Here's one response so far from the "old breed:"
The Stylist for the 71 front 10 “ was Don Hood. He may have been responsible for more but I know that for sure. Don did a large aggressive rendering of the 71 in color and this painting hung in Dick Macadam, , head of styling, office until he retired and Delarosa came in. He called Don and told him he better come and take it before he left Chrysler, which Don did. I believe this painting became the inspiration for those surreal aggressive posters MoPar had in the early 70s.
My point here is that if the VP of design liked it enough to leave it on his wall so long he must have thought highly of the design. Don moved to Texas in 1980 and remained a close friend till his passing a few years ago. You can google Don Hood designer to learn more. He did a presentation at Lawrence Tech about 10 years ago.
Marv Raguse
Don Hood also did the second image and it was done before (8-68) the first image that was done 9-68. Does this mean someone else wanted a four headlight grille or just that moods and preferences changed for Mr. Hood? Seems styling was the reason and not the cost IMO. As far as costs those mean more to the marketing department as to how much they have to increase the base price and position to the other manufacturers. The bean counters also have to answer to the marketing department. The bean counters don't care they'll make the customers pay with baking it into the base model pricing. If costs were an issue between four or two headlight grilles then the Challenger would have had two headlights also to cut costs IMO.
