Some options were costly....And marketed wrong....

A lot of people ask me why their aren't more ultra-premium musclecars around, especially since nowadays with a Honda Accord or Toyota Camry's sticker topping $30,000-the old musclecars seem cheap by comparison. You have to remember-a house that costs $500,000 today was $25,000 50 years ago. The reason there aren't more premium musclecars is three-fold. # 1 Cost. For example the base price of a '68 Road Runner was $2,800. That included a 383 V8 and a 3-speed manual trans. Now if you wanted the mighty 426 Hemi-the Hemi was a $1,200 option!! Just for the engine. And checking the Hemi box on the order form added a bunch of other "mandatory" extra cost options-like a 4-speed or an automatic, a heavy duty radiator, a Dana 60 rear end instead of an 8 3/4, and heavy duty suspension. Pretty quickly the tab could rise to over $5,000. Which is double the base price! Secondly-a Hemi only had a 1 year / 12,000 mile warranty. Every other engine had a 5 year / 50,000 mile warranty. For a young guy-who maybe had a wife and kids-that warranty was very important to a lot of people. If you wanted more punch than the 383 had to offer-the 440 4-bbl was like a $200 option. A lot less than $1,200, plus the "mandatory" stuff.  This isn't an isolated example. The base price of a 1969 Mustang was $2,848!!  The base price of the Boss 429 was $4,798, and again with very few options-some "mandatory"-the sticker price easily climbed past $6,000!! More than double the base price. The LS6 454 was an $1,100 option on the Chevelle. The Ram Air IV was a $558 option on the GTO-and again-required other "mandatory" options like a 4-speed ( a 3-speed was standard ) or a TH400, 3.90:1 or 4.33:1 gears, a posi, and front disc brakes. The price rose quickly on these cars to where some people just couldn't afford it. # 2. Excellence of the base model. The base-model SS396 or 400 GTO or 383 Super Bee or whatever-was so fast and so nice to drive-that after test driving one-you may decide that you don't really need more power. Especially for the extra $1,200+ that a Hemi or an LS6 cost. Like it's big brother-the price of a Boss 302 went over $5,000 pretty easily. And they were only available with a 4-speed, Air Conditioning wasn't available, and they were peaky and had very little torque below 3,000 rpm. Now a "standard" Mach 1 had a 351W for power-which had 385 lbs of torque, could be had with a stick or an automatic, could be had with A/C, and with it's gobs of low-end torque, was a much better street engine with much better manners in most driving situations. Plus the styling and striping options were very close to the Boss's, yet the 351W Mach 1 was hundreds or even a thousand or more dollars cheaper!!  So "Joe Average" test drives a peaky Boss 302 that doesn't really impress him. Then he drives the Mach 1-which will fry the tires off-idle, purrs like a kitten when your not hot-rodding it, and I know it sounds-chauvinistic but it's a reality-maybe he wants an automatic because his wife or girlfriend either can't or doesn't like to drive a stick. And the car is $1,000 or more LESS?  Which one would you buy? Especially not knowing that 40 years hence one would be worth the price of a house? Again-you drive a Charger that has the $200 440 Magnum on the sticker. With 375 hp and 490 lbs of torque that pavement ripping 440 will spin the tires as long as you want to stay on the throttle, and is really long-legged on the highway. Especially if the car has 3.23:1 or 3.54:1 gears. Are you going to spend another 2 grand for a Hemi? Hell no!!  Just like now-in 2019. Let's say you want a Hemi Challenger to live out your Kowalski fantasies. Great!-A base-model Hemi Challenger R / T is $35,000. Like we said earlier not much more than a Honda Accord!!  So, Are you going to spend 70K+ for a Hellcat? Probably not. See what I'm saying?  # 3. Bad Marketing.  For whatever reason, sometimes the manufacturer's didn't push certain options, or they overlapped with other models. For example there aren't many 350HO '68-69 Firebirds. The reason is they cost as much as the 400 models. In 1971-72 Chevy marketed a Chevelle called the "Heavy Chevy". It had a domed SS hood, blacked out grille, slotted Rally wheels,"Heavy Chevy" graphics and was available with any V8 up to and including the 396 / 402-which was marketed as a "400". However-the "SS" package could now also be had on any V8 Malibu model, including small-blocks. So depending on how the dealer ordered each car-it was possible to have the cooler, more sought after "SS" model for the same or less money than the` "price beater". Ditto for the 1970-72 Tempest T-37 / Lemans GT. Labeled by the buff magazines as the "Poor man's GTO" they were a good deal with the standard 2bbl 350 V8 and 3-speed stick and bench seats. But if you added bucket seats, and a 400 or a 455 with a 4-speed or a TH400, the price quickly rose to GTO levels. So why not get the real deal? Not many people knew about the awesome W31 350 option on the base-model Cutlass. The dealers wanted to sell the higher profit 442 models. Unless you were a gearhead and knew exactly what to ask for-you might not even know these options exist. Like Chevrolet rating the Tri-Power, 11;1 427 at 435 hp and the 12.5:1 much more radical L88 at 430!!  So while 6 or 7 grand may seem like a steal for a Hemi Charger now-in 1969 it was big dollars. Kind of like the Hellcat now. Mastermind