It was a warm day in the spring of 1974, and Clyde and Lorriane were sitting at their kitchen table that Sunday morning discussing their need for improved transportation. It seemed their 1962 Chevy II had finally given up the ghost when a rod decided to explore new territory within the engine block.
Clyde had been self-employed as a barber for the past 21 years. He and Lorraine never went very far from home, their extended families lived nearby, and their only child had just left for college. They realized basic transportation was all they needed, as extravagance simply wasn’t a part of their economic reality.
As Clyde and Lorriane perused new-car lots later that day, they weren’t impressed with anything Chevrolet had to offer. When it came to smaller cars, they weren’t enthralled with the Nova, and as a barber, Clyde had heard from enough different men that he shouldn’t touch a Vega with a 10-foot pole.
A bit later, while walking the lot at the Ford dealer, Lorraine commented that the tail lights were identical on the Pinto and Maverick. She and Clyde both thought the Maverick was a decent-looking vehicle, but something about it just wasn’t inviting. As they suspected they would have their next car for quite a long time, they wanted something they’d like, as well as something durable. The Maverick’s demeanor just didn’t make the sale for them.
Discouraged, Lorraine suggested they stop at the Dodge dealer. Clyde was not thrilled about the idea, but figured why not? As they pulled into the Dodge dealer’s driveway, they saw this baby blue Dart sitting just outside the showroom.
Lorraine really liked the color; she said it wouldn’t show dirt very easily, and at least it wasn’t one of the metallic greens, golds, or browns so often seen on contemporary new cars. Clyde–typically one to suffer from Dodgephobia. as he had always owned GM products–also knew from his customers that a Dart or Valiant was, in their collective opinion, the best thing ever offered by the Chrysler Corporation. They had told him nearly unfathomable stories of sadistic treatment of slant six and 318 cubic inch V8 engines that even if half true would make this a nearly indestructible machine.
The fact the base price of a Dart Custom was within $4 of the base price of a Nova Custom helped Clyde salve his Dodge paranoia. He suspected that when he came back tomorrow, the Dodge salesman would likely be more willing to negotiate than the guy at the Chevrolet dealer.
Since Clyde always had Mondays off, he and Lorraine returned to the various dealerships the next morning. After test- driving a Nova, a Maverick and the Dart, they wrote a check to the Dodge dealer. Clyde and Lorraine were very happy with their purchase, and kept the car for many years. Clyde would later joke the Dart was the automotive equivalent of a Timex watch: it could take a licking and keep on ticking.
This story about Clyde and Lorraine is fictitious, but it was inspired by, of all things, a barber here in Jefferson City who will have been in business for 60 years in September.
While Clyde and Lorriane are fictional characters, it would be safe to wager there were plenty of actual Dart buyers with similar stories. For someone who was looking for a reliable automobile and wasn’t into flashiness, the Dart was as strong a contender as any in 1974.
The Dart was mildly updated for 1974 in order to meet federal crash-protection standards. The bumpers were now of the chromed “guardrail” variety, which necessitated new tail lights that were bigger than in 1973 and now placed outside the bumper itself.
By 1974, the Dart was getting a bit long in the tooth. The aging sedan platform, which dated back to 1967, could arguably have been viewed as something like fine wine by the truly appreciative and contributing to the Dart’s continued success. For model year 1974, the base Dart and Dart Custom, seen here, sold a combined total of 78,216 units. Elsewhere in the Dodge lineup were the Coronet and Monaco: Total sales of base and Custom series Coronets totaled 44,773 copies, while the Monaco, comprising the same two series and a Custom four-door hardtop, sold 33,341 examples.
Looking at it another way, in terms of sedans– typically a manufacturer’s bread and butter–the compact Dart was outselling both the mid-sized Coronet and the full-sized Monaco. The story was similar over at Plymouth with the Valiant / Satellite / Fury triumvirate. At Ford and Chevrolet, mid- and full-sizers were selling on a par with, or even outselling, their 1974 compacts.
As a side note, a little research can often produce fascinating questions. Taking into account only four-door sedans, the 1974 Dodge Dart could have outsold the 1974 Chevrolet Nova: The Nova came in base and Custom series, but the Dart also came in a Special Edition trim whose production total was not included in the comparison above. The reference source stated two things leading to this speculation; first, production of all Nova four-doors totaled 84,300 units, and production of all Dart SEs, including two-doors, was 12,385. If only half of those were four-doors, Dodge may have outsold Chevrolet. How often has that happened? (Note to self: As an engineer, getting all geeky with numbers is in your DNA; others may not get so lathered up about them.)
Was the Dart simply that good–or was the rest of the Dodge lineup simply that inferior? If Dodge might have actually outsold Chevrolet, did cross-shopping by people like Clyde and Lorraine happen more often than first thought? Does this change the old “Ford / Chevrolet” argument to “Dodge / Chevrolet”? The questions keep flowing.
To be philosophical for a moment: Anyone who does not approach life as a series of events that provide the opportunity to strengthen your appreciation of things and improve yourself in all regards is seriously missing the point. Some time ago, I wrote a CC on a ’72 Plymouth Scamp (here), a car that prompted me to realize that compact cars of this era had a lot of good things going on. This Dart has affirmed that revelation. Yes, for years I viewed the Dart as undesirable and stuffy, but primarily as simply geriatric. Time does change one’s perspective, doesn’t it?
If you peruse the archives of Curbside Classic, you can find a refreshing amount written about Valiants (like this article and this one) but not nearly as much on Darts (although there is this one). Yes, there is a certain degree of randomness in what we find in the wild, yet it is good to find such a prime example of a Dodge Dart. The Dodge Dart is a vehicle that is perhaps one of the biggest unsung heroes of the 1970s automotive landscape.
When Paul created Curbside Classic, his tagline is “Every Car Has A Story”. Seeing such things as this old city sticker certainly makes one hungry for more details about the car it has been with for over three decades.
The styling on this car has, to me, a certain timeless quality to it. The squarish lines are very much from the mid 1960s, but the car’s basic proportions are nearly perfect, at least to my eye.
These were, of course, everywhere in the 1970s. Even then, though, I did not view them as generic. The 1973 and up Nova was generic. This car had too many little styling touches to be generic, like the concave rear window, and that little character line that slowly lowered itself to the rear wheel arch, then kicked up a bit as they met. Also, the belt line that had that subtle little kick-up in the rear door.
This sedan shows that Chrysler took the expensive route in stretching the Dart’s wheelbase (from that of the 1967 Valiant). Look at the dogleg between the rear door and the rear wheel – there is your extra 3 inches. This is not the cheap AMC route of putting it all into the hood and front fenders. By 1973, the shorter Valiant sedan was gone and Valiants shared the longer Dart wheelbase.
I wonder what might have happened had Chrysler elected to keep building these instead of wasting all of that money on the Volare. I am sure that at some point, sales would have dribbled down to nothing, but the Volare was gone after 1980 anyway.
Actually JP, I’d call that the cheap GM route if you go back to the fifties and see where they put the extra wheelbase on most Pontiacs…it was all ahead of the cowl.
I needed a couple doors for my first ’57 Chevy way back about 1981 or so…I found a pair off a ’55 Pontiac that were a perfect fit.
JP, you’ve got me thinking here….
Let’s suppose the F-body was the hangover or rebound car, sort of like the not so nice gal you are attracted to after a long-term relationship breaks apart.
The K-car was, in turn, the spiritual successor to the A-body. It was the girl that was right for the times and where you are at in your life. It was successful with some of the same honest ingredients of the Dart.
The M-body was the physical successor to the A-body, a lot like the old flame’s cousin who has some resemblance. When writing this I deleted a paragraph with my long ago realization of how the M-body looked like the A-body from some angles.
I think Chrysler realized some short term gain and long term pain with the F-body. Sure sales were brisk, but so were the problems. Maybe they should have treated the A-body like their version of the VW bug.
These were, of course, everywhere in the 1970s These were everywhere here still until rather more recently. And there’s still a fair number around. I stopped shooting them quite a while ago.
In the late seventies, eighties, and into the nineties, these were also the automatic thing to recommend to folks looking for cheap reliable transport. That role was of course taken over by old Toyotas and such, but in its day, these were the perfect beater. I used to call them Kelvinators, due to their refrigerator-like qualities, both looks-wise and otherwise.
No the expensive route in stretching a wheelbase involves longer rear doors (or front and rear if you get really enthusiastic!)
Actually 1974 was the first year for the longer Valiant. I never thought much about which way is cheaper to stretch a car, ahead of the firewall or behind the back seat.
I guess with a rearward stretch you need a longer exhaust pipe and drive shaft, which drives up costs.
But some of the more appealing and better proportioned cars IMHO are front stretches. Examples include the original Monte Carlo & G-body Grand Prix, and the ’69 fuselage Imperial. Also, 1967-74 Ambassadors look much better than thier Rebel-Matador peers.
Were they all this color in ’74? Seems so. Even in the brochure.
Good catch on the year. I was thinking for a moment that the stretch happened the year they changed the front end, but you are right. The stretched body would need different rockers and a different roof panel, so production would need to accommodate two separate body structures. I would think it would be easier to change the doghouse and the subframe than the unibody structure, but then I have never actually done this, so my thoughts are pure guess.
You are right – there were a lot of baby blue ones. But there were also a lot of them in that butterscotch color as well.
Re the F-Body-It really wasn’t money wasted since it lived on until ’89 as the M-body. In the end, they recouped their tooling investment AFIK.
I can’t say I disagree. However, did the F/M body do anything any better than this car would have? I have driven both, and the old A body was always solid as a rock, while the F/M cars I drove never felt as tight or solid. You must understand that in my perfect world, they would still be making these (and 67-68 Newports and IH Travelalls).
+1 this, and I’d be driving the ’67 Newport on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays, and the Dart on other days.
’67 Dart GT Convertible
Ah, but appealing proportions wasn’t what the Dart sedan was about.
I’m picturing the Mopar salesman proudly pointing out the space between rear door shut and wheelarch; “See? The extra length is in the back where you can use it, not wasted space under the hood.”
Great story, and with the two oldest in college, three not far behind and my Dad having just lost his job with its company car, it sounds much like my parents in August of 1974 (he found another job a few weeks later, but no company car). The exception is that my parents – GM-loyal eight or nine times during the previous 15 years – wrote a check for a Maverick.
There were no automatic-equipped Novas on the Chevy lot (three teen daughters with recently-issued driver’s licenses and a manual-hating wife made this these Novas truly a “no-go”), and the Valiant we test-drove had wind whistles and a speedometer needle that wagged wildly in a 20-mph arc as it was registering the speed at around 40 mph.
Always thought these were nice-looking cars. And yes, I still have the eleven foot pole I used to use to touch my Vega…
Well, you know how solving the world’s problems from inside a barbershop can go…
Funny, I used two five foot Hungarians strapped together.
Oh, man, now we’re quoting old people commercials!
These, I believe, were Chrysler’s best offerings in those years. Honest, solid-built cars that didn’t pretend to be anything else!
I’m happy I had one of the last renditions, my 1976 Dart Lite!
Actually, this is one body where I think the bigger bumpers worked best…along with the nice touches they put in the grille area. A friend of mine had a ’74 2-door with a stick and drove it for many many years.
There is a 1974 Dodge Dart Special Edition for sale on eBay one of the nicest available that I have seen. Darts/Valiants have no known to be well equipped but this is plush.
http://tinyurl.com/cpqzpq3
Had the bugs been worked out on the Aspen/Volare they might have been worthy successors to the Dart/Valiant as the ones that were fixed seem to have lasted especially considering the M bodies were basically reskinned F bodies and were durable.
You remind me that my local CL has an ad for a 37K mile 76 Aspen SE with a 360. As much of an A body homer as I am, and as much as I know about the horrors of the early Volare/Aspen, that 360 makes me think twice about this one. Hold on, I have to start slapping myself. http://indianapolis.craigslist.org/cto/3691302776.html
I wish I would have seen that ad when I was in Naples last month. I was in N Ft Myers for something and would have gone and looked at it. Not sure what purpose I would have for a car like that but it would have been nice and probably at a very reasonable price.
It would not be particularly hard to drop a 360 into an A-F-M body of any kind all the way to 1989 in most jurisdictions. They are plentiful and relatively inexpensive to make something out of it. I have often thought that if the 318 in my Imperial ever crapped out I would drop in a 360 and a higher ratio rear end.
Down here in the south where it doesn’t really snow we never had the problems with the F cars like the snow belt people did – never really followed the cars closely when they were newer of course I was attached to Oldsmobile so why would I – but as the years went by and I got more involved in car clubs and such they never really had as bad a reputation as they did elsewhere. Here people are still more Big 3/4 attached at least those over 40. I had a customer up until 2011 that drove a 1978 LeBaron coupe regularly with 318 that he kept up well and seem to run well.
That Aspen SE in the ad is plush almost a direct opposite as the bare bones Volare I photographed last weekend. It was not hard to tell Chrysler was moving the cars upmarket as the old A bodies strained to offer anything that was considered comfortable beyond basic.
Did your customer’s LeBaron have its Lean Burn system removed at some point? The 318 is virtually indestructible from what I’ve heard but lean burn is supposedly an absolute nightmare to fix.
I don’t remember. He was a mechanic as well an ‘independent garage’ so I never worked on his cars and I do not remember it ever been talked about. Now he did have a 59 Plymouth with a modern 318 drivetrain in it that was very fun car to have. The original 318 poly went bad somehow and for what was just a fun car he decided not to rebuild the existing engine and just drop in an LA motor.
Since most of my customers were GM products, I only came across LeanBurns periodically mostly people with older product but knew I took in old cars as a specialty. I had no problems dealing with the LeanBurn in the M bodies and only had a couple old C bodies with LeanBurn like 400s and 440s. The biggest issue fixing them now is getting parts. Diagnosing really isn’t as bad as people think it is. The problem with many repairs is that most mechanics do not start off as engineers and learn to repair cars firstly rather than truly understanding how they were built. They are very good finding paths of least resistance to fix a problem which is not always bad but when complications escalate usually results in cut corners and removal of stuff. I have an 81 Imperial which is probably the holy grail of Chrysler engineering during that time and I have managed to keep it running better than new to the amazement of just about anyone that is aware of the car and its history/reputation. I personally tend to keep cars original, especially if they are in excellent condition. I have never owned a Chrysler LeanBurn product (other than the Imperial which I am not sure I would call a LeanBurn product) so I am not sure how I would react to it day to day.
When I was in high school in the early 80s, grandmothers and teenagers drove these. Grandmothers because they wanted to, and teenagers because it was handed down to them when grandma was done with it.
The other thing teenagers drove was Cutlass Supremes, but those came from Mom when she got a new car.
Hey, its my car! I’ve always been attracted to “honest,” basic transportation, and the Dart is the pinnacle of that in my book. I picked this one up last fall. It was originally purchased by a man who drove it to ~60k in the mid-eighties and parked it in the garage. He sold it to a guy back in ’08 that proceeded to just drive it without doing the things that need to be done to a car that has been sitting for twenty years. I took care of deferred maintenance when I got it and its a great cruiser. I just wish it was easier to source parts that are specific to the four-doors. An example: vent window gaskets. The only ones still being made are for the coupes.
Here’s a shot from the day I went to see it.
>I just wish it was easier to source parts that are specific to [my car]
I feel your pain, brother. I dread the day when my namesake needs front rotors.
you feel my pain as well, my 77 Chevelle sedan has a lot of ‘unobtanium’ parts on it, that can only be sourced from junkyard refugees, or something else made to work, in not quite such a well designed way.
Definitely one of those cars which was simply trying to be a car. It wasn’t trying to win Lemans, drag races, or car of the year awards. It was just a bread and butter car for Joe and Jane Sixpack.
Although it likely still had more character than the “appliance cars” of today.
I agree. While in the ’70s my friends & I never lusted after these, neither could we despise them, as they never pretended to be anything but basic transportation for non-enthusiasts. And I think Chrysler’s compacts were the best until their F-bodies (Volare/Aspen) & the ’75 GM X-bodies.
My mother’s ’69 Satellite sedan was in hindsight no different except in size. No pretentious Broughams here.
The Dart/Valiant were a great car,the Aspen/Volare were proof you should never buy a mark 1 anything! Dad had a plain white vanilla 72 4 door 6 and flatmate had a red 69 4 door 6 which was near indestructible!I love these cars,all the style of an American car without the bulk and thirst,more please
Faced with similar choices only slightly earlier I went with the Nova. I think I would have been just as happy with the Dodge. Had a friend that drove one and it sure did survive a lot. Parents had a Maverick.
Frankly don’t think Detroit did too badly considering they were handicapped by Washington (D.C. that is).
Hm. It’s a really elegant design. Clearly passé in 1974, but timeless, too. Dare I say it–it’s like a w123 Mercedes. w115 might be an even closer match.
Anyway, I read somewhere that the emission controls were rather troublesome on these. Do the later ones have the same indestructible rep as the pre-emissions models?
I don’t think you got into durability issues until the Lean Burn systems. I never owned one on a 6, but they would certainly burn valves in V8s. The earlier EGR systems and such had a lot of vacuum lines and they certainly suffered from stalling and drivability issues. If you could get it dialed in, however, they would run a long time. much of that early stuff was also capable of being unhooked. I used to see a lot of vacuum lines with golf tees or sheet metal screws in them.
Good comparison with a Benz. While the Dart/Valiant were definitely lower-tech, they were roomier, got about the same fuel economy, were arguably a little less long-term durable, but WAY cheaper to own. That’s what always scares me away from German cars: total cost of ownership.
The Dart/Valiant were successful American exports, a good sign.
My ’74 /6 has EGR, a coolant temp-based distributer advance, fuel vapor canister and a carb heater. Everything had been disconnected and plugged with golf tees, similar to JPCs experience. None of it was complicated at all, and ironically it all worked fine when I put new vacuum lines in. I’m guessing along the way someone said “I don’t need none of them darn smog controls!” and cut the lines. But things like the carb heater actually help drivability and fuel economy, getting heat to the cold carb on startup and help it idle down and lean out the mixture quicker.
It’s funny what 35+ years will do. In 1974-76, amateur mechanics of long experience looked at that stuff and freaked out. “The cars ran just fine without all that junk” – and they disconnected things until they got back to what they were familiar with. Now, to those of us who have detailed diagrams and flow charts of Ford EECIV systems on a shelf somewhere, these early systems look quaintly simple. And go figure, with it all hooked up and working, the car runs like it should. Who’d a figured?
I became the go to guy for many years for the “new” stuff having a degree (two in fact) from GMI certainly helped I was not scared of stuff. Even to this day I freak all the Mopar guys out I drive my 81 Imperial (all original) all over the country with no problems.
It is funny to hear a lot of stories about car misbehavior because most of the people I am around, at work, at clubs, etc are all car people and everything even the quirkiest stuff seems to run fine. It was nothing to us to fix whatever needed fixing or alter what needed to be altered to make something right. I drove an 83 Cutlass Ciera with the 4.3 diesel V6 for years with no problems_at_all_ever.
Most of the problems that I have had with cars are usually environmental, age, weather, the things that I cannot control. I am glad I don’t live in the snow belt I would hate to lose a car due to body rot than an accident or simply wore out.
From interview with Chrysler engineer Pete Hagenbuch about de-smogging in the early ’70s, @ allpar.com:
“Nobody cared about performance, the performance got lower and lower [after 1971] until there weren’t any durability problems to worry about. Drivability was of utmost interest and was a total flop. We didn’t have drivable cars that passed emissions, I don’t think anybody else did either. There was just nothing going on, it was all emissions. It was keeping up with the congressmen & senators & their appointees. There was just nothing going on, from about oh what was the first awful year, 1971 model year maybe. EGR valves, that was awful, that was terrible. Air pumps were terrible. Catalysts were high back pressure items and nobody could afford two catalysts so dual exhausts went out the window. There was just nothing, nothing but trying to get the hydrocarbons, the CO and the NOx down to passable levels.”
a friend had a two door 74 Dart Swinger, with the 225 and torqueflite. What little there was of emission controls didn’t hinder it one bit. The mandated seatbelt interlock was a royal PITA till bypassed though.
Here’s a nice daily driver I regularly see braving the elements in upstate NY. Am I correct in assuming this bright red was a factory color? The hood mismatch to the rest of the front end suggests this is the case, to me at least. Not sure I dig the hood ornament, but the car always catches my eye.
Yes, they came in red. It looks like his front fenders and header panel came from a different car. The hood appears to match the cowl panel. The hood ornament is not original either. My college roommate had a couple of Mopars in that bright red – a 72 Duster and a 74 Charger.
Never like the four doors. The hardtop coupes were sweet. My buddy had one new from 1974 to 1989. He never washed it, but every few years, he had a body shop repair the rust, until the guy refused to work on it anymore.
It still ran well when he gave the car away.
I guess the AMC Hornet wasn’t on this couple’s radar.
Growing up I always thought of these cars as durable grandparent’s cars. I never noticed the cool lines in the body as mentioned by jpcavanaugh. I also never realized how much they do resemble the Mercedes too. As the 70′s progressed and new designs came out these looked more and more dated. However, today I can really appreciate the design as it is truly timeless. We had a neighbor with a burgundy special edition model with the color keyed hubcaps – not sure what year it was – but she had that car for a long, long time. Oh, and yes – I think that the brownish/butterscotch color was by far the most popular as I saw tons of them as a kid!!
In high school 2 of my friends had Darts 4 doors, but they were 72-73 models used 4 yrs by then…but still sturdy.
i drove one , though slow, i think it helped keep me from getting into trouble by not being a hemi… uphill could take determination. it was an update on a 68 valient imo
In any case cousin drove his slant 6, until the front end gave out as he said. but what abuse it took.
The city of Seattle was Dodge Dart central in the mid 70′s. The Seattle PD used Darts as police vehicles in 1975 & 1976, the city of Seattle had a whole fleet of ‘em as motor pool vehicles for the various city agencies, the taxi companies had a few of ‘em mixed in their fleets, and most of the population 60 years old (and over) were driving ‘em. You could always tell a Seattle-based Dart by the ubiquitous S.L. Savidge Dodge license plate frame (as seem on my grandpa’s green 1970 Dart).
It was all accidental folks – a happy accident.
Chrysler didn’t expect folks to turn their noses up at their midsizers and fullsizers. They spent millions on a new giant-sized full size line up. Chrysler even launched a new Imperial that was supposed to set that brand up for future successes. The new Imperial had an entirely new body that was completely different from the other full sizers. That was supposed to bounce them into the future with profits for newly redesigned compacts. You remember how important profit was with full sized cars? Chrysler’s future depended upon the full sizers bringing home the bacon.
But the 1974 gas crisis pulled the plug on everything. No one wanted big cars that year, let alone giant sized Imperials, Chryslers, Plymouths and Dodges. They invested hundreds of millions, spent millions, and got ZIP-O out of that.
Suddenly the obsolete Valiant, Duster and Dart was all that folks wanted to buy. If you had to replace your old full and mid sized Chrysler product, you ended up in one of these compacts. And, remember, these cars sat six and was as large in many ways as the bigger products offered at that time. Why spend more during a gas crisis when no one knew what the future was going to be? Gas shortages were real, people. No one wanted to be caught along side a road with a 7 MPG Newport or Fury.
Everything changed for Chrysler. They had to launch a small car, which they promised they would NEVER do – Cordoba. They had to dump the Imperial again, renaming it as the new New Yorker. They had to rename their mid sizes and pass them off as new cars – “New Small Fury”, anyone? It was a complete mess. The only thing Chrysler could bank on was not having any money and pumping out Valiants, Dusters and Darts.
Every gimmick in the book was used to keep the flame alive. Paint them up in different colors – “Gold Duster”, “Feather Duster”, “Convertriple”, Valiant Broughams, Dart – Whatevers – every new gimmick possible was thrown by Chrysler into keeping these cars, (which were paid for a few years earlier, btw), bring in profits and buying the Company time.
For Chrysler, nothing worked except a reworking of obsolete cars during this time. They had huge development costs they couldn’t pay off, huge lots of cars they couldn’t move without dumping cash on their hoods, “rebates” – and a line up of cars folks didn’t want.
Consequentially, there were millions of these cars on the road. They sold.
Then – when they were replaced – they were replaced by the biggest pieces of crap with the worse quality control. Aspen/Volares sucked. By the time all the bugs were worked out, these things were being sold as overwrought Park Avenues, Diplomats and police squad cars. Sure – they called them a different letter designation, but these cars were the same icky pieces of junk that replaced the Valiant/Duster, and Dart.
What did the Valiant/Duster, and Darts have going for them? They were dependable. They had a good reputation. They were the right size. They seated six. You could get them with a V8. They had OK gas mileage. And they weren’t Japanese, GM or Ford for buyers wanting a Chrysler product.
Worst mistake I ever made was selling a 1974 Dodge Dart Custom. This car had the best ventilation ever in the “doors” in the passenger and driver’s side footwells.