BUY: 1978-79 Dodge Lil’ Red Express

Mecum
1979 Dodge Li'l Red Express
Dodge drove the Lil’ Red Express straight through an emissions loophole and onto the market in 1978, and with a tuned 360 cid V-8 and no catalytic converters, it was actually the fastest American vehicle to 100 mph at the time, according to a Car and Driver test. But while it’s surprisingly fast for a pickup, it’s no sleeper, with the cartoonish exhaust stacks and Canyon Red paint with gold graphics. The D150-based truck had an MSRP just over $7400 (about $30,250 in 2019 dollars) and a little over 2000 were built the first year. The Lil’ Red Express returned for 1979 and over 5000 were sold, but they were saddled with performance-robbing cats and as a result are worth a couple grand less than the ’78 in any condition.

Given the popularity of vintage trucks over the past few years and the outrageous, impossible-to-ignore nature of the Lil’ Red Express (not to mention its performance and rarity), we’ve been surprised at their relatively low prices. They’ve gone up steadily since about 2015, but the gains were modest.

Until late last year, that is. Values are up eight to nine percent over the past year and 2.7 percent over the past four months. And after a flat period starting in 2017, buyer interest (measured by quoting activity) started to jump in late 2018 and is up nearly five percent, well ahead of most other vehicles we track on the collector market. More are being added to insurance policies as well, so the numbers suggest people are coming around to these funky pickups, and given wider trends in the vintage pickup market, the Lil’ Red Express has room to grow.

We also haven’t seen a super-clean, super-low-mile example make a splash on the market yet. Most of the ones we’ve seen have been in the condition #3+ or #2- range. When the perfect one does come along and bring an outrageous price, it will likely drive prices even higher.

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