Car Spot: 74 Dodge Charger SE

Still some muscle left in this name

1974 wasn’t a great year for the US auto industry as production levels fell by almost two million vehicles, around 22 percent. Poor fuel economy was mostly why buyers turned away from larger and medium-sized cars and preferred compact and subcompact cars. With inflation just above 12 percent, Chrysler found cars sitting on dealer lots for 120 days and closed five of its six U.S. assembly plants. They did however manage to make the Charger interesting and fun to drive like this week’s spot.

The Charger was in its third generation’s fourth and final year. Even though it wasn’t the muscle car it once was still popular. The SE, (base price of $3,742, $23,946.75 today), was the fanciest and most expensive, with its louver-ish rear quarter windows, vinyl roof treatment, and other upscale fun stuff. Of the 74,376 Chargers built in 1974, 30,957 were SE models, with all carrying V-8 power.

Base engine was the 318 with only 150 hp, but two-and four-barrel 360-cid V-8s were popular choices and rated at 200 and 245 hp, respectively. A 400-cid two-barrel (205 hp), 400-cid four-barrel (250 hp) and four-barrel 440 V-8 (275) hp were also available for those who weren’t worried at the cost of gas, 53 cents, but because of the 1973–74 OPEC embargo, the price of oil nearly quadrupled and there were sometimes long lines at the pump.

The 340 was also dropped for 1974, and there were a few other minor changes to the SEs making the ’73s and ’74s hard to tell apart. Pretty sure this spot is a 74 though. A three-speed manual transmission was standard, but a four-speed pistol-grip Hurst unit was on the options list. The Torsion-Quiet Ride suspension setup introduced in 1973 returned for ’74, and disc brakes were standard on the front.

RELATED Spot: 69 Chrger Restomod

Dodge marked its 60th year as an automaker in 1974 and won 10 Grand National NASCAR races, six of which were scored by Richard Petty. It was the company’s best year racing since 1970 but that was the end of the line for this body style. In the 1975 model year Charger continued as a B-body car but was restyled in an effort by Dodge to move the model into the growing personal luxury car market segment like the Monte Carlo, Thunderbird, and Chrysler Cordoba, with Ricardo Montalban’s “Corinthian leather.”

So what are they worth now? I was surprised to see good examples with the larger V8s going for high teens to lower twenties. It’s the earlier years that go for considerably more.

Thanks for stopping by and checking out this week’s spot. I hope you had a great Christmas and Santa was good to you. Come back next week for my first spot of the New Year and have a great weekend.