Q: I just read your advice to the guy who thinks he is going to find a Roadrunner with a 440 Six Pack that needs work and is cheap. I laughed at it, but was irritated at the same time.
I have a 1969 Roadrunner convertible with a four speed. Someone replaced the original 383 engine with a 440. It is a restoration, needing (in my opinion) a second restoration. I put it on eBay this summer and was really angry when it only bid up to $15,000 by people only interested in stealing it for resale.
Can you give me a realistic ballpark figure of the market value of my car? The convertible top was new when I got it 18 years ago, and I have driven it less than 1,000 miles since then.
A: Of the 168,192 Roadrunners built from 1968-70, only 3,042 were convertibles. Thus, your 1969 Roadrunner is very rare indeed, yet it only brought about $15,000 in your auction, which is certainly way under what I feel it is worth.
There may be a few reasons: First it is not a numbers-matching car. “Numbers matching” means the car is correctly equipped according to the manufacturer ID number and ID plate. I feel too much emphasis is put on numbers-matching cars at times, and in your situation that 440 instead of the original 383 might have hurt.
Next is timing. Perhaps if you re-listed the car, bids in the $20,000-plus range would come your way when people realize how few convertibles were ever produced. As for a collector who wants everything right, re-installing a correct 1969 383 engine shouldn’t be that difficult.
In ending, don’t fret. You are the proud owner of a desirable Plymouth Roadrunner that is worth, in my opinion, at least $22,500 even with the non-matching 440.