Here’s a nice pair to compare what two automotive eras have offered as daily transport. One more chapter in our ongoing saga of “The Changing Shape Of Cars”. This time, a 1974 Dodge Dart, and a 2011-2014 Honda CR-V, captured in El Cerrito, California. As proportions show, quite different interpretations of what sensible family transportation means. Or meant.
These Dodge/Plymouth A-bodies have received their praises in quite a few previous CC posts. They were the non-exciting purchase for a sensible family man of the era; a known quantity with modest style, decent handling, and mid-range performance for the era. Leaving aside Dodge’s captive imports, the entry-level range for the division in the early ’70s.
But one didn’t need to come across as a cheapskate if one chose this type of automotive practicality, as can be seen in today’s find. Not a lowly base model, since it carries the Broughamy touches of the era. As such, it’s likely a Custom model.
And while the Dart won’t compete in space utilization with a modern FWD/AWD people hauler, from the crop of the ’70s, it was one of the better RWD people haulers. At least, in 4-door sedan version.
These A-bodies may have spoken to the unpretentious and practical back in the day, but who do they speak to nowadays? Someone is certainly giving this Dart some use. The Bart mooning sticker in the vent window suggests a young adult. Maybe even a hipster?
If so, the ironies of time. But I get the feeling. Back in the ’90s, I thought of getting a stodgy 1960s Corona as the ultimate anti-cool expression around my college classmates.
The CR-V is, of course, today’s interpretation of the family vehicle. Hipster guy may prefer the Dart’s counter styling statement, but most folks I know would certainly pick the CR-V for its accouterments, passenger-friendly cabin, and cargo capacity.
Now, these SUVs carried in their lines and marketing the idea of active lifestyles. A concept so common now that few pay attention to the matter, even bordering on dull.
I won’t suggest the CR-V suffers from the stodginess once associated with Darts of the ’70s. But the point is, a modern-day HR-V can get as easily lost in a parking lot as a Dart did back in the day. The typical family car to glance over and not think about twice.
That said, there’s no way to tell if at some point youth of the future will embrace CR-Vs as the hipster-mobile of the 2030s. Right?
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1974 Dodge Dart Custom – “A Body” In Motion Tends To Stay In Motion
So true. Below is a similar pairing for the Cadillac Men amongst us, located in Eaton, CO.
I love El Cerrito, “Berkeley without the Baggage…”, clearly a prime CC hunting ground.
There’s a great song called El Cerrito about this town by one of my favorite bands, Cracker, that sums it up perfectly. The fourth line “I don’t give a shit about your IPO, I live in El Cerrito” sums it up perfectly. And then goes on to capture the working life in the area very well.
When at grad school, at Cal, besides always being in Berkeley, I was also in and around Albany and El Cerrito. Most everyone in my class lived in those three cities. If going out in the evening for something it was never College Ave near the school. It would usually be University in Berkeley or Solano Ave in Albany. Solano more mellow if you will. Haven’t set foot in Albany or El Cerrito since my 1981 graduation. Drop by Cal for photography and have to say Berkeley isn’t in the news as much anymore and I live 15 miles away.
However, Kips in the afternoon, always had cheap pitchers of beer after four so a lot of us would show up being two blocks from campus.
I suspect we may have crossed paths at Kips; I spent a lot of time there between 1977 and 1981or ‘82. Wasn’t their beer $1 a pitcher during happy hour? A pitcher or two, their half chicken dinner with French fries. Good times. EDIT: If the lighter colored Civic between the Rabbit and the RX7 is in fact the yellow color common on Civic 5vspeeds, it might be my roommate Ron’s. And the Westmore Rabbit could easily be another roommate’s. The cars on the street are very typical Berkeley 1980. My Vega GT was a bit of an oddball.
As for El Cerrito, a generation or two of local kids were taken by their parents to practice driving in the El Cerrito Plaza shopping center parking lot. Sunday mornings in the time when stores either were closed on Sunday, or didn’t open until “after church”. And of course, the nearby Golden Gate Fields horse track (and occasional motorcycle race) parking lot in Albany was even bigger, both for learning and for skid pad and 0-60 runs. Sans parents of course.
Interesting, I associate Cracker with Santa Cruz (where I live now) as they had some relationship with a Santa Cruz band, Camper van Beethoven. But growing up in Berkeley the real local stars were Creedence Clearwater Revival from El Cerrito. John Fogerty went to Catholic elementary school in north Berkeley not far from my house, but probably before I was even born.
They pretty much WERE Camper van Beethoven back in the day (some of them went to UCSC) and then sort of morphed into Cracker in around ’91 along with other bands (Counting Crows), we used to see Cracker in SF regularly. Johnny Hickman (Cracker guitar) now lives near me so they play here regularly which is convenient and sometimes get their old lineup together and play as CvB 🙂 Lowery and Hickman have a very interesting sound and do a wide range of stuff.
CCR was already well into the classic rock genre when I was in college. Still quite popular but older. Green Day’s probably the most famous Berkeley (or at least Gilman area) band these days, no? My old college roommate lives in North Berkeley right off of Gilman…
A little bit of rear sag on that ’74 Dart. But it has the broughamy touches as you mentioned, including the fender mounted turn signal indicators, the vinyl roof, and the bumper guards. Maybe a right side view mirror there as well The hood many be a bit askew as a result of the fender bender on the left front. Otherwise a 50 year survivor in not bad shape at all. Still wearing the factory wheel covers too. Better get a wiper blade mounted soon.
Great comparison of every day drivers.
It seems the leaf springs always sag on these older cars, over time. Sort of like how people generally stop standing up quite so straight as they age.
We have a 2017 Honda Accord to go with the family’s 2020 CRV. The Accord’s lines and proportions mimic those of the Dart fairly well, in a more rounded and organic way (though not as charming to modern eyes, IMHO). The carrying capacity and versatility of the cargo space in the CRV dwarf those of the Accord, and the “sitting up” in the CRV, along with the ease of entry and exit, are far superior to the attributes of the Accord.
Given that new low-profile sedans (outside of the sporty ones) seem to be going extinct, it is not a surprise when one does an A-B comparison with a CUV.
The rear leaves are sagging, but someone seems to have found the height adjustment bolts for the front torsion bars.
Some rear sag, but I’m also thinking that Dart may have no one at home under the hood.
Will the Honda still be running at age 50? Or will it succumb to Unavailabilitis of one of its many electronic modules?
The Dart has one: the electronic ignition. Keep a spare ballast resistor in the glove box and you are all set.
In my experience, the popular cars that end up being long-lasting will generally have parts available. The aftermarket likes to serve the needs of the older cars when there are still many of them on the road, many years later.
However, the quality of the electronic aftermarket stuff appears to be rather hit-and-miss at times (just as it has been for old-style condensers for many years now).
How many 50 year old Darts do any of us see regularly? Clearly there aren’t a significant percentage of survivors today no matter how easy they may be to repair with only a rock and a scrap piece of angle iron or else they wouldn’t be interesting to look at here on CC. The Honda, like the Dart, will get driven into the ground and eventually rust away but while it does will likely start every morning and pull out smoothly from its parking spot while dead cold without coughing, spluttering, or belching smoke.
As with most cars, the ones that succumb for whatever reason will help to keep some of the rest of the herd alive. Darts, like CRVs are, were disposable. The CRV at age 50 will be just as good a curiosity and reminder of the good old days for some that grew up in them as the Dart is today at age 50. The first generation CRV is more than halfway there already.
Cars last longer now. So the practical car buyer has to ask themselves if the car they’re considering not only makes sense for them now, but also will it make sense for them 5-10 years into the future.
I recently bought a used compact crossover. I’m 60 now and don’t have trouble getting in and out of cars, but it’s easy for me to believe that in 5-10 years I might. So I chose the CUV over the (essentially very similar mechanically) 5-door hatchback from the same manufacturer.
Never found the CR-V’s attractive in any way. That black one comes from what I feel is the worst looking of all.
Between that blob of a black thing and the Dart, I’d take the Dart all day.
I was just talking about this topic to friends of ours last week, since they just replaced their aged Honda Accord with an HR-V.
Our friends are moving to Europe with their two kids, and wanted something smaller than the Accord, and newer. They’ve never had SUVs/CUVs before and are very much the “sensible family transportation” type of buyers, but remarked that “nobody seems to buy sedans any longer.” After test-driving a few CUVs, they settled on the Honda.
So far they like it – and like you wrote, it definitely fits the category of a “non-exciting purchase for a sensible family man.” I was actually impressed at their HR-V’s luggage room… definitely enough space for family of four to take a trip. And I bet it’s unlikely that they’ll migrate back to sedans in the future.
The Accord’s wheelbase is about the same as the Dart’s, making them good candidates for passenger-room comparison, whereas the CRV’s is shorter, closer to the Civic’s.
Foreign compacts have grown to be in the same dimensional “zone” as Detroit’s compacts were back then. My 2010 Civic, with its 106″ wheelbase, thus has acceptable rear-seat legroom compared to the original subcompact Civic.
The reptilian part of my brain still whispers that the Dart is a normally shaped car, but every other part of my brain shouts it down.
In my opinion, today’s 1974 Dart is a new Toyota Corolla, and 1974’s 2014 Honda CR-V LX would have been an intermediate with some brougham credibility, maybe like an Oldsmobile Cutlass.
Between 79 and 82 I owned a 74 Plymouth Valiant and then a fancier 74 Dodge Dart. These were used as work cars. I think back of those cars fondly. Both had the slant 6 with Auto.
The “collapsing” rear end could be problematic. Perhaps something heavy in the truck?
Grandma ?
Most likely the leaf springs rusted loose and pierced the trunk floor, like my wretched ’75 Valiant. A heavy Grandma might have caused it to fail a bit sooner.
P.S. Don’t forget to take a spare ballast resistor with you and pop it in the glove box!
I’m shopping for my 17 year old and we will not consider a vehicle that is a shade of black, gray or white, which tosses out 90% of the dull CU/SUVs on the road. The future will have colored vehicles and the lot of these sad-looking vehicles will be avoided or repainted/wrapped?
The Dart has a COLOR.
As someone who daily drives a 1985 Mercedes 300D more for fun than making a counter cultural statement, some people are willing to put up with the lifestyle compromises of an older vehicle in exchange for cheapness. Of course, there’s also an element of adventure, but it doesn’t necessarily have to be being intentionally anti-cool.
I remembered the eastern European trucker that sold it to me was so confused as to why I younger guy like me wanted a slow, smelly, old car like a 300D. I wasn’t able to give a good answer, but I’ve since dubbed my adventure “operation don’t be boring.”