Car of the Week: 1974 Dodge Charger SE

[dodgechargerfan]

Tom Brickbauer got some sound advice from some of his car-loving friends a few years ago.

Today, he’s glad he listened.

The Kiel, Wis., resident had been leaning toward getting rid of the 1974 Dodge Charger SE he had owned since it was new. The car needed some work and was still in original condition, and Brickbauer thought it was probably time to unload it.

“I was going to get rid of it and buy a Challenger, a new one!” laughs Brickbauer. “I really liked the new Challengers, but then people said you should keep [the Charger]. ‘You’ll be sorry. It’s got all the paperwork and all the numbers matching and everything.’

“So instead of spending the money on a new Challenger, we had this car restored and we go all over with it now. We love it.”

Read more.

 

[TheIronSausage]

Meh, Whatever.. I'd drive it. They made a bunch of them, and it's an SE with a 318.. Still.. Could be worse..

 

[Stretch]

Don't these people do any fact checking what so ever before they put this stuff to print?

 

[TheIronSausage]

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story?

 

[Stretch]

Never let the facts get in the way of a good story?

Clearly the credo they live by.

 

[Dr.Jass]

What facts are you disputing? Nothing jumped out at me, other than "We get a lot of compliments on it.”

 

[Stretch]

What facts are you disputing? Nothing jumped out at me, other than "We get a lot of compliments on it.”

"The Tufted Steering wheel." They say they traded in the 1969 charger to buy this one then in the same paragraph say after driving this car for 8 years they decided they couldn't keep both chargers so they kept this one and sold the other.

I miss read the paragraph about the 440 not being available so thats on me.

 

[Dr.Jass]

The writer is not responsible for the stuff in quotes. Good reporters don't change quotes, they write exactly what was said. If this hammer said he kept a car he traded in, or had a tufted steering wheel, that's on his stupidity rather than any error on the writer's part. He probably chuckled at the inconsistency and didn't know any better about the steering wheel. The folks at Old Cars, Weakly are far more concerned with Hupmobiles than post-Eisenhower stuff.

I was actually suprised at how right they got this particular article. Normally any article regarding a post-'71 vehicle is mucked up because they couldn't be bothered to look.

One thing the article did make me think about, though... I wonder whatever happened to that one-of-one '74 SE with the column-shifted 3-speed manual that Hallman had at one point. Last I knew it was in the Detroit area and for sale, but that was probably a decade ago.