[jr]

1970 Barracuda Owners Report (Popular Mechanics, June 1970): http://books.google.com/books?id=8dcDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA102

1970 Challenger Owners Report (Popular Mechanics, May 1970): http://books.google.com/books?id=qNgDAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA96

I find those two reports quite interesting. Not only problems that are very familiar to us all, but also fuel consumption reports, breakdown of options bought, age group data etc. Lot of complains about service and quality too. 37% of Challenger owners and 34% of Barracuda owners also seem to think they made mistake and wouldn't buy another E-body. For someone not being even born back then I find it difficult to compare how good or bad they were versus other cars built at that time.

There's a lot more on Google Books. Just use advanced search and limit your search to years you're interested.

[Adrian Worman]

Intersting stuff Johan, I'm gonna check 'em out.......................your avatar made me choke on my sweets

[Dale1035]

Very interesting. Thanks for the post

[drewcrane]

Nice info thanks for the post

To low for the snow banks, and the hidden wipers fill with snow and freeze ...................

[RedRaven]

The can catch fire and the brakes are muck.............

[Eddie]

Yes, I'm very sure the Challenger Cuda owners were very concerned about the off-roading capabilities and the spacious trunk openings when they purchased them and performance and looks were secondary. Well written article which highlighted the important points for us young turks who just wanted to go fast and dip our noodles from time to time.

[fal308]

As much as I luv my Mopars, the build quality has always been less than stellar. I've talked to many ex-employees from both the St Louis plants over the years and many/most line workers bragged about how little work they could get away with, how quick they could do their particular job (without regards to quality) so they could sit and read the paper, play poker, etc.
I mean, look at old photos with factory door gaps/hood gaps of 1/4 on the front with 1/8 or less on the opposite side of the same door! I had a late 70's W150 truck I had where the axle was offset in the housing by 1/4"! It stuck out past the end of the tube on the pass side 1/4" and was sunk in on the driver side by a corresponding amount. Strangely enough it didn't affect function but looked goofy when you noticed it (didn't seem to bother the bearings unnecessarilly either). I have a '79 Ramcharger that I pulled the factory springs and put a lift kit in a couple of years ago that had 1/2 front and 9/16 rear bolts in the rear passenger springeyes with 9/16 front and 1/2 rear on the driver side. Our '71 Challenger had horribly fit panels from the factory (wife's family has owned it since '74 and was friends and neighbors with the original owners).
And Eddie, while we weren't original buyers, if we were concerned about back seats and trunks , we bought B bodies. I guess that's why our group had As, Bs and Es

[Jon]

The back seat seems to work just fine.

As for quality mine was pretty straight. Maybe because it's LA built. Most of my problems (in many instances) were induced by teenage ambition and lack of experience..

[drewcrane]

Well I do have this , clearly an error,not cosmetic,or really structural but I did end up fixing it, and perhaps was a small part of a vibration in the rear, if you look close, you can see where I drilled out the old spot welds to bring the panel down about a 1\4 inch,and we re- welded it in the proper position ,not to important ,but just an example of what the did back n the day

[Dale1035]

As a kid I was taught that Chrysler products were the most dependable on the road. Even though I was not able to buy new cars I would buy older Mopars that needed some minor cosmetic fixes and drive them for about a year while I was making the repairs and then sell them usually for a profit. I don't ever remember having the problems that were written about in that article. Maybe they had already been taken care of or maybe I was just happy to have transportation.