I’ve often mentioned my father’s 1968 Dart, and written up the whole story in depth here. In 1965, needing a second car to drive to his new job at Johns Hopkins Hospital, he bought a new Opel Kadett. That turned out not to be such a great choice, and three years later, he traded it in for the ’68 Dart. He would have saved himself a fair bit of trouble had he bought a ’65 valiant like this one from the get-go.
I’m not sure what exactly drove him to buy the Kadett. He obviously wanted something cheap and economical, and I would have recommended a VW, not that he asked me. It did rather suit him, although never mastered its hair-trigger clutch, which led us to dub it “The Frog” as he would make it jump repeatedly from releasing the clutch too quickly. That even made it chirp its rear wheels.
It wasn’t a pillar of reliability, and when it needed a valve job after three years, my father had enough and bought this infinitely durable Dart. He should have just bought a Valiant or Dart in 1965.
Well, a 1965 Valiant V100 2-door sedan like the one I found in this neighborhood was 21% more expensive than the Kadett, so there was that. But he could readily have driven that Valiant until he bought the mercury Zephyr in 1979 or so, and so saved himself the depreciated cost of the Kadett (I suspect its trade-in value was none too good).
This one has the three-on-the-tree just like his, which makes me 99% certain it also has the base 170 CID slant six under the hood. The 170 was almost invariably sold with the manual and the bigger 225 with the automatic. You’d have to order one if you didn’t want one of those two combinations.
It’s great to see one of these old A Bodies still being loved and used. They were the used car of choice for so many in the late ’70s, the ’80s, the ’90s, and into the 21st century. We’ve extolled their virtues so many times here over the years.
I used to want one too, and in my mind made the various modifications to make it even better yet: a 225 with a bigger carb and a 4-speed manual, for starters, and yes, wider wheels and tires like this one. And…
In Rust Belt country, these were everywhere as used cars into the 1980s, and I still see one occasionally. I can’t compare their “survival rate” to, say, the Falcons, but you and others here at CC have attested to the solid engineering (Slant Six and otherwise).
Your Father’s Opel: Would it have needed the same valve job if driven in typical Euro conditions/maintenance, etc.? (That’s not a snarky question—I’m truly curious.)
August 1962: My recently widowed grandmother (then 61 y/o), took her first driving lesson. The car: her late husband’s ’56 Chrysler Windsor (blue/white). After a respectful period of wrestling the Chrysler, she let herself trade into a brand new ’64 Valiant four door, a six cylinder pushbutton automatic. I thought it was the uncoolest car ever, but Grandma liked its size, simplicity, and reliability, and it almost outlived her. I wish I had a better photo – this is circa 1971, Grandma fresh from the beauty parlor, beside her blue Valiant, which is badly in need of a polish & wax.
I like seeing this still doing Yeoman Duty .
When new I didn’t like these but time has shown beyond any doubt how great they were, both driving and handling .
The fact that they were still daily beats into the late 1990’s proves the good basic design .
-Nate
I look at this car and its mismatched paint. Reminds me of the 1963 T-Bird parents bought new. The Bird was Heritage Burgundy metallic. Between 1963 and 1968 every panel on that car, except right front fender, was hit and repainted at a Ford dealership. Every repainted panel faded differently. This Bird was given to me on my 16th birthday, early 1967. As a 16 year old, I compounded, waxed, polished that car and never could get the paint back to matching. When the car was only five years old, the Ford dealership body shop could not give it a lasting repaint.
My recollection of the cars of Chrysler Corporation was that if you got a “good one” it was better than a comparable model from GM or Ford. Problem was, the odds of getting a “good one” weren’t that good. Chrysler had a lot of QC problems.
But that’s what would have made this car a really good value in 1973. It had already been vetted by the first owner (or two) and since it had already lasted 8 years, the odds of it lasting 2-4 more years were pretty good for the $400 you would have paid for this car in 1973.
My father use to sell Plymouth cars back in the 60’s
My dad had a ’62 Dodge Lancer with the 225 slant engine. Imagine changing spark plugs in that compared to modern day engines, even 4 cylinders.
Simple as simple gets.
We even had matching paint schemes with his Lancer and mom’s ’63 Dodge 440 wagon with the 318. License plates were xxx510 and xxx511. Good times!
Bought a white more door in the middle seventies for $50 beat the crap out of it for two years. T 20 below zero buried in snow for days dig it out started right up one of the best damn cars I’ve owned.Sold it for $100
I assume your father wouldn’t have taken advice from you. I enjoyed the story of Daniel Stern persuading his dad to get the Dodge Lancer, but that was him and his dad.
Bought 1963 Valiant Convertible in 1982 for $ 200 bucks….Drove it till 1994 and then sold it for 3k.
Missed it soooo much that I got a 1963 Buick LeSabre Convertible in 1998 & just got out for a drive today !
Cheers