Photo: Vlad Gusev/Facebook Marketplace
Car-based pickups go back to the early days of the automobile, but they didn't catch on until the late 1950s. That's when Ford launched the Ranchero and Chevrolet joined it with the El Camino. Chrysler, on the other hand, didn't jump on the coupe utility bandwagon until the early 1980s.
The mission to tackle both the Ranchero and the El Camino went to Dodge, which used the Omni compact to create the Rampage. It wasn't exactly successful though, exiting the market after only three model years and 37,400 units sold. Its Plymouth twin, the Scamp, was only sold in 1983.
Come 2022 and utes are no longer a thing. Both the Ranchero and El Camino were dropped in the 1980s, while Holden stopped making its Australian-built coupe utility in 2017. However, you can build your own ute thanks to companies like Smyth Performance, which offers affordable conversion kits for a variety of vehicles, including the Volkswagen Beetle and Golf, the Jeep Cherokee, and even the Subaru Impreza.
More importantly, Smyth's catalog also includes a kit for the 2005-2010 Dodge Charger. And it costs only $3,590 as of November 2022. Not in the mood for starting a project like this just yet? Well, here's a 2010 Charger Ute that's halfway there.
For sale in Walnut Creek, California, via Facebook Marketplace, this Charger R/T is a former police car and comes with a complete Smyth Performance kit. The body still needs assembly and the side panels are not bonded, but the seller says it includes all the "additional parts needed to complete the build," down to the lights and interior elements.
The car is still finished in its old police livery, so both the doors and the roof are painted white, while the rest of the body is black. It kinda looks cool like that, but it will need a paint job if you're aiming for a pristine-looking build.
The project car is quite cheap, too, at only $7,000. Since the kit costs $3,590 new, you get everything else for only $3,410, which isn't bad. But the seller is also entertaining offers, so the sticker will definitely drop below the $7K mark. Is that affordable enough for a Rampage revival or should Dodge Chargers stick to being four-door muscle cars now that the nameplate is moving toward electrification?
Come 2022 and utes are no longer a thing. Both the Ranchero and El Camino were dropped in the 1980s, while Holden stopped making its Australian-built coupe utility in 2017. However, you can build your own ute thanks to companies like Smyth Performance, which offers affordable conversion kits for a variety of vehicles, including the Volkswagen Beetle and Golf, the Jeep Cherokee, and even the Subaru Impreza.
More importantly, Smyth's catalog also includes a kit for the 2005-2010 Dodge Charger. And it costs only $3,590 as of November 2022. Not in the mood for starting a project like this just yet? Well, here's a 2010 Charger Ute that's halfway there.
For sale in Walnut Creek, California, via Facebook Marketplace, this Charger R/T is a former police car and comes with a complete Smyth Performance kit. The body still needs assembly and the side panels are not bonded, but the seller says it includes all the "additional parts needed to complete the build," down to the lights and interior elements.
The car is still finished in its old police livery, so both the doors and the roof are painted white, while the rest of the body is black. It kinda looks cool like that, but it will need a paint job if you're aiming for a pristine-looking build.
The project car is quite cheap, too, at only $7,000. Since the kit costs $3,590 new, you get everything else for only $3,410, which isn't bad. But the seller is also entertaining offers, so the sticker will definitely drop below the $7K mark. Is that affordable enough for a Rampage revival or should Dodge Chargers stick to being four-door muscle cars now that the nameplate is moving toward electrification?
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