It might not seem as easy to buy a muscle car for short money now. Yes, you’re out of luck if you want a Dodge Challenger. You could possibly get into a Dodge Charger, but it’s tough to pick up a Hemi-powered Charger for that kind of money. You’d be relegated to the V6.
You’re also not going to find a ’70 Chevrolet Chevelle or even a Nova in that price range. The ship has sailed on almost everything from 1970, unless we can talk you into an enormous tank like the Buick Riviera. Likewise, you’re not going to find anything with the Shelby name on it. Everything Carroll Shelby put his name on is worth a mint now, including that K-Car stuff from the ’80s.
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But adjusted for inflation, you can still purchase a pretty decent tire-burner for around the same kind of money you could in 1985. Maybe you think that’s nuts, but let’s assume that $3,500 is our 1985 price cap. Adjusted for inflation, that gives us $9,693.70 to play with in 2023. (We’re rounding it up to $10,000). Believe it or not, there are still affordable muscle cars out there—especially if you expand your horizons a bit about what a muscle car really is.
Priced from: $7,500
Shop for a used Pontiac Firebird on CarGurus
Third-gen Chevrolet Camaros have gone right out of control in the last few years. Not long ago, these cars were nailed to the floor and purchased solely by your weird stepdad who spent an inordinate amount of time loitering around the high school parking lot. In 2016, the average price for a third-gen Z28 hovered at around $10,000. Prior to the pandemic, that average price had climbed all the way to about $16,000. It’s dropped a bit since, but these cars still command a good buck. If you can find an IROC-Z for under $10,000, it’s going to be pretty well worn out, but you can definitely get yourself a sub-100,000 mile early Z28 for under $8,000. Same goes for the Pontiac Firebird Trans Am and Formula from that era. Are they fast? With a carbureted 305, uh, no. But they are the coolest cars of the era, and, if taken care of, they’ll be worth a lot more money in the future.
Priced from: $9,000
Shop for a used Ford Mustang on CarGurus
Ford absolutely won the incessant “Mustang versus Camaro” magazine cover battle in the 1980s and 1990s. While the Camaro was cool in its own way, the Mustang was almost always faster and always a little more appealing to a broader range of enthusiasts. There’s a 14-year stretch of cars to look at here, so the values are going to be all over the place. In general, the later the model year, the more expensive the proposition. An early GT from 1983 with a carbureted 5.0-liter V8 churning out a dull 157 horsepower is going to be a lot less expensive than a 1992 Cobra. Still, the average price of the Mustang is at least 10 percent higher than its Chevy counterpart, running in the $18,000 range. Even at some of the bigger classic car auctions, though, you’ll see mid-production Fox Body Mustang GTs selling in the $9,000 range, and right now, there’s a clean 1992 Mustang GT Convertible on CarGurus with an automatic for $10,000.
Priced from: $8,000
Shop for a used Plymouth Barracuda on CarGurus
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It’s easy to dominate this list with nothing but Ford and Chevy, but we wanted to spread the love to Mother Mopar. That’s tough to do when anything with the ‘Cuda nameplate costs nine bazillion dollars. You’d make a mistake, though, if you left out the Valiant-based first-gen Barracuda from 1964 to 1966. These cars were on the scene prior to the Mustang and the Pontiac GTO, and they were regularly campaigned on drag strips and road courses all over the world. Chances are if you’re going to find one for less than $10,000, it’s going to be the later, less cool 1966, which dispensed with the faux foglamps on the grille, but these are fun, simple, lightweight cars, easy to take in any direction your personality dictates.
Priced from: $6,500
Shop for a used Mercury Cougar on CarGurus
It won’t happen every day, but now and then you’ll find a 1980s Mercury Cougar XR-7 coming across the transom. These had the same 5.0-liter V8 engine as the Mustang, on the same chassis, outfitted a little bit more luxuriously, though not quite as nice as the Lincoln Mark VII. You’ll see a Chevy Monte Carlo SS or an Oldsmobile Cutlass every day until the end of time, but when was the last time you saw a XR-7 at your local Cars and Coffee? With comfortable seats, power everything and good air conditioning, you could drive one of these sequential-port-fuel-injected gentleman’s muscle cars every single day.
Priced from: $8,500
Shop for a used Buick Regal on CarGurus
Forget the Buick Grand National. They’re selling for ridiculous money now. Even the “hot air turbo” Regal T-Types are trading for big dollars. But if you’re willing to do a bit of work and don’t mind driving a sleeper that looks more like your Grandma’s church car than a sports car, the Buick Regal Sport Coupe might be right for you. Buick was bananas for turbocharging in 1978. It put the turbocharged 3.8-liter V6 in the Regal, the LeSabre and the Riviera, and given the hobbled performance of the smaller 305 cubic inch V8, in ’78 the Regal Sport Coupe with that engine sold pretty briskly, to the point that in 1980, Chevy started using the engine in the Monte Carlo and beat the performance of the 305. They’re the same basic engine as the Grand National, but you lose out on major advances that would come along in 1984, like the electronic fuel injection, intercooler and distributorless ignition that made the Grand National such a beast. It’s possible to get some performance out of these engines, but most people who do are doing full swaps with intercooled GN engines. That seems sad considering there aren’t many of these cars left.
Priced from: $4,000
Shop for a used Buick Roadmaster on CarGurus
Main text: At the zenith of the era, you could buy what qualified as a muscle car in sizes that ranged from the relatively svelte first-generation Camaro all the way up to a massive Pontiac 2+2 that roughly approached the size of a Buick Electra 225 coupe. While Buick never really marketed it that way, the 1994 to 1996 Buick Roadmaster—in sedan and Estate wagon form—followed that pattern by shoving the most powerful car-based V8 it produced under the hood of its biggest rear-wheel-drive car. 260 horsepower out of the LT1 doesn’t sound like much today, but for 1994, it was fast, and a lot of magazines devoted many dead trees to its high-performance potential. With a minimal investment, 350 horsepower isn’t out of the question, but even in stock form, the Roadmaster is deceptively quick. You’ll generally spend more money on a wagon than you will a sedan, but the sedan has its own charm with a front fascia that’s a little more classy than the wagon, which just used the nose from a Caprice with a different grille.
Priced from: $10,000
Shop for a used Chevrolet Camaro on CarGurus
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If you’re hoping to game the car market, you should know that fourth-generation Camaros have gotten as cheap as they’re ever going to get. There is seemingly nowhere for the value of these cars to go but up. Six years ago, you could’ve purchased a very clean, low-mileage fourth-gen Z28 with a six-speed manual transmission for $9,000. Those days are over, and the price appears to be ticking up almost by the day now. No excuses with the fourth gen: These are fast cars, and a blank canvas for going even faster, whether your interest is in drag racing or road courses. With these cars, you get about 90 percent of a Chevrolet Corvette, for a whole lot less money. At a bare minimum, you get 275 horsepower out of a 1994 Z28. By 2001, you got 325 horsepower from the Camaro SS. And there’s a thriving aftermarket to help you do whatever your heart desires.
Priced from: $6,500
Shop for a used Ford Mustang on CarGurus
Special fourth-gen Mustangs are always going to be breathtakingly expensive. The Bullitts and Mach 1s and Cobras were collector’s items right out of the starting block, so forget those. For the rest of us, lesser Mustang GTs are all over the map, and there’s probably one in good condition for sale in your town right now that you can purchase for reasonable money. The challenge-as with all muscle cars-is to find one that hasn’t been unmercifully thrashed. Nobody liked the modular 4.6-liter V8, but let that work in your favor while it continues to keep the price down. It’s still the best performance car value in America.
Priced from: $1,000
Shop for a used Ford Crown Victoria on CarGurus
If there’s a modern analogue to the kinds of cars we all drove in the 1980s, it’s the second-gen Crown Vic. They’re sort of the Dodge Dart of the 21st century, available just about anywhere, at any price level, in any condition. Calling it a “muscle car” might be a bit of a stretch, but there were definitely muscle car variants. Take the Crown Victoria LX Sport, for example, with its bucket seats, console, dual exhaust, 17-inch wheels, and stiffer suspension. This version was rare to begin with, and the chance of finding one now for under $10,000 has probably passed, but there’s always the P71 Police Interceptor. Don’t be fooled into thinking one 1998 to 2012 Crown Vic is just as good as another. The styling might not have changed much, but the 2003 and later cars improved dramatically with rack and pinion steering and aluminum front control arms for better handling. These cars are easily identifiable by the high positive offset wheels, which went to standard 17-inch after 2006.
Priced from: $9,000
Shop for a used Pontiac Grand Prix on CarGurus
It’s the only front-wheel-drive car on the list, and that’s most likely why the Pontiac GXP is still available for such short money. These 303 hp, V8-powered cars were hilarious. While based on the LS1 V8, they had a shortened crank and a host of other mods to make them suitable for use in the third-gen W-Body. The brakes were great, and the car sat about a half an inch lower than your ordinary GP. GXPs had everything you’d get in a Corvette from that year, including MagnaSteer II, StabiliTrak, and staggered front and rear wheels. These are legitimate fun, and they’re super comfortable inside. They should be significantly more expensive, just like the Pontiac G8 GXP or Holden-based Pontiac GTO, but they’re not. Enjoy it while it lasts.
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