The 1973 Oil Crisis didn't hit until the fall of that year, but rising inflation, the Nixon Shock, stricter emission controls, and soaring insurance bills had already resulted in much lower demand for big-horsepower Detroit midsize coupes by the beginning year of the Malaise Era. The solution? The personal luxury coupe! Ford had the Thunderbird, Pontiac had raked in big bucks with the Grand Prix, and so Chrysler created the luxed-up Charger SE for 1973. Here's a magazine ad for that car.
This car led directly to the Chrysler Cordoba, two years later.
How was it possible that the Charger had gone from being a cheap and uncivilized drag racer (unless it had the base Slant-6 engine and three-on-the-tree manual transmission, which— believe it or not— actually happened) to this in such a short time? Coupled with Watergate, this development must have had Leonid Brezhnev and his Kremlin cronies chuckling into their vodka. 1973 Chargers sold like crazy, and the SE proved so successful that Chrysler used it as the basis for the definitive 1970s personal luxury coupe: the Chrysler Cordoba.
The Lone Ranger joined The Dodge Boys for 1973.
