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Photo Feature: 1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee

1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee Hardtop Coupe

Note: The following story was excerpted from the December 2016 issue of Collectible Automobile magazine

Collector cars can turn up in odd places. A 1925 Bugatti was found at the bottom of a Swiss lake. A 1957 Plymouth was buried in a time capsule in Oklahoma. The elements took their toll on both.

A happier fate befell this 1970 Dodge Super Bee that went neglected in the automotive-technology school at Illinois Central College in East Peoria, Illinois. Chrysler Corporation donated car to the college in the early Seventies with the stipulation that it could never be sold or licensed for the road—a common restriction.

1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee Hardtop Coupe

Illinois Central students must have been excited to have a muscle car to work on. The Super Bee was Dodge’s version of Plymouth’s popular Road Runner. The Road Runner proved that a muscle car with a hot engine but no unneeded luxuries to increase price or weight would be a big seller.

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1970 Dodge Coronet Super Bee Hardtop Coupe

Dodge based the Super Bee on its midsize Coronet. The standard engine was a 383-cid V-8 that in 1970 put out 325 horsepower. The Super Bee was capable of accelerating from 0 to 60 mph in about seven seconds, and ran the quarter mile in around 15 seconds. The price for a ’70 hardtop coupe was $3074; a companion pillared coupe went for $3012.

Still, one wonders why a Super Bee was donated instead of a more ordinary model. Brandt Rosenbusch, manager of FCA Historical Vehicles, speculates that the car might have just been an extra.

Written by: John Biel on October 22, 2020.

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Four-Door Madness! A Gallery of 1988 Sedan Ads

1988 Pontiac Bonneville SSE

By 1988, light-duty trucks—a category which includes pickups, minivans, and SUVs—accounted for roughly one third of new-vehicle sales. At the time, the popularity of trucks seemed scandalous to many in the automotive media, most whom wagged a stern figure at automakers, warning that a sudden surge in the price of gas would leave dealers with lots full of unsellable product.

And while a brief spike in gas prices around the turn of the 21^st Century did, briefly, suppress the public’s interest in SUVs and crossovers, three decades later “trucks” are selling better than ever. In fact, during the first two months of the COVID-19 shutdown, crossover sales accounted for as much as 80 percent of what sales there were during that time.

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Let’s return to 1988 and spend a little time with the sedans of the day. Collected here for you are 16 vintage print ads and one pretty entertaining TV commercial. If you remember spending time in one of these cars, tell us about it. The place to leave comments is down below.

More classic car ads

A Gallery of 1988 Sedan Ads

Alfa Romeo Milano

1988 Alfa Romeo Milano Ad

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Acura Legend

1988 Acura Legend Ad

Acura: The Racing in its Blood

Audi 80

1988 Audi 80 Ad

Office Faux Pas: Pinstriping an Audi

Buick Park Avenue

1988 Buick Park Avenue Ad

The Buicks of 1986

Chevrolet Corsica

1988 Chevrolet Corsica Ad

Future Collectibles: 2014-2016 Chevrolet SS

Chrysler New Yorker

1988 Chrysler New Yorker Landau.Ad

The “Big” Chryslers of 1990

Dodge Colt

1988 Dodge Colt Ad

Forgotten Functionality: Recalling the 1994 Eagle Summit Wagon, Mitsubishi Expo, and Plymouth Colt Vista

Dodge Dynasty

1988 Dodge Dynasty Ad

Fratzog Madness! 10 Classic Dodge Ads

Ford Taurus

1988 Ford Taurus Ad (Canada)

Future Shock: 1985 Ford LTD vs. 1986 Ford Taurus

Honda Accord

1988 Honda Accord LX Ad

Review Flashback! 1982 Honda Accord

Jaguar XJ6

1988 Jaguar XJ6 Ad

Consumer Guide Picks the 15 Best-Looking Cars of All Time*

Mercury Sable

1988 Mercury Sable Ad

Forgotten Concept: Mercury Meta One

Pontiac Bonneville

1988 Pontiac Bonneville SSE Ad

Poncho Madness! 10 Classic Pontiac Ads

Renault Medallion

1988 Renault Medallion Ad

Unsettling Transition: The 1988 Eagle Lineup

Toyota Cressida

1988 Toyota Cressida Ad

Review Flashback! 1980 Toyota Cressida Wagon

Volvo 740

1988 Volvo 740 Ad

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Check out the Consumer Guide Car Stuff Podcast

1988 Sedan Ads

Written by: Tom Appel on August 17, 2020.

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Drop-Top Madness! 20 Classic Convertible Ads

1985 Dodge 600 ES

The bad news is that fewer than one of every hundred cars sold in the United States is a convertible. (I will spare you the fractional math required to pass along the number of manual-transmission-equipped convertibles sold on our shores last year, but it’s fewer still.)

The good news is that American has a rich heritage of top-down motoring, and no downward pointing trendline can take that from us.

One question, however, is when did Americans begin buying convertibles because they were convertibles? Obviously the earliest automobiles were topless—but they did not “convert,” as no provisions were made for weather protection. If it rained while you were out in your Curved Dash Oldsmobile, you got wet.

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For some insight on this matter, we turned to Collectible Automobile Editor-in-Chief John Biel, who explained:

There were some convertible-like cars in the Teens (I know Ford and Buick had them) with roll-up glass side windows and fully enclosing fabric tops, but they weren’t called convertibles. Ford used the name “Coupelet” for instance. Then in the mid Twenties the idea caught on again, and this was the start of the modern convertible. Packard listed a Dietrich-bodied two-passenger car it called a convertible coupe as early as 1925, and some independent coachbuilders may have been using the term for similar bodies around the same time. In 1927 Cadillac, LaSalle, and Buick all added weathertight (no snap-in side curtains) soft top cars they called “convertible coupes,” so the word was coming into common use for this type of car by the end of the decade. To confuse things, there were some cars with this same type of design that didn’t use the term convertible, but called them cabriolets. Others may have used the term convertible in conjunction with a roadster because, well, the top did convert. . . .

There’s not much confusion about the cars seen below. We have collected 20 classic convertible print ads, and one bonus truck for good measure.

If you have owned a convertible at some point in your life, please tell us about it. The place to leave comments is down below.

More classic-car print ads