Debuting for 1960 as a full-size model, the Dodge Dart was subsequently downsized to a midsize model in 1962, and then again in 1963 to a compact model, where it would find its greatest success. Sold as a compact from the 1963 through the 1976 model years over two generations, the Dodge Dart built a solid reputation and legacy as an honest-to-goodness affordable and reliable workhorse. While it did offer buyers specialty models over the years like the performance-oriented Demon and the luxury-oriented Special Edition, the Dart was by and large sold as a humble, no frills vehicle… a car of few words.
Although rarely the case for me when it comes to any given car, words are in fact what I find myself struggling to conjure when it comes to discussing this particular Dodge Dart. For starters, it is a 1976, the “classic” Dart’s final year of sales that saw it overlap with its much-touted Aspen successor. It’s a base model 4-door sedan and it’s green… I believe Deep Sherwood Metallic, if we’re being official.
While it’s hard to decipher exactly what options and packages it has from the 1976 Dart brochure, it does feature optional cloth-and-vinyl upholstery. Although simulated woodgrain trim adorns the gauge cluster and steering wheel, it does not extend entirely across the dashboard nor on the door panels, meaning this Dart lacks the available Interior Decor Group.
It likely does include the Easy Order Package, among whose features included a 3-speed TorqueFlite automatic transmission, power steering, deluxe steering wheel, AM radio, cigarette lighter, bumper guards, deluxe wheel covers, and full-vinyl roof. Beyond that, this Dart might have a few more extra-cost options, but overall it’s relatively basic, as were most production Darts.
It’s also worth noting that by 1976, the Dart and its Plymouth Valiant were quite elderly, receiving their last complete redesigns back in 1967. Yet consistent and meaningful updates and upgrades through the years kept them just fresh enough, as it’s worth noting the duo were achieving combined sales of over 700,000 units as late as 1974. While far from special or exciting, the Dart and Valiant’s tried-and-true mechanics and proven reliability made for a venerable force that helped keep Chrysler’s reputation afloat as much as their sales helped keep paying its bills, for the automaker’s fortunes became more dire with each new year of the 1970s.
Now as for these updates, the Dart’s last significant refresh came in 1972, though for its second-to-final model year of 1975, it received one final minor update, bringing further refinement and enhancements to Dodge’s faithful steed. Alas, what more can I really say?
I took these pictures way back in 2013, when I was but a lonely, lost, and uncertain business school student trying to find my place in the world and working part-time as a check-out clerk at a grocery store. Although I have tried to write-up this car numerous times, I’ve always strayed, making little progress. They’ve just sat in my photo library, always there but rarely crossing my mind. Well, therein lies the point I think I’ve been struggling to find these past six years… the Dodge Dart was a part of many people’s lives, always there but rarely crossing his or her minds. It was in fact my own mother’s first car, one she shared with her siblings, and it is a car owned by many similarly-aged people I’ve talked to over the years, often being their first car too.
Just like my photos of it, the Dodge Dart truly was a car that was simply there with many people through the years, rarely crossing their mind as anything beyond basic transportation. Without boring you all of the details of my life, when I think about all that’s happened in my own life these past six years, where I was then and where I am now, it’s nothing short of astonishing. Through it all, these photos I took of this 1976 Dodge Dart have always been just a few clicks and swipes away from me in my phone.
Photographed in Hanson, Massachusetts – September 2013
Note: a rerun of an older post.
Related Reading
This Looks like a 1975 model to me – I could be wrong, but here’s how I remember it…
’76’s have a few last year updates from my experiences with the cars.
– New antenna mounting base and a 1-year-only passenger side fender for 1976 – allows for the F-body Antenna base to be used.
-’76s have amber parking lights – while ’75s had the clear parking light lenses.
-Lastly, the ’76s have a racheting foot pedal for the parking brake mechanism, whereas ’75s have the hand brake similar to the 1963-1974 A body cars.
Thanks for sharing!
This is accurate. This appears to be a 75 Dart based on the clear turn signal lenses (76s had orange turn signal lenses in the front). But the steering wheel definitely looks like a 76 wheel. The 75 steering wheel was a 3 spoke wheel. So who knows – the grille got damaged and was replaced with a 75 grille? The way to know is whether it has the step on parking brake or the hand pull style parking brake.
I rather like the 74-76 Dart styling, front and rear, having owned one of these myself.
I like the 67-69 styling, and the 73-76 styling, but the 70-72 grille being so narrow somehow doesn’t do it for me.
Someone mentioned the lack of a center panel between the tail lights – that’s because this is a base model Dart and not a mid-range Dart Custom.
It could be interesting to wonder what if Chrysler keeped the A-body a bit longer in company of the F-body? Just like Ford did with the Maverick when the Granada was introduced. Ford had kept the Maverick for the 1975, 1976, 1977 model years.
Imagine what if Chrysler gived one more update to the 1976 Dart with squared headlights like its Argentinian A-body relative Coronado/GTX/Polara?
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/cc-cohort/cohort-pick-of-the-day-dodge-coronado-the-a-body-lived-on-until-1981-in-argentina/
When the Volare and Aspen were introduced alongside the Valiant and Dart for the 1976 model year, there was a lot of speculation that Chrysler would emulate Ford and sell the Valiant/Dart as entry-level compacts and the Volare/Aspen as more luxurious compacts, like Ford did with their entry-level compact Maverick/Comet and luxury compact Granada/Monarch.
Instead, after the Valiant/Dart was discontinued for the 1977 model year, the Volare/Aspen was reshuffled to the entry-level compact position and the new Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge Diplomat were initially offered as more luxurious compacts.
Following GM’s downsizing their mid-sized cars to compact car lengths for the 1978 model year, Chrysler began to market the LeBaron and Diplomat as mid-sized cars. Later they would market a Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue based on the LeBaron, the Dodge Diplomat, and a Plymouth Gran Fury (based on the New Yorker Fifth Avenue and Diplomat) as full-sized cars.
My father bought a new Dart in 1972 – the refresh you mention was actually for the 1971 model year. Ours had a 318 V-8 and torque-flight automatic. I remember that the salesman offered Dad a bigger car – a Coronet, I think – for the same price but Dad was worried about gas prices like everyone else.
Actually it was 1970. 1967 – 69 are similar. 1970-72 are similar on the outside, though in 72 Darts got n interior refresh, getting the Valiant’s instrument cluster and dash. There was a 73-76 refresh in terms of new front end styling, along with upgrades to the brakes (disk brakes became much more common starting in 73).
“It’s also worth noting that by 1976, the Dart and its Plymouth Valiant were quite elderly, receiving their last complete redesigns back in 1967. Yet consistent and meaningful updates and upgrades through the years kept them just fresh enough, as it’s worth noting the duo were achieving combined sales of over 700,000 units as late as 1974.”
This got me thinking about the “updates” on the last years of the Dart.
Maybe ‘some’ folks might disagree, but I feel like “Cosmetically speaking”, after about 67-69, the Dart just got progressively worse and worse looking as the years went on. 70-72 weren’t “Bad”, but still worse than previous. Then, the 73’s Front ends were MUCH worse looking than 70-72) they weren’t the worst, but still, previous were better looking. Once the taillights moved out of the bumper up into higher location, I wasn’t a fan. I’d still take one, but given a choice, I’d take any previous year.
I certainly don’t disagree. I’d only say the ideal Dart would be the 67-69 rear end mated to the 70-72 front end would have made it a cohesively attractive car that was never quite ever there. By 73-74 they were clearly given up upon, recycling the old 67 fenders to accommodate the big bumpers and restyling the 70s sloped tail end(which I never loved) with this genuinely dreadful looking adaptation moving the taillights above the bumper like Ford did for the 74-76 Torinos.
The bones of the design weren’t bad but every single update was for the worse by the last of the line in 1976. These made the otherwise horrific Aspens that replaced them look like supermodels by comparison.
We had a 68 model rental when living in LA, so I ‘m with you on that.
Was rather a fine car by European standards…
It looks strange to have no Dodge or Dart badging on the rear (crash repair?) but it still has that dealer badge!
Had a 74 Dart back in 82 as our second car. Great car but I had to sell it. Won a brand new Datsun 280 ZX Turbo off of a $5 raffle ticket. Needed $ to pay the sales tax before I could pick it up.
Had a black 69 dart gt convertible, a sky blue 71 valiant sedan and a white/black vinyl top 72 Plymouth scamp hardtop.. All slants. All very used except for the scamp, was an 11 year old with 12k miles.. The gt was purchased in the junkyard for $100 and after adjusting the noisy lifters I drove it for 5 years.. The valiant was one I just had to buy.. All great cars, too bad they aren’t using a twin turbo slant in the new chargers.. My trusty Dart
When new I really didn’t like the lines of these later Darts but now I think they’ve aged rather well .
A body Mo-Pars live on, decades after their builders forgot about them, truly a hit right out of the ballpark, especially the earlier GT’s .
-Nate
It’s odd that in 1967, Chrysler gave these cars such an unusual redesign. While the competition was making cars with fastbacks and Coke-bottle rear fenders, Chrysler chose a box similar to the look their other models were dropping. These cars looked more similar to the 1965 Chrysler full size cars than the fuselage look for 1969. Then the Dart/Valiant kept that dated look until it reemerged during the 1970s formal personal luxury cars era.
Ford’s new formal Mark III in 1969 launch the PLC era with the formal 3 box design until the Taurus in 1985. So the Dart/Valiant fell back into fashion. Instead of losing sales, they kept on selling hundreds of thousands.
Not really, the Chevy II/Nova in 67 was still in its boxy Falcon imitating state prior to its sleeker Camaro based 68 restyle and Ford’s Falcon was redesigned into its dumpy stumpy Fairlane sedan form for 1967, so the Dart wasn’t that out of step in the 60s. I’d actually argue eschewing the fuselage look did them more favors than not, as it was hardly a successful styling language. When the Duster/Demon(dart sport)s came out their one foot firmly in 1967 probably made the designs more endearing than if they had been blank slate redesigns in the full on fuselage form.
By the mid 70s the styling was certainly aging but it had more redeeming qualities than the domestic competition where it came into its own. This 75 or 76 is bland as they come and I’d never want a Dart in this configuration but it’s honest, and funny enough seamlessly bridges the gap to honest practical boxy domestic sedans of the late 70s/early 80s like the Ford Fairmont
I have had similar thoughts, in Australia we got the fuselage Valiant that, Charger aside, was not a success, while the end of the 70s brought back the very square lined XD Falcons that sold very well, but Chrysler had no chance by then anyway, it was in a no win situation here.
One can’t reminisce about this car without thinking of Tom Magliozzi and his ’63 Dart!
Since I don’t know who he is, I can. A lady who attended our church had “65/6ish”, dark blue. She was still driving it in the late “70’s”.
Likely a “6”, really have no idea though.
Both my grandmothers had Darts. 4 between them. Dad’s mom had a ’65 GT which I inherited when she bought a green ’73. Mom’s mom had a ’63 then bought a ’69 Monaco which she traded in for a ’74 Dart. 318’s in all but the ’65 which had the 273 predecessor. These were California cars and ran great except the ’74 had the common run rich when cold problem seemingly a thing for Chrysler engines then.
Miss Car Talk and Tom. Listened for so many years.
My uncle, an English professor, had a very similar Dart from I think 74 but his was a more sober maroon with a black top and interior. It was adequate, and it is indicative of the times and the quality of circa 1980 Mopar that he replaced it with a Subaru around 1980. Darts seemed to resonate with academics, a family friend who taught history had a Dart Swinger for most of the 70s.I liked the circa 1968 two door sedans that looked like giant Ford Cortinas.
To some extent the comparatively high sales of the Dart and Valiant in the early ’70s can be explained by Chrysler’s not having subcompact models to directly compete with the Pinto and Vega. Chrysler’s subcompact captive imports never really caught on with American buyers. The Plymouth Cricket (Hillman Avenger) was failure, while the Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi Galant) was a modest success. Buyers looking for entry-level transportation were likely to cross-shop the Pinto and Vega with the Valiant Duster and Dodge Demon/Dart Sport.
My dad’s last new car was a ’75 Dart Custom. With 2 kids in college, it’s what he could afford. He made a big deal of the Joe Garagiola “buy a car, get a check!” rebate ($500). It served him and my mom well for 8 years.
My dad was a mechanic at a Chrysler dealership in the 70’s, and I remember going to look at some of the greatest muscle cars EVER! Hemi ‘Cuda’s, Superbirds, Demon 340’s, GTX’s, you name it! As a typical teenager, I dreamed of owning my own.someday. My first car I got to drive was my mom’s ’72 Dart with a 318 (definitely not a muscle car!), but I soon earned enough money to buy a ’73 Roadrunner with a 400 (a little more muscle!). I have an ’04 Ram 1500 Hemi Quad-cab now that I absolutely love. My dad once named every car he had ever owned, and all 37 of them were Chrysler products, except for a ’37 Ford that he was given! He was a diehard MOPAR fan!