Non-Mopar car you wish you had purchased?

-
One that got away from me was a 70 RT/SE Challenger. Bought it for $750. No place to keep it and my dad wouldn't let me park it until I could fix it. Had to let it go.
 
Actually looked at in my 20s
65 Rivera
Early 70s bug
34 Ford 3 window coupe

The idea of, teens-20s
Corvettes

Today
Pantera (been on my list from my teens)

I was born into a Mopar family so there hasn't been much to tempt me.
I'm sure there were many others through the years and maybe in the future.


Alan
 
Another old boring story as some of the other old Mopar guys say!!! Too cold outside here in SE Tx, 40 and the wind is blowing...hard. So here I am.

I got into Mopars by accident, I graduated HS in '66. Pa was a GM guy till he got totally pissed the the local Chevy dealer owner, then he went Ford. I turned 16 and had an after school and 12 /12 hours Sat. job at local super market, $1 an hour. ( I almost lean]rned to hate women!) I loved quarter horses and the part owner of the small town Chrysler dealership was a "horsey" lady and she took all the local horsey kids under her wing. She had a new 64 Sport Fury, 383 car, and would let me and another girl take it, her trailer, and our horses off to a local show! She was a hoot.

Pa tried out a well used 55 Chevy in about 62, I was 14. Straight 6 and 3 on tree. I really wanted him to buy that!!!!!! but he didn't. He was probably short $20! Then he did buy a 59 Chevy when I was 16. I would top out at 120 by the speedo. Ma was pissed as this was the Deep South, 1962, and Pa bought it off a black man. She made him sell it, and one of my cousins wound up with it. One day he tossed a cig out the window, it ended up in the back seat and caught it on fire good but the car survived.

When I got my after school job at 16, Pa gave me a well (very well) used up 49 Chevy. It ran but left me walking getting to school more than once. It was FREE. Ma worked in the Courthouse in the tax/tag office where the Country sheriff office was. They would find my broke down '49 and give ma Hell about it, as she was easy to provoke! Have ya ever seen a 60 year old lady knock the chit out of a sheriff's deputy. I have. They thought it was funny. Yea, Ma was old enough to have been my grandmother.

Small town Dawson, Ga. had a population of maybe 5000 people, colored and white. NO ONE ever moved TO Dawson! But when I was a junior, a new family moved to town.. This was 1963. Never knew why. A mother and two kids, the oldest was a boy and a senior. They built a new home right there in town!! Not sure if she was a widow from the Nam war or divorced. She had a new 63 split window Vet and the boy had a 55 Chevy HOT ROD!!!! Fiberglass front end, 327 four speed, tuck n roll. Sweet! I about ***** in my panted every time I saw it! Damn they had to have been RICH!!!!!! Never seen such! How I got into Mopars and have NEVER ever had a '55, ever, I will never know! OK so I do know!!!!

I turned 17 band my old 49 just died a natural death. Pa found me a 64 Ford Custom ( full size Ford 2 door post car), 289 3 on tree, and it was HEAVY!!! A big time farmer bought it for his daughter going to college in Miss. It was about 1 1/2 years old and had 45,000 mi. on it!!!!! Before I got that, Pa tried out a 64 PonyAc Tempest, 326 and 3 on floor. (A GTO wanna be!) I almost cried when Pa just said, I would kill my fool self in it. This was 1965. My buddies cousin, had just traded in a 63 or 4 Impala, 409, 4 speed. I had a ride in with the cousinm once before, and it would haul ***. He traded it for a Ford so there was hope! The Ford dealer had it!!!!!!! Yea right.
It said on their lot maybe 3 days and a black guy buys it, (GONE!) and a week later blew the engine. Maybe for the best.

So one day, 1979, I find myself living in Missouri, a pasture and barn full of quarter horses, a real job, a ***** for a wife, and I wanted a "classic"! This is about '83. What to look for???? WTF not a 55 Chevy??? Never entered my mind! (What mind????). Mustang maybe???? Mopar maybe????
I find a rust free really good '68 Olds 442 over in Kansas, college kid from Ca. had it. $1000 and needed nothing. Nothing!!! The wife just about pooped in her panties. I had the $ in MY friggin pocket. BUT.....It got traded off to a guy that owned a body shop for a paint job on my inline horse trailer. Probably not a good trade, but it killed 2 birds with one rock. After that we had separate checking accounts! and I still had MY cash in MY pocket.

Then comes a 71 Charger RT a(1984) and the line of Mopars never slowed down. My first Mopar!!
$1500, stright rust free, wing, 15 x 7 raylles, but the dude had just pulled the original 440, sold it, and dropped in a good 400. This was about '84. Who ever hrard of "matching number" BS!???? It just an old UISED car!!! Nice car but ALL the local Mopar guys tell me IF I don't have a 70-1 Cuda or maybe Challenger, I will never amounty to chit. At least a 440 or maybe a hemi if lucky! I sell it and find a good running 70 Challenger, rust free, with a 440 (origianlly a 318 car). Just needs some new exhaust pipes. Then the mopar guys explain that is JUST an all most cool ride, BUT dumbass NOT a "real" car!!!! So the learning curve was steep!!!!!!! Go figure?????
 
in april of 1975 my goofy sister owned a 1971 Challenger convertible with the 383 2bbl..lime green with white Interior. She was losing it to the bank,with a balance due of 571.00
My new wife of three months started to test drive it around the block when the rim blow horn stuck on. I heard her wherever she went. When she returned all flustered, she told me If I bought that car she would not be nice to me for a VERY long time.
So I didn't buy it.
 
in april of 1975 my goofy sister owned a 1971 Challenger convertible with the 383 2bbl..lime green with white Interior. She was losing it to the bank,with a balance due of 571.00
My new wife of three months started to test drive it around the block when the rim blow horn stuck on. I heard her wherever she went. When she returned all flustered, she told me If I bought that car she would not be nice to me for a VERY long time.
So I didn't buy it.
are you still married to the gal or should you have bought the car? lol
 
Ordered one just like this back in '74...

1974TA.jpg
 
are you still married to the gal or should you have bought the car? lol
coincidently, we just had our 50th Wedding anniversary on the 28th of December!
She has definitely put up with all the mopars coming our way, and gone. and all those that are here now.
We got engaged in a green 68 Charger, and The one in the picture we have owned for 40 years.

I am lucky that she lets me live!
 
coincidently, we just had our 50th Wedding anniversary on the 28th of December!
She has definitely put up with all the mopars coming our way, and gone. and all those that are here now.
We got engaged in a green 68 Charger, and The one in the picture we have owned for 40 years.

I am lucky that she lets me live!
That's a great story Congratulations on the 50 years...that's truly a wonderful testament to making it happen for 5o years. You probably hooked her with the green charger!
 
Believe it or not she drove her mothers Volkswagon to my sister's house on our second date and helped me wax it! that first charger was a 318 with the three on a tree! very rare today
but we have this one since 1985.
She told me when I kick off, all the others will be gone, but she will keep the Charger.She is so kind!
Lol

1968 chargr october 2018.jpg
 
Believe it or not she drove her mothers Volkswagon to my sister's house on our second date and helped me wax it! that first charger was a 318 with the three on a tree! very rare today
but we have this one since 1985.
She told me when I kick off, all the others will be gone, but she will keep the Charger.She is so kind!
Lol

View attachment 1716349139
who would order a wonderful car like that with a 3 on the tree? Not that I would throw it out of bed for eating crackers! It sure is a beauty...one of our favorite B bodies. # pedals are better than 2 even if the old girl is a column manual shift. Truly a nice ride!
 
Believe it or not she drove her mothers Volkswagon to my sister's house on our second date and helped me wax it! that first charger was a 318 with the three on a tree! very rare today
but we have this one since 1985.
She told me when I kick off, all the others will be gone, but she will keep the Charger.She is so kind!
Lol

View attachment 1716349139
AHhhhhh those 68 GREEN Chargers!!!!!
I was silly over them back in late 90s. Seems like everyone I lucked up one was GREEN!!
A Mopar bud put me on to one just like yours but an auto. Just a 318 cars, he admitted it had a LOT of bondo but had been dinged up a lot!, NO rust but it was straight, drove great, perfect intyerior, needed nothing, and just a super ride. This was about 2001 and he begged me to give him $2500. I drove it to work about 50 mi round trip. I could not stop at the store, without lonely women wanting to talk "about that Charger."
 
I've had several mustangs, corvettes, and 2 grand Nationals, but always came back to the mopars. 3 340 dusters, 1 70 383 Cuda was 2 challengers, 8 road runners, 1 super bee, now probably my last one 340 demon
 
Just outta high school I had a chance to buy a '69 442....$5k

But I didn't have $5. I DID test drive it though!

Twenty years ago there was a Jenson Interceptor sitting in Springfield, MO. I found the owner and he wasn't super in love with the car. I could have talked him into selling, but again.... No money
 
Another one I passed on. A 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ 428. A jock classmate of mine drove it all the way thru high school. He wasn't really a car guy, so I never really looked at it that well. Then in our senior year he started raising a little hell and I realized it had the 428 in it. He went off to college and it sat out at his dad's farm for quite a few years, don't know what ever happened to it.
 
Another one I passed on. A 1969 Pontiac Grand Prix SJ 428. A jock classmate of mine drove it all the way thru high school. He wasn't really a car guy, so I never really looked at it that well. Then in our senior year he started raising a little hell and I realized it had the 428 in it. He went off to college and it sat out at his dad's farm for quite a few years, don't know what ever happened to it.
doh-homer-simpson-doh.jpg
 
I got into Mopars by accident
Me too. I've never been particular on car manufacturers, there's always something from the big three that catches my eye. I stumbled across a '71 Scamp and I bought it. I had never even heard of a Scamp. But it was all over after that.

What non-Mopar car? I have always loved the '66-67 Chevy Nova II. Small, tight platform. Clean, boxy lines. You can build them to be unassuming sleepers or badass street machines born from hell.
Screenshot_20250107_060332_Chrome.jpg
 
70 Chevelle SS454, this one belongs to my brother.View attachment 1716349143
Says he'll never sell it, so I said ok, leave it to me in your will.
Sorry for getting a little morbid here, but my brother was just diagnosed with Parkinson's, and while they were over for Christmas he asked me if I would be interested in his C6 'Vette, as our other brother would absolutely trash it in no time flat.

This one:

Yippy.jpg


He's only 4 years older than me, and I've been kinda "down" ever since.

Anyway, back to our regularly scheduled program!
 
Sorry to hear about your brother. Parkinson's is a terrible disease.
Thank you.

My current wife's mother passed away from Parkinson's right before we were married, so I had some familiarity with it.

But now I'm reading-up on anything and everything I can get my hands on regarding it....

Thankfully my sister works at the Mayo Clinic, and she "knows people who know people", and she's "on this" like white on rice!

We'll see.
 
I had a chance at an 69 L88 427 4 speed Corvette in the early 70's. The owner somehow managed to strip the spark plug threads, one on the drivers side and two on the passengers side. I wasn't much into Chevrolet back then and I passed on it, my youngest brother finally put the money together and bought it for $2,000.00. I was called to help out with fixing it and told him I'll supervise, but he was going to do all of the work. He got the topside of the motor apart and took the heads to a machine shop to get the repaired. After about three years of it sitting around, he finally got it put back together. He drove it for a short time and go tired of getting tickets for being stupid with a 435 HP car. He sold it to someone he worked with and it hung around the area for a few years, trading hands multiple times. It was finally restored and sold at on of the big auctions for $80,000.00 according to my brother.
 
-
Back
Top