Wicked Wednesday: 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee Is an All-Original Driver
The owner of this 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee takes excellent care of it, and yes that includes the occasional burnout.
A 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee with a 383 is not the king of the muscle car mountain. Nonetheless, it is a very nice car with good performance. If you want a classic collectible that won’t cost an arm and a leg this would be a great option. But that being said, even these mid-grade collector cars tend to sit in the garage and see very little road use. The owners are afraid of putting on too many miles that would hurt the future value. Well, the owner of this Super Bee is different. Her name is Pam, and Pam bought this car to drive, not to watch collect dust. Pam is smart. Be like Pam.
This week’s “Wicked Wednesday” is all about this 1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee. It is an all-original, California-built car. The car has a 383 cubic inch V8 which is a fine engine but certainly not the most powerful 1969 Mopar out there. But it does have some appealing options such as the air grabber hood and F6 green metallic paint. This car was recently featured on the Hagerty YouTube channel as part of their ‘The Appraiser’ series. The idea of the series is a car is examined and then a dollar value is assigned. But this particular car has value beyond just dollars and cents. It brings value by providing smiles with each mile driven. Sure, the owner wants to hear the car is worth a lot of money. But she is not willing to trade in the joy of driving for a few dollars.
1969 Dodge Coronet Super Bee
The Dodge Coronet Super Bee was Dodge’s version of the Plymouth Road Runner. They were muscle cars for sure, but with the 383 engine it was more of an entry level car. The car we see here is a 383 with an automatic transmission. So, it is not going to bring a massive hammer price at auction. But that doesn’t mean there isn’t a lot to love. The 383 still sounds great and makes more than enough power to smoke the rear tires. And this car in the F6 green paint certainly looks the part. This is the perfect car to drive and enjoy. And that is exactly what the owner has been doing.
Tire Bits
As part of the appraisal process the car is thoroughly inspected. It is pretty straight and clean with only a couple signs of rust under the rear fenders. But the rust is not the most interesting find under the rear fenders. That would instead be the chunks of tire rubber that were found under there during the inspection. That is a clear sign that Pam has been laying down some rubber with her classic muscle car. Good for her. Yes, a 426 Hemi-powered Challenger R/T would make more power. But most owners of those cars leave them hooked to a trickle charger and only occasionally drive them very slowly and carefully to local car shows. All that power isn’t going to do you any good if you never use it. Pam uses all the power she has at her disposal.
Value
At the end of the day the value of this car is pegged in the $45,000 to $55,000 range. It is easy to put a dollar figure on a car. But it is not easy to put a dollar figure on fun. If Pam addressed the minor rust spots, and stopped driving the car to keep the miles down will it be worth more in ten years? Probably. But in exchange she is giving up ten years of fun. In the car market today, it seems that too many people focus on the money side of things and not why we love cars in the first place. And we love them for the feeling we get when we drive them. Not the feeling we get when we cash the check after selling.
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