the Charger should be able to wind itself out to an ultimate top speed of 132mph. The owner purchased the Charger in 2018, and since that day, he has accumulated around 2,200 miles. He has performed some maintenance tasks on the vehicle, and he says that it runs and drives really well. It also comes with a fairly substantial collection of documentation. This includes the Owner’s Manual, a number of Registration Certificates, a pile of service records, along with the vehicle’s Window Sticker and Broadcast Sheet.

Values for the 1969 Charger R/T have increased quite consistently across the last 5-years, but by just how much is heavily dependent on vehicle condition. It seems that the better the condition, the greater the percentage increase has been. For instance, the really nice examples have appreciated by around 30%, while the ones in average condition have generally only picked up somewhere in the vicinity of 10%. While this one would need some work to bring it back to its very best, it does tend to score very highly on the grounds of originality, lack of major rust issues, and also because it is an R/T-SE. This is by no means a cheap classic, but when you look at recent sales history and then check out what is available in the marketplace at present, I think that the pricing actually looks reasonably competitive.