These old dealer comparison videos are awesome because they take us and place us directly into the world of selling cars in whatever era they come from. We have shown you stuff from the 1950s when it is all about appealing to people’s sense of upward mobility and affordable luxury to get them to spring for a car. We have shown you the 1960s videos that are teaching salesmen how to get the young buyers all lathered up about styling and performance. Now we take you to 1972 to show you a video that was clearly made at the intersection of the changing car culture in the country. The 1972 Dodge Charger vs the 1972 Chevrolet Malibu.
Performance is not really played upon here at all. It is mentioned when the engine options are outlined on both sides of the fence and it is mainly portrayed as a bragging point that the Dodge engines are larger in basically every way and seemingly more powerful as well. All three models of the Charger are shown from the SE on down. Optional packages are shown and various claims, some sounding pretty dubious are made.
It seems that Dodge was definitely no longer trying to sell the Charger as some sort of performance machine but more a “personal luxury” car. They spend a lot of time in this film talking about stuff like how the arm rests are molded into the door and how the back seat is 1″ wider than the Malibu’s. They take a weird shot at the Malibu’s integrated parking lights and turn signals and the fact that they are placed at the corner of the body where the Charger’s are placed on the side. We’re not sure what buyer in the world would be on that program, but OK.
This as not about selling on horsepower, this was about selling on comfort and appealing to the buyer’s social status. A neat watch…an interesting time.
Cringe humor (three vinyl roofs!), and with the many sporty optional features touted they forgot all about the Chevelle SS. Am not finding ’72 sales figures but Charger vs. Chev 2-doors in ’71 look like a bit over 1/3rd.
https://www.allpar.com/cars/production/dodge-US.html
https://www.chevellestuff.net/1971/style_prod_no.htm
I’ve had both cars. Not fair to compare the two. They are totally different animals. Each had their own unique designs. I liked them both because of that.
I’ll take the Malibu (though the ’70 4 headlight front end looked way better)
400 4bbl, 4speed, full instrumentation, HD suspension and buckets.
You may keep the cart springs & torsion bars.