Does anybody know how I could find out how many 1971 442 were made with column shifters and no consols?

 

My sister had one column shift bench seat.... thats all I know. Red with black interior and black vinyl top. Selling point for her was the am/fm radio. She bought from a used car dealer around 1976

 

I doubt you will find that information anywhere.

 

While that data may have been had in 1971, it certainly was never made available to the public.

The data I find is that there were 7,589 71 442s, and 6398 of them were M40 TH400. Armrest bench with column shift was a no charge substitution. Floor shift kept the buckets and required a console. Column shift with buckets and no console just cost the transmission charge. And this is where the numbers end. Any automatic 442 in 71 was one of 6398.

Now, for conjecture. I would think, being a sporty car like a 442, that the majority of automatics were floor shifters, and they came with console, say 4000. The remaining 2400 (rounded) would either be bench seat column shifted, or the rare column shifted buckets car, and I would expect 90/10 on that last group. However, all this is conjecture.

It's worth emphasizing that data on detailed options just does not exist, it doesn't matter, and it adds no value to the car, as no one cares about production numbers except for the W options and transmission options.

 

The standard equipment transmission in the 1971 442 was the Muncie HD three speed manual trans with Hurst floor shifter. If you ordered the optional TH400, it came with a column shifter no matter which seats you had. Buckets were standard equipment in the 1971 442 but the bench seat was optionally available - RPO A52 regular bench seat was a $68.46 credit option in the Sports or Hardtop coupe and RPO A65 custom sport bench seat with arm rest was a no charge option in the convertible. If you had buckets and wanted a floor shifter with your TH400, you had to pay extra for RPO D55 console and floor shifter.