I’ll let you ponder that for a second before you make the jump:
This was the top end of Chrysler’s line-up in Brazil at the time (1978-1981), and came fully loaded including an alcohol-burning 318 V8. It had a short life, as Chrysler sold its Brazilian operations to VW in 1979, so strictly speaking, this was a Volkswagen during its last two years.
I’m going to assume that Volkswagen wisely decided not to do anything with this model, as it was about to end anyway. It ‘s always eye opening to see the variations of the changes made to American cars for foreign markets. I’ve often wondered if/how different grilles, or components/etc. could be sourced to create “unique” vehicles for a “Coffee & Chrome” showing! 🙂
So it never became the VW 5200 like the VW 1500 (ex-Dodge, ex-Avenger).
I love this…we had a ‘73 Swinger with the 318 V-8…was a fun, fast little car!
Some interesting tidbits about those Brazilian Volkswagen Darts. For starters, looks like they kept the vent windows absent from all US Darts beginning in 1973.
And the 2-door model range was Dart (base, that also kept the US’ dual headlights), Charger (sporty), and Magnum (luxury), which would be roughly equivalent to the US’ Swinger, Dart Sport, and SE models.
Yep, I believe that the vent windows went away on the Swinger and Scamp after the 1972 model year in the USA.
The US 4 door sedans for the Dart and Valiant kept vent windows through the 1976 final year of production.
And of course, the Duster and Dart Sport never had vent windows to begin with.
Are those vinyl covered T-tops??
No, it’s a regular, fixed roof, but maybe they tried to make it look like a T top
I was born in the late 70’s and these Dodge Magnum were still relatively common in my town 10 years later. So different from most Brazilian cars at the time. Many had moon roof and if I’m not mistaken, all had automatic transmission. It sure had a beautiful stance and personally looked way better than in pictures.
I wonder how much work was involved to get those rather odd quarter window filler panels installed. The problem is the bottom that covers up a very small horizontal portion of the normal quarter window. Seems like it would be quite a bit of work to get it to line-up with the beltline. What’s worse is it doesn’t really improve the looks all that much.
In fact, the stylists would have done better to put a stainless band across the roof between the front and rear vinyl tops and left the quarter windows alone. Could have done without the pointy ‘beak’, too.
It looks like a pretty clunky covering. The Buttresses on the earlier Chargers was a much better effort, the Magnum strikes me as a major cheapening effort.
Good call on going cheap from the earlier Brazilian Charger’s buttresses. My guess is the whole quarter window cover thing began with the demise of convertibles and the rise of (relatively) cheap A/C which, in turn, took out all hardtops, starting in earnest with the 1973 GM colonnade coupes where the quarter windows were all fixed and separated from the front windows by a B-pillar.
Suddenly, Ford and Chrysler were slapping on all kinds of louvers on the fixed quarter windows in their latest cars. The Charger SE had already gotten them in 1973, followed by stuff like the 1976 Mustang II Cobra II, Volare Road Runner, and Aspen R/T. In fact, the Brazilian Dart Charger of the same period as the feature car got horizontal quarter window louvers identical to those on the Aspen R/T.
I’m just a little curious as to whether the quarter windows of those last Volkswagen Darts lower like they used to in a real hardtop. One of the sleaziest things about some of those final domestic hardtops (specifically, the early seventies Mopar B-body coupes) was how they did away with manual roll-down quarter windows when they went from the ’71-’72 cars to the very similar ’73-’74 refresh (although I think they still rolled down if power windows were ordered).
I’m curious if they go down as well now that you mention it, I’m pretty sure right up to 1976 all the Dart Swingers/Valiant Scamps had roll down quarters. I’m also curious about how they look from the inside, whether they used interior fill panels or there’s just a big giant window with a dark border around it
The brochures advertise the 73-74s without roll down quarters as “Charger coupe”, they definitely still went down in those years with power Windows, my friend’s dad had a blue Rallye he was restoring while we were in high school and the windows for sure went down. E bodies had the same thing, like on the Challenger Deputy. Chrysler went all in on dumping the “2-door sedan” body across lines by 1970 so they just made the bottom basement models decontented hardtops. 68-70s B bodies did it the best, at least the non roll down glass could pop open for ventilation.
I like the landau effect. It’s close to the ’55 Ford Crown Vic, and manages to imply a real landau.
Interesting that it doesn’t appear to have any front turn signals or marker lights, yet it has the fender mounted indicators for the driver.
I could only find one pic that showed them, but I think the front turn signals are hidden behind the grille, next to the headlights.
Beat me to it, Brazil didn’t seem to have any rules against putting obstructions in front of lighting systems, the Charger predecessor even had the headlights behind the grille mesh!
Dodge Magnum… by Volkswagon……… based on a Dart………. with front end styling like Pontiac………… and a baskethandle roofline like a Ford Thunderbird.
Very neat! After seeing this, I was awfully curious what the interior looked like, so I looked up some pictures. Here’s one of the rear seat area, in case anyone’s curious:
Looks like a lot nicer interior than the US’ A-body Dart Special Edition.
Seems to answer both rudiger and my questions – yes, apparently the windows must roll down, and the filler piece covering a substantial portion of the window is clearly visible – yikes!
Comfy looking rear seat though.
The Other Chrysler Valiant, by Mitsubishi.
(Mitsu bought Chrysler Oz in 1980, so last 2 years Vals have their name on build plate)