Today’s neo-Aspen CC give me an excuse to dust off these old Aspen pictures I shot a couple of years ago. That is, if I could dust them off, as that blurry splotch was dust stuck in the lens of my camera, a problem I no longer have by using an iPhone. Of course, that means no more zooms, but after going through four zoom cameras with that same problem, I’m over it.
Anyway, this 1980 Aspen is a bit unusual, as it has a substantially revised grille from the previous Aspens, despite this being the final year for it. It’s about as bland a grille as any car ever wore, something that might have been done for an ad requiring a non-brand generic car. Which the Aspen pulls off just about perfectly; an unmemorable farewell.
We’ve covered the Aspen and Volare here a few times, starting with their…bad start, which earned them a rare Chrysler Deadly Sin status. Admittedly, I have not made as a concerted effort to document Chrysler’s demise, as there were so many near-deaths and resurrections.
These twins soon worked out their birthing kinks, and Jason Shafer documented a very reliable 1978 Aspen here. These were fundamentally quite simple and sound cars; they just arrived with some key flaws that cost Chrysler a ton of money on recalls and improvements, including replacing the front fenders of any 1976 and 1977 Aspen and Volare that needed it due to very premature rusting. No wonder they were eager to ditch the name.
In 1981 the all-new FWD K-Car Reliant replaced the Aspen, and if I remember correctly, its key interior dimensions were quite similar, thanks to the magic of FWD and careful attention to its design (not styling). The F-body never struck me as a particularly space efficient design, but it went on to have a long life as the Dodge Diplomat and the nigh-near immortal Chrysler Fifth Avenue. In a fit of sudden-onset Broughamitis, I gave that latter car a Deadly Sin back at the other site. I caught quite a bit of flack for that; dare I run it here again?
Out damn spot! 1980 was of course the year Chrysler got its first bailout, in the form of $1.5 billion in loan guarantees; peanuts, compared to the second time around. Why did it need it? Well, only some 85 k Aspens were sold in 1980; of course dealers were still trying to get rid of 1979 Aspens; some would sit on lots for several years.
Chrysler had grossly overproduced in 1979 despite the second energy crisis setting in, and didn’t know where to store them anymore. I remember reading in auto motor und sport about Chrysler sending boatloads of 1979 Diplomats and such to Switzerland, in hopes of dumping there. I presume they eventually found buyers. Chrysler was desperate. And in 1980, they had no choice to screw back production drastically, which is why these 1980 Aspens are rare ducks.
Looks a lot like the regular car reviews Aspen, http://m.youtube.com/watch?v=wGnMVijx5GE
Wow, that review was so idiotic I couldn’t finish it.
I owned the Car Featured in the regular Car review video for a few years before I found a Nicer all original 1978 Aspen “survivor” to replace it. The New Owner was gong to Swap a 3G hemi into but I believe he sold it before he ever got those plans finished. It was a boring, solid Car that started and ran fine every day for me. I had no permanent indoor storage at the time, so I sold it along rather than having it sit and rust out in the PA winters. I put a power brake booster, carburetor, and an air pump on it before I sold it. It was the 3rd of my eventual 4 total MoPar F bodies that I owned at one time that were in the light cashmere color.
Was the square-headlamp look 1980 only, or did ’79 have that too? If 1980 only that’s kind of a major change for a single year.
Diplomats to Switzerland…hmm. I wonder how those sold.
I have heard that due to the little if any taxes paid by the Swiss, American cars have historically been more popular over there than in most other parts of Europe.
If they were lucky, they got turned into one of these.
1980 was the only year with the square headlights.
It seems that Chrysler took a page from GM regarding refreshing the front end of a car in its last year of production.
Chevy revised the front end of the 1979 Nova and gave it square headlights. This was the Nova’s last year and it was a short year in that. The Nova was dropped for the Citation.
I owned a 79 Volare Wagon in this color I bought new and kept for 8 yrs. By 79 it was well sorted out. Slant six and torqueflite. Some minor problems but nothing major. When I sold it it had cold air and ran good. Not the best car I ever owned but didn’t deserve the rep they had. At least not in 79.
It is rather impressive when you think of how this car was transformed into the luxurious and larger-looking Fifth Avenue. Now that was the Full Iacocca treatment at is finest.
Also, I frequently drive past a house near me that has a while Volare sedan in the driveway. Oddly enough it appears rust-free!
I remember this generation Aspen/Volare cars. I remember they were much despised (deserved or not) for poor quality control, poor reliability, and poor performance. I don’t believe it was deserved. My aunt had a 1977 Aspen Special Edition two door coupe. Although I was too young to drive the car, but I was old enough to remember the car. It was a reliable car for her and my uncle. It got her to and from Bellevue College, here in Bellevue, Washington. I would’ve bought the car for myself, had she not sold it. I loved it!
If there was/is ever a “Bipolar” quality control company, it IS Chrysler.
Either you got a very good one …. or a very bad one.
My ’77 Volare Road Runner was not so good, initially. The coil was leaking oil, making the engine idle rough. One of the control cables on the driver’s door remote control mirror broke, limiting adjustment. One of the locating wires inside the driver’s bucket seat came loose, poking a hole thru the seat cushion. All repaired in the first year, under warranty, by the local Plymouth dealer. After that, the car was perfectly reliable for me for 4 years, then 3 years when sold to my Father, then for 2 more years when Dad sold it to the kid across the street.
Upon my recommendation, my girlfriend’s Mother bought a ’78 Aspen station wagon. NOTHING went wrong or broke on it during the 7 years and 160 miles she owned it!!
A co-worker purchased a new ’77 Volare 4 door, again upon my recommendation, still cusses it out (and prolly me behind my back) many years later.
The fender rust issue was not a problem here in New Orleans, unlike the snow belt.
Of course, Ford and GM had THEIR issues during this time period also! The “Big Three” were far from where they are today on quality control.
The ’80 Dodge Aspen in our company car pool feel deeply into the “One of The Bad Ones”.
The engine would over heat with or without the A/C on. We would cruise up the Huey P Long Bridge (153 feet above the Mississippi River) as the temperature gauge would race to “H” and coast down the other side with the 3 speed manual transmission in neutral to bring down the temperature.
God forbid if there was traffic at the base of the bridge. We would “pump the brakes” just to buy time for the traffic light to turn green. Fortunately, the office would only a few blocks away so we could park the beast.
My family’s only new car as I was growing up was a first year Aspen. I loved the car, the look, and the name (maybe not the car though, as it was Rust Brown with a Cream Vinyl top) … also in Bellevue!
When these cars hit the market they were to Darts and Valiants what the Granada was to the Maverick and Comet….the same basic mechanicals but with “upscale” styling. But by the end of their run they had devolved to anonymous, boxy, almost generic sedans.
I like these cars the same way you like a big old dog….it’s familiar, trustworthy, and almost cuddly. But if I ever got serious about one it would have to be a wagon, and probably with a V8.
You can totally zoom on an iPhone camera. Use the reverse-pinch gesture.
I know; but that’s purely electronic, meaning the more you zoom in, the less ultimate resolution. I just crop the picture after the fact, which amounts to the exact same thing.
I just have to get used to not worrying about framing my shots, and fixing them after the fact. I used to shoot from across the street; now I stand in the middle of the street, which is a bit less ideal, at times. Ooops; sorry for holding up traffic…
The best zoom is your feet.
I’m alright with the ’80 grille. I always thought the original 1976 -’77 Aspen grille looked odd with that metal crest on top, like a smile with too-big gums.
The revised front clip can protect the grill from slammed by hood all the time and it can hold up better than before. Another thing is less frequency of vinyl roof, and slightly modified gauges. Looks like the bumpers were changed on both end and probably it appeared too Diplomat like.
Styling wise, the profile of F-Body looks so much better than K-cars. Usually efficiency just doesn’t work well with styling ( Avalon never looks right throughout its run, it always has a bulge somewhere ) and with a little bit more inefficiency added on M-Body Fifth Avenue over F-Body, it looks quite more upscale.
The bumpers on the 1980 Aspen/Volare’ were the same ones used on the 1980-up M-bodies(minus the rub strips). The front fenders of the 1980’s were also from the M-bodies also.
The memories this brings back. My grandmother had a green ’80 Aspen sedan with a green vinyl interior. That car was as tough as a reinforced concrete encapsulated anvil – wrapped in bubble wrap.
I drove that car a few times, especially before she got rid of it in 1990 when I was 17. For a slant six, it had a surprising amount of pop. It’s the car she let me drive by myself when I was about ten or eleven. Simpler times then.
“Alas, poor Aspen. I knew him well…”
(c:
Indeed, the Aspen/Volare story is one of the sadder parts of pre-Iacocca Chrysler history. From the onset, the A-body Valiant was one of the few shining stars at Chrysler. The profits weren’t as great as on larger cars, but they were one of the few Chrysler cars that could always be depended upon to sell, reaching a zenith with the hot 1970 Plymouth Duster. Some would say, ‘too’ hot as Duster sales cannibalized sales from the much more profitable B-body intermediates and brand-new E-body ponycars, dooming the latter to a meager (and costly) five-year run, which almost certainly didn’t cover even the massive R&D costs to get them to market.
Then Lynn Townsend pissed it all away with the half-baked introduction of the Aspen/Volare replacements. Chrysler would eventually get them right but, like the Corvair (another initially maligned car which GM would also eventually get right), the damage had been done, and new Aspens and Volares sat on the car lots for ages, just like the rest of Chrysler’s cars. The many long-lived Dodge Diplomats, Chrysler Fifth Avenues, and Plymouth Gran Furys (which were all based on the Aspen/Volare unperpinnings) attest to the fact that they were eventually straightened out.
Yes, and it makes F-Body one of the few distinctive ’70s cars capable of running as cheap as late ’80s cars ( GM B-Body, Ford panther or so ) with good MPG on six, because everything mechanical even rubber vent on the firewall is the same. ( on the other hand, it’s roomier than Fairmont slightly )
When I was younger I used to think the Volare/Aspen was dropped after the 1979 model year and the K cars were introduced in 1980, I rarely have seen the 1980 Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare’s and I always thought the squared headlights looked out of place on these cars.
Aesop time: What manufacturers often forget that as with people, reputation is easy to lose & harder to gain back. Thus the Vega & F-bodies, while ending up relatively well at the end, began poorly, and that’s how they tend to be remembered by the public (both then & now); few noticed or cared about their “redemption” in product maturity.
I was driving back from Bloomington yesterday when an old man stopped at a cross-road, waiting to pull out onto Highway 37. It was a white 1980 Aspen sedan. I thought about stopping and tailing him and trying to buy the car. I have always wanted a 1980 F body sedan or wagon. Somehow I doubt that Mrs. JPC would be amused.
These things were languishing on dealer lots when my mother was shopping for a Horizon/Omni that year. I still remember the silver-blue strippo sedan with the 4 speed on the floor (4th was an OD gear) sitting in the showroom of Tomkinson Chry-Ply in Fort Wayne – for some reason I still can’t quite understand, I really wanted that car. Who knows, Chrysler would have probably granted credit to a college kid with no job if it had moved a unit out of inventory. There was something extra clean about the styling on the 1980-only versions that really appealed to me. Still does.
But wow, did I ever hate the yellowish-tan on this one.
Some years ago I came across a 1980 new-car price guide (Edmunds, I think). It listed the Omni/Horizon base MSRP at a couple hundred dollars more than the Aspen/Volare. Again, base MSRP not “typical market pricing”.
Even the 1976 Aspen/Volaré could prove reliable and long-lived if one sorted out the bugs. Maybe mine was later in production when some of them got sorted at the factory, not beta-tested by the owner. In any case, it served me well until I took it to a car show in 1998 and was offered some really silly money for it. By then the 318 V8 was still strong but was leaking oil from the rear main seal, but what was important to the buyer: it was a California car all its life and rust-free; and it had been garaged the whole time, preserving the white paint and vinyl roof so that he didn’t have to do anything to the exterior.
I don’t know if he removed the police-package rear sway bar, which transformed its handling completely. I’d like to see it at a car show, someday.
The car I drove when I first got my license was my older brothers’s 76 Volare. it had been my grandfather’s. Other than the well know ballast resistor problem, it ran flawlessly and its 318 made that car move. And with a pair of Sears Best Roadhandler radials up front it handled great too. I loved that car. if they made them new with ABS and air bags I would but one.
There is no way to add ABS for such a mechanical car, but if you are looking for one with air bag, your wish is granted in late ’88 and all ’89 Chrysler M-Body.
It wasn’t just Switzerland. One of my neighbors ran J&L Steel, a big Chrysler supplier. He told me how he got a call from Chrysler’s purchasing chief in early 1980 who told him “We can’t pay you in cash this month. So we’re going to pay you in Chryslers.” A Volare was worth so much, a Gran Fury a bit more, and so on. They didn’t care what J&L did with the cars – give them out as company cars, re-sell them, or scrap them.” To add insult to injury, he’d just replaced his quite fine ’77 Park Avenue with an ’80 Fifth Avenue that was way more than two blocks away in the quality department.
And man, that Aspen just screams plain. A GSA sedan for private consumption.
Only the names Volare and Aspen were laid to rest, but not the car itself. As has been stated, the LeBaron, Diplomat and Plymouth Caravelle (in Canada only) were essentially the same car with upgraded trim. In 1981, a lesser trimmed Diplomat and Caravelle was made available to take the place of the departed Aspen/Volare, a good portion of which became the darling of law enforcement agencies everywhere.
Paul, I read your Fifth Avenue Deadly Sin from the “other” site back in the day… I disagreed with it then, and I would disagree with it again, if you ran it here… I have an ’84 Fifth Avenue which is a really good car that gave the people what they wanted at the time…nothing wrong with that!
I don’t think that’s the point of the “Deadly Sin” series…
It may have been a sin to some to make a car like that into the late 80s but I don’t consider it deadly at all. It didn’t undue any of the good the K cars and Minivans did for Chrysler and in the end that’s all that really matters. It had a long life, made the corporation some money in it’s good years, filled a hole that would have otherwise been empty for Chrysler in that market segment and proved to be quite reliable. Quite frankly now a days the American take on European design K-car is the punchline of far more jokes than the M body, not to mention the minivan which turned out to be pretty much a fad that nearly everyone who owned or grew up with one wants about as much to do with as syphilis.
Also everything nearly every fault of the Fifth Avenue stated in the TTAC column with the exception of the use of the lean burn carb and the smaller interior size could be said about the box Crown Victoria and Grand Marquis. The full size lineup was retrograde Brougham era hangers on across the board back then. Quite frankly, if we’re going to brand a car a D/S just for being a below average pile, regardless of it’s sales success and general reliability, then the Toyota Corolla of the last decade or so should be christened a deadly sin too.
According to Allpar fan site, there were quite a few revisions for 1980 A/V twins, not just the headlights.
“The 1980 model has a much different wiring harness, a revised air conditioner, a relocated jack and spare, and a handling package including a rear sway bar and springs like the later M body. … have ETR radios for the first time.”
They were probably planned to stay longer than 1980, but Lido pulled the plug to show he was ‘serious’, and to promote the K cars.
But, the F body tooling was paid off, once it was renamed M, and lasted another decade.
Chrysler quality control was spotty back then to say the least. My parents quickly decided against a new ’79 Cordoba for that very reason. We were looking at a beautiful brown one with tan “Corinthian” leather in the showroom. The salesman came over, and when he shut the door, the driver’s side window fell down and smashed into the door. My parent’s walked away and never looked back.
Another great Chrysler story – I had a great Uncle that special ordered an Aspen Coupe in 1978. Supposedly, the Chrysler autoworkers didn’t like the special ordered cars because it slowed down and messed up the assembly line. Well, in this case, someone was really pissed off the day his car was built. His car developed the most disgusting odor as time went on. The dealership thought a rat or mouse had crawled up under the dash and died. The smell eventually got so bad he left the car at the dealership and told them to find whatever is causing it or he would not be picking the car back up until they did. They somehow narrowed down that the smell was coming from the driver’s side door, so imagine their surprise when they removed the driver’s side door panel and lo and behold, someone had put a sandwich inside the door and left it there. The rotting food was the culprit! He vowed to never purchase another Chrysler product again. Ironically, that car proved to be a very reliable auto and he kept it for a few more years until trading it for a mid 80’s Cutlass Supreme.
It most likely came from Dodge Main in Hamtramck.
It is good how people could just special order a reasonable-priced car back then.
These were used as fleet vehicles for the gov’t department I worked for at the time. I picked up a brand new one in the spring of 1980. It came standard with an am/fm radio, which was the height of luxury for us field workers at the time. That’s left a soft spot in my heart for these cars. As far as I can recall, they stood up to our abuse pretty well, too.
My buddy had a 1979 Super six Volare’ that he got free from his mother in law with 80K miles. It never ran right from day one. It was so slow off the line that a bicyclist could easily beat him up to 20 MPH. The carburetor was rebuilt, replaced to no avail. We did both an engine leak down test and compression test which checked out good. We changed the torque converter. It still strolled to 60 in about 16 seconds and was horrifically slow off the line. Using the A/C made it even worse. he brought it to several veteran Chrysler mechanics who adjusted and re-adjusted the solid lifter and went through the drive train with a fine tooth comb. Nothing made any difference. The brakes and e-brake were replaced. No difference. Nothing was holding the car back yet it still could never get out of it’s own way.
The funny thing is that his 1974 Scamp with a lower HP 1BBL Slant six would run circles around the Volare’ and felt like a V8 in comparison. That car remains a mystery to this day and he still brings it up on occasion.
In the photo of the Reliant: On the white & blue house background
right – WHAT the HEY is that hanging in front of partially blocking that
window?!
Sheesh.. Couldn’t miss it if I tried, lmao!
I drove an 80 volare. Super 6 as a cab. It had the leanburn removed and was extremely reliable and held up to constant abuse and work. It was not miss idea of a perfect car but it was reliable. It was not fast but not slow. It was not little but not big. It was plain. So much so that I used to imagine what went on in the designers mind. You imagine Harley. EEarl or Virgil exner or gene BodinAnt designing cars and then theres this and whoever redesigned the Valiant and got a car that looked kinda the same but more boring. Like they went out of the way to make it plain. So much so that it looks like they worked at it. What color well we have yellowish tan or dirty white or a strange green. plaid upholstery was common. It was like they took a normal car and put the same amount of effort making it plain as a 59 Cadillac or a mark v got making it fancy. But still the amazing durability and ease of infrequent repairs made it a great cab or car for people who like plain utilitarian cars to go from point a to b.
I would enjoy a fifth ave version.
I still think this is a great car. Had the new dart had the reliability and ease of repairs of this car it would be number 1,