In 1976, my 1967 Plymouth Valiant was getting up in age and I was beginning to be concerned about its longevity. Every couple of months, I was making 1200 mile round trips from where I was working to my parents home and did not want to be stranded in between. Then this ad caught my eye.
I liked the Slant 6 and soon discovered that it came in a station wagon version. I had always liked station wagons as a kid growing up, but could never convince my folks to get one. Now that I was in charge of getting a new car, I could buy whatever I want. Here’s the advertisement that got me hooked,
Sold! I was living in a small town in Maryland and saw a Jade Green Dodge Aspen wagon at the local Dodge dealer. It had a 225 CID slant 6, automatic, and better vinyl upholstery. But it did not have air conditioning, a radio, full wheel covers, or a roof rack. This picture represents what I bought in the exact same color.
Note: As I do not have any pictures of the actual car. These were pulled from the Internet
Out the door price was $4200. I had an aftermarket stereo in the Valiant that was relocated into the Aspen. What I liked about the Aspen was that the cargo area had a low lift over and a flat cargo floor once you folded down the rear seat. A co-worker had purchased an AMC Hornet Sportabout, which was as close to the Aspen in size. However, it had a taller lift over and the hatch was more severely slanted, thus reducing cargo capacity. It also had poorer visibility compared to the Aspen. The low belt line and the large windows made you feel like you were riding head and shoulders above everyone else.
Other features that attracted me included front disc brakes, the larger 225 /6 engine, the transverse torsion bars, and the standard electronic ignition. The Aspen really did ride like a much larger car because of the revised torsion bars. The interior included a front bench seat that was vinyl with perforated vinyl in the seating areas. I thought that it might be cooler in the hot Maryland summers, but it was no better than solid vinyl. I went back to using the same wire seat cushion that I had used in the Valiant. The dash had a much more modern layout than the Valiant, but it was made totally out of plastics that did not have a good fit or finish.
Life was grand with my new Aspen wagon. Then reality started to set in. Although the car had Chrysler’s 12 month/12,000 mile warranty, it needed several repairs. First oil change I attempted resulted in failure due to the inability to remove the oil pan drain plug. It would loosen a couple of turns, but not come out since the plate it was threaded into in the oil pan was loose. I tightened it back up and took the car to the selling dealer for an oil change. They too discovered what I already knew and replaced the oil pan. Then, the dreaded ballast resistor failure hit. No warranty repair here because I had to replace it where it failed. Fortunately, there were still full service gas stations in the area and the mechanic knew exactly what had happened. I kept a spare in the glove box after that.
In 1977, I took a job with Chrysler Defense Engineering in Michigan and the Aspen was pressed into service as a moving vehicle. It did the job well as expected. However, the mechanical problems continued. In 1977, the Aspen and Volare were the subject of 7 factory recalls to repair a number of issues. Since I had purchased the car in Maryland, all but one of the dealers I talked to in Michigan refused to fix the car since I had not purchased it from them. The one that did agree to fix the recalls did a poor job of it. There were two that caused some long term issues with driveability. They installed a coolant temperature sensor by cutting the upper radiator hose in half and putting the sensor in with worm drive hose clamps. You always had to keep an eye on the clamps because they would loosen and leak coolant. Then there was a recall on the carburetor to change the accelerator pump seal. The dealer took the top of the carburetor apart and changed the seal without changing the gasket. More leaks to follow. I eventually changed the upper hose and threw away the sensor. Then I bought another carburetor to replace the one they had messed up.
In 1979, the infamous rust on the fenders issue reared its head. Although I had continuously cleaned and waxed the car to protect it, I noticed some small bubbles on the top of the two fenders. Then Chrysler announced a recall where they would replace both fenders at no cost. Chrysler had begun its slide into bankruptcy and decided to maintain customer goodwill through the recall. The dealer replaced the fenders, but the paint never completely matched the original color. The car continued to rust in the floor, the front frame area, and behind the rear wheels. This self-destruction was what you had to put up with at the time. The rust would result in this car’s ultimate demise.
Other improvements I made to the car included installing a rear tailgate wiper, which was not a factory option until 1980. I had noticed a co-worker’s 1978 Dodge Omni had such a wiper, so he let me look the installation over. Then I took the plastic cover off of my tailgate and discovered that the Omni wiper would fit. Went to the Mopar parts bin and got a motor. One Saturday later, I had a rear tailgate wiper.
A few years later in 1983, I decided that having factory air conditioning would be nice. So, I went to the local government surplus auction at the national guard base and bought a used Volare police car for $200.
It had all the air conditioning parts I needed plus it had all of the sheet metal ducting in the dash I would need. I cut the car up for parts and kept the firewall as the template. The car was a financial home run, as I sold the front clip to another bidder right after the auction for $400, the engine and transmission to someone else for $500, the rear axle for $100, and one door for $50. Not bad for a $200 investment. However, the desire to perform the firewall modifications soon became lacking in the next year, so I sold the air conditioning system to another co-worker for $200. He did put it into his Volare wagon and it worked well.
In the early 1980s, I was buying and flipping used cars for profit (most of the time). I needed a tow vehicle to drag some of the acquisitions home, so I installed a Class 2 hitch on the Aspen. The largest car I ever towed was a 1975 Plymouth Fury wagon. The Aspen did all of the towing without any issue.
In 1985, I had had enough with rust repairs on the Aspen. The final straw so to speak was the rust out of the inner fender where the hood hinge was fastened. I fixed it, but decided that I had to get something better. When I came to work one day with the Aspen, another co-worker approached me about the car. He’d seen it many times and liked the body style. He’d been wanting a wagon so he could load fishing poles in the car and take his kids fishing. I told him to make an offer and he did. Sold for $1,000. He wanted to make weekly payments of $100 until it was paid off. OK, deal. He missed a couple of payments and gave the an extra $200 for my trouble. As the car was still in good mechanical shape and I had repaired most of the rust issues, I lost no sleep over the deal. In the end, the car brought $1,200.
Whenever I see pictures of Dodge Aspen wagons, I want one again. I made many trips in it including one to San Diego and other to the Canadian Rockies. It had perfect proportions and was very practical and comfortable for going camping or hauling stuff. I saw one in Santa Barbara CA many years later, and it had faded paint but was still in one piece. I knew that to get a car like that and bring it back to Michigan would be futile, as the dreaded tin worm would soon devour it. Not until Chrysler invented the minivan would I fall in love with a wagon again.
Great story – well told. The ballast resistor thing had me wondering if my folks kept spare ones in our ’77 Volaré coupe… The Volaspens had so much potential.
Weird! I have driven/and drive a sucession of Dodge vehicles since 1972, and I’ve only experienced ONE ballast resistor failure to date, in all those years. 🙂
After reading this story I now understand why I would rarely see Aspens or Volares on the road after the 80s/early 90s.
But this piece also illustrates how a car company can have a great looking car, but it is compromised quite badly by what are often very small details. Valiants were/are great cars, yet the similar Volare has so many problems.
Mine also rusted on the louevers in the hood that looked like the were not debured at the factory as well at the tops of the fenders . Most cars developed rust aft of the rear wheels at the time .mine was a 2 door aspen s e white /,red vinyl top
Mine also had the coolant temperature sensor , shield under the battery to prevent acid from leaking on the brake lines
With the exception of premature rust it was a great car
As everyone says ,even to this day ” never buy any car in its first year “
The decline and fall of Chrysler was such a sad tale. In 1968 my parents bought a Plymouth Valiant with the 225 and the Torqueflite. It was such a great car that you would have needed a gun to get my father to consider anything but a Chrysler product. His next car, a 1974 with the 318 shook his faith a bit, but after the 78 Volare you would have needed a cannon to get him to consider a Chrysler. The best thing about it was that the root-beer brown paint hid the onset of the rust coming through the tops of the front fenders. In 1980, he bought an Accord, and never looked back. Of the Accord, he liked to say, “90,000 miles and all I did was change the oil!”
One has to consider what a disaster the Volare was for him to really appreciate that comment.
Here in salt free New Orleans the Mopar rust issue was not the irritating biggie it was in the northeast part of the USA.
My ’77 Volare Road Runner was no small source of embarrassment to my best friend’s ’77 Trans Am. The 360 V8 and automatic was still a Potent Powerplant, even in the smog era of the late 1970’s.
Unfortunately, this car did suffer from Mopar’s BiPolar quality control. A seat rod/spring came loose and punched a hole in the driver’s seat cushion, one of the flexible cables for the remote control mirror broke, giving me only right and left mirror adjustment, repeated dealer warranty visits to fix a rough curb idle did not find the ignition coil leaking out it’s internal oil.
As a member of a “Mopar family”, I knew to keep a spare ballast resistor in the glove box.
Once I got these issues fixed (all except the coil under warranty), the VRR turned into a reliable, fun-to-drive “sleeper”. When I became tired of it, my Father bought it, then the guy across the street bought it from Dad.
I have always found the “long roof” Volare/Aspen station wagon to be the most attractive of this body as well as the most useful. Someone I was dating had a well maintained wagon she had inherited from her Aunt; I drove it every chance I got.
Even today I’d be pleased to add a Volare/Aspen station wagon to my driveway, equipped with: 318 V8 engine, Torqueflite, factory A/C and the most upscale interior available.
I buyed recently a recent issue of Collectible Automobile who have a photo feature of the F-body relative, the M-body 1978 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country wagon.The Aspen/Volare wagon survivors are rare but more rarer would be the M-body LeBaron/Diplomat/Canadian Caravelle wagons.
Yup! The LeBaron/Diplomat station wagons could be optioned with a sumptuous, luxurious, upscale interior that rivaled a Lincoln Town Car.
I can’t imagine how disappointed the A-body faithful must have been when they tried to transition to the craptacular Aspen/Volaré, particularly when they bought an otherwise well-packaged station wagon version. The author is much more positive and upbeat about his problems than a lot of owners must have been, especially the extremely poor dealership experience. The spare ballast resistor in the glove compartment? That’s a given for any Mopar. But the other issues, mainly the Vega/Studebaker level fender rusting, well, that’s a model-killer all by itself.
I have no evidence but I can only believe that the station wagon took a significant bite out of the AMC Sportabout’s domination of the compact station wagon segment. But I would imagine that disappeared when the Mopar’s problems quickly surfaced. If only it had been built better, it might today be remembered as a worthy A-body successor. Instead, it’s legacy is one of the worst cars ever built by Chrysler, nearly as bad as the first ‘Forward Look’ cars of the fifties.
Like a number of Chrysler products over the years, the Aspen/Volare were more competitive when you factored in affordable pricing.
My dad went shopping for a compact wagon in 1978. The Aspen wagon (with slant six) he eventually bought was $2000 cheaper than a comparably packaged newly downsized Malibu wagon with the 229 V-6. That’s an almost $8,000 savings in today’s money. Looking back, I don’t think the Malibu wagon was worth the added cost for a retiree, who didn’t drive that much. A comparable Fairmont was offered for $1,000 more than the Aspen wagon my dad bought.
Thankfully, the 1978 through 1980 F bodies appeared to be significantly more like the Valiant/Dart in terms of reliability/durability. As my dad kept his until February 1992, with no notable issues. He lived in an area where road salt was used heavily, and rust was not a factor until the 11th year he owned it.
Sorry, it was the 200 V6 in the Malibu my dad tested, and the 200 I6 in the Fairmont wagon.
Despite the initial teething problems, I’d have to agree that, of the smaller 1978 domestic station wagons, the F-body would have been the top choice where value is concerned (I think there was a CC which had a period magazine comparison of them and the Mopar came out on top). Chrysler had gotten the major bugs worked out and it definitely would have felt more substantial than the quite flimsy Fairmont or Malibu and, as noted, been much cheaper to buy, as well.
The biggest issue by then was that, despite having just introduced the brand-new, very competitive subcompact Omnirizon, Chrysler was starting to tread dangerously close to the ‘dead company walking’ territory of past marques that went out of business (like Studebaker) which is the death knell when it comes to scaring off potential customers. No one wants to get caught owning an orphan car for which you can’t get parts or service.
After the first year or so with its teething troubles the Volaré and Aspen were pretty good cars in California where the tin worm does not live. The wagons were a practical package before the minivan took the station wagon market away.
The 318 was smog-choked by then, and one thing that Chrysler dealer salesmen told buyers of the K-Cars was that they were “just as quick as a V8 Volaré.” But that was easily solved by some backyard mechanic treatment; if you lived in a smog-inspection area of California, though, you had to put it all back to factory before getting a smog check…or maybe not. My cousin forgot to do it on his 1977 Volare and it passed anyway.
I’d still be tempted by a nice V8 Aspen or Volaré wagon…and that’s after I daily-drove an Aspen Custom sedan for twenty years. In stock form, as I recall, the wagon handled better than the sedan, its heavier rear end making for less understeer. I cured that on mine with a rear sway bar.
I always thought the F body’s were styling home runs, the coupe still retained a very Duster like vibe, the sedan looked clean and dare I say European, and the Wagon looked sporty and youthful (which the Hornet accomplished as well). It really is a shame they were so rushed and it all went wrong, and subsequently became a whipping boy for everything wrong with the American auto industry at the time.
So the tops of the fenders were the rust areas? These predate me by quite a while, and few survivors have remained in rust country, so I never saw the first hand accounts, but I had always assumed the fender rust I had heard so much about would have been the bottoms, where they met the distinctive full-length rocker panel. I figured it was a poor water drainage/debris trap there, but it sounds like it was a metal quality/coating issue?
The early Aspens and Volarés rusted at the tops of the fenders…inside. The problem of rust there also existed on the A-body Valiants and Darts. Neither had fender liners so the inside of the fender was directly exposed to water and salt spray. The recall for rust only applied to the Rust Belt and states where salt was used for deicing in the winter.
Replacement fenders and those on late 1977 and later were built differently.
Adding the accent to the ‘e’ in Volaré. Indicative of a genuine F body fan. 🙂
I see, though since the issue existed in the A body(and presumably many others, fender liners didn’t seem to be very prevalent in any unibody cars at the time), the fact that the F body’s specifically were recalled for it led me to believe it was a defect specific to them. After all, A-body Valiants/Darts were still made concurrently in 1976, but didn’t get the same recall.
It’s a good question and I can only guess that it was an issue with the thickness of the early F-body fender sheetmetal, combined with the way it was stamped. If it had been GM, I would have said it was intentionally done to save a fraction of a cent on each fender stamped. But with Chrysler, it could have gone either way. I’d be more inclined to believe it was simply a design defect which, as mentioned, was corrected later. Since the A-body’s fenders would rust in the same location (just not as quickly), it seems like something the engineers should have anticipated if it was an intentional error.
Or maybe it had something to do with the arrangement of the undercarriage around the front suspension. The F-body had a significant change from the A-body in the orientation of the torsion bars so maybe that had some sort of unintended impact on how road salt went up into the internal fender area.
It’s also been said that the dies that stamp the sheetmetal have a finite life before they have to be replaced. Again, just guessing, but if the sheetmetal is thinner and/or softer, maybe the dies last longer before new ones have to be made.
A great story about Chrysler’s quality problems in the ’70s.
Well, to be fair about it…..FoMoCo and GM weren’t paragons of high quality control during this time period either.
Had to smile at the first picture. Only in seventies America could a Volare be called a small car!
Volare, oh oh
Cantare, oh oh oh oh
Let’s fly way up to the clouds
Away from the maddening crowds
We can sing in the glow of a star that I know of
Where lovers enjoy peace of mind
Let us leave the confusion and all disillusion behind
Just like bird of a feather, a rainbow together we’ll find
My grandfather had a new Aspen back in the 70s. The car was quite a looker — crisp blue coupe sporting a delux-ish white interior. Unfortunately, I also remember a long ride in the back seat with two other rear-board family members. The seat had so little support on the side that I — a fairly fit lad — started getting a backache after only a half hour or so. I writhed and contorted like Houdini and sat on my hand for a good part of the journey. The ensuing three hours were excruciating, and most all I could think of during our visit was how to position myself on the return trip. This kind of what-the-heck-were-they-thinking engineering (of one fashion or another) seemed endemic to all of the otherwise well-liked Mopar vehicles we owned.
Mopar F body Wagons seemed to be held onto longer, around here, than the other body styles into the 90’s. But, were gone by mid decade.
Co worker had a 10 year old ’78 Aspen wagon in ’88 and didn’t want to get a minivan. Only at job a year, and don’t know what replaced it.
M body derivatives were better, and some were kept long time by elder owners. Only to be shunned by descendants. Saw a 5th Ave at a pick and pull in 2004 that was in good shape, but sent there since was not wanted.
My mom had a ’78 Aspen 4 door when I came along. Metallic medium blue 4 door with the 225 inline 6 and auto trans. We kept that until about ’92 or ’93 when it was replaced by a Dodge Omni. Great car that never did wrong by us!
My grandma had a gorgeous emerald green F-body wagon of that same vintage for a great number of years, too. I do not recall the exact model but the grill and vinyl wood made it look like a real-life family truckster!
I loved these when they came out. Although I thought the coupes and sedans suffered from some slightly awkward styling, the wagons were perfect. Also on the higher level trims, Chrysler was putting some decent interiors in their cars.
But then the reputation got going. A friend of my grandma got one and had loads of trouble with it. As did many other buyers. Then the fender rust -at least that one was fixable and pretty much solved that problem.
Years later I read that while these cars were in development in Chrysler’s dark days of 1974-75 much of the engineering staff had been temporarily laid off. Lynn Townsend’s final gift to Chrysler.
Aaaah memories! I was only 5 months old when my parents bought their 77 Dodge Aspen Slant 6 wagon, but it was in the family for 36 years. I had it for most of the time since 1995. My COAL article is out there somewhere on it.
The ballast resistor struck us a few times. After the first time, there was always a spare in the car.
And like you, anytime I see an Aspen/Volare, I really want another one.
Interesting that the grey/silver wagon shown in the article has a wiper on the liftgate. That has most likely been added by the current or a previous owner. It was only available from the factory in the 1980 model year.