i agree with 426hemi about the quality issues. my first car was a 73 challenger. i bought it in 1980 for what amounted to about 300 bucks. this thing was a 2 owner car with less than 100k miles. floors shot, quarters shot, trunk shot, top of fenders full of holes vinyl top bubbled etc. basically the car was junk after 7 years on the road.
i dont think you can overlook the effects of the oil embargo on the demise of these cars. circa 1973 people like my parents who would have never considered owning anything other than an 8 cylinder starting viewing 6 cylinder cars as an option. i think if you could have bought an ebody with a slant 6 and a stick in 74 they would have been every bit as popular if not moreso than the dusters and valiants and darts. those things werent exactly built like a brickhouse either. few of my friends had them in high school since you could buy a 6 year old rust bucket scamp on just about every corner for 300 bucks
