(first posted 9/28/2016) Batten down the hatches and wait for the storm. That had to have been the attitude of Chrysler executives as they faced the waves of new product news pouring out of their Detroit competitors for 1977. The problem was Chrysler Corporation just didn’t have much of anything new to serve up, but they still dutifully pitched their wares to Motor Trend for the 1977 New Car Issue.
These baroque beauties were some of Chrysler’s biggest hits for 1977. The Cordoba offered minor changes, but remained a popular personal luxury choice. Even in the face of the newly downsized Ford Thunderbird, Cordoba sales stayed quite strong, dipping a mere 3% compared to 1976. The full-size Chryslers enjoyed a big surge in sales, attracting die-hard big car customers who wanted to get the traditional whoppers while they still could. Newport sales rose 48%, while New Yorker Brougham, with its handsome ex-Imperial styling and ultra-posh interiors, climbed 84%.
The Volare (and Aspen) had been bright spots for Chrysler in 1976. The cars were good looking, practical and well-timed for the market, but in an unpleasant throwback to Chrysler’s 1957 troubles, the new F-Body designs were quality disasters. In the days before social media and online posting, perhaps it took longer for that bad reputation to spread, as 1977 Volare/Aspen sales remained strong, rising 5% compared to the combined sales of Valiant/Dart and Volare/Aspen for 1976.
The B-Body Fury got a new “face” with stacked rectangular headlamps, while inexplicably the larger C-Body Gran Fury made due with dual round lights… Fleets buyers apparently didn’t care either way, as Fury sales rose 16% while Gran Fury climbed 31%–off of low bases in both cases.
Talk about badge engineering! This page pretty much sums up the challenge Mopar faced with having no money and two different dealer networks to feed. Plymouth got versions of the Dodge van and pickup truck, while Dodge cloned Plymouth’s Volare and Chrysler’s Cordoba.
Not much was left of the Dodge big car line-up by 1977. However, just like Plymouth had done in 1975, Dodge appended their full-size nameplate to the mid-size car. No more Coronet, and voila, instant downsizing–now there was a “smaller” Monaco! The big C-Body car soldiered on for one last year, however, blessed with the “Royal” prefix to its name. Did the strategy work? Well yes and no. On a percentage basis, sales soared. B-Body Monaco sales rose 100% compared to the Coronet, with C-Body Royal Monaco sales climbed 72% versus 1976. But… those increases were based on a relatively low starting point. Even with the huge percentage increases, combined Monaco and Royal Monaco sales only totaled 105,517 units for the year, which was about what Oldsmobile cranked out per month. Plus, while most Oldsmobiles were sold to retail buyers, most Monaco/Royal Monaco units were likely fleet sales for taxi, police and government service.
So, for the Mopar cars covered by Motor Trend in the October 1976 issue, here are the sales by model:
| Volare | 327,739 |
| Aspen | 266,012 |
| Cordoba | 163,138 |
| Fury | 94,813 |
| Monaco | 63,684 |
| New Yorker Brougham | 62,127 |
| Newport | 57,880 |
| Charger SE | 36,204 |
| Royal Monaco | 36,101 |
| Gran Fury | 29,929 |
| Town & Country | 7,275 |
| Gran Fury Suburban | 6,236 |
| Royal Monaco Wagon | 5,732 |
However, Chrysler did have a few more tricks up its sleeve for 1977, not covered in this issue of Motor Trend, that helped the sales picture for the year.
For starters, there were captive imports from Mitsubishi in Japan. Since Motor Trend only covered domestic cars in the 1977 New Car issues, they left off both the Dodge Colt and the Plymouth Arrow. Of course, they really weren’t Chrysler products, but they did help put food on the table for Dodge and Chrysler/Plymouth dealers. The Colt actually turned out to be the second best selling car in Dodge showrooms for 1977 after the Aspen, with 69,963 units sold. Over at Chrysler/Plymouth, 51,849 Arrows found homes.
In the mid-1990s, “Dolly the Sheep” stunned the world as an early example of cloning. Well, Chrysler had those scientists beat in 1977, with “Diplomat the Dodge.” Really nothing more than a LeBaron with more conventionally stacked headlamps, the Diplomat gave Dodge dealers a “premium compact” to sell at a time when that segment was booming. The vehicle being cloned was the new M-Body Chrysler LeBaron, an upscale version of two earlier Mopar clones, the F-Body Volare/Aspen twins. Though only available for the second half of the 1977 model year, both Diplomat and LeBaron were welcome additions to the Mopar line-up, generating sales of 34,214 and 46,100 respectively.
So, all told, including the captive imports and mid-year additions, Chrysler Corporation car sales were up 24% to 1,358,996 units. While Chrysler must have been heartened to post a sales increase in a year dominated by ample new products from General Motors and Ford, the harsh reality remained that Mopar’s three divisions were turning in less than half the sales volume achieved just by Chevrolet alone.
And of course they were busy behind the scenes preparing the 1978 Omni/Horizon for launch.
Hard to believe… Forty years! Seems like a different planet
when I look back at what was ‘trending’ on our roads then.
What would the people of that time think if they could see
an example of today’s bread n butter coming up the street?
I don’t know about people in ’77 but when I see a sterile bland looking blob like that faceless appliance, I can’t help but think of what a total downgrade it really is. Sure it’s safer more reliable, efficient, blah blah blah. Technology has come a LONG way. But somethings definitely missing, and its passion for cars. The ”70’s were a dark time for the automobile, and a lot of what was out there was crap under the skin. But looking at that Street Van and the Aspen/Volare coupes i see at least SOME effort to make the product appealing and stir up feelings of ‘i want that!’ in spite of regulatory nonsense, a dismal economy and a decline of the American auto industry ad a whole. Whatever that toyhonsandai thing is, the only motivation to own or buy it is a need to get from point A to point B.
The brown Diplomat is the epitome of Generic Car to me. I’ll give Hyundai credit for at least trying to do something interesting with the sheet metal on their econo-blob.
Actually MoparRocker the MD(2011-16) Elantra is a
pretty competent handler. Not the post powerful engine
currently out there, but then, straight-line numbers are
not how I measure handling.
It’s low, and feels more connected to the road than
big bloated brother Sonata. Plus you can adjust the
amount of electric power steering assist: Comfort
(would feel alot like the steering in a 77 Volare),
Normal(close to the average level of assist in a
modern compact), and Sport(least level of assist,
might remind one of a manual rack in a 70 Challenger!).
Watch out: Slight chance of oversteer in tight corners
if you really push er. 🙂
My buddy has one. For what it is, it does accelerate and handle decent. But it’s just….soulless. Stock to stock, it’d run rings around a Volare. But in Super Coupe form, theres no denying the swagger. And I know how far an American V8 rwd platform can be wrung out if you want to create a monster. You can hot rod ANYTHING. But at the end of the day American muscle is just ‘it’ for me. Same as comparing a japanese sportbike to a classic BSA, Triumph or Harley. No comparison in my book no matter what a spreadsheet looks like.
Whatever they were thinking the word “trending” luckily wasn’t part of their vocabulary. Score 1 for the past.
The Elantra surely isn’t anything beautiful, but to be fair, compare it to mass-market four-door compacts from 1977 (Maverick, Aspen, what have you). None were really meant to be exciting, unlike their two-door counterparts.
Edit: not meant towards Proud-MD-Owner, but rather the people that replied to them.
Well you could also see out of a Volare 4 door quite a bit better than the Elantra, when either car is going to be used as a disposable appliance being exciting really isn’t necessary. Otherwise just bring back the 2 door bodystyle.
XR7:
One 2 door, coming up!! 😉
I have theories, but everyone is entitled to their own automotive interests, so I will keep it to myself. I am here because of the older cars first and foremost, so that says it all.
The calm before the storm that almost sunk the Mopar ship. By 1978, word was spreading about the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare, and both cars faced tough competition from the downsized GM A-bodies and the all-new Ford Fairmont and Mercury Zephyr. Meanwhile, the Chrysler Cordoba began losing steam. The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon, which arrived in early 1978, were hits, but they weren’t high-profit cars.
I still have a soft spot for the final generation of gargantuan Chrysler Newports and New Yorkers. They were very good-looking cars, even if they were dinosaurs headed straight for the tar pits. I also remember that the Plymouth Gran Fury and Dodge Royal Monaco were very rare birds even when new. As the article says, most of them were either sold as police cars or taxi cabs. It seemed as though everyone who wanted a full-size Mopar went straight to the Chrysler and ignored the Plymouth and Dodge.
Omni and Horizon were almost impossible to get back in ’78. I remember dropping by my buddy’s Dodge dealership (his father, the actual owner, had been my dad’s used car manager during the Chevy days, and he was one of my few friends in high school), looking for one at the beginning of the ’79 model year.
Only to be told they didn’t have any. And they weren’t able to get any unless they took something like 2 Aspens and 1 Monaco for every Omni they needed. The former were selling poorly in Johnstown at that time, and the latter were completely unsaleable unless you were some government agency.
Which had me deciding on my disastrous ’79 Monza Kammback. I finally got that Omni as an ’82. The beginning of a decade and a half of Dodge ownership.
My best friend’s family bought the first brand-new Horizon in our small town. They bought it in February 1978. Our next-door neighbor, who carpooled with my father, bought a brand-new Horizon in the spring of 1979. Both were well-optioned cars (the neighbor’s Horizon even had the optional exterior wood grain siding).
My friend’s Horizon was regularly at the dealers for broken exterior door handles (a common problem on the early cars) and stalling issues. Our neighbor’s Horizon literally died in our drive way when he dropped off my father. It had to be towed to the dealer. The Omni and Horizon twins were nice cars, but they made their share of enemies, too.
They had VW engines at first, then I think Peugeot for a year or two, then got the Chrysler 2.2 when that came out and was installed in almost any Chrysler anything. So enginewise the reliability would be different for different years.
My 1978 Horizon went about 130K miles (got totaled) with the only major repair being a new computer for $200. It used a carburated VW engine with computer controlled air intake.
My 1988 Horizon with the Chrysler 2.2 also went about 130K before getting totaled in a rollover. One $700 blown head gasket at 100K and not much else.
We ordered a ’79 Horizon during the summer of ’78 and it already had the redesigned door handles when it was delivered in late fall of ’78. The ’78 door handles that were known for failing had a fixed part that you saw and a flap inside you squeezed to open the door, IIRC. The later ones were hinged so the part you saw was the handle for releasing the door latch.
Some time ago I came across a Consumer Guide 1980 new car buyers’ guide which listed the Omni/Horizon with higher prices than the Aspen/Volare AT MSRP.
My best friend’s dad had to go to a charity auction to buy his Horizon in the spring of 1978.
It frustrated me to no end that the big Fury and Monaco were basically attractive cars that Chrysler kept screwing up with clumsy details. That awful attempt at an opera window on the 2 doors, and then that horrible front with the stupid single big headlight.
I had forgotten that the Fury and Monaco actually sold better in 77 than 76, so it is interesting that they killed them for 78. It would have seemed that some sales of an existing car would have been better than none at all.
The worst attempt to make an opera window ever.
Oh, you underestimate the diligence of the dedicated, dignified, dutiful, (desperate?) Dodge doodad designers.
I’ll see your silly base opera window treatment and raise you one Brougham Diplomat package opera window with stainless roofband!
Even at the time I wondered what Chrysler was thinking when it adopted that single headlight treatment for the Plymouth Gran Fury. The Dodge adopted hidden headlights that made the car look VERY heavy in the front. The restyled front clips did, at least, better differentiate the two cars.
They dropped them due to the 1978 CAFE 18 mpg law. But also, they were mostly fleet cars.
And I disliked the dorky single headlight with large turn signal too.
But also, seeing former top line trim names as lowly cabs was another example of name debasement. Why not keep Coronet and Satellite?
Just trickery, saying “all new smaller Fury/Monaco!”
The names moved because the 1974 C bodies had flopped in the market.
No, the names moved because CAFE was coming and everyone needed to get used to smaller big cars. Chrysler knew that the C body Fury and Monaco were dead ends, so they wanted to keep the old customers coming in. This is the same reason why the LTD and Marquis names moved onto the Fox body a few years later and why the Bonneville became an A body. Those big cars were expected to disappear and we were all supposed to reduce our expectations.
The names moved in the fall of 74 for the 1975 models, because the C bodies were sales poison and Chrysler was desperate. CAFE wasn’t enacted til December 75.
The big single headlights actually make the Fury front end resemble the Ram truck, which I can’t imagine was considered desirable in a car, at least not yet. What’s striking too is a lot of car designs it’s fairly easy for me to sort the year hierarchy of various random years of a certain car by headlight designs alone, but in the case of these big(Grand)Furys and (Royal)Monacos it’s like memorizing state capitols in grade school.
My best friend’s father traded his 72 Newport 2 door in on a brown 1977 Newport 4 door hardtop. It was a very nicely designed and put together car, and I recall thinking “Boy, Chrysler’s problems seem to be behind it.” (Bzzzzzt, wrong.) But even so, the Chrysler line seemed to be on a roll at the time with cars that were good looking and presented nicely inside and with great high tech features like Lean Burn. (Bzzzzzt, wrong again.) Then came the LeBaron, which finally seemed like something that could finally compete with the successful Granada. (Bzzzzzt, I’m, sorry. Thanks for playing.)
Unfortunately, most of the volume was Volare/Aspen and the old B body Fury/Monaco, usually in low trim levels. And the famously uneven quality that plagued these cars was as bad as ever. Mopar fans had to develop very thick skin in this era.
First car as a teenager was 1980 red, 4dr Aspen. 6cly. Works exceptionally well. Had put extra leaf springs in the bum, and piled in all my buddies and their gals. It was the go to car for hauling everyone to the parties , beach and such. Blew away every Honda Civic in our group in terms of reliability, cargo space, and all around toughness. We beat that Aspen regularly, but we also waxed the paint and changed the oil. Miss the whine of that starter…sort of.
Miss my ’80 Volare Slant Six 4-dr. Willingly bought it out of a swampy junkyard right after high school to replace my 400 powered ’78 Cordoba that was just too rusty and thirsty. Loved them both, but I miss that Volare and the whine of the starter.
Four-wheeled abominations…
The button-tufted leather interiors of the senior Chrysler models are beautiful to me now and the less dressed Fury model looks good to me now too.
My brother had a 78 Volare Premier wagon. The seats were vinyl with buttons on the backrests. Every pair of pants that he owned had the left backside belt loop ripped off from catching on those buttons. Eventually, not being able to keep affording new pants, he cut the seat buttons off.
Honestly, the only one of these that appeals to me is the big New Yorkers. Other than that, I wouldn’t really be happy about owning a Chrysler product from this period. Hell, even the New Yorker would make me nervous, because if I remember right, 77 was the year Chrysler introduced the horrible Lean-Burn system on all their models.
+1 — those are the only decent-looking of the whole lot by a country mile.
Though the Arrow isn’t bad either (but it’s a Mitsu)
It would be interesting what the sales breakdown was by engine option for the midsize Chrysler, Dodge, Plymouth. I know that V8s of greater than 318 cubic inches were available but whenever any of the survivors turn up it seems that they are all 318 with the occasional 360.
My parents bought two new Valiants and two used Darts through the ’60s and ’70s. All were perfectly troublefree. Zero problems.
In ’77 my aunt followed their lead with an Aspen. Perfectly terrible. Everything went wrong. Front suspension had to be replaced every six months.
Not an impressive lineup, by any stretch. There’s little wonder why Chrysler was in so much trouble at the time. As mentioned previously, my father’s best friend owned a Chry/Ply/Dodge dealership and even Dad opted for a new Monte Carlo in ’77 rather than going back for more of the misery he’d experienced with his ’75 Cordoba. My grandfather, a lifelong glutton for Mopar punishment, traded his also troublesome ’75 Cordoba for a ’77 Lebaron coupe, which was also a bit of a nightmare, albeit a reliable one at least.
I ended up driving that Lebaron for 6 months in the late 80’s, long after it’d been relegated to 2nd car duty, and despite only having 33k miles on it at the time it was the worst rattletrap I’ve ever experienced. It was reliable, but the Lean Burn system meant that the 360 would ping and knock like a bag of marbles under even moderate acceleration. That Lebaron was one of the few cars of my youth that I wish I still owned, but at the time I had no regrets about saying goodbye to it.
Good old Chrysler with the widest sample variation of any of them. In contrast to yours, I got to drive a rental Diplomat in 1978 and was amazed at how strong the 318 was, with no pinging or drivability problems at all. That car had no trouble hitting 100, a feat that my mother’s 74 Luxury LeMans with its 350 could never accomplish.
The most frustrating thing about Chrysler was always that their products were well engineered, the quality of materials and attention to design detail were a cut above GM or Ford (IMO), but the execution and build quality was a crap shoot. 3 generations of my family have driven Chrysler products since the 60’s, and on average about 25% skewed toward the lemony end of the spectrum. My Lebaron for example had one of the highest quality leather trimmed interiors to be had for the time. Carpet, fabric, dash layout and switchgear were all top notch from a quality standpoint, but the damn thing felt like every nut and bolt was just a half a rotation short of tight.
An acquaintance who spent his career selling very large dynamometers to the automakers summed up the American industry this way: “With occasional exceptions here and there, Chrysler do a lousy job of building a good design; Ford do a good job of building a lousy design, and GM do a mediocre job of building a mediocre design”.
In my experience, he’s right.
Probably the best distillation of the US auto industry I have ever heard. 🙂
Excellent, Daniel.
+ 1000 — extremely good description of the Big 3
Reminds me of what the French colonials used to say about the Indochinese:
Vietnamese farm the rice; Khmers watch it grow; Lao listen to it grow.
I got my mom’s ’73 318 Coronet wagon up to that speed too without any drama. It ran very well, pulled harder than the poly 318 in her ’65.
Wow, and ’77 was a “good” year for Mopar.
Plymouth alone made almost 750,000 cars as recently as 1973, and over 250,000 of those cars were relatively profitable full-size Furys. Well, I guess at least the long suffering Dodge C body finally got a laugh at the Gran Fury and outsold it.
With Ford still selling over 400,000 Ford brand full-size cars in ’77, the Ford guys had be thanking their lucky stars that it was Plymouth, and not them, completely in the dumper. Plymouth technically had a newer product, and when put together correctly, it was probably a better big car.
In the lies, damned lies and statistics department, Chrysler used those dismal sales figures from ’74 – ’75 to bolster claims about fast brand growth, especially with the Chrysler line and the boost it got from the Cordoba. This was typically in full line ads with pictures of Newports and New Yorkers trying to build a little showroom traffic on the Cordoba’s tails. It worked, to a degree.
Looking at this line up today, there are some handsome cars, and I even have a soft spot for the intermediate Fury coupe when it was built as a true two-door hardtop with roll down rear windows. The New Yorker was a handsome brute, and the Cordoba, even if a rip of the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix, was a sharp car. The Volare and Aspen coupes were handsome just because they were so little changed from the Duster of 8 years earlier. I had a little wheel time in both a period New Yorker and a Volare coupe, and both, when working properly, were pretty nice rides.
Finally, Dodge put together a long video with lots of convoluted commentary on the 1977 Royal Monaco. Just the fact that the product planners were about to pull the plug on the car makes it a bit of a farce. Too bad, really not a bad car, just poorly built by a frequently troubled company.
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TBiJX0uC-cE&w=560&h=315%5D
What helped Ford was their cars ran as well as expected to loyalists. The Lean Burn and other issues hurt big Plymouth/Dodges. But then again, big Chryslers were a better deal.
If not for the “Blues Bros”, the Dodge/Plymouth C bodies would be long forgotten.
Regarding F body coupes, I liked them at the time and wanted them to be the next Dusters. Even some got Duster as a trim line. Still like them for looks, just too bad for the quality. Supposedly got them right for 1980, and the M bodies too.
I’d also add if it weren’t for The Dukes of Hazzard and every cop show/movie made between 1980 and 1990 needing some police cars to crash, the B body Fury/Monaco would be long forgotten too.
I totally agree about the F bodies, I really wanted to find a cheap Duster to fix up as a first car circa 2004-2005 but with affordable pickens so slim I expanded that to F bodies and quickly found they were just plain extinct, everybody on earth junked them two decades prior it seemed.
“The Volare and Aspen coupes were handsome just because they were so little changed from the Duster of 8 years earlier”
That was mostly a good thing too… The styling of the Duster/Demon has held up VERY well over the years. The same is true of the Aspen/Volare coupes…with the exception of that garish baroque front clip. It suits the sedan/wagon just fine, and its even acceptable on the broughammy coupes but looks laughably out of place on the base coupes and especially the ones with any sporting pretensions. What would have set those cars off is the molded nosecones from the related J-body Mirada and Cordoba LS. It was a similar look to what the contemporary Firebird/Camaro was using, and properly optioned out, those Mopars were capable of respectable performance.
Problems With the leanburn, pinging overheating etc, usually comes from lack of knowledge. To time the engine you have to follow a defined procedure, or else the timing will be off and cause problems described above. Remember, only four years earlier, all cars had point ignition system. Leanburn was spaceage then and not many then (and now) had any Clue how the system worked.
Which would explain why all of the remaining Chryslers of that vintage are happily motoring along on their original Lean Burn systems since they are really so wonderful now? Uhhhhh, no. It was a great idea but a) poorly executed and b) overly complex given the tech of the day. The idea of having a computer living in the heat and vibration of the air cleaner was one of the dumbest ideas ever.
I owned one when it was a late model used car. It was in to the Chrysler dealer multiple times for not running right, and if anyone should have had it figured out, it was a Chrysler dealer along about 1982-83. But no. And eventually, the car had a couple of burned valves, which happened often on these. This is why the entire world learned to bypass the system to get the cars to (finally) run right.
This is why the entire world learned to bypass the system to get the cars to (finally) run right.
Or if you lived in a state that didn’t test emissions you got an intake and carb from an older car with the same motor.
Very true about ignition timing, but another issue with ‘Lean-Burn’, was, as the name implies, was a very lean calibrated carburetor. The basic idea was to manipulate ignition timing to allow the engine to run lean, which would give better fuel economy and reduced emissions. It sounded good in theory, but in order for the system to work and provide decent driveability, everything had to be perfect. Any slight vacuum leak, EGR problem, base timing slightly off, ect. could cause stalling, driveability issues, poor acceleration and fuel economy, and overheating. There was no margin for error on these engines, and to make matters worse, Chrysler seems to have unwittingly engineered in a few flaws to increase the likelihood of trouble. We used to see vacuum leaks on the Slant 6 caused by warped and cracked aluminum intake manifolds Chrysler used during these years, excessive distributor shaft wear on the V-8’s which caused timing inconsistencies, warped fuel bowls on Termo-Quad 4bbl. carburetors causing internal vacuum and fuel leaks, the air cleaner mounted computer which hung out right over the exhaust manifold (heat was a problem for those early computers as J P Cavanaugh pointed out). The ‘Lean Burn’ system would have been more successful had Chrysler’s quality been better at the time, but it did pave the way for more advanced and better performing engine management systems.
While you are certainly correct about the vibration of mounting the timing computer to the air cleaner the reason it was mounted there was supposedly to cool it. Chrysler liked that idea so much that they later routed the intake plumbing through their inner fender mounted computers. Of course they still failed rather regularly. I remember getting an A-1 Cardone “reman” computer for one Chrysler or another many years ago. When I got it out of the box it was all nice and clean with the “reman” sticker on it but when I took a closer look there was a nice crispy leaf hanging out in there. That of course was when I had the sad realization that many of today’s “reman” products are nothing more than JY parts that are cleaned up a bit and a “reman” sticker and high price slapped on them. Heck it must work if the car was able to get crashed…right?
Yes, they had a baffle in them that was supposed to direct some of the intake air across the circuit board, but it’s effectiveness was questionable. Certainly didn’t do anything when the engine was off and had a nice heat soak going on under the hood! In later years the computer had an insulator glued to the bottom, but Lean Burn’s successor ESA was usually located in the left fender again with the fresh air intake routed through it as you pointed out.
Speaking of Scouts, it wasn’t too long after this IH started toying with the idea of a Mopar-powered Scout. Hopefully they were not considering Lean Burn as well!
I have my doubts about how many dealer techs were really capable of fixing them, too.
Man, I can’t read this article. What crappy cars these were.
Chrysler sold almost 600,000 of the Aspen / Volare line, in ’77 alone? They must have set a record for % fleet sales that’s the only way those numbers make sense. I believe it was the old Road Test magazine that tested the duo back in 1975 or thereabouts. I remember a pic showing an Aspen badge on the Volare and vice versa along with some misaligned trim.
They were that popular with the public, which still wanted to believe. And the Valiant and Dart had earned 15 years of goodwill–which was squandered in 15 months.
Very very true. Valiants, Darts, and Dusters were the favored cars of my youth, clean examples were plentiful and inexpensive, repairs were cheap and easy. Fuel economy, reliability, and performance was fine with the 225 or 318.
I owned 3 Darts & 2 Valiants over the years all ’74 and older and had good luck with all. Wish I had them all back again. Of course I feel that way about all the 60’s to early 70’s Mopars I owned. My problem was I thought they would be around forever as good and inexpensive used cars.
What annoyed me was MT nominated the Monaco B body for 1977 COTY, since it was a supposedly “new car”! It was just a name change and new headlights! But had to have one Chrysler product nominated. The LTD II and Cougar were also nominated, but they at least had a new body.
And I agree with “Talk about badge engineering! This page pretty much sums up the challenge Mopar faced…”
This is what killed Plymouth in long run. Why bother anymore, especially when they had Neon under D/P brands? The Breeze was a de-contented Stratus, and didn’t have any appeal, the plastic egg crate grille was hideous. Far from any ‘product renaissance’.
Surely, this is also what killed Mercury and Olds, not too long after Plymouth.
What’s weird is that GM and Ford de-contened their mid-priced cars/marques, whereas Chrysler let Plymouth wither rather than Dodge.
Though to be fair, DeSoto and Imperial had also come & gone by then, so essentially, Chrysler killed its lowest brand last, having previously killed its middle one and luxury one. And let’s not forget the Eagle thing too…
Pedant alert: Dolly the sheep was born in 1996, not the 80s. 🙂
As an owner of a 1977 Dodge B-300 Chinook, with the 360-2V and A727 Torqueflite, I can attest to its basic solidity. The truck/engine has 125xxx original miles on it, but considering that it turns at over 3200 rpm at 65 mph, that’s more like 200k in a properly-geared sedan. It still runs strong, and its only sign of aging is a puff of blue smoke at start-up, most likely a worn valve guide. The Torqueflite has a very modest drip. Even the cruise control still works, as long as weather isn’t too moist. And the choke is now manual.
Given its 4.1;1 rear axle gears, it pulls surprisingly hard, and can maintain 55 on our mountain passes at full chat. But every time it hits 45-50, I keep waiting for it to shift into the missing OD fourth gear.
Ha, that’s even more recent than I remembered–I keep thinking of it as being about 20 or so years years ago, but doh, that would be the nineties (just like I still like to think I’m in my late thirties). I’ll update the text.
The sad thing to me about Chrysler, for so much of its history, is that it actually did so many things right, like your truck. Engines and Torqueflite were stout, interiors were often made with better materials, etc. But hit-or-miss quality control, poor market timing and, in some cases, questionable styling just killed them.
I was going to say… I may be nostalgic for my age but I can’t imagine that I’d even stumble across dolly the sheep before my time too LOL. Thank god, I thought I hit a new low there!
I would take the Trail Duster and a Aspen/Volare coup. And I can’t believe how many times they say 255 six in the text. Proofreaders out for a six martini lunch?
That Street Van is really singing my name!
Slot mags, check.
Side pipes, check.
Bubble window, check.
Gaudy ’70s paintjob goodness, check.
Make it a warm 360 in the doghouse and lemme make sure I have a crate full of 8tracks that are period appropriate, like Foghat, ZZ Top, AC/DC, Bad Company etc. just need a daisy duke sporting honey and I don’t think a roadtrip could be ny more satisfying!
Lou Reed Walk On The Wild Side tape – check!
Parents bought a loaded new ’77 (maybe ’76) Aspen root beer brown 4 door. It had the “255” (225) slant 6, and really would have probably been better off with the 318. I had been on my own for a couple of years and didn’t ever really have a conversation about how it held up in the 3 or 4 years they owned it. Seemed to be a decent looker for the times, I drove it a time or two and it rode nice, the emission strangled 6 struggled to get it up to speed.
Oh, by the way, ’77 was the second time the plain mid size Dodge 2 door got a new name. ’75 Coronet 2 door > ’76 Charger coupe [not SE] > ’77 Monaco.
I think Coronet should have stayed on the B, and Monaco name used on the M body instead of Diplomat.
Not much to choose from this year, The Imperial is the only car of the lot that exudes any charisma and presence, but like many in this period I don’t want a car that big. The Fury/Monaco, ugh, The 75 update to the 2 door B body was one of the ugliest in history, it managed to lose the looks of it’s Charger/Sattelite predecessors and not even fit in that well with the prevailing styling of the era, just complete losers, and then with stacked headlights for 77, ugly losers.
If the Aspen R/T and Volare RR are good enough for Ruff McThickridge, then what else do you need to know?
Ruff McThickridge sounds like a bad porn star/stripper name as does Honey Mustard.
Yup, that’s exactly what that commercial was going for. Cheesy porno/’70s grind house vibe. I loved those commercials, even tho I despise anything honey mustard. I remember Ruff had a couple sidekicks, Bo Tato and a monkey that could diffuse bombs or something. Hilarious!
The B coupes seemed to be imitating Monte Carlos in the rear, but not very well.
Cordobas did a better job, and remain fairly popular today with ‘cheaper car’ collectors. Don’t expect them at a TV auction, but see a few here and there in summertime.
The big Imperial’s last year was 1975, but it would resurface the next year as the New Yorker Brougham with a lot less standard equipment (that could be re-added if desired). Interestingly, the New Yorker Brougham sold a lot better than the Imperial.
If I were forced to drive a Mopar product made in 1977, I think I’d have to move to South America. At least there I could still get an A-body Dart.
Chrysler had its name on many things here during this era while the funeral band got in practice for their eventual demise the Rootes range was ten years old at this point and new grilles and tail light trim couldnt hide a Hillman Hunter from the same cars sold a decade ago The Avenger got a facelift but nothing really changed same for the Aussie Valiant range a minor trim change and four wheel disc brakes finally on the rocketship Centura the Mitsubishi range wore both badges just to confuse the issue untill the band got to play Chryslers final march.
What a goddamn grim time to have been in the market for a new car.
Agreed. While I love looking at old iron and reminiscing, I grimace when I recall driving those ill-handling barges. The Toyota Corona and Honda Accord were revelations.
I’ve never seen a van as far back as ’77 with overdrive. That’d make a nice rig with a six, especially a 2 barrel. (Relatively) enough power, and I bet the MPGs would be surprisingly good.
I’m by and large a Mopar guy but its hard for even me to come up with a favorite. Id probably try and pull some strings and get an A38 police package 440 Fury and if that didn’t work out, a new red over white Ramcharger SE 4X4 with a red plaid interior, just like a buddy of mine had in high school.
I love the looks of the F-cars, especially a Volare Sport Wagon, but the reliability (or lack thereof) would keep me away from the 76s and 77s.
If I had a drivers license in 1977, Id probably be at the Oldsmobile or Pontiac store looking at a Cutlasses and Grand Prixes.
The only Mopar’s from 1977 that I’ve liked was the Chrysler Newport/New Yorker, preferably with a 440ci V8, the others I could either take it or leave it, I’ve never liked the B body cars with the stacked headlights at all.
Wagons made up a large portion of the above Volare/Aspen numbers.
There were no comparable wagons in this class since Falcon, Nova, and Valiant dropped their wagons in the mid 60’s . Any wagons in this size class were now foreign brands (except the AMC Sportabout).
I remember so many Volare/Aspen wagons on the interstate. Eventually, folks moved to the Diplomat/Lebaron wagons as time went along.
One of the few bright spots for Mopar during this time frame.
Good point – and ties in with numbers softening in ’78 – not only was the bad rep catching up, but the Fairmont/Zephyr were new and had wagons in the lineup.
My friend’s dad bought his wife a brand new Dodge Aspen. Within 6 months, there was a nice rust streak straight down both front fenders from the top to the bottom just in front of the door edge!
While they did have it fixed, I don’t recall if they kept the car that long, for I got married about a year later and moved.
Later, another friend had a later model Volare wagon, and they really drove that car into the ground, as by then the majority of the bugs must have been worked out because they kept it for many years.
Years later in 1983, when Wifey went back to work after our kids were born, I needed a second car, so while she drove our 1981 Reliant, I found a very nice 1976 Dart Lite. 225, 4 speed w/4th overdrive. Hurst shifter. Dark reddish-brown, white interior w/black dash and accents and A/C. The photo shows rust at the corner of the rear fender, but I had both sides fixed.
That car was as solid as a Sherman tank. The car was slower than a snail, but it sure was a looker and really was fun to drive. Our kids referred to it as “the race car”! Our son really liked flipping open the back windows, too – even in winter. A real chip off the old block, I’d say.
What a difference one model year can make!
At least the “brand engineering” of the Fury/Monaco since 1975 didn’t cost much. Almost everything involved was cheap, and made of plastic. The tail lights differed. Plastic. The nameplates differed. Plastic. The grills…plastic. The grill/headlight surround…plastic.
Enjoying the trip down memory lane GN thanks again for posting. Most of these Chryslers along with the ’77 Fords were a real mess. I remember thinking oh well at least the worst is over — it’s been five long years of this stuff and clearly many models are at the end of their life. Imagine my surprise when this popped up mid-year. It wasn’t even out when the ’77 intro articles were written.
I would have gotten a Cordoba with the 400 4V. And the soft, Corinthian leather.
I have a certain admiration for the big Dodge and Plymouth cars even though I can’t see picking them over any other big car. I think the opera windows at least looked better than the T-Bird’s.
Of course, I would want the New Yorker Brougham. I, in fact, DO want a New Yorker Brougham. But I am afraid to get one because of the likely parts and lean burn issues. GM’s mediocre job on its mediocre design–with heavy parts support–will have to do for now.
Dodge seemed to realize the error of their ways with the Cordoba Chargers and made a half assed attempt to make them seem sportier in 1977, more aggressive taillights, slightly sportier opera window treatment(if there is such a thing) optional Rallye wheels and white lettered Goodyear Eagle GTs, sportier graphic scheme for the Daytona, and the Midnight Special with a handsome Cord like grille and tunneled rear window roof cap. They even ran some hokey commercials how the Charger belongs to the night to seem cool.
I think I know the reasons but it’s a shame they capped the 75 + B bodies with the 400 engines, the Daytona graphics package was so obscure anyway they may as well have thrown in the A38 440 in it to boost the image of the tarnished Charger a little.
The only genuine sales bright spot for Chrysler, were the still hot-selling Volare/Aspen station wagons. Before the Diplomat/LeBaron arrived mid-year. Of course, no F-Body wagons shown here by Motor Trend. But they do show the same Aspen Custom sedan twice. And the slower-selling coupe three times. As Daniel Stern might say, ‘Garff!’. Chrysler’s PR Dept. must have been doing a slow burn.
It was a few years yet, before all the magazines got their domestic industry sales tool acts together. Especially, for the Fall product launches. And better promoted the domestic cars, like a proper sales brochure should!
These ’77 MT domestic new car sections, presented and read, like they belong in Consumer Guide. Or a weekend supplement in a small city daily newspaper.
Nothing new about it, but that New Yorker Brougham is still a singularly beautiful car. A nice update of the ’65-66 styling; it’s as though the fuselages never happened.
I forgot about the weird vinyl door tops the early LeBarons had. The only other American car that comes to mind with that feature is the 1958 Packard Hawk; I’m thinking this first appeared on some imported sports car from long before my time but can’t recall which one. Anyway, I like this car’s original appearance better than the facelifted 1980 version that became the Fifth Avenue; the front clip in particular is cleaner.
Speaking of forgetting, the full-size Voyager van! These never seemed anywhere near as common as the Dodge version, even if you exclude the Dodge-only cargo and conversion vans.
Did the Volare Road Runner’s horn still make the “beep-beep” sound?
The “Chrysler ’77” headline in that flowery font is the most ’70s thing here…
Did the Volare Road Runner’s horn still make the “beep-beep” sound?
This was the sensational 1970s. Of course, the Road Runner’s horn still made the “beep-beep” sound.
There was a 10 (11?) year contract for the horn ‘beep’ and the WB cartoon image. Expired in 1978, so the ’79-’80 models had no bird decals.
We’ve seen dozens of 1977 domestic cars during these MT reviews and it was obvious then, and now that US auto manufacturers weren’t building cars to match the needs of US drivers. The new cars were the efficiently designed GM full size cars and the small Omni Horizon. Everything else was still harping on long hoods, vinyl roofs, bloated dinosaurs cars that marketing renamed and manufacturers prayed would keep selling. The personal luxury car market was over saturated. You could get anything with brougham features. Just how many of these two door 2+2 disco machines would find homes? Muscle cars were just painted stripes and cartoon character hoods. Everything seemed to be a decade-old obsolete design with either faux luxury or faux sport pasted onto them. Malaise indeed!
Anyone with eyes could see that a Mitsubishi, a VW, or a Honda was a better auto design back then. Why would anyone want a silly looking Chevette when you can get a Honda Civic? Why would anyone want a Pinto? In 1977, it was obvious that US cars were a generation behind wearing a faux fur purple pimp suit.
GM’s full size cars, Chrysler’s FWD Omni/Horizon and 1978’s Fox Fords were the first glimmer of modern auto manufacturing in a generation.
The Fairmont/Zephyr topping the Ford Mustang record, for first year sales, says it all. The public craved modern domestic cars, that were finally competitive. Why GM blew it so badly, with the X-Cars, during this crucial transitional period.
Toyota still had RWD Corollas this time, btw.
Mitsubishi made Chrysler products didn’t last too long, either, I know from experience.
Interesting the full size van had a 4 speed manual transmission option. I would have liked that. I had a rare 1980 Ford Club Wagon with the 300 cid 6 and 4 speed manual on the floor.
I did have the 225 cid 6 and 4 speed manual in a 1980 Dodge D150 (or D100) pickup, a nice drivetrain and adequate for the truck.
One thing about the 1977 Colt lineup is that it was two different cars – the “regular” Colt as offered previously (Mitsubishi Galant) was pared down to a hardtop coupe and station wagon (5-door), while the new Colt Mileage Maker (Mitsubishi Galant) took over the 2- and 4-door sedan roles.
The following year it’d explode further, with the new Galant Sigma (as it was in Japan) coming to America only as a wagon, the Galant Eterna coupe getting its’ own identity at home and becoming Dodge Challenger/Plymouth Sapporo, and the Colt Hatchback/Plymouth Champ (Mitsubishi Mirage, their first FWD car) joining the line.
By 1981 all Colts would be Mirages.
Loved those Colts and Arrow’s!! Had forgotten about those “2 door” Gran Fury’s. They were few in # that I can recall.
My sisters , in-laws got one of those “ballyhooed, small Fury’s. Was “goldish yellow” color.
Our 73 Fury was butter yellow.
The Dart’s were a green Swinger and a dark green Sport.
H’mm.My aunt’s Swinger was about the same color green as ours.
We rather od’d on mopars on the 1970’s.lol