It didn’t take long for Plymouth’s Duster to catch on, and this group of photos from Zumwalt Chrysler-Plymouth in Santa Rosa, California, makes that awfully clear. Although they’re not precisely dated, the photos appear to have been taken in mid-1970, just months after the Duster’s debut. The lot is filled with examples in a variety of trims and configurations, reflecting the model’s broad appeal. Plymouth certainly benefited from the success—no other model topped 100,000 sales in 1969, but the Duster alone found 217,817 buyers for 1970.
So, which one catches your eye? The plain-Jane model in the foreground with its bench seat? Or the one beside it, complete with bucket seats and an oh-so-seventies vinyl roof?
Another view of the Dusters (they’re slightly rearranged from the opening picture). Starting on the left, after the one cut off; the plain Jane with bench seat; a better trimmed model with white walls; and a pair that seem to be 340 Dusters, with sportier decals and rims, plus optional vinyl tops.
Toward the back sits a collection of Plymouths and Chryslers by the Used Car sign. I see three used cars on the right, along with two late-model Chryslers and a pair of B-bodies—perhaps new cars, or maybe recent trade-ins awaiting resale. Curiously, not a single Valiant sedan is readily visible on these shots. Are they all in the showroom?
From this angle, a GTX is just visible in the shade, but there’s still no sign of a Valiant sedan, which by then was offered only as a four-door. As mentioned, the sporty two-door Duster was a big hit right from the start. Chrysler-Plymouth reported that it boosted total Valiant sales by 79 percent in the first three months of the 1970 model year. Which raises once again the question: why didn’t the Valiant-fastback formula work when it was tried on the 1964 Barracuda? It just goes to show that Marlon Brando’s line, “I coulda had class. I coulda been a contender,” applies to cars as well. Sometimes timing—and changing market tastes—makes all the difference.
An earlier image of Zumwalt was shared before at CC, while another dealer can be seen in this shot further down the road; Niles Buick.
The 1970 Duster offered a lot of choices, including five different seating arrangements, plenty of trim options, five engines (198CID or 225CID sixes and 318CID or 340CID V8s), and three transmissions (3-speed and 4-speed manuals or 3-speed TorqueFlite). Most contemporary buyers took one of the sixes with TorqueFlite and a bench seat — what would your choice be?
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1972 Plymouth Duster 340 – The Tweaker
Curbside Classic: 1974 Plymouth Gold Duster – There’s Gold In Them Thar Hips
Feather Duster for me!
Love em all.
The earlier Barracuda looked dorky, while the Duster looked tough with the right options/trim. Styling makes all the difference. And they were affordable.
While working a summer job at a paper distributtion warehouse outside Baltimore in Summer of 1971, a young working class guy about 19 who was a fellow employee and worked the shipping dock had an almost new ’70 Duster (318/904). No doubt he made not a whole lot more than minimum wage, maybe 3-4$ an hour. Major good memories of going out at lunch in that Duster to smoke a “J” while listening to Jethro Tull on the 8-track… good times!! I’ve liked Dusters ever since, but there’s no bargains to be had any more, they were once the only route to a cheap Mopar muscle car… no longer.
Love Dusters , had my late father-in-law s 67 right hand drive 225ci looked great with red line tyres. Only barracuda right hand drive built in the U.S for the American market.
My first car was a 73 duster 225 auto,bench seat. 2nd was a 74 318 3speed floor shift. Changed to a 340 4barrel 4sp. 8 3/4 rear end. Would bolt on the six pack for more fun . . I have a 64 valiant 6/4 speed vonvertible daily driver and a 66 valiant 273 auto 8 3/4 commando convertible im restoring unless i get offered enough to part with it . Lol
“ Which raises once again the question: why didn’t the Valiant-fastback formula work when it was tried on the 1964 Barracuda? ”
A 1964 Barracuda’s price of entry was a little over $2,500, whereas the Duster debuted with an MSRP under $2,200; I would surmise that played a large part of the discrepancy, styling preferences aside.
If I had to have my pick and live with it today, a white bucket seat 318/TorqueFlite car with console and under dash AC in Frosted Teal would be pretty nice…
That was my first thought, the Barracuda was a premium model, while the Duster replaced the 2 door Valiant and was priced like one.
The original Barracuda looked strange (practical as it was, but practicality didn’t sell pony cars; long-hood/short decklid proportions did, as did looks not obviously mostly borrowed from a mainstream economy car). The 2nd-gen Barracuda was shapelier but still a bit off, and the third gen was too expensive to build. The Duster got it right, looking like a smaller versions of GM’s midsize hardtop coupes at a low (to buy or to insure) price. Ka-ching! Still some practicality in the mix with available fold-flat rear seat that extended a flat carpeted surface into the trunk.
Perfect car for the times, and Plymouth’s next-to-last big hit (the Voyager mini-van being the last I figure). In many ways it was the true successor to the A-Body Barracuda. I believe as we have mentioned in the past that the Duster took a lot of sales from the E-Body Barracuda.
Think the Volare sold well for Plymouth for a year or so, until fall ’77 when both the new GM A-bodies and the Ford Fairmont/Mercury Zephyr came out.
These are great pictures. I’d be happy with any of them.
Just knowing the Duster was such a success in the decade when Chrysler Corporation needed probably the most, combined with the car’s inherent goodness / rightness, makes me smile when a see a picture of one.
I loved the yellow ’71 my dad drove as its primary operator. I still remember the “thunk” sound of the horizontal air vent lever on the dashboard. I had also liked operating the metal switch that opened the rear quarter windows… but not on a hot day. Seeing a picture of Dusters makes me miss my dad.
These pictures make me wish for a “wayback machine” so I could buy one .
Myself I love the A – Body MoPars and would rock a ’64 ~ ’66 Barracuda, dead simple to make into an outstanding daily/road trip car .
-Nate
I’d be tempted to go all out with a 340/4-speed and bucket seats. But a sleeper, metallic blue, whitewalls, no decals.
In the New York Metropolitan Area market, the Duster was typically sold with minimal optional equipment, which included Power Steering, Automatic Transmission, AM Radio, Air Conditioning was also specified by dealers. To market the Duster was to keep it cheap. Options such as a vinyl roof, light package, fold-flat rear seat, power brakes, full wheel discs, whitewall tires, and the ilk were usually on customer-ordered cars.
In 1970 I remember a brand new stripped down Plymouth Duster being advertised for $ 1,999.00 plus destination charges in New York. But the 1971 Road Runner was definitely my favorite Mopar, especially with a 440 6 pack and a stick shift.
My issue with lots of cars from this era is those hot sticky vinyl seats. In a perfect world I’d rather have a 1970 Dodge Dart 2 door, BUT the only way to get cloth seats was the dorky looking for door from what I can tell. The Duster just doesn’t look quite right to me, too long in the quarter panels.
A friend’s mother had a red one with black vinyl seats when it was new, I seem to recall some little decal of a little dust devil or mini tornado on the side, but it’s been a LONG time.
At least you could get a cloth bench seat on a Duster, only in black, blue or green though. For whatever reason the tan interior was limited to the high-grade all vinyl bench with armrest. IMO it would’ve made more sense to offer beige/tan in cloth instead of black since buyers would be looking to avoid a too-hot interior.
https://hamtramck-historical.com/dealerships/1970ColorAndTrimPlymouth-05.shtml
When I came home from Vietnam in 1970, I went to a Plymouth dealer intent on buying a Roadrunner. However, I saw the Duster 340 and fell in love. I ordered a dark green one, black bucket seats, 4-speed manual transmission, no decals. I kept it for seven years. Wish I still had it. Great car.
OK, but these weren’t “dealerships”, it was a “dealership”.
The styling on the ’65 Barracuda was totally off-putting compared to the Mustang. The front end was virtually identical to the Valiant and the fast back didn’t do it any favors. The styling on the Duster was very attractive, and it was priced right. If I remember correctly, Plymouth in 1970 sold 38,000 Dusters with the 340 which I believe was more than their entire sales of the Barracuda for 1970. Personally, I’d take a Duster with the 225 six, bucket seats and 3-on the floor.
On my side of the border in the city I grew up in Dusters seemed to be everywhere. And like the 340 V8 Dart, many a Duster ended up around a power pole.
On a Friday or Saturday evening you could be sure there would be collisions around the city involving muscle cars. I attended a few of those incidents which injured many a young person. And over time the Dusters, Darts and others rusted away or were canabilized at the auto wreckers. With the right options, they were good transportation. We had a used 74 Dart for a while aas young family. White vinyl over red with a white interior. Comfortble, reliable and decent fuel consumption even with a 318 V8.
The original Barracuda looked like a Valiant with a fastback, whereas the Mustang looked nothing like a Falcon. The 1970 Duster looked really good, especially when you compared it to the 1969 Valiant 2-doors.
My pick would be a Slant 6/4 speed with the cloth bench seat, disc brakes, the heaviest-duty suspension on offer, blue on blue.
Make mine with the venerable 225 slant 6 or maybe a reliable 318 V8 and the Torque Flight transmission.
I’ll take it in yellow with a green interior, with the optional sunroof for my pet emu to stick his head out, and a year’s worth of free car insurance from Liberty.
😂🤣
Dusters always make me smile – a college roommate had 3 of them. These made great cheap-but-good used cars and were still all over the place into the early 80s. But I will confess that I always preferred the older styling of the Dart Swinger and 71+ Plymouth Scamp. From my memory of the streetscape of those days, I was definitely in the minority.
I have to agree with you regarding the Swinger and Scamp, JPC. They were the best looking of these cars. I’m partial to the ‘71 or ‘72 in these as well.
I love the Duster/Dart cars. I really like the styling of the sports coupes (just in a way I like the styling of the GM A body cars). I’d like to order one with the 318/380 V8, 3 speed auto, bench seat and with all available options. Exterior I’d prefer the full brougham experience, vinyl top, whitewalls etc.
I had a ‘72 Duster Twister with a 318 and 3 speed manual. Great freeway travel car.
Ed Zumwalt had the Santa Rosa CA Chrysler Plymouth dealership. His son Don Zumwalt had Santa Rosa Dodge. There was a rivalry there!
Although I had mostly Dodges, I went to Zumwalt C-P for parts. When I had my 1972 ex-Highway Patrol Dodge Polara I struck up a good relationship with their Parts Department and was able to order some police-only parts
You never know where lighting will strike, and this was a happy rainmaker for Plymouth. I don’t see it is a fastback, as much as a fairly infomal coupe. And, infomal was in in 1970, with this scrappy not so little car beating the pants off its Scamp sibling.
How would I order mine? Page 1 of the brochure answers for me, but I believe it is a 340 car. The 318 would have been fine, slick top, buckets, console wiith Torqueflite, factory air, and the wire covers look nice too!
I had a gold ‘71, plain Jane with a six automatic and a.m. radio. Drove the wheels off, it had about 160,000 miles on it when I drove it to the junkyard around 1982-83. Broke my heart doing it because the engine and trans were still good but it was so rusty hardly anything holding the K member in place. I tried to sell it for the engine and trans but the couple guys interested wanted me to pull the them out to in order for them to take it. So, I went with less money and let the scrappers have it. I still miss that one.
Was there a chance you could have bought a rust free one for its body and had a mechanic swap the engine and trans in?
Little off the subject, but I still crack up when I see the Imperial sign along with the Chrysler Plymouth sign. Imperial guys will swear that it was a separate company, blah, blah blah, then I see these photos,lol.
This post got me so inspired that I’m now negotiating on a ’70 Duster 225 /6 automatic project that’s almost all original with little to no rust. We’ll see. At 75 it’ll be my last old car if it does happen. As a recent Colorado transplant the quantity of solid old cars available around here is quite amazing to one from the Northeast.
It’d fit in my small garage and runs OK but needs some cosmetic work – perfect for me at this point as a driver/restoration car. The Duster’s aggressive coupe 1970 period styling is timeless, so it’s no surprise they’ve become the go-to quasi muscle car for those without deep pockets as Charger, Super Bee and Road Runner prices have gone clear out of sight Will post some pics if it actually happens.
That’s not a GTX in the shade. If you zoom in on the grille it has the long thin red white and blue of a Sport Satellite
The structure still exists. It now houses a longtime Santa Rosa CA auto body and paint shop.
Photo taken today while I was having lunch across the street.
Unfortunately it won’t post right side up!!!!
For me?
Bucket seats, AC, automatic, 318 and highway diff ratio.
Just keep driving it until it wears out.