Column shift with Bucket Seats?

I'm working on my 69 barracuda notchback and noticed something strange. When I bought the car it was a auto on the column but had bucket seats in it. I just assumed that the previous owner swapped out the bench for the buckets as he was intending to installed a console shifter. After looking over the fender tag the car was a factory bucket seat car with shifter on the column. How odd/rare is that combo?

Not uncommon at all . In fact, three of the neatest cars I have owned personally were all column shift auto's with bucket seats , and no fold down arm rest (buddy seat). 70 Charger R/T SE Sublime green ,dealer demonstrator,
1970 Challenger R/T , hemi orange, 440 six pack , lots of options , and 1971 GTX ,curious yellow . I was told once that it was a common configuration on dealer demos because it made the interior appear bigger . I don't know if that is true or not .

Greg

Had a '68 Charger R/T with column auto, buckets (of course) & buddy seat, and as Lewis says, it doesn't seem to be particularly rare.

One of my 4-doors has buckets & column shift.

Sold a '69 GTS Dart that was a column automatic bucket car.

My '72 Cuda is column shift.

I have a 70 Dart GT with bucket seats and a column shift. I was surprised when the A-Body arrived from Cali on the transport carrier with the combo. I expected a bench seat. The fender tag and build sheet confirmed combo. The restoration shop did not believe a Dart GT existed in 70, but their uncertainty was cleared up with decoding of the fender tag.

DusterKid,

Checked your PM's?

some cars have bucket seats STANDARD
& once someone ponies up ~$200 for the automatic transmission - sometimes the additional ~$50 for the console isn't in the budget

I don't have any good pics. except of the fender tag, but our '68 GTS convertible has the optional buckets (bench was standard in Dart convertibles) with a column auto.

I had a teacher in high school who had a '71 R/T Challenger that was a column shift with buckets. When she got married her husband made her trade it in on a 4 door Nova.

Didn't realize they were so common. I just assumed that if it had buckets it made sense to have a console shifter to take up the space between the seats. Guess I never really paid that much attention to interiors before.

I just realized, to the best of my knowledge, the A-bodies never had a buddy seat option with buckets. It was just a B and C-Body option?

70 challenger R/T 440 magnum .. column shift bucket seats . .

I remember looking at & driving a 71 Challenger R/T 383 that was for sale in Phoenix back in the mid-80's. It was buckets with column shift auto.

Shoulda bought that car too - it was all original but my business partner insulted the guy with a lowball offer that pissed the guy off.

Most C bodies of the 60's/70's that came standard with bucket seats (300,Monaco 500,Sport Fury) had column shift with buddy seat.
ya want console,floor shift? you pony up the moulah to get that.
I had seen 69 GTX/ Coronet R/T (bucket seats standard) without any buddy seat nor console.
Both optional,but correct me if I am wrong.

I can tell you how some of them came that way. I bought a 69RR in 72 from a neighbor who ordered it new in 69. He ordered it with bucket seats, auto with console. Salesman goofed up on the order form and it came in as Bucket seat/column auto/no console/no buddy seat. He was mightily PO'd, but they discounted the car $200, which was almost 3 months car payment back then, so he took it. I am sure that more than one salesman screwed up checking off the boxes on the order forms and is possibly why so many of them exist.

Same here except mine was a 383.
Looked at a '71 that was loaded, 383, luggage rack, vinyl top,a/c, and buckets w/ auto on the column.


Tim

In 1969 both the Polara 500 and Monoco 500 came standard with buckets and a center arm rest. The console was a no cost option for both models.

https://www.hamtramck-historical.com/ima..._Polara0009.jpg

https://www.hamtramck-historical.com/ima..._Polara0008.jpg

The 68 Dart GT I used to own had buckets with a column shift. My 67 GTX has that set-up too except it has a buddy seat.

Could be that's why many of them came that way, but not my GTS. It was a sales bank car. That and being sold new in Detroit are probably why it didn't sell until May 1969 (Aug 1967 SPD).

Strange.....usually it's the other way around where wifey tells hubby to sell his toy in exchange for a family vehicle lol.

Many many years ago I had a 70RR that was a pretty stripped down car.
Manual steering & brakes.
Did have an AM radio and vinyl roof though.

Buckets, no console, auto on the column.

My 68 Satellite....... also manual steering and brakes....... is kind of the opposite of buckets and a column auto.

It’s a 4 speed with a bench(383 4bbl).

My 71 Duster 340 was bucket seats column shift.

I looked at a 67 Barracuda fastback a few years ago, 273, 3 on the tree with buckets.

Kevin

I don't think it was all the rare when these cars were new.
The floor shifter, especially with console, cost a bit extra.
Just seem like it today.

My old 1969 GTX convertible was 440 auto.
column shift with the buddy seat interior

Completely different thing. The OP was working with the assumption that a console would be standard with buckets for an auto-tranny car. In most cases, this wasn't the case.

I am not aware of Mopar having console-mounted 3-speeds but it's possible there's a rare example out there. I know Pontiac and Oldsmobile offered it.

Piling on but my 70 sport fury and my brother's 70 charger rt/se are both column bucket cars