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About This Quiz
Are you a classic car buff? Even if you are a fan of cars from the 1960s, you might be surprised at their original sticker price. We promise, there's no math involved. Let's find out how much you really know about classic cars.
Oh, how things have changed. Along with the price of a loaf of bread, the price of cars has risen significantly since the 1960s. And although most of us are not fans of inflation, the rising cost of everything is not necessarily due to inflation. In fact, even though we are paying more, we're also getting more for our automobile bucks.
The cars of the 1960s were often stripped down versions of what we consider necessary today. Technology has introduced changes that make cars run and perform better, but there's also a difference in what consumers demand in cars. And because some features that were once too expensive to include in every car have become far more affordable to produce and buy, the average car buyer will not even consider a car that doesn't have standard features such as FM radio, air conditioning, power steering and brakes, rear window defoggers, and intermittent windshield wipers - all features that were once considered standard only on luxury vehicles (can you imagine a car without FM radio?). Today we often find that power seats and dual climate zones are standard on many models. And don't forget that backup cameras are now required by law in all SUVs sold in the U.S.
Take this quiz to see if you can identify the original price of these cars.
1966 MG MGB
$2,607
MG didn't have the best reputation for reliability or build quality, but their engines did make a great sound.
$5,000
$3,706
$4,207
1965 Chevrolet Camaro
$2,809
The Camaro has always been the working man's muscle car, and the base Camaro was really cheap back in the 1960s, even for a 1960s car.
$2,808
$2,765
$1,980
1964 Chevrolet Impala V8 Convertable
$3,196
The base MSRP for this 1960s classic was only $3,196, but if you have one in good nick today, it can go for tens of thousands more. What's more amazing is how this dream machine morphed into a front wheel drive sedan.
$1,200
$580
$1,400
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1969 Ferrari 365 GTB/4
$19,700
The 1969 Ferrari 365 GTB/4, AKA the Daytona, was a very special car, with a shocking price for the time. Today, collectors auction their Daytonas for upwards of $700,000.
$5,760
$4,724
$10,780
1964 Ferrari 275/4
$13,900
Steve McQueen owned and loved one of these, and it sold for many millions of dollars at auction. While not all of these prancing horses will go for that much, they are sought after by collectors and, if you got one in the 1960s, it was a good investment.
$20,000
$11,700
$16,845
1963 Aston Martin DB5
£4,175
The DB5 was made famous by James Bond, but it wasn't his first car. After reading Casino Royale, various fans of 007 wrote to Ian Flemming to suggest changes, like the change to the Walther PPK, and to the DB5.
£7,000
£4,000
£3,000
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1961 XK E-Type Jaguar
$5,620
The E-Type Jag is considered by many to be the most beautiful automobiles ever built. Indeed, it looks amazing from nearly every angle. The one complaint aficionados have is that as with all Jags, the E-Type was modified by Jaguar over the years, altering it from its aesthetic perfection purely to give buyers a tangibly newer version each year.
$5,650
$5,450
$5,420
1967 Lamborghini Miura P400
$20,000
When the Miura hit the scene, it was shocking. It was Lamborghini's first supercar, and a major departure from the company's roots building tractors. Built to look like the wing of a plane, the Bernoulli effect would begin to lift the front end of the car as the tank ran dry, reducing the car's ability to steer. This began the long tradition of Lamborghini supercars that seem to want to kill the car's occupants.
$149,000
$10,500
$15,745
1964 Porsche 911
$6,490
Perhaps no car is more recognizable than the 911. Porsche's design has evolved over the years, but changed little, with the engine stubbornly in the rear and the bug eyes up front. This vehicle evolved into a family of classics, some built for looks, others for racing. Porsche even handicapped the engines of the Boxster, their entry-level car, because should the newer, mid-engined Boxster get an engine as powerful as that of the mighty 911, it would surpass the marque's flagship car.
$7,850
$5,400
$6,480
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1964 Plymouth Barracuda
$2,512
Available with both a slant six and V8 engine, the 'cuda was the potent Chrysler muscle car based on the much loved Plymouth Valiant's A-body platform. When Ford released the Mustang, every automaker felt they had to respond, and Chrysler's entry into the muscle car scene is still considered a classic.
$2,514
$2,511
$2,513
1968 Plymouth Road Runner
$3,034
Plymouth had to pay a pretty penny to Warner Brothers to get the right to slap the cartoon Road Runner on their new car, but it did help move the merchandise, This beast could be purchased with a 7.2 liter V8, but the base price would get you a 6.3 liter V8 good for 335 bhp.
$2,034
$3,134
$4,034
1965 Ford Mustang
$2,368
The Ford Mustang is the granddaddy of all American muscle cars. While marques like Bugatti have long since crushed its numbers, the Mustang has been a favorite of tuners, with versions topping 1,000 horsepower. The Mustang was also a marketing first, introducing the world to the idea of "options," allowing buyers to personalize their cars with vents, racing stripes, and interior features.
$2,768
$2,386
$3,145
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1967 Mercury Cougar
$2,860
The Mercury Cougar was meant to be the sophisticated Mustang. Assembled from most of the same parts, it had a nicer interior.
$2,769
$2,960
$2,859
Fully loaded 1964 Pontiac GTO
$4,500
John DeLorean's GM brainchild was the short-shift-throwing Pontiac GTO, an homage to the Ferrari GTO. While the Ferrari was a full on racecar for the road, the Pontiac was a pure American muscle car, with little to offer in the area of steering. Its original price was a paltry $4,500, which while expensive for the time, was a good investment. A good GTO today will sell for a pretty penny.
$5,000
$5,500
$4,000
1960 Lincoln Continental
$6,598
The Lincoln Motor Company has been around a long time, and the Continental marque has been around since the Depression, but the 1960s version was a well-evolved version of the breed. The Continental is the epitome of a luxury barge, a floating sensory deprivation booth designed for comfort, not performance.
$17,500
$5,890
$7,100
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1967 Toyota 2000GT
$6,800
The Toyota 2000GT was Toyota's answer to the Italian supercar, and it was priced to match. In November 2017 money, the price would have been $50,983.26. The 2000GT may seem out of character for the most boring brand of all time, but Toyota kept the car in its DNA, later creating the GT86 and the new Toyota 86 (formerly the Scion FR-S).
$5,000
$5,786
$9,186
1963 Studebaker Avanti
$4,445
In an age when safety wasn't a word you'd hear associated with cars, the Avanti was an outlier. It had a roll cage, padded interior, caliper disc brakes, and even the doors became structural members when closed. None of these things had been done on a mass-produced car before. The Avanti was also very forward thinking about style, and it had a potent V8 under the hood. Was it cool? Ian Fleming, the author of James Bond drove a black one.
$5,554
$3,443
$5,000
1966 Alfa Romeo Giulia GTV
$4,200
Alfa Romeo's four door compact executive car was a racer in the 1960s. Interestingly, like many Italian cars of the time, it assumed the driver would have short legs and long arms, and because this was before you could adjust seat position, this meant that northern Europeans and others who did not share the designers' physiological bearing found the car uncomfortable to drive.
$4,300
$4,100
$4,000
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1960 Edsel Villager
$3,000
Edsel died with this car, its last. The $3,000 base price would get jacked by a few c-notes if you wanted a radio, turn signals, a heater, or power steering. Options in 1960 were more bare-bones than they are today.
$3,100
$1,003
$4,310
1969 Citroën DS
$4,170
The absurdly expensive 1969 Citroën DS sold for a massive $4,170. It was intended as an executive car, and with its meager 115 horsepower, it wouldn't set anyone's hair on fire. What it had in spades was comfort. Citroën is renowned for its soft, smooth suspension and sophisticated design flourishes, and those were the reasons people in the US would buy these strange machines.
$1,000
$780
$2,045
Fully Loaded 1963 Vauxhall HA Viva
£1,750
A fully loaded 1963 Vauxhall HA Viva would go for £1,750, but that meant it came with rack-and-pinion steering and front disc brakes, major technological advances from previous British cars that relied on technologies like drum brakes.
£1,800
£1,650
£2,105
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1967 Polski Fiat 125P
zł180,000
In 1965, Polish-company, Fabryka Samochodów Osobowych licensed the production of Fiat models and began to make their own socialist versions. The Fiat 125 was a sporty, powerful executive car that could sort of seat five people, but it was never great, and Italian production ended in the early 1970s. In Poland, it sold for 180,000 Zloty.
zł5,000
zł7,625
zł3,045
1969 AMC Rebel Raider Edition
$2,699
The AMC Rebel Raider was a special edition car designed for the New York Auto Show, and only sold in New York and New Jersey. It came in strange colors, but sported a very respectable standard V8, power brakes, power steering, and an automatic transmission.
$2,900
$2,650
$2,550
1966 Dodge Coronet Deluxe
$2,397
This American muscle car was a fantastic investment. One sold at Barrett Jackson in 2007 for $660,000, although of course that one had the ultra-rare Hemi option, of which there are only about 11,000 examples.
$1, 998
$2,500
$2,100
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1965 BMW 700 LS
$1,648
The BMW 700 was practically designed not to sell in the USA. In its final, LS version in the 1960s, it upped its horsepower to a towering 32 horsepower. The contemporary Spartan SRT-HD 61" Zero Turn Rider Lawn Mower has 32 horsepower.
$1,748
$1,684
$1,486
1963 Ford Galaxie
$4,200
Capitalizing on the space race, Ford named its "full size" (read: massive) cars the "Galaxie". It was an expensive counterpart to Chevrolet's Impala. It wasn't any safer than most 1960s cars, but it did put a lot of steel between the occupants and the object they'd hit, though the marque didn't stick around past the early 1970s.
$5,200
$4,300
$4,400
1967 Jensen Interceptor
$8,124
The $8,124 Jensen Interceptor remains one of the coolest cars of the 1960s and 1970s, but memories are kinder than realities. This car was built by British Midland in a time when factory workers didn't really care if they did a good job, and would sometimes hammer a part into place when it didn't fit properly. The car is gorgeous, but unless you take it to a rest shop, it won't drive like you think it will.
$8,241
$8,214
$2,814
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1961 Oldsmobile Starfire
$4,647
The Starfire was an Oldsmobile model that would come and go over the years, changing wildly along the way. The 1960s version was a personal luxury convertible that eventually got a hard-top version. It epitomized the American boat car that floated and wobbled along our straight highways in the 1960s.
$5,647
$4,674
$6,457
1965 Triumph Spitfire Mark II
£550
The Triumph Spitfire may share a name with the dogfighting aircraft of World War Two, but that's about all they share. The plane had 1,720 horsepower, but the car only sported 67 horsepower and a top speed just shy of 97 mph. Of course, the droptop Triumph wasn't meant for racing, it was meant for touring, cruising, and taking in the scenery.
£660
£770
£880
1965 Buick Wildcat
$3,327
In 1965, movies cost five cents and a Buick Wildcat was a paltry $3,327. By contrast, a movie in New York City today costs upwards of $20 and a Dodge Challenger Hellcat base MSRP is $62,495.
$1,450
$1,999
$2,014
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1966 Alfa Romeo Spider
$3,950
In 1966, the mother of all Alfas was for sale for the very reasonable price of $3,950, but can you really put a price on joy?
$3,326
$3,310
$3,300
Lotus Elan
$3,991
In 1966, super lightweight car maker Lotus was selling the Elan for $3,991, just a bit more than a lot of the competition, but when it comes down to it, picking a car of this type is a matter of taste.
$3,949
$3,930
$3,800
1963 Buick Riviera
$4,333
The base price of a Buick Riviera was $4,333 back in 1963. Try getting a new car for that today!
$4,500
$4,230
$4,434
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1962 Ferrari 250 GTO
$18,000
Back in 1962, $18,000 was a big ask for a new car, but Ferraris were worth it, since these cars go for millions today.
$12,000
$10,000
$13,000
You Got:
/35
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