It's not that unusual to see a car taken off the road around 1974 - 1976. The Arab Oil Embargo hit in late 1993, causing fuel prices to triple or more. Gas prices stayed elevated for years.
My blue 1971 T/A was taken off the road around 1976 because the lady owner was driving 50 miles round tip to work and back. Trade-in values for musclecars were in the basement, so a lot of people just kept them. The previous owner said that after she made the last payment on it, she dropped insurance and parked it, then bought an economy car. I bought the T/A in 1982 with about 80K miles on it.
The mother of one of my good friends bought a loaded up 1969 GP SJ. It was an awesome car, dark blue with black interior. We cruised around it in the mid-1970s. It was parked outside in a field around 1975 or 1976. I bought it for parts in the mid-1990s.
I had an extremely nice 1964 Buick Riviera dual quad 425 I bought really cheap in 1975. I drove it about three years, finally had to stop driving it because it got horrible gas mileage.
Anyway, with gas prices averaging around $.30 per gallon, then tripling or more, a lot of people parked their muscle cars and opted for something cheaper. I remember those times well. My dad had a dealer's license and we went to auto auctions on a regular basis. Pintos and Vegas were selling for as much money as an early Trans Am. My first car I bought on my own over the winter of 1974 was a 1968 Torino GT 390 4-spd convertible, it set me back less than $300 running and driving with decent tires.
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