1969 - Mustang vs Camaro vs Chevelle

[Nethead]

The Chevelle isn't the same class of car as the Mustang and Camaro.? Ford's equivalent to the Chevelle in '69 was the Torino.

And Dodge's equivalent to them both was the General Lee!  And better than the Torino was the Mercury Cyclone CJ 428, which the Nethead here owned back in late '72 and early '73. 

BTW, that's NOT a '69 Chevelle--I sold Chevies for a living at the time, so I know.  The '69 Chevelle was a facelifting of the effin' gorgeous '68 Chevelle (bigger, less attractive taillights were the most noticeable difference).  I was in the Army when the Chevelle in the picture debuted--it is a '70 or later Chevelle.

[ChrisV]

BTW, that's NOT a '69 Chevelle--I sold Chevies for a living at the time, so I know.  The '69 Chevelle was a facelifting of the effin' gorgeous '68 Chevelle (bigger, less attractive taillights were the most noticeable difference).  I was in the Army when the Chevelle in the picture debuted--it is a '70 or later Chevelle.

I posted a picture of the '69. The other visible difference in the '69 from the '68 is the "Astro ventilation" or lack of vent windows on the doors. The one pictured in the original post is a '70, due to the quad headlights. In '71, Chevy went to single 7" headlights on the car.

And I prefer the '70-71 Torino GT, which I owned an example of for a couple years (a 429 SCJ powered version). Like this car, but black:

[CMan]

Chevelle is my dream car, albeit a '70 454 SS 4 speed, but a '69 w/ 396 and 4 speed will do.

[sandertheshark]

I'll take a '69 Camaro SS396 without a second glance at the other choices.  I adore those Camaros.

[Tave]

Camaro, SS, blue with white stripes.

HA! You just described my friend's.

Give me one of the same.

Edit: his is a 69 as well

[Nethead]

I loves me a Chevelle... plus it's the better car anyway.

NACar:? NahDude, my first full-time job ever was selling Chevrolets.? I loved two-door coupe Chevelles--the '66s and 'the '68s were gorgeous.? But by '66, the quality of Chevies hurt their sales significantly later on.? I can remember our staff having to finish the job the bowtie factories were too half-assed to do properly.? Windows that wouldn't roll down, trim pieces that fell off, engine mounts that broke even on a secretary's car (as happened on the Bel Air of my fiancee at the time, a secretary no less).
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My favorite Chevy of the time, the Chevelle, suffered from lots of defects.? However, it was much, much better than the Corvairs--I'll give it that!? I still recall the day a former classmate's older sister took a drive in a dark green '66 four-door Chevelle and I nearly had to push it back to the lot.? She left, and a coupla days later I swung by the home of her parents to talk to her about it and saw a white '66 four-door Fairlane in their driveway so I didn't even slow down.? At the time, I considered Fairlanes to be dogs but obviously she considered it to be less of a dog than a certain other car she had driven.? Nevertheless, I remained a bowtie diehard for a few more years despite the deplorable quality of the Chevies we continued to have to endure from the bowtie factories until a Chevy C-10 longbed about bankrupted me with repairs.? I gave up, and managed to sucker a used car dealer into allowing me $1,000 on some kid's wrecked-&-repaired hotrod--a used '69 Merc Cyclone Ram-Air CJ428.? I grabbed the dude's hand and shook it half off!? I woulda taken any car on his lot for a $1,000 allowance on that monster POS C-10!? Despite the wreck-&-repair job, that damned CJ428 was solid, tracked perfectly, and seriously hauled ass when the secondaries kicked in!? But I could see the events of 1973 coming, and traded the CJ for a '73 Datsun PL620 (the true name of Datsun's pickup truck) over Easter as I planned to enter college that Summer on the GI Bill and I absolutely could not afford to do that with a car that got 8-10 mpg on super premium only.? That li'l truck was so outstanding that I never missed the CJ--but I had a 'cycle with better acceleration and handling even before I traded the C-10 for the CJ so I wasn't giving up any speed in the trade.

I still love second-gen Chevelles, but they were definitely NOT the better car of these three!  But they were great despite the defects, and are one of the classic musclecars of all time!  Little did we know it was all going to come to an end--the Age of the Musclecar began the day that the first GTO rolled out of the factory, and ended on the day that the first GTO on a Nova chassis rolled out of the factory. 

I'm glad I was there...
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