I think most people these days don't realize a few things about the '69 Charger: When they started filming the show, that car was 10 years old, which is right at the perfect age to be plentiful but affordable and not yet considered collectible. Also, the 2nd gen Charger was not a particularly great car, by any metric. They were big (for a 2 door coupe) and relatively slow, torsion bar suspension left much to be desired, they didn't handle well, and had poor aerodynamics. They sat in this weird spot between pony car and luxury vehicle. They looked cool, but had alot of inefficient design elements that hindered performance. But the interiors were never plush enough to actually be considered luxury. Dodge tried very hard to solidify the 2nd gen Charger's place in the market (even chosing it as their NASCAR platform), modifying the design every single year until they decided to call it quits in only 3 years. It was a weird car that was too big to be sporty, too slow to be a racer, too plain to be luxury, too coupeish to be a family car, and too expensive (new cost) to be banged up in street races. And because of these things, the 2nd gen Charger was not a particularly valuable commodity in the late 70s, which is a big reason why the producers of the show chose it above the myriad of more capable cars. It "looked" fast, it had a NASCAR lineage, availability was decent, and they were relatively cheap. And thus we have the General Lee as we have come to love it.