Hagerty Video: Why is this optioned 1966 Dodge Charger so overpriced? | The Appraiser

Hagerty Video Transcript

– [Colin] 1966 Dodge Charger. – [Daniel] Black on black, four speed, big block 383, couldn’t pass it up, had to get it. – It’s a first year Charger. It’s kind of a rare combination. What they were thinking was that in the future, we’d have flying cars and cell phones. You didn’t mention that.

– Yeah, I know, I forgot to mention that earlier. – Turn your driving dreams into a reality at hemmings.com, the world’s most trusted collector car marketplace since 1954. Hemmings offers live online auctions and tens of thousands of collector cars, trucks, and bikes daily. Daniel? – How you doing? – [Colin] Good, Colin. – Good to meet you. – [Colin] Nice to meet you. So what’d you bring down? – I brought my 1966 Dodge Charger. – [Colin] Okay, so first year Charger, black, black interior, pretty badass machine. – Thank you very much. Coupled with that four speed,

Makes it a lot of fun. – [Colin] Yeah, exactly, yeah, I heard you coming in. It’s got a handshaker. – Yes. – [Colin] That’s even better. – Yeah, absolutely. – So you appear to be a young guy, and you have a really old car, so I mean, what got you into this stuff?

– You know, I’ve just been a huge Mopar guy my whole life, and a big car guy because my grandfather and my dad, they both work on cars, but I became a Mopar guy for reasons unknown. I just feel like I woke up one day,

And I just couldn’t have anything but a Mopar, and I’ve always wanted one. My first car was an ’85 Ram Charger. In high school, I drove a ’74 Dodge Dart Swinger, and now I’ve got my muscle car finally. – [Colin] So you’re an old soul. – [Daniel] Absolutely.

– [Colin] An old Mopar soul. – [Daniel] Absolutely. – How long have you had this one? – I’ve had this for just over a year now. – Okay, and where’d you find it, and what- – Yeah, found it on eBay, but I found it in Corona, California,

And it was originally an Arizona car, but I found it just on eBay, and you know what? I just said, “Wow, black on black, four speed, big block 383,” couldn’t pass it up, had to get it. – Okay, so you know the basic idea how we conned you into coming down here.

– Yeah. (chuckles) – [Colin] To let me look at your car. – That’s right. – You’ve willingly submitted your car for me to do an appraisal. – I have. – Okay, good, well, you’re a brave man. So if it’s all right with you, I’m gonna spend a little time with it.

We’re gonna usher you way to a secure location, and then we’ll bring you back in here and have another talk. – Fantastic. – [Colin] Cool, all right, well, we’ll see you in a little bit. – See you then. – [Colin] Thank you very much, right through there. – Awesome. – So I finished my condition review and appraisal of Daniel’s 1966 Dodge Charger. It’s a first year Charger. It’s a very neat car. It’s a factory black, four speed, air conditioned car. It’s kind of a rare combination, especially for a car that was sold in Arizona

When it was new, and lived in California. Typically, people in these hot climates, yes, they would get air conditioning, but no, they wouldn’t buy a black car. It makes it that much harder to cool it down, but this car came that way,

So it has the benefit of being a four speed air car, and a car in one of the most desirable colors. Now, walking around it and looking at it, let’s start under the hood since we’re up front. The neat thing about Mopars is you can decode them with the fender tag.

So looking at the fender tag over here, this is where I gleaned that it is an original black four speed car. You can punch these numbers off the fender tag, go look at Google, and check it out if you don’t have a decoding book

Or you don’t have the numbers memorized, and there you go. Beyond that, under the hood, he has a correct style TarTopper looking battery, but he has made some other modifications. So it has upgraded front disc brakes, so I’ll give you a peek of in a minute. So the master cylinder’s been changed.

It’s been upgraded from a single circuit braking system to a dual circuit braking system, which adds a little bit of safety, and obviously, disc brakes adds some stopping power. But beyond that, it has Mopar performance valve covers. It has an updated electronic ignition, has an aluminum intake manifold that’s aftermarket,

A powerhouse upgraded alternator, so it has had some upgrades and modifications to suit the owner’s taste. Now, interestingly, it does have the original radiator. It has the air conditioning condenser in it, but the air conditioning system itself is missing, so the compressor’s gone, all the plumbing is gone

Back here, and also I see the heater core in the dash has been bypassed, so that would be a detriment to value for anybody looking at it, because if you wanna buy a factory AC car, you’d pretty much like the air conditioning to be in it and working, but that’s okay.

He’s using the car, he’s enjoying it. He’s a young guy, he’s got a cool old car, so no harm, no foul. So moving to the exterior of the car, I originally thought when he rolled in, it could possibly be original paint, but I took my paint gauge out, and I also looked it over really closely. A majority of the car has had paint work on it.

There are some areas that are in the two to three mill range which could be original paint, but I would consider the whole car had been repainted at some point. It’s just an older repaint that’s mellowed out and has patina that makes it look like it could be original.

Now, the wheels have been upgraded, has late model American racing torque thrust wheels with some radial tires. You can see the Wilwood disc brakes poking through there, so it’s a front disc brake conversion, not four wheel disc brakes. The car is impressively solid and rust free. There’s no corrosion underneath at all.

Beautiful sheet metal, beautiful original floors the quarter panels, the trunk drops, everything looks fantastic. He’s done a bunch of maintenance underneath. It has new rear leaf springs. It has nice shocks. Clearly, there’s a pride of ownership here, and he’s got the car running and performing the way it should.

Now, we’ll poke in the passenger side here quickly and take a look at the interior. These early Chargers have a really slick interior, being a factory four speed car with a console. It’s got that really cool shifter on it. This is one of my favorite features of these cars is that

Not only do they have four bucket seats, which is pretty fancy stuff back in 1966, has this kind of cool center armrest here that you can flip back like that, so has a nice leather armrest. You can flip it forward and have a carpeted surface,

Because what they were thinking in 1966 was that in the future, we’d have flying cars and cell phones, and you’d have to put your cell phones somewhere in your flying car, so they were kind of ahead of the game. We don’t have flying cars, but we have cell phones

You can put on that nice carpeted surface and not have it slide around. None of that could be true, of course. Again, the stainless is really nice. The chrome’s nice. The wheel trim is nice. It’s not a perfect car, by any means. I would say it’s a number three car. It’s a nice driver. It shows some wear and tear, but it’s a unique car. It’s again, black, four speed, air.

I know I keep hammering on that, but a lot of these cars weren’t equipped that way, and this is the way you like to find them today. I’ll hop in the driver’s side and take a peek over here. It looks like the seats have been recovered. It has new carpet in it.

I would expect that from a car that was in Arizona and California. The sun is brutal, especially in a black car. I did, obviously, check all the tags. The serial number tag up here on the doorpost is there with the original rivets. We saw the fender tag under the hood,

And this is just a great instrument cluster. Chrysler was really ahead of the game. They had some super futuristic stuff going on. The gauges and the lenses, they look three-dimensional just the way they laid ’em out. So the factory air, you know, while the stuff is missing

Under the hood, we have all the controls are in place up here, which is nice. He’s put a aftermarket radio that fits in the original hole, so the dash wasn’t cut. I tried the headlights before. The hideaway headlights flipped around real nice. Those are electric, so all that’s good.

But since I’m in here, let’s see how it runs. So the car was hot when it was pulled in here, so obviously, we have ethanol fuel today. It took a little cranking because the fuel likes to boil, but once it got some fresh fuel into it, she lit right up. Alternator’s charging, the gas gauge works, factory tach works, all the lights work.

The turn signals all work, you know, like I said, the headlights rolled around and rolled back, so that’s all good. Again, kind of a neat spec, base 383 four barrel engine, but with the stick shift, you don’t really expect to have a stick shift in a big old muscle car like this,

But here she is. So I finished my inspection and appraisal of Daniel’s 1966 Charger. I have my number. Now it’s time to go get him and tell him what that number is. Hey, Daniel. – [Daniel] Hey there. – [Colin] Welcome back. – [Daniel] Thank you, how’d it go? – Well, it went well.

Thanks for trusting me with your car. – [Daniel] Absolutely. – So it’s a cool piece, man. I mean, it’s a, you know, nice rust free car, as you know, and black four speed factory air car. You didn’t mention that. – Yeah, I know. I forgot to mention that earlier, but yeah,

It was ended up pulling it out, but I have all the components at home. – [Colin] Okay, that’s good, that’s good. – Yeah. – So I like little upgrades. I like the disc brakes. You know, you obviously drive it, so neat stuff, but before I give you my number,

I’m curious as to what you think it’s worth. I mean, you’re immersed in the Mopar world, so what do you think? – Well, I was back there kind of just thinking it over, and hate to overshoot it. I would probably put it at about 30,000.

– Okay, well, you know, so if you look it up in a price guide like Hagerty Valuation Tools, a number three condition car, which I would call this a number three condition car, it shows a $25,000 value, but then you add to that. Four speed is 15%, air conditioning’s 10%,

And you get a number. You get a number of around your $30,000. – Oh, okay, yeah. – But what I think is what they don’t really account for, because it’s just a guide- – Right. – Black, rust free, you know, western state car. Guys like me from the Midwest,

We’d kill for a sheet metal like this. So I think in the real world, I think it exceeds your number and the price guide number, so I think it’s 35 to $40,000 for this kind of a car, just because of its rarity and its combination. It’s kind of a unicorn. – Yeah, that’s awesome. (chuckles)

– Yeah, but mostly I really appreciate the fact that you’re a young guy, you got a cool car, you’re in this world, you work on this stuff, you know? We need more Daniels. We need more guys willing to work on stuff with carburetors and point type ignitions. – Oh, absolutely, it’s a blast.

How can you not love it? – Yeah, I know, I know, and you’re in the right place. You can drive it year round. – You betcha. – [Colin] So thanks so much for bringing it. Really a pleasure. – Oh, appreciate it. – Thank you. – Thank you. I think this car’s really special. For me, I’ve always been a fan of the Chargers. The first gen, it’s really uniquely styled, but you don’t really see ’em around, or I don’t see ’em around here anyway, so I don’t think I’d sell it, not just yet, anyway.