Why did our cars sell New.

[woops]

I was doing a little searching online and came across the 1972 E49 RT Charger and was a little curious about these cars. Well any ways this charger which is now classed as the pinnacle of the Classic Aussie Chrysler cars with only about 150 made and a race ready engine capable of 302HP from a straight 6 hemi, triple sidedraft weber etc managed to break many records in it's time for the fastest accelerating production car. This car sits along side the phase 3 GTHO's in their desirability and often sell for about the $200,000 for an original model.

I then became a little curious about how expensive this car was originally when it was brand new. I decided to check out redbook because i remember them having the brand new prices there. Considering their rareness i thought they would have sold for a fair bit in their time. Well to my astonishment they sold for the sum of $4300. I then decided to do a little more research on the site to find that the poverty pack charger in that year sold for $2975 and the top of the line e55 charger sold for about $4800. Also the much larger valiant sedans sold for about $3070 to about $3595.

Now these numbers might seem a little stupid to be looking at but i thought i'd compare these figures to the Galants of the same year and for the poverty pack 1400cc manual GB sedan sold for $2498 and the top of the range GB auto sedan sold for $3034.

Well now this brings me to the question of the day. Why the hell did anyone actually buy galants when you could get a comparable valiants sedan with more space, towing capacity and power for only a small increase in asking price? Was it due to the increasing fuel prices at the time and people getting scared about fuel inefficient vehicles, or were people just looking for a small easy to park car, or was it the better handling of a small compact lightweight vehicle, or is it that the cars were just that when they weighted up the differences between the valiant and the galants, the galants proved to be the better option overall? Or is it that redbooks numbers are very inaccurate for the original new sale prices.

When you take a look around now it is clear that the modern car market a small 4 cylinder car with very few features is clearly much more affordable than a 6 or 8 cylinder aussie built car but back then in the early 70's it seemed as though there was little purchase price difference to sway people to the small Japanese car away from the aussie cars.

[Decrepit]

Hi,

I can remember going to auto auctions in the early 70s where the large cars were passed in with no bids recieved and clapped out rusty mini 850s were selling for $1500. I can also remember talking to an old fellow that gave his holden to his nephew because of the petrol price increases. It wasn't the price of petrol that bothered me, it was the rationing. I managed to purchase a 200 litre drum of fuel and a hand pump just so I could get to work.

My first car was a HR Holden 6, my second a HT Kingswood. I sold the Kingswood to buy a Galant Wagon GL. The galant was ahead of its time in comparison to the Australian built cars, it had four on the floor instead of three on the tree, reclining bucket seats instead of bench seats, the GL model came with a radio whilst the local models didn,t, for a little extra you could have metalic paint, engines were newer technology, the list goes on.

I believe that the reason that so few performance vehicles were sold at this time was because the market didn't want them.

After the petrol crises ended, I have owned a VC Valiant V8, A ZJ Fairlane V8, Falcon sedans and Wagons, Hilux's, etc. I currently Own a Jaguar XJ40, Triton Ute, Honda HRV (wife's), Galant hardtop (toy) and have a second Galant hardtop (restoration project).

During the 70s, there was no choice to make. if you wanted transport, you bought something small and fuel efficient. That is why Holden tried to change their 6 cylinder engine to a four by chopping off two cylinders (starfire four) and putting it into the vc commodore. My father bought one of these and got rid of it real quick.

Hope my ramble gives you some insight into the economic climate of the time and explaines why our cars as well as other small imports sold so well.

Randolph (Decrepit)

[A112H]

I think it might come down to average wages at the time, the media beginning their campaign of the faster and faster cars being death traps on our roads and the threat of crazy fuel pricing.
When you consider that the average wage for 1972 was $5,044 then that would make the GB pov pack worth about 6 months wages. Where a top spec E55 being about a years wages.
Comparatively a fair example of the pov GB would be the 2010 pov ES Lancer at $21,490. With today’s average wage around $70,000 that’s around 4 months’ wages. As Mitsubishi no longer offer a full size sports car to compare to the E55 I have chosen a F6 Sedan being a performance 6cyl and Australian made I thought it a good choice. Anyway the FPV F6 will set you back $67,500, pretty much a years wages.
So I guess what I am saying is you are still paying a years wages for performance but small cheap cars are now cheaper.
I guess an idea of the appeal of the Galant can be taken from the adverts at the time; they were marketed to young people with a life style that perhaps couldn't afford the E55 or didn't want a big heavy car as that’s what their parents had and they were old. The Galant was young, zippy and cheap to run.

[A112H]

That is why Holden tried to change their 6 cylinder engine to a four by chopping off two cylinders (starfire four) and putting it into the vc commodore. My father bought one of these and got rid of it real quick.

I think these Commodores should have been called the VD model, because once you had it no one wanted it off you, lol

[81GL]

Interesting read

cheers.

[amgis_obrut]

My father bought an E49 when they were new, traded in a green with gold stripe HT 350 monaro to get the charger

[llgc]

I think the comparison between the Valiant sedan pricing and the Galant is valid but I would like to offer my oponion as to why the E49 was priced where it was and why so few were sold.
If you go back to 1971 series production racing had a class structure based solely on retail price of the vehicle, Chrysler Australia wanted to run their Chargers in Class D for cars under $4000 and so the E38 was sold at $3975. The GTHO's were in Class E so while the ultimate goal was obviously to beat them if they didn't at least they could Chrysler could claim a class victory (hopefully). At only $1000 more than a base pov pack Charger I don't think Chrysler accountants would have been impressed but CAMS required proof of 200 cars being produced so it was more about creating an image than creating profit. Then in June 1972 the E38 was superseeded by the E49 and the price increased to $4300 which didn't matter as the class structure had changed. Then when the Supercar Scare erupted in August 72 CAMS accepted that the E49 was merely an update of the E38 and dropped the requirement for 200 identical models to have been produced and the E49 quietly disappeared from the pricelist so I imagine the Chrysler could have sold alot more E49's if production had continued.
Cheers,
Mike