Just imagine 12 years after 1968. All the muscle cars that could be had for 500 bucks or less each. 12 leap years later.....most of these cars are priced out of site.
Oh, Happy Leap Birthday Cougar.
Not $500 but....starting in late '73, the First Oil Embargo killed the ownership of muscle cars big time. Gas went from about 35-40 cents/gallon to $1.00 almost overnight (yeah I know, I know...cheap today.eh?) and guys were scrambling to dump their muscle cars. Every dealer's back lot was stuffed with, I kid you not, Z-28's, BB Mustangs, 440 Cuda's, BBC Chevelles, Boss 302's, 440 Challengers, you name it. They were trading them in at first to GM, Ford, Dodge, etc. dealerships but by say February, 1974 the dealers wised up and either refused to take one in on a trade or paid peanuts. Chevy Vegas and Ford Pintos were flying off the shelves! Keep in mind too that insurance rates for muscle cars were also zooming up at the time due to thefts, racing accidents and bad press, a double whammy to us youngsters, some now married and raising a family, paying the mortgage, etc. Something has to give....and did.
Most of those muscle cars languished on dealer and corner used car dealerships for quite a few years thereafter even as the gas crisis lagged a bit. My bro' bought in late '76 IIRC his very low mileage genie '70 Boss 302 for $2,200! All we had to do was pop the tranny and fix a throwout bearing and tranny front cover someone messed up, all for about $14!. One could get any of the above cars for between $1,500-$2,300 tops at the height of the crisis. Wish I had spare cash then and bought about a dozen!
http://www.npr.org/sections/parallels/2013/10/15/234771573/the-1973-arab-oil-embargo-the-old-rules-no-longer-apply
