This story first appeared in the November/December 2024 issue of Hagerty Drivers Club magazine. Join the club to receive our award-winning magazine and enjoy insider access to automotive events, discounts, roadside assistance, and more.
On Woodward Avenue late on a summer evening, all eyes were on a black 1969 Chevrolet Chevelle. Owner Darrin Slota gave the throttle squeezes that briefly lifted the nose and smoothly shifted the Muncie M22 Rock Crusher four-speed gearbox. I couldn’t help but think that it was a cruise night in 1969.
“It’s more than a half-century old,” said Slota, “but I can’t think of anything else I’d rather drive.”
Turning back the clock is, in many respects, the entire point of owning a classic muscle car. Yet few cars telegraph the vibes of the era as honestly as a Chevelle. It’s one of the few muscle cars that never jumped the shark.
Cameron Neveu
***
In the fall of 1977, the TV sitcom Happy Days, deep into its fifth season, featured an episode in which “The Fonz,” riding water skis, jumps over a shark. It was beyond ludicrous, and “jump the shark” entered the lexicon as a metaphor for taking a creative product or brand in an absurd, damaging direction.
The year 1977 also happens to be the final one for the Chevelle. We think that’s slightly more than a coincidence. Most nameplates, if they’re around long enough, get bounced around a boardroom and slapped onto some model that infuriates the faithful. Some would say Pontiac strapped on water skis when it called an Australian coupe “GTO.” Ford was perhaps guilty of the same when it put the hallowed word “Mustang” on a battery-powered crossover.
Not Chevelle.
Every summer, Detroit’s Woodward Avenue is overrun with golden-era muscle cars. Darrin Slota’s 1969 Chevelle SS 396 fit right in.Cameron Neveu
I was a high school sophomore in late autumn of ’63 when I first met the Chevelle. I needed to take a driver education class and wasn’t thrilled. My dad had already taught me how to pilot a car at the wheel of our aging stick-shift Rambler, and I figured I knew it all. But my mood changed when I saw the machine I would be trained in—a bright red ’64 Chevelle, the all-new car I had read about in magazines. Yeah, it was a six-cylinder automatic with a bench seat, but it was Chevy’s latest, and I was geeked.
A lot of young folks were impressed with GM’s new car (which corporate marketing had likely planted in driver-ed programs). Its unadorned, sharply creased styling—hallmarks of GM design chief Bill Mitchell—was a clean break with the finned and bedazzled Chevys of the previous decade.
The Chevelle is one of the few muscle cars that never jumped the shark.
Automakers’ battle to win the wallets of the rising baby boomer generation was already brewing: Ford had its 427, Dodge and Plymouth rolled out the Hemi, Pontiac had Super Duty 421s, Chevy had the she’s-real-fine 409. To up the ante, automakers stuffed some of their large V-8 engines in smaller cars, including, famously, Pontiac’s 1964 GTO—a Tempest with a 389-cubic-inch barnstormer. Not to be outdone by its internal rival, Chevrolet quickly began offering its own high-compression small-block in the Tempest’s platform-mate, the Chevelle. By the end of 1965, there was a trickle of Chevelles equipped with Chevrolet’s new big-block V-8. The trickle soon became a flow: For ’66, the larger engine became a widely available option and had a new name—Chevelle SS 396.
Cameron Neveu
The proving ground for these machines would be right here on Woodward Avenue, the big, broad street that begins in downtown Detroit and blasts straight through the suburbs. It’s the street where, in 1896, Henry Ford, on a bicycle, chased Charles Brady King, who was test-driving what is said to have been America’s first automobile. By the 1960s, its stoplights were teeming with Chevelles, GTOs, and big-block Mopars and Fords. Many had tacit factory backing and, in some cases, car company engineers behind the wheel. According to Floyd Allen, former chief powertrain engineer for Chrysler, Big Three engineers participated in organized street racing on Square Lake Road, just east of Woodward. Held after midnight, the races were sometimes clocked with electronic timing equipment. Research, you know.
For ’68, Chevy introduced a new Chevelle with a swoopy look and aggressive posture. Under the hood of the SS 396 was a conservatively rated 375-hp, 396-cubic-inch V-8. Serious racers skipped the hardtop and opted for a post car—a B-pillar–equipped version that offered more rigidity. The trip from the showroom to the drag strip could be short. (Slota believes his Chevelle was raced by a pair of brothers in the early ’70s.)
The top dog of the Chevelle lineup in 1969 was the SS 396 with the optional 375-hp L78 engine. The post body style, like our photo car, was preferred by drag racers as it was more rigid than the hardtop.Cameron Neveu
The second-generation Chevelles continued with only mild cosmetic changes until ’73, winning fans and stoplight drag races. Then it was over. Gas shortages and emissions regulations robbed the big V-8s of power; rising insurance rates and increased police enforcement greatly quieted the cruising culture on Woodward. Many of the muscle car nameplates soldiered on, but not necessarily for the better. The Chevelle largely avoided that fate. Third-generation Chevelles, introduced for 1973, had less power but retained a full range of V-8s, including a new 400-cubic-inch small-block. Then, in ’77, the nameplate disappeared from the Chevrolet lineup. Like other 1960s legends, from Janis Joplin to Jimi Hendrix, the Chevelle left us in its prime. The nameplate never graced a front-drive Beretta or the like.
Many muscle car nameplates soldiered on. But not necessarily for the better.
With thousands upon thousands produced over a decade-plus run, Chevelles remained plentiful for the next generation of enthusiasts. Slota was among them. He grew up in Warren, Michigan, in the 1980s and is now a GM engineering designer. He bought his first Chevelle when he was in high school—just a grocery-getter with a 307-cubic-inch V-8. He has fond memories of driving it around with his sweetheart, Cari. He has been loyal to both ever since: Cari is now his wife of 38 years, and they own two 1969 big-block Chevelles.
Cameron NeveuCameron NeveuCameron NeveuCameron NeveuCameron NeveuCameron Neveu The long chrome shift rod connects to a Muncie M22 four-speed known as the Rock Crusher. The transmission backed many high-output Chevys.Cameron Neveu
He first met the black beauty you see on these pages while cruising Gratiot Avenue (another Detroit artery) in the late 1990s. It was a post car and had the L78 engine—a solid-lifter, high-power version of Chevy’s 396 that was a special order at Chevy dealerships.
Slota recalls it was, at the time, a “20-footer”—it looked good from a distance but was a bit rough up close. The then-owner apparently agreed, because soon thereafter, he tore it apart, planning to do a full restoration. Like many others who have attempted the same, he never got beyond some initial bodywork, and the car became a plethora of parts boxes in the garage. In 2008, the owner threw in the towel and told Slota he could buy it. It took him two years to do a full restoration.
By dying young, the Chevelle nameplate never appeared on a dull front-driver. Impala, Monte Carlo, and Malibu weren’t so lucky.Cameron Neveu
Woodward has also gone through a restoration process of sorts. In 1995, a group of car buffs, who had grown nostalgic for the hot-car summer nights of the ’50s and ’60s, organized an informal cruise on Woodward, scene of their past glories. The event, which raised money for a soccer field, was a success, so they did it again the next year, and the next, and they’re still doing it. Today, the Woodward Dream Cruise attracts more than 30,000 muscle cars, hot rods, and classics, along with a million or so spectators. The event is largely responsible for reawakening the cruise scene on Woodward. On the night we went out—more than a month before the official Dream Cruise—late-model imports and motorcycles vied for attention with hard-charging SRT Challengers and the occasional exotic. Most of the drivers are far too young to remember (or care about) Woodward’s 1960s heyday. Indeed, the only things you don’t see too often in the run-up to Dream Cruise are older muscle cars. They have become valuable, irreplaceable machines—not the sort of thing you take out on a random weeknight when a bunch of kids are darting and weaving from stoplight to stoplight.
Cameron Neveu
Slota doesn’t seem to mind. On this night, he and Cari drove some 40 minutes from their home to meet us in Ferndale, a suburb just outside of Detroit. We cruised north, pausing at local establishments that cater to car enthusiasts and entertaining the spectators who had gathered on the banks of Woodward with a few blips of the throttle and some big-block baritone blasts. We rolled through Birmingham and Bloomfield Hills—the tony suburbs that have long been home to Big Three execs—before continuing through Pontiac, where a racetrack and car condominiums now sit on the former grounds of a General Motors factory. (M1 Concourse, as it’s called, is the host of the annual Roadkill Nights drag races that take place right on Woodward.) Continuing north on Woodward with the rest of the evening cruisers, we dropped into Pontiac’s Wide Track loop, where the avenue circles around and sends the traffic right back on Woodward, cruising south. Ready to do it all again, which we of course did.
Chevelles are cars. Not “investments.”
Stopping for ice cream after sundown, Slota remarked, “People think that if you own an old muscle car that you’re rich,” he says. “I’m not rich.” He’s just a man obviously in love with his automobiles—and one who has the skills to make them right.
Cameron Neveu
This may be the other critical way in which the Chevelle has avoided jumping the shark: Most haven’t become “investments.” They remain wildly popular—the 1968–72 model is Hagerty’s fifth most-insured car—and for the most part attainable. The average first- and second-generation Chevelle insured through Hagerty is valued at less than $35,000. A Chevelle with a 307-cubic-inch engine, like the one Slota started on, remains within reach of a high school student—good examples hover around $12K, according to the Hagerty Price Guide. (Rare options like Slota’s L78 396 and the mighty LS6, a 450-hp version of the 454, obviously cost way more.)
As we wrapped for the night, Slota crawled under his Chevelle with some wrenches and adjusted the shift linkage—it was getting caught in second. Then he tore off toward home, a muscle car disappearing in the darkness on Woodward Avenue.
Cameron Neveu
Woodward Avenue used to be a hotbed of late-night drag racing. Lesser Chevys, Fords, and Mopars were probably used to seeing SS 396 taillights.
I had a 68 SS 4 speed. Tunnel ram and ladder bars like this one. Fun car. It had power nothing. Drum brakes and sported only posi, am radio and tinted glass.
I had a number of year’s of fun. My family had 67-68-69-70-72 and 73 Chevelle models. Dad liked them.
But I got a taste for turning left and right also stopping faster. So I moved on.
One of my favorites was my rare 1972 GMC Sprint SP with a big block. It was my daily driver. Bad on gas and not overly fast it was still a good car with that Chevelle feel and utility of a truck.
The only negative on the Chevelle is they are very common. If you want to be different you may look to Pontiac, Olds or Buick.
I bought a brand new ’69 Chevelle SS 396 standard 325 hp. automatic with a bench seat. Needed that bench seat, those Corvette bucket seats cramped mystyle! My street racing Corvette days were over. I paided $3150 for it. Could have kicked myself for not getting air. I hated the bias tires. The streets got damp the car was all over the road. I thought the ’69 was the best looking of all of them, it was the front end that did it for me. Years later a kid I worked with bought a nice used Chevelle SS 454. I had never heard of them unitl he got one. He said it was faster than most Corvettes.
The Chevelle (and the rest of the A body coupes/converts) were the right size (wheelbase, overhangs)… same size as the 55-57 Bel Air, if you wanted some size to your car but still some sporty feel while reasonable to park and such.
I like the big cars (58-64 chevs and the like, the top of the line models of the various divisions after that) and they could be optioned strong but they always feel big.
Two different flavors of icecream, both good.
It’s also pretty much the size the “downsized” Caprices and such went back to in the late 70s.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t the size (though taller) of Ford Explorers of today either.
Wheelbase of ’70 Chevelle coupe was 113″ (197.2″ overall length) and a 2023 Explorer is 119.1″ (198.8″ overall) according to my Google search just now. A ’77 Caprice is 116″/212.8″.
This article brought back a lot of memories, just not of Woodward Ave. as I never made it that far north. I bought an SS new while still serving Uncle Sam. Bought it thru the GM manufacture rep in the PX in Saigon and it was waiting for me when I got back to the world. Loved that car but the gas crisis had hit, had my first born and a new house so was time to move on. To this day I still regret not keeping it!!!!
I agree with liking the bigger 58 -64 models. A nice styling change from GMs 55-57s. The 58s were nice cruisers and heavier, but the 283 was the motor that I fell in love with. A basic and 4 yr. old 2 dr. auto was actually my first car because they were common place and the price was right. I was 17 and just starting college so a little surprised at the statement: “A Chevelle with a 307-cubic-inch engine, like the one Slota started on, remains within reach of a high school student—good examples hover around $12K ….
I guess high school students today are better heeled than we were back in the 60s.
During the time that I owned that car OEM parts were affordable if you had a friend in a GM parts deptmnt. who knew the books and another in a local wrecking yard. A 4spd. conversion, cam/solid lifters and 4bl. carb livened things up a bit and made street racing a lot of fun. Later on bolting in a blueprinted 409 was a game changer and the beginning of constantly replacing the weakest links. Several years later I said a quick goodbye to the car and jjumped at the chance to buy a used 64 Stingray which I enjoyed for 6 years until starting a family. Old habits never die and as a octogenarian I now enjoy hot rodding vicariously through car meets, forums and occasionally a street rip with my son who inherited the taste and drives a large block Mopar. Life is good – right.
Growing up in Lansing I’m partial to the 442, but a 1966 Marina Blue SS396 4-speed is tied with a ’68 B5 Blue Hemi Roadrunner as the definitive muscle car.
Fun. I actually had a Marina Blue ’66 SS 396, 4-speed (with blue interior) in the early-’70s. Or at least it was blue until some idiot turned in front of me and I had to source front clip parts (mostly white with one yellow and one black fender). So I painted it a seal gray color and named it The Super Seal (had a decal from the old refrigerated semi-trailer maker in the rear window). Nobody cared about “survivor/original paint” stuff in those days – only about how big a tire you could stuff into the rear wheelwells and how loud your 8-track could play before you blew out the door-panel K-Mart speakers you’d put in. That was a great car that I think I paid $900 for and sold years later for $750 so I could get a “family car” for the driveway!
Oh, and I forgot to say that I totally agree with the RoadRunner part of your comment. I don’t know that blue was my favorite – I was a budding artist in those days and did a screenprint of a ’68 green RoadRunner “gettin’ it on” in a cloud of tire smoke because I was in love with the looks of them (a print of that still hangs in my shop, although after 50+ years it’s getting a little ratty. I’m not really a Mopar lover in general, but the RoadRunners of that era that I faced off with on the street and strip (even with just the 383s) were formidable and I loved the looks of them. They were (and still are) true Muscle Cars of the highest order!
A friend of mine had a new 69 SS 396/350 horse with 3 speed turbo hydromatic. It was darke green with white SS stripes and SS Magnum 500s. We had lots of fun cutting donuts on the numerous dirt roads in N C where we lived. He was very successful drag racing on the country back roads in our area also. A couple years later after getting my drivers license I bought a 67 RT Coronet, being a Mopar man myself. But I fondly remember that Chevelle and the good times we had on Sunday afternoons.
My first was back in 75 and the first car I owned. Out of necessity, I sold the car when I joined the Marine Corps and regretted selling it ever since. has been on my bucket list ever since. I finally got one 10 years ago as an anniversary gift from my bride. Every time I get in it and fire up the BBC; I feel like I am back in HS. My Grandson has his eye on it now.
I want to be sure I understand, the Ford Mustang “Jumped the Shark” with the Mach e and not the Mustang II? It took nearly a full decade to get over the Mustang II and get people back into the Mustang when it went to the Fox Body, Mustang sales are still strong with the Mach e on the street.
You should check Mustang II sales numbers before you make such bold assumptions. The Mustang II sold well. Over a million cars. Yeah, that’s about half as many as the first generation cars, but sales didn’t exactly rocket right back as the car evolved through the third generation. Even Iacocca says the Mustang II was the right car at the right time and I trust him over most internet commenters.
The Mustang II may have sold well enough, but it looked so much like an even blander Maverick that it definitely hurt the nameplate. Maybe it wasn’t as insulting to the name as the 80s re-badged Mitsubishi was to the name “Challenger,” or the front-drive “Quad-442” was to the Olds 442… but somehow memories are much longer and more bitter with the Mustang II. I remember when internet discussion groups were a new thing in the 90s, the FAQ for the Mustang pages directed people to either the 65-71 Mustang group or the Fox-body Mustang group, and ended with “don’t even ask about the Mustang II, nobody cares.”
I agree with you. The Mustang II was probably the ugliest car then. I wrote as much but was told about the high sales. It was popular. But you can fool all of the people some of the time.
The Mustang II was the right car for the times…remember the first girl crisis. Ford lucked out on timing that one.
Performance was down everywhere and by everyone. By 1973, all the performance offerings were gone or nearly so. Look up the engine line up for Mopar E-bodies. How many ’73-4 Road Runners or GTOd are out there?
The Mustang II was a good car for what it was, just don’t hate it because of its name.
imho, the ‘II’ in mustang II more or less put it in a category different than mustang. those built outside of the mid to late 70s didn’t hafta deal with the economy & social events at that time. i’m sure ford did their marketing homework before producing a somewhat backward stepping product (ultimately, it was successful). i wonder what would’ve been if they changed to another horse name, say ‘azteca’, then went back to ‘mustang’ with the fox body…
I was working nights in a gas station in 1978, and bought a 67 Chevelle SS for $400. Big block, mechanical lifters, M-22, ladder bars. Got 4 MPG. It was blistering fast, but the floor was missing on the passenger side and the engine was chained down to the frame – might account for the bargain price.
I had a 68 Chevell. I was never as happy to get rid of a car as i was with that thing. It was a 396/350 hp. I could make it start to wheel hop at 30 mph. Every time I would power shift it into second gear the shifter would lock-up. The final straw as it was having to put a cam in it with slightly over eleven thousand miles on it. Maybe I got a lemon but it sure turned me off on Chevelles.
I bought a 68 SS 396/375hp 4 speed in1970 a year after high school. I paid $1600 and traded in a 66 Impala convertible 396/ 325 hp turbo 400 trans . I now have 5 collector cars but would love to have another big block Chevelle
Lots of memories here. While in college I had a Marina Blue ‘67 Malibu 283, followed by a ‘69 with a 307 that consumed oil in prodigious quantities. But it was a rust free Texas car with Factory Air, so I dropped in in a 327 and drove it for 5 years. Yes, I still miss it.
That ‘69 Chevelle would haven’t to be Olympic gold w/white interior you bought in Ft. Worth around 1983?
I had one of those needed set of rings and other issues….sold it to buy a ‘83 Accord that my wife wanted😡
I had a one owner ’69 Malibu 307 from ’79-’92. Wish I had kept it but it needed major, but doable, body work (rust belt) and at that time there weren’t the repro panels like today. Article says good examples around for $12,000. GOOD LUCK! All I see is junk for that price. There is a early 70’s Barracuda with a nothing special small block in it, hit in the front and is basically a parts car listed on FB marketplace for $15,000. I don’t need a big block or SS. There are more ‘SS’s’ out there than GM ever built.
I had a 68 SS 4 speed. Tunnel ram and ladder bars like this one. Fun car. It had power nothing. Drum brakes and sported only posi, am radio and tinted glass.
I had a number of year’s of fun. My family had 67-68-69-70-72 and 73 Chevelle models. Dad liked them.
But I got a taste for turning left and right also stopping faster. So I moved on.
One of my favorites was my rare 1972 GMC Sprint SP with a big block. It was my daily driver. Bad on gas and not overly fast it was still a good car with that Chevelle feel and utility of a truck.
The only negative on the Chevelle is they are very common. If you want to be different you may look to Pontiac, Olds or Buick.
You might also look at the Canadian Beaumont.
I bought a brand new ’69 Chevelle SS 396 standard 325 hp. automatic with a bench seat. Needed that bench seat, those Corvette bucket seats cramped mystyle! My street racing Corvette days were over. I paided $3150 for it. Could have kicked myself for not getting air. I hated the bias tires. The streets got damp the car was all over the road. I thought the ’69 was the best looking of all of them, it was the front end that did it for me. Years later a kid I worked with bought a nice used Chevelle SS 454. I had never heard of them unitl he got one. He said it was faster than most Corvettes.
The Chevelle (and the rest of the A body coupes/converts) were the right size (wheelbase, overhangs)… same size as the 55-57 Bel Air, if you wanted some size to your car but still some sporty feel while reasonable to park and such.
I like the big cars (58-64 chevs and the like, the top of the line models of the various divisions after that) and they could be optioned strong but they always feel big.
Two different flavors of icecream, both good.
It’s also pretty much the size the “downsized” Caprices and such went back to in the late 70s.
I wouldn’t be surprised if it isn’t the size (though taller) of Ford Explorers of today either.
Wheelbase of ’70 Chevelle coupe was 113″ (197.2″ overall length) and a 2023 Explorer is 119.1″ (198.8″ overall) according to my Google search just now. A ’77 Caprice is 116″/212.8″.
This article brought back a lot of memories, just not of Woodward Ave. as I never made it that far north. I bought an SS new while still serving Uncle Sam. Bought it thru the GM manufacture rep in the PX in Saigon and it was waiting for me when I got back to the world. Loved that car but the gas crisis had hit, had my first born and a new house so was time to move on. To this day I still regret not keeping it!!!!
I agree with liking the bigger 58 -64 models. A nice styling change from GMs 55-57s. The 58s were nice cruisers and heavier, but the 283 was the motor that I fell in love with. A basic and 4 yr. old 2 dr. auto was actually my first car because they were common place and the price was right. I was 17 and just starting college so a little surprised at the statement: “A Chevelle with a 307-cubic-inch engine, like the one Slota started on, remains within reach of a high school student—good examples hover around $12K ….
I guess high school students today are better heeled than we were back in the 60s.
During the time that I owned that car OEM parts were affordable if you had a friend in a GM parts deptmnt. who knew the books and another in a local wrecking yard. A 4spd. conversion, cam/solid lifters and 4bl. carb livened things up a bit and made street racing a lot of fun. Later on bolting in a blueprinted 409 was a game changer and the beginning of constantly replacing the weakest links. Several years later I said a quick goodbye to the car and jjumped at the chance to buy a used 64 Stingray which I enjoyed for 6 years until starting a family. Old habits never die and as a octogenarian I now enjoy hot rodding vicariously through car meets, forums and occasionally a street rip with my son who inherited the taste and drives a large block Mopar. Life is good – right.
Growing up in Lansing I’m partial to the 442, but a 1966 Marina Blue SS396 4-speed is tied with a ’68 B5 Blue Hemi Roadrunner as the definitive muscle car.
Fun. I actually had a Marina Blue ’66 SS 396, 4-speed (with blue interior) in the early-’70s. Or at least it was blue until some idiot turned in front of me and I had to source front clip parts (mostly white with one yellow and one black fender). So I painted it a seal gray color and named it The Super Seal (had a decal from the old refrigerated semi-trailer maker in the rear window). Nobody cared about “survivor/original paint” stuff in those days – only about how big a tire you could stuff into the rear wheelwells and how loud your 8-track could play before you blew out the door-panel K-Mart speakers you’d put in. That was a great car that I think I paid $900 for and sold years later for $750 so I could get a “family car” for the driveway!
Oh, and I forgot to say that I totally agree with the RoadRunner part of your comment. I don’t know that blue was my favorite – I was a budding artist in those days and did a screenprint of a ’68 green RoadRunner “gettin’ it on” in a cloud of tire smoke because I was in love with the looks of them (a print of that still hangs in my shop, although after 50+ years it’s getting a little ratty. I’m not really a Mopar lover in general, but the RoadRunners of that era that I faced off with on the street and strip (even with just the 383s) were formidable and I loved the looks of them. They were (and still are) true Muscle Cars of the highest order!
The best thing in the A-body was the full frame that many smaller cars lacked with unibody.
The weight was also good and less than the full size cars.
You sure about that weight thing? What’s your source of info for that, please?
Yes they are light, my 66 gto abody weighs 3400# my 66 convert 442 weighs 3500, my sons 66 chevrlle weighs 3300
LaSalle was another car that never jumped the shark.
A friend of mine had a new 69 SS 396/350 horse with 3 speed turbo hydromatic. It was darke green with white SS stripes and SS Magnum 500s. We had lots of fun cutting donuts on the numerous dirt roads in N C where we lived. He was very successful drag racing on the country back roads in our area also. A couple years later after getting my drivers license I bought a 67 RT Coronet, being a Mopar man myself. But I fondly remember that Chevelle and the good times we had on Sunday afternoons.
I ordered a 1968 Chevelle 300, two door post. It was a L79 4-speed car. Super rare and I’d sure like another one.
The dealer was in Freeport, IL and I don’t think it exists anymore.
My first was back in 75 and the first car I owned. Out of necessity, I sold the car when I joined the Marine Corps and regretted selling it ever since. has been on my bucket list ever since. I finally got one 10 years ago as an anniversary gift from my bride. Every time I get in it and fire up the BBC; I feel like I am back in HS. My Grandson has his eye on it now.
I want to be sure I understand, the Ford Mustang “Jumped the Shark” with the Mach e and not the Mustang II? It took nearly a full decade to get over the Mustang II and get people back into the Mustang when it went to the Fox Body, Mustang sales are still strong with the Mach e on the street.
You should check Mustang II sales numbers before you make such bold assumptions. The Mustang II sold well. Over a million cars. Yeah, that’s about half as many as the first generation cars, but sales didn’t exactly rocket right back as the car evolved through the third generation. Even Iacocca says the Mustang II was the right car at the right time and I trust him over most internet commenters.
The Mustang II may have sold well enough, but it looked so much like an even blander Maverick that it definitely hurt the nameplate. Maybe it wasn’t as insulting to the name as the 80s re-badged Mitsubishi was to the name “Challenger,” or the front-drive “Quad-442” was to the Olds 442… but somehow memories are much longer and more bitter with the Mustang II. I remember when internet discussion groups were a new thing in the 90s, the FAQ for the Mustang pages directed people to either the 65-71 Mustang group or the Fox-body Mustang group, and ended with “don’t even ask about the Mustang II, nobody cares.”
Love the Mustang II – have had all the mustangs and still one of my favorites.
Agree imo the Mustang II cheapened the brand to this day for anyone old enough to remember ‘65-‘70
I agree with you. The Mustang II was probably the ugliest car then. I wrote as much but was told about the high sales. It was popular. But you can fool all of the people some of the time.
The Mustang II was the right car for the times…remember the first girl crisis. Ford lucked out on timing that one.
Performance was down everywhere and by everyone. By 1973, all the performance offerings were gone or nearly so. Look up the engine line up for Mopar E-bodies. How many ’73-4 Road Runners or GTOd are out there?
The Mustang II was a good car for what it was, just don’t hate it because of its name.
“Remember the first girl crisis.” Unbelievable: you actually met my first girl? Good call…
imho, the ‘II’ in mustang II more or less put it in a category different than mustang. those built outside of the mid to late 70s didn’t hafta deal with the economy & social events at that time. i’m sure ford did their marketing homework before producing a somewhat backward stepping product (ultimately, it was successful). i wonder what would’ve been if they changed to another horse name, say ‘azteca’, then went back to ‘mustang’ with the fox body…
I was working nights in a gas station in 1978, and bought a 67 Chevelle SS for $400. Big block, mechanical lifters, M-22, ladder bars. Got 4 MPG. It was blistering fast, but the floor was missing on the passenger side and the engine was chained down to the frame – might account for the bargain price.
I had a 68 Chevell. I was never as happy to get rid of a car as i was with that thing. It was a 396/350 hp. I could make it start to wheel hop at 30 mph. Every time I would power shift it into second gear the shifter would lock-up. The final straw as it was having to put a cam in it with slightly over eleven thousand miles on it. Maybe I got a lemon but it sure turned me off on Chevelles.
I bought a 68 SS 396/375hp 4 speed in1970 a year after high school. I paid $1600 and traded in a 66 Impala convertible 396/ 325 hp turbo 400 trans . I now have 5 collector cars but would love to have another big block Chevelle
I had a 69 SS396 with 350 hp, turbo 400 and a 373 posi 12 bolt. I loved that car. I had to sell it when the second child came along.
Lots of memories here. While in college I had a Marina Blue ‘67 Malibu 283, followed by a ‘69 with a 307 that consumed oil in prodigious quantities. But it was a rust free Texas car with Factory Air, so I dropped in in a 327 and drove it for 5 years. Yes, I still miss it.
That ‘69 Chevelle would haven’t to be Olympic gold w/white interior you bought in Ft. Worth around 1983?
I had one of those needed set of rings and other issues….sold it to buy a ‘83 Accord that my wife wanted😡
I had a one owner ’69 Malibu 307 from ’79-’92. Wish I had kept it but it needed major, but doable, body work (rust belt) and at that time there weren’t the repro panels like today. Article says good examples around for $12,000. GOOD LUCK! All I see is junk for that price. There is a early 70’s Barracuda with a nothing special small block in it, hit in the front and is basically a parts car listed on FB marketplace for $15,000. I don’t need a big block or SS. There are more ‘SS’s’ out there than GM ever built.