How many E-bodies are left?

[Tonefiend]

It would be nice to get ahold of some of the classic car insurers records and see how many they have insured. 

[AARuFAST]

I imagine there are a lot of uninsured rusting away somewhere.
There are a good amount of members restoring there e-body that are not insured.
I counted 189 members registered in the Members in your State

Click here to register in your state.
 copy it and paste REPLY an enter your state. >>  http://www.cuda-challenger.com/cc/index.php?topic=51416.375

[back n black]

I'd guess about half...

[Jesus H Chrysler]

It's a tough question to answer.  Do you count only operational vehicles as "survivors" or restorables too?  To what degree?  Some people would move heaven and earth to restore a rusty bare shell of an original 71 HemiCuda, but wouldn't bother to put a fresh battery in a 73 318 car.  There are tons of cars tucked away in backyards, under tarps etc.  that wouldn't be counted by insurance companies, DMV's or other registries.

Personally I've owned 6 Challengers.  Three definitely ended up scrapped, (2 74's and a 70 vert) One is still under restoration (my 72) and 2 are unknown.  I sold a clean 70 bare shell years ago and assume it's been restored, but it could have easily been parted out.  My 73 Rallye was sold as running and I later learned it was stripped of the good stuff and left as a bare shell.  It's still restorable, but not likely.

I too would love to know what's left out there.  Sometimes when I'm out in the Challenger people come up to me and say "My cousin's friends uncle has one just like this, but it needs work and he won't sell it".  So there are definitely more out there than we know about.

[brads70]

All I know is about 500% of the hemi Cuda's and Challengers have survived!

[ChallengerHK]

Dave i guess it's like the Calender and T-shirts few have responded.  I notice members pop in and out since I registered.
I'm sure many of the members being married with kids, jobs, kids sports, family first, keeps many from CC.com.
This club must be the largest e-body website. 
It would just be kool to get a count of 70 thru 74 e-body's.

A while back I saw a breakdown of the number of members at each level, which is a rough indication of the number of people and their activity level. The vast majority are folks that post a few times, probably looking for tech answers or selling parts or cars. I myself, when I first got here, posted about getting my wipers working. I never expected to find such a good group, or to hang around so long.

And there's yet another factor: WIIFM, what's in it for me. I'm interested in the answer to how many are left, but more as the answer to a trivia question. The folks who who have a vested interest in these questions, and are therefore motivated to cast a vote, are the guys with the rare cars, whose value might change. Notice that the existing registries are for 70s, 6 paks, Hemis and LA cars, i.e., rarer cars. There was a 72-74 registry, but it disappeared.

About gettin with Purple 1 and MEK and other local members I can only recommend meeting at a Saturday Cruise like Marley Station Mall or any near u.

Sounds like a plan.

[1970 RT Challenger 1970]

I remember hearing this back in the 80's.
Some of the car companies (GM, Ford, Chrysler, etc...) use an attrition rate of 10% a year for a vehicle. And that's why they only guarantee to make parts for 10 years for that particular year of vehicle.

Now with the Challenger/Cuda being a sports car ( as well as Camaro, Mustang, etc...), between having the supreme sh/t driven out of them, wrapped around telephone poles, rust and road salt, car bodies rotting in a grassy field, and the car crusher.....it's not looking too good. The odds of finding a same year 4 door station wagon should be better, but you don't see too many of them around either.

[ChallengerHK]

I think that 10% per year might be somewhat reasonable, but only until they start to become collectible. Too many become trailer queens after that.

[TinCuda]

I was talking to an old timer one time that retired from running a salvage yard.  He told me that anytime he got in a chrysler, it went straight to the crusher.  The Fords and Chevy cars where held on to for a while for parts.  I don't know if that is the norm but it kind of upset me a little to think about it.


.,

[spamtank]

I was talking to an old timer one time that retired from running a salvage yard.  He told me that anytime he got in a chrysler, it went straight to the crusher.  The Fords and Chevy cars where held on to for a while for parts.  I don't know if that is the norm but it kind of upset me a little to think about it.


.,

He probably told a similar story to the Bow Tie and Blue Oval guys just to watch them get sick too.