Muscle cars are hot right now! The truth is they never really cooled off. That is great news for those who already have their dream car, but not so great for those looking to finally scoop up that example of pristine personal perfection. With the timeless status, the big names like Chevelle, Challenger, and Torino carry, the prices for them are also always hot. According to Hagerty, the early part of 2022 saw a huge rise in the value of well-known muscle cars due to increasing demand and a dwindling of quality examples, So, if you are ready to make the plunge without dropping low six figures, here are some other muscle cars and trucks, let’s call them the MVPs, and their cheaper alternatives.
10 The MVP: 1968-1972 Chevy Nova
The reigning king of the Chevy muscle cars, the Chevelle, is so sought after that rusted-out hulks of a roller are being listed for $7,000 on the Facebook marketplace. That means that a lot of interest has been shifted to the Chevelle’s mini-me clone, the Chevy Nova. While the above example sold for $110,000 on Bring a Trailer, there are still many good Novas available for under $20,000 for a completed driver. The supply of good restoration examples is dwindling, driving the prices up on everything down to the “I know what I got” dragged out-of-the-woods hulks. Lots of these cars were used as drag cars and will need some reconditioning and outfitting before becoming a comfy daily driver or weekend cruiser. If you want in on one before they go sky-high like their big brother now is the time to grab your Chevy Nova.
9 The Alternatives: 1970-1977 Ford Maverick/ Mercury Comet
The Ford Maverick and sister car Mercury Comet were produced from 1970 through 1977 and were the replacement for the slightly larger Ford Falcon of the 60s. Originally sold with only an inline six-cylinder, the tried and true 302 small block became an option starting in ’71. The most desirable are the grabber Maverick and Comet GT options. The Grabbers can be easily identified from ’71 to ’77 by VIN, but the original ’70 Grabbers are a bit harder to ID, but possible with a little research. These cars are easily located as good driver quality for under $10,000 with most units closer to the $5,000-$7,000 range. Mavericks are a great option if you want the Nova looks for half the cost. With the Nova losing its great lines after ’72, Ford was able to keep that mini-muscle car look all the way to 1977.
8 The MVP: 1968-1972 Chevy C10
As the major muscle car players are starting to dry up, the muscle trucks have risen to take their place. The king of muscle trucks is the 1968-1972 Chevy C-10. The short-bed fleetside models are the most popular and most expensive option. Restomodding these beasts has become the name of the game and has driven prices up as high as the low $80,000 range. Depending on the amount of work buyers are willing to do, examples can be found for proverbial pocket change. (The author’s 1970 step-side was purchased, with a title, for a race truck project costing just $3,500!) Thanks to companies like Auto Metal Direct, almost every bit of sheet metal is available for purchase as complete units or patch panels. Quality examples of short-bed units are becoming more difficult to find but aftermarket support has produced conversion kits to transform the less expensive long beds into short beds in the span of a weekend. If you have the cash, the C10s can be a great investment and a foot in the door to the muscle car world.
7 The Alternative: 1972-1979 Dodge D Series
Like the Falcon to the Nova, other manufacturers tend to lag a bit behind General Motors like these third-generation D trucks do to the C10s. Like the muscle cars from dodge, these trucks had some fun names thrown around: The Li’l Red Express, Warlock, and adventurer just jump out at you and make for one more bit of fun with classic muscle trucks. While these D Series trucks from Dodge are not nearly as plentiful as the Chevy C10s, they seem to have fewer issues with rust in the cab corners and doors meaning less chance of rot being a major issue. A search of the Facebook marketplace and Bring a Trailer finds many good examples from survivors trucks to really solid builders and usually for about half of what a similar C10 would cost.
6 The MVP: Chevy C3 Corvette
Often referred to as the Stingrays, the third generation of the Chevrolet Corvettes covers the 1968 to 1982 model years. The C3 had three separate eras of cars within the family. These were the chrome bumper cars sold as 1968 to 1972 models. 1973 through 1977 were transitional years and saw the end of the chrome bumpers and the start of the composite front and rears. The last of the generation ran from 1978 to 1982 and are easy to spot from the “Whale Window” that replaced the earlier vertical windshields and gave the car a hatchback look. Many C3 can actually be found in the low thousands, but don’t be fooled those are not the cars you want to invest in. Most of the low-dollar examples you find will have major issues within the “birdcage” that holds the windshield and gives the passenger compartment its structure. These regularly rot out and run water down into the body mount area making the body’s connection to the frame questionable at best. The cost to make these solid drivers can run into the tens of thousands and take years by your average DIY restorer. The birdcage rot has made clean and solid examples start to hit stratospheric heights and unobtainium to most car guys. Bring a trailer shows sales regularly into the six-figure range and a high of $631,000!
5 The Alternative: Opel GT
These diminutive sports cars are often called the poor man’s corvette due to looking so much like C3s. The Opel GT loses the muscle part of the C3’s muscle sports car but makes up for it in style and uniqueness. The cars were produced from 1968 to 1973 and just over a hundred thousand units reached the market making them a rarer car than the C3 but a much more affordable one. With the comparable top seller on Bring a Trailer being scooped up for a mere $35,000, you can really get into the look and feel of the ‘Vette for a lot less. Being a unibody car means no birdcage to worry about being rotten under a pretty veneer, but the body being metal rather than fiberglass means a lot more space for rust. The remaining examples mostly fall into the fully restored or in need of full restoration bins, so be prepared to spend between $5,000 and $20,000 for really nice units. For those more daring it is easy to find those in need of restoring for as little as $500 on the Facebook marketplace. For those looking to add back in some of that muscle, many hotrod examples like the picture above are just waiting to be built around a spicy drivetrain out of a modern car like the Mazda Miata.
4 The MVP:1969-1973 Ford Mustang
Back in the day, Mustangs, Camaros, and Challengers wouldn’t be considered muscle cars. They fell into a “pony car” class all their own. Now a day though they fall firmly into the muscle car realm. This generation of Mustangs has never really left the public eye thanks to films like Gone in Sixty Seconds and John Wick and the lack of break in production felt by the other pony cars. Rare examples are fetching as much as $350,000 and more, while clean drivers’ cars are going from around $20,000 up to north of $50,000. The example shown above fetched $72,500 at a Bring a Trailer auction. The popularity has driven up prices on these cars to a point where a solid roller with 90-percent of the car covered in surface rust is fetching $7,000 and more. If you don’t have big bucks or a desire to build from a questionable start, you might just be out of luck.
3 The Alternative: First-gen Mercury Cougar
1967 through 1970 Mercury Cougars are a stunning example of inter-brand competition done the right way. Despite sharing the same basic platform as the mustangs of the ere, the Cougar really stands on its own with a slightly longer wheelbase and sheet metal all its own. It is refreshing due to that era’s propensity to change very little between their own brands. The Cougar comes off as the hot older cousin rather than the offspring of kissing cousins like seen in the Chevy Camaro and the Pontiac Firebird platform share.
2 The MVP: 1970-1974 Dodge Challenger/Plymouth Barracuda
Built on the Chrysler E body, the Challenger and Barracuda are other examples of the pony car turned muscle car phenomenon. While you might be able to find the odd E body near the $20,000 range, anything less than that will likely require at least some work. The example above though tops out the other end of the spectrum having sold for over half a million dollars in 2022. The Barracuda was just a touch smaller and had a lower level of trim but still fetches the same $20,000+ entry point for a driver example. These two iconic muscle cars represent are getting more and more difficult to find since less than 270,000 combined units were produced.
1 The Alternatives: Fourth-Gen Dodge Dart/Plymouth Duster
Inside the Chrysler family, a less expensive alternative to the Challenger can be found in the 1967-1976 Dodge Dart. Starting in 1970 and running through 1976, the Plymouth Duster joined in the fray to help fill out the production. The A-Body Dart and Duster are other popular drag racing platforms like the Chevy Novas they were built to compete with. Like many Chryslers of its day, were offered in truly unique trim levels that set them aside from the others produced by the big three. Names like Demon, Swinger, Sizzler, and Valiant Scamp really grabbed the imagination. These cars are readily available in and around the $10,000 range with a high sale showing just $80,000. These won’t see the same huge values that the Challenger and Barracuda have, but that doesn’t take away from their easy-to-attain status as an entry into the muscle car world
