A buddy of mine and I used to play a game called “Full Retail Fun.” The game was simple enough, we grabbed a recent copy of Consumer Guide® and tried to build to most expensive cars possible by tallying the prices of every available option.
Given that we were young and given to being amused by things sensational, it never crossed our minds to build the cheapest car possible. I am making amends for that now.
Here please find the seven cheapest American cars you could buy in 1972. To keep things Spartan, the only options we looked at were an AM radio and automatic transmission.
All prices come from the 1972 Consumer Guide® Auto Test ’72, which includes an awesome note before the pricing section regarding Richard Nixon relaxing his price controls.
Why 1972? Most because car prices were about to start rising at a pretty fast pace, leaving ’72 as a sort of “good old days” price reference point. Note: All of the images below depict the vehicles with optional equipment. Your sub-$2500 special would not have looked so spiffy.
Ford Pinto
Base engine: 122-inch 4-cylinder (86 horsepower)
| 2-door “sedan” | $1931 |
| Automatic transmission | 170 |
| AM radio | 60 |
| $2161 |
AMC Gremlin
Base engine: 232-inch 6-cylinder (100 horsepower)
| 2-door “sedan” | $1999 |
| Automatic transmission | 200 |
| AM radio | 66 |
| $2265 |
The Cheapest American Cars of 1989
Chevrolet Vega
Base engine: 140-inch 4-cylinder (90 horsepower)
| 2-door “sedan” | $2031 |
| Automatic transmission | 193 |
| AM radio | 59 |
| $2283 |
Ford Maverick
Base engine: 170-inch 6-cylinder (82 horsepower)
| 2-door “sedan” | $2158 |
| Automatic transmission | 178 |
| AM radio | 60 |
| $2396 |
The Most-Expensive American Cars of 1977
Mercury Comet
Base engine: 170-inch 6-cylinder (82 horsepower)
| 2-door “sedan” | $2194 |
| Automatic transmission | 178 |
| AM radio | 60 |
| $2432 |
AMC Hornet SST
Base engine: 232-inch 6-cylinder (100 horsepower)
| 2-door “sedan” | $2177 |
| Automatic transmission | 200 |
| AM radio | 66 |
| $2443 |
Plymouth Valiant Duster “Six”
Base engine: 225-inch 6-cylinder (110 horsepower)
| 2-door coupe | $2260 |
| Automatic transmission | 178 |
| AM radio | 60 |
| $2498 |
The Most-Expensive American Cars of 1972
Thank you for this. Make compuerized cars and your a page in how BEFORE anything computerized a competitive affordable car made work for the now greedy Autoworkers Union and Silicon Valley to have caused so much inflation in the auto markets, WE THE Citizens once trusted. Tell Ford if they get back to the maverick and comet approach, they’ll blow the rest of the auto industry greedy bastards out of the market place. Henry Ford started right with good pay and affordable cars , trucks, etc. Tell Ford for me please: Make computerized cars and as you are seeing, the auto industry is becoming their economic slaves. Start with a car that works without it, the “junk” can be added later, piece by piece, price tag by price later. Make new cars truly affordable for the “blue collar” and impoverished CITIZENS, please. God bless, ya’ll take care.
CCP