The $4,000-plus price of a HEMI ‘Cuda convertible and the high cost of insuring such a car meant it didn’t fly off dealership lots as fast as it was capable of doing. Plymouth stopped using the 426 HEMI in E-body cars after 1971. That year, only about 100 ‘Cuda hardtops and just 11 convertibles got the HEMI option, making these cars extremely valuable and hard to find more than half a century later. If you have your heart set on a 1971 HEMI ‘Cuda convertible, you had best jump in a time machine and head back to 1970 to pay the MSRP, or at least 1994, when Apple stock traded at about 25 cents per share. It cracked the $100 mark in 2014, and is now worth more than twice that amount.
You’ll need that kind of money and a lot of luck to land a HEMI ‘Cuda convertible today. According to Auto Evolution, one sold in 2014 for $3.8 million, another went two years later for $2.5 million, and the top bid of $4.8 million on a third in 2021 failed to meet the seller’s reserve price. Listings for more 1971 HEMI ‘Cudas on Classic.com are muddled by the presence of clones, re-creations, and other non-original examples. Three fairly original specimens sold this past January for $577,500, $600,000, and $360,000, and another went for $407,500 a year prior to that.
