“Parthenon” grille.
Unlikely cars pop up in unlikely places. When was the last time you saw an early ’80s Cordoba–and in such cream puff condition? It’s for sale just down the road from me.
There it sits–glowing–painted a shade of yellow tan that probably had a romantic name like “Burnished Castilian Gold Crystal Coat”. Cordobas are all about Romanticism. When you have a spokesman like Ricardo Montalban dressed in a white suit with wide lapels, cooing about “rich Corinthian leather” in an old world Spanish accent while soft guitar music plays–how could it be otherwise?
Compared to the bulbous, rather anonymous vehicle shapes in the background, this Cordoba is dripping with character! It has what I call “jewel box beauty”–a phrase I lifted from a Packard brochure. In my parlance it means a car, somewhat smaller in size, selling as a “luxury” product, which is heavy on ornamentation–either finely crafted or having the appearance of being such. Think lots of chrome, soft leather or lush fabric, wood trim (real or imitation), crystal hood ornaments and appliqués, and neoclassical design cues throughout. The car seems “special” and “custom” and you feel rich and comfortable driving it. Certain of the smaller Cadillacs, Lincolns, and Chryslers from the ’80s & early ’90s have this unique quality. Jaguars excel in jewel box beauty!
Wyatt Earp’s grandson started an auto dealership in Omaha (maybe not). How did this car get from Nebraska to New Jersey?
Interior looks appropriately sumptuous. Not sure if that’s the famous leather or vinyl.
Brochure image of the interior, shown with cloth seats. That’s Carpathian burled elm on the dash if I’m not mistaken. Jewel box beauty indeed!
I’m not a big fan of these imitation convertible “carriage tops”, but this one looks good and goes well with the character of the car.
Beautiful wide (but not too wide) whitewall tires. Wire spoke wheelcovers have a center hub with a raised hexagon reminiscent of classic Packards.
I don’t know what “Master Shield Protection” is, but it’s doing its job well on this car!
So there it is–a minty-fresh survivor from 1983, still looking great in 2024. We can call this “the last Cordoba”. This was the nameplate’s final year–only 13,000 were built, compared with 59,000 in 1980. CC opinions on the 2nd generation Cordoba are very mixed–some people hate it, while others like it. Not a lot of middle ground. I’m in the “It’s pretty nice” camp. It all comes down to taste, which I’m told there’s no accounting for. Compared to the 1975-79 Cordobas, I prefer the 80-83s’ chiseled styling, smaller size, and greater efficiency. I also would pick a Cordoba over the rather strange looking and overly-complex Imperial.
That price though. Twenty years ago, this was “budget transportation” purchased from Grandma. Now we’re at twelve grand? Maybe it’s worth that much–I don’t know. It would certainly be hard to find another like it. But how much demand is there for something like this?
Subject to inspection and appraisal, this could be an interesting opportunity. It would be a nice car for me, but I don’t feel like blowing $12,500 on a pure extravagance. Also with that faultless but delicate carriage roof, I would think a garage is a must. If it has a slant six and torsion bar suspension like my ’60 Dodge Dart (with later refinements), I predict it will drive like a dream. A somewhat more powerful 318 V-8 was also available. Not all that fast with either engine, but this car is for unhurried, elegant cruising and looking sharp while doing it. And you will look sharper now than you would 40 years ago because this car so distinctly stands out from all the SUV blobs that surround you. Nestled in soft upholstery, looking out over that pre-war style hood and crystalline Pentastar grille ornament, one experiences (or re-experiences) the 1980s spirit of neoclassical elegance. Cool!
Uh-oh! This is what J.D. Power says:
I think J.D.’s numbers are low. But even if we take the High Retail number and double it . . .
See also:
Cohort Capsule: 1980-83 Chrysler Cordoba–We Don’t Like What They’ve Done To Our Car
Count me as a fan of these. I always thought they should have sold better than they did, especially in their last year when things were really looking up in the economy and at Chrysler. But then again, the new Thunderbird came out and made this car’s chiseled styling seem old fashioned. And according to the brochure, the color was called Beige Crystal Coat – a surprisingly nondescript name.
This is one of very few cars that look good with that fake convertible top. But I am with you – that price is from fantasyland. IMHO this one might reasonably be worth $7500 if it drives as nice as it looks and has working air. But I only go that high because everything else seems surprisingly expensive these days.
So, I guess the answer is “No.”. Which doesn’t really surprise me personally as I’m much more a fan of the first generation Cordoba. That’s the model I’ll always associate with “R C L” and Mr. Roarke/KAHHHN! This second generation just seemed like any other meh sedan of the early 1980s. This one’s rendering in Chrysler Tan doesn’t help much.
That said, this one does seem to be in good shape for its age. While the seller will never get $12,500 for it I do hope that it’s sold to someone who appreciates it, keeps it shiny, and regularly feeds the herd of cows (maybe that’s the Omaha connection?) that gave their lives for that front seat.
12,500 is too much for me.
For me, no American car from the 80s can be worth more than 10,000, much less a Chrysler Cordoba.
Geez, that is a nice car! And a better looking body and proportions than the Imperial. But those humdrum Average Motors headlights gotta go!
Move the turn indicators to the bumper and slap a Cordoba medallion on the headlight covers, and you may have a winner on your hands.
Better yet, just put the Chrysler script on the right hand cover and nothing on the left cover. A bit more classy.
Sorry, No Sale! Besides the price, this IMO is far removed from the Neo classic original Cordoba. The color and the faux convertible top add to the reasons I would kick this to the curb. My former 83 and 85 Fifth Avenues were so much better in Every way.
Good ‘ole Chrysler bad timing. The Cordoba/Mirada should have cleaned up relative to the downsized GM and Ford PLCs. But the historically high oil prices of the time just killed them. The GM and Ford products might have been lacking in some key aspects (mainly just appearance), but their better fuel economy (even if it was only marginal) meant Personal Luxury Car shoppers would buy one of the competitors before the Chrysler.
Add in Chrysler’s poor quality and tenuous survival (no one yet knew if the Iacocca gambit was going to pay off) meant potential customers would stay away in droves.
And, honestly, I don’t see the polarization of them, either. I thought they were okay, depending on the model, and was more partial to the ersatz Cord-type grille of the Dodge Mirada, particularly the rare 1980 CMX with the 360 engine. I certainly liked the front end much better than the passé gimmick of those awful stacked rectangular headlights on the previous car.
I even thought they looked better than the much more pricey (and trouble prone) Imperial coupe.
The Mustang II marketed itself as being “small, but with jewel-like quality” so I see the term applying. I wouldn’t spend 12.5k either.
You know it’s a fancy car when it features a centre – not center! – armrest.
Craigslist ad: More description, better pictures:
https://newjersey.craigslist.org/cto/d/denville-1983-chrysler-cordoba-low-miles/7801638017.html
Thank you for the link with additional pictures.
This Cordoba is a better Lincoln Mark VI than what Lincoln produced. There is some obvious Mark V influence going on here. This particular example isn’t my thing (bad color, horrible canvas top, although both are subjective) despite my really liking these cars.
A number of years ago when the two Jim’s and I hosted a CC Meet-Up in the St. Louis area, we encountered a gray ’83 Cordoba for sale at Country Classic Cars. It was also low mileage and it was stunning without that horrific roof treatment.
As to the price on this one – it’s stupidly optimistic.
I like these as I like most early mid-80s rwd, size-reduced cars with knife edge styling. The lack of a V8 though is a deal killer for me.
My grandfather had one of these, white with a blue fake conv. top and interior.
I always thought it was strange that even though after he retired from the GM Proving Ground, he preferred Chrysler products – maybe he knew something?
This may be the best condition example around, of one of a few in the country like it. There’s an old expression in the car collector game – by the best example you can afford.
That applies here. Good luck with your $4K example basket case. It’s not like you can rebuild one out of a catalog like a Mustang or Tri-Five Chevy.
If you were to go back in time, people who would say they would never pay more than a couple grand for a 69 Charger RT in 1980 – that’s just an old used car, plus gas is so expensive. No one would ever want that!! Same thing with Tri-Five Chevys in 1969 – most people thought of them as old beater cars. If you watch Bullitt, there is a 39 Packard parked on the street near his apartment, for example.
I think if you really like this, and I do, I would consider it. Again, restoring one of these will be an exercise in futility. This one you can drive and enjoy, with some replacement of rubber bits and fluids, etc likely a good idea.
Finally, this would be a car I would seriously check out at a car show. I am tired of rows of Mustangs, Camaros, and Chevelles that have $100K invested in a full restoration. Of course, don’t get me started on the endless new Mustangs, Challengers, Chargers, and Camaros that coagulate at car shows these days – I am all for a no-air bag car show requirement.
Thank you for all of this. I am sold on each and every idea you present here in argument of why this ’83 Cordoba would absolutely make sense for the asking price.
Add to this the somewhat murky future the Chrysler brand seems to have right now (in my mind, anyway) within the Stellantis portfolio, and suddenly this beautiful ’83 seems like a steal at that price for a fan of this make and model, which I am.
I will not bid as I have no garage, but I hope it goes to a great owner who knows what he or she now possesses.
On a weekend pass during training at Fort Knox, a group of us rented a car to drive into Louisville for entertainment. Said entertainment being anything that got us off base.
The rental we drew was a brand new 1980 Chrysler Cordoba with the “Super Six” version of the 225 \6. Super Six was Chrysler’s designation of an engine equipped with a 2 bbl carburetor instead of the standard 1 bbl. I assume the intent was to juice up the performance to a more suitable level.
No one expected a smog-choked 6 to offer much performance in a heavier car. What was expected was an engine that would stay running. That experience is the only reason I can remember a car rented for a single weekend some 45 years after the fact.
That dang Cordoba stalled whenever you put it in gear. The only way to get the car moving was to keep the rpms up and put it in gear with foot on the brake. When coming to a stop, you needed to keep revs up while stopped lest the engine die. After a through warm up of no less than 30 minutes, it would occasionally keep running at stops – or die. It was unpredictable. What was predictable was that it would die on any right turn while decelerating unless you executed the turn by keeping the revs up and using the brakes to control speed of the right turn. I suppose it is lucky the engine was so weak lest we otherwise overheat the brakes.
The car did accomplish its purpose of getting us a weekend away from Fort Knox, but it that is about the only good thing I can say about it. Its really something when a brand new car compares so unfavorably to the old $95 beater I was driving before entering the Army.
That 1983 looks like a nice survivor. Hopefully the engine issues were better sorted in the model years subsequent to 1980. Be a shame for such a well preserved survivor to still be cursed with the driving dynamics experienced with the weekend rental I once had.
Hi all, you haven’t head for me for a while, maybe even a year? Anyway, this Cordoba isn’t even the Cordoba Ricardo Montalban spoke so highly about. This is just a dressed up Dodge Aspen underneath and heaven help us if it had that emission controlled sad slant 6 under the hood. The 318 is most likely the power plant with a 904 lockup Torqueflite behind. I must say that it looks nice, but the price would immediately turn me off. 2 to 3 thousand would be fair, but who can you find that is fair these days except maybe here?
It’s nice to be back and a special ‘HI’ to Daniel S. when you comment.
I feel that this price guide is accurate and maybe a little bit on the high side
Just looked at that after seeing this one’s price. This car isn’t a #1 by definition. The 40K miles puts it at a #2 which also look very darn good.I don’t know about back east but where I am I would see that decline. Every car, like that near me, has started high and ended up taking quite a haircut. I am watching a 83 BMW, low miles but not as low as this, get knocked down 25% from 6,500. No buyers yet after seven weeks.
I’d say go for it. Make an offer, as you never know. Many time people with cars like this one are fishing to see just how much they could get. If it isn’t sold within a few days, then that tells you it’s way too high. However, I’ve said it before and will continue to say it. A car is only worth what someone is willing to pay for it. And, that is one very nice car!
I’ve always liked these 80-83’s and that silver one in the last picture would be the exact car I’d love. Much prefer that quarter top and opera lamps over the sim/con top.
Where else are you going to find one in this kind of condition that ticks all the (perhaps dubious in this case) boxes it presents?
Anything from the 1980s that you don’t see on every corner, looks very well preserved, hopefully runs, doesn’t need much if any fettling, and gives its owners their particular jollies is likely well worth a quarter of the average new car these days, KBB exists only for the corner dealer to screw someone on their trade-in, it outlives its usefulness/reality at the 10-year mark. The car is 41 years old and it seems to be a recent phenomenon that whatever advertised price one sees on any car (or anything for that matter), that somehow seems to be the set in stone price. I wouldn’t blink twice if this was a same year Supra, Mustang 5.0, probably even a Cressida or even a Thunderbird in this condition at this mileage, this price, and hopefully the owner history to back it all up. The 1980s are the new 1950s, dontchaknow? That’s the set of buyers inheriting the money from the people that used to bid up the 57 Chevys, 60s Impalas, and other stuff if they aren’t actively in the prime of their earning years with the nests starting to empty.
This is the perfect car for the seller to pay a little to advertise/sell on one or more of the popular internet car auction sites. It’s lost on Craigslist and sitting on the corner like this and will be unlikely to find its properly appreciative next owner. It’s completely not my cup of tea but I do get it.
I didn’t even know these existed. I thought the Cordoba died once the R-Bodies came out. Huh.
It’s not terrible-looking in a vacuum. The proportions are surprisingly tasteful and the front end is almost pretty. Very dated for 1983, though, and the detailing lets it down hard. The taillights are clumsy. The side indicators look completely tacked on and the chrome trim that starts from the front fender and comes crashing to a halt just before the rear bumper is terrible. Lincoln did the same thing and it looks awful there too.
Compared to the newly facelifted G-Bodies and the beautiful new T-Bird, it’s easy to see why these didn’t sell. It’s 70s car based on a 1960s chassis, built to the standard of a Moskvich. What a thing.
Oh, and hell no it’s not worth 12.5k lol.
Adam from RCC&AH must be already betting on it.