Pick of the Day: 1969 Dodge Charger

What was the hot car for 1968? Was it the new Corvette? The Pontiac GTO with that nifty Endura bumper? Maybe the Plymouth Road Runner? Nah, the latter doesn’t really have the style of the previous two, so what about the Dodge Charger? Yes, that’s it! Our Pick of the Day, a 1969 Dodge Charger, shows what was so great about the new design and the improvements made the following year. The Mopar is listed for sale on ClassicCars.com by a dealer in Scottsdale, Arizona. (Click the link to view the listing)

It’s easy to pick the performance-oriented Charger R/T, but that’s not what we want to do. Rather, we want to talk about the Charger in general and extol the purity of the standard model, which was unadorned with stripes or badges. When the redesigned Charger debuted in the fall of 1967, no one knew what to make of it. Was it a sport coupe, like a fancy Coronet? A sporty personal-luxury car like the poor-selling previous-gen Charger? Whatever it was, it sold like hotcakes (as they used to say), achieving over 90,000 in sales. Even the Slant Six was available, though most were built with the 318 and two 383s. Top engine option for the base Charger was the 330-horsepower 383, which offered some semblance of performance without being showy members of the Scat Pack like the Charger R/T.

Dodge knew screwing with a good thing was a bad thing, so the 1969 Charger returned with few changes but numerous improvements. The most noticeable change was the taillights, which were intended to be introduced for 1968 but wasn’t able to make deadline. Up front, the grille received a new texture and featured a divider in the middle. New, slotted 15-inch cast road wheels were a fancy option but were cancelled early in the model year due to a safety recall involving the lug nuts.

Interior trim was changed for 1969 as well, though the big news inside was the SE Decor Group, which included leather and vinyl front bucket seats, wood-grain steering wheel and inserts in the instrument panel, hood-mounted turn indicators, pedal dress-up, deep-dish wheel covers, light package (lights for the ashtray, glove box, and trunk, ignition light with time delay, and headlamp-on warning buzzer), and SE medallions on the C-pillar. Starting on January 1, 1969, head restraints became standard per government mandate.

Overall, the Charger was improved, though in retrospect some enthusiasts prefer the round taillights of the ’68, which invokes an argument akin to the old Miller Lite commercials (“Tastes great/less filling”). Dodge sold almost as many Chargers for 1969, which speaks highly of the model considering sporty car sales were in a slide. That decline would truly be felt the following year, the final of the second-generation Charger.

It’s not too often you see a base 1969 Dodge Charger  for sale that hasn’t been modified, if not made into an R/T clone, but here we have one whose purity can be appreciated — it even lacks the ever-present vinyl top! Repainted in the original Copper (code T5) with Tan vinyl interior, the Dodge is powered by a 330-horsepower 383 four-barrel paired to a 727 TorqueFlite automatic. “It has a Sure-Grip rear end, power steering, and power brakes,” says the consignee. “The engine compartment is extremely nice, correct, and detailed to a high-level, as well as the underside and trunk of the car.” I also spy 14-inch road wheels, more commonly known as Magnum 500s.

As E-bodies have gotten crazy with prices, the Charger has followed suit. Perhaps you’ve been chasing an R/T but check out when you see the asking prices, so this is the next best thing. Look at the pics of the underside and you’ll see this is about as clean a Charger you’ll find, so the $98,000 asking price is for someone who wants a spotless Charger to show while appreciating the purity of the standard Charger’s design.

Click here for the ClassicCars.com Pick of the Day.