(first posted 10/5/2012) The two smartest things Chrysler did in the late sixties and early seventies: One: Hang on to the A-Body compacts, seemingly forever. Two: Give that line of rolling refrigerators some new pizazz with the Duster. In lieu of these, Chrysler’s 1980 brush with death undoubtedly would have come much sooner.
The Valiant and Dart had their last (and final) re-do in 1967, resulting in the first line of cars known more for their appliance-like qualities than style. And Plymouth didn’t shy away from that association: here’s the (now) rare 1968 Valiant Whirlpool edition, available in white, avacado or harvest gold. No ice maker, though.
The ’67 – ’69 Barracuda came in three body styles, including this svelte coupe, which could rightfully be considered a sporty Valiant coupe, given that’s what it essentially was (the upright windshield being the give-away, as if one was needed). And no, the mod top wasn’t available on the Whirlpool. But for 1970, the Barracuda would morph into a whole different kettle of fish, leaving a bit of a hole in the A-Body line-up.
John Herlitz, who would later become Director of Chrysler Design, conveniently joined Chrysler after a short stint at GM, where he had seen the development of the ’68 GTO. That design continued on a theme started with the ’66 Olds Toronado, integrating its C-Pillar seamlessly between the lower body and the roof.
So how to do that with the Valiant body (or Dart, in the case of this picture), which had a very old-school “ledge” or character line that ran down the side, making the roof structure look like it was a slightly smaller box set on top of a bigger box.
Lots of clay; that’s how. Bulge out those hips, as if there were some giant drag slicks under them. As is clearly not the case with this one; but it did endear itself with the Big Wheel crowd. Well, that and lean back the windshield, and give it the most radically-curved side glass to date on a production car. Tricky, for the times, but Chrysler engineers were good at solving problems.
But a wider rear track sure would have helped. This one shows off the empty space under its hip-augmentation even more painfully.
Here we go; I knew I had a version with the right rear wheels somewhere in my files. And all of them are ’74s? Jeez, how many Dusters have I shot by now?
This was my first, a ’72, and one of the legendary 340s. A real speed freak, and my CC on it emphasized that aspect.
As well as the two layers of cord showing in the front tire. It was the best performance value for the buck at the time, by a good margin. Having done it justice (hopefully), we’ll stick to the Duster’s other qualities in this CC.
Like luxury. Presumably, that’s what the Gold Duster package was, at least for its time. It arrived mid-year in the 1970 model year, still a bit before the Great Broughamification of the compact class. That would come soon enough…
In early seventies parlance, a Gold Duster meant this, as shown: hardly loose-pillow velour and fake wood trim. Don’t ask what the basic Duster’s seats looked like; undoubtedly like the black taxi-cab seats in my Dad’s ’68 stripper Dart. Let’s just say they didn’t show it in the brochure.
The Plymouth marketing gurus got a bit carried away with the xxxDuster approach. A fold-down rear seat option was called the Space Duster Pak. Maybe they were using a bit too much dust themselves. But that was hardly the end of it.
In the Duster’s final year (1976), a Silver Duster also made the line-up. Love how that red accent band on its sides dips back up at the rear; classy.
But the Feather Duster has them all beat. In response to the energy crisis and the growing inroads of imports, the Plymouth engineers decided to show everyone what an economy-optimized American compact was capable of. Some 180 lbs were shed by using aluminum in certain body parts.
The 225 cubic inch (3.7 L) slant six got a smaller carb, a different advance curve in its distributor, a bigger exhaust for less back pressure, and a 2.8:1 rear axle. With the four-speed overdrive manual, it scored an EPA rating of 24/36. Pretty impressive, although those were the old un-adjusted EPA numbers. Maybe about 20/30 in today’s EPA numbers, or a tad less. Getting 25 mpg in a semi-decent-sized American car during the seventies was not exactly common.
The 198 inch slant six was standard for all Dusters through 1974, except the 340/360 versions. It used the raised block of the 225 inch version (which was optional), but had a shorter stroke. It was rated at 100hp, vs 110 for the 225. And the 318 was of course optional.
The Duster spun gold for Plymouth, with sales on a powerful upward trajectory, culminating in almost 300k units sold in 1974 (explains why I’ve encountered so many ’74s). But then Duster sales dropped like a gold ingot in ’75 and ’76, as folks were ready for something newer, or Japanese. The typical A-Body buyer undoubtedly found Toyota to be a logical next step in utility, simplicity and ruggedness, especially considering that Chrysler’s replacement for them was the ill-fated Volare/Aspen twins.
Solid gold, these cars were, until the hips played out. And it’ll probably be quite a while before these have all turned to dust again.
One of the few rare exceptions to the overwrought late 60s-70s designs, even though it is an economy model, or perhaps because of it.
In 1982 my first car was my Dad’s ’73 Duster. It was Gold with a black roof [but not a GOLD DUSTER :(] with a 318 V8! Great car that took a lot of abuse. After about a year the front tie rods were rotting and the front wheels began to cave in, we traded it in on a used 78 Omni, OY!!
I’d like to see one of our Photo-chop gurus make a sedan and wagon out of this car. Better space utilization might have held onto some of those sensible-shoe buyers after ’74.
I know that when I daydream about building an A-body racing skiff to dock by the Imp, I start with a Scamp or Swinger for more headroom and glass area.
Better space utilization might have held onto some of those sensible-shoe buyers after ’74.
But I wonder if that isn’t part of the problem: It seems as though aesthetically pleasing, flowing lines and good space utilization are mutually exclusive, although I’m sure there are some exceptions.
I had several of these cars….calling them Rusters when the tin worm hit. Lots of trunk space, decent economy for the price.
I always thought these were really dull, even back then. Zero appeal for me. I just thought the competing models from GM and Ford looked so much better.
Well, as it turns out the Duster was superior in every way to GM and FORD cars of that time.
That yellow one with the cord showing thru the tires says it all-The Methmobile.
I’d take one with a V8… for some unknown reason this post makes me really nostalgic for a time when coupes were very common.
Economy coupes, sport coupes, luxury coupes, muscle car coupes…
While not the most stylish cars out there at the time, these did have a nice look all their own. My Mom had a ’72 Gold Duster, brown with gold accents and interior and I think the matching gold vinyl top, at least partially anyway.
She got it in ’76, sold it in ’78 to replace it with a similar type brown used ’76 Vega kamback wagon, and yes, the car looked great in brown, so there.
Anyway, the basic looks of these were great, sadly, the interiors weren’t anything to write home about since they were lifted, pretty much straight across from their more conservatively styled sedans. The 2 doors looked less dowdy than the 4 doors, but neither were terribly stylish, but the Duster/Demon had the most style of these cars.
The basic coupe look still looks pretty good all these years later, I would contend that the Volare/Aspen twins coupes did much the same, as they were the best looking of that ill fated model(s).
While their underpinnings were nothing terribly exciting to write home about, gotta give ’em credit, they were bulletproof with their great motors, and torqueflite auto.
We had a 73 yellow duster with 225 six a/t no a/c I put brake fluid into the engine by mistake ,after a new engine the vehicle lasted until 1986 when it died after its last voyage to Maryland and to ny . I miss that car.
my mom’s first car was a Duster. It was pale green and I think it had the /6. She bought it new. There’s a picture of me standing in front of it as a toddler, but it disappeared before I was old enough to remember it. Rear main seal started weeping, my dad didn’t want to deal with it, and my grandma was going to buy a new car soon. Grandma bought a new LTD, my mom bought grandma’s Dodge Coronet, the Duster got sold. My mom says she saw it driving around town for a long time afterwards. Presumably the oil leak didn’t get appreciably worse, or the next owner got it fixed.
Speaking of Duster/Dart special editions, there was a real trippy one in 1974: The Dart “Hang-10”. It had the fold-down rear seat (to accommodate your surfboards, naturally). Exterior was white with special surf-themed graphics. Interior had bright red carpet and white bucket seats and door panels with red, blue and white striped inserts.
Like this?
Or this?
Yeah, that’s the one. I’ve seen two of them. They show up at the big Mopar car show I attend every year.
I loved the Hang 10 Dart Sport Coupe!! And I do remember the Gold Duster quite well. Old lady up the street had one . . . the same color green as the CC pictured, but with a half-vinyl (black) top.
I have mentioned in other posts, my step-mom at the time she came into our lives (and home) had the sleeper 318 ’72 Scamp. Same vinyl seat pattern as the above pictured car, but in a (very) attractive medium blue.
I remember a stripper ’74 Duster at the San Francisco Car Show; black rubber floor mats, dog dish wheel covers, belted blackwalls, three on the tree, radio delete, but the all vinyl plain-jane taxicab seats were color keyed (green) to the green paint job – again – like our CC car. Never did I again encounter such a plain-strippo car until I was in Grenada in ’83/New Years’ 84 (after the invasion). The car that was rented was a strippo ’79 or ’80 Datsun 120Y (the Datsun 210 in the U.S.) This car had no radio, heater, defroster, fan controls – vinyl seats and rubber floor mats. No tinted glass – no nothing except an automatic transmission. The dash was a sea of plastic delete/filler panels.
When I was 17 (early 80’s) and looking for my first car – a guy in town had a Duster for sale very similar to the yellow 340 shown above. My father and I went to look at it – the guy was asking over $3k for it. I thought it was great. My father said no way – too much for a car without A/C. Looking back I think he was just scared that I would get myself into too much trouble with a car like that – and used the non a/c fact as an excuse.
Mike – similar story for me when I was 17 in the fall of 1976 – and the Bank of Dad was going to finance – I was coming home with Mustang Fastbacks (including a ’71 with a 351 4-bbl Cleveland and four-speed), GTOs, a Skylark GS ragtop (’65 with a 400), a couple of Firebirds . . . . he (in retrospect, wisely) said “no way”. Choices then were down to two vehicles: a green ’66 VW Karmann-Ghia (Veale VW in Santa Rosa) and a ’74 slightly used Ford Courier pick up. The avatar is that pickup. Kept me out of speeding trouble as the Courier had 68 net, California smog chocked horsepower. Girls, though it was “cute” – so it paid off in ways I’d never imagined!
In summer ’76 I was looking for my “go to college” car. All that part time job money was burning a hole in my pocket. I looked at late ’60s Mustangs, Camaros and the like, and my dad as well said “no way”, but probably in a bit more colorful fashion. So I looked some more and found a lovely ’74 Mustang II silver w/lipstick red interior, a ’74 baby blue Duster very similar to the pic above, and a ’75 Monza Town Coupe. I chose the Monza to my never-ending regret.
My mom had a ’72 in True Blue with the slant six that she drove until the mid-’80s. My memory is a little fuzzy, but I seem to recall the base model seats weren’t that bad. Blue vinyl with plaid cloth inserts, if I’m remembering them correctly. Water leaks were eventually what led her to get rid of it. Every time it would rain, the footwells in the front would be soaked, and water collected in the trunk until the whole thing eventually rotted straight through. It’s too bad, because the body wasn’t that bad otherwise, and of course that slant six is probably still running today somewhere.
I’m pretty certain that the Feather Duster used the 225 cid Slant Six, the 198 version having been dropped after 1974.
It seems you’re right; I somehow had remembered it having the 198. I’ll fix the text.
The Dodge equivalent was the “Dart Lite”. I was visiting my Grandfolks the summer of 1976 and we went to a Family Motor Coach Association rally in southern Michigan (Sturgis, Michigan) – the organizers were giving away a maroon ’76 Dart Lite. I do know it had the 225 slant six . . . .and I believe (Zackman – heresy!) the rear windows were fixed (much like the strippo 1970 Dodge Challenger Deputy). Four speed on the floor overdrive. Belted whitewalls with dog dish wheel covers.
Of course, I didn’t win.
Of course, these Dart Lites and Feather Dusters were also n/a in California.
I spent a lot of time in these. My college roommate Dan (the son of my car-mentor Howard) had 3 of them. A blue 71 225/column 3 speed, a red 72 with 225/auto and a brown 73 with a 318 and a floor shifted 3 speed.
The blue 71 was a worn out pos. Howard was not happy that Dan (with my cheering from the side) had spent 400 perfectly good dollars on a worn out heap. In our defense, it was quite rust-free, and besides, nothing ever wears out on these, right?
The red 72 was the best of the lot. No drama, it just ran whenever we ever needed it.
The brown 73 was fiercely fast (I think a 340 might scare me) but had a carb issue. If you didn’t work the gas pedal just right the first time it tried to fire, it would grind the starter for an hour unless you sprayed a shot of starting fluid down the carb. Then it was fine. Howard got rid of that one.
Add in my very similar 71 Scamp, and I think I have the equivalent of at least a college minor in these. Rust has pretty well removed them from the scene in the midwest.
A brilliant move on ChryCo’s part, although it didn’t seem so much like it at the time. But these cars’ durability has silenced the doubters of that day. Plus I think the style only gets better with age.
Duster/Demon seem a little bit like the schoolmarm secretary who takes off her glasses and lets her hair down to reveal she’s quite the looker. Or the automotive “Georgy Girl” might be a better descriptor…
A little too brilliant, in fact. Lots of musclecar aficonados looking for a cheap, fast car took notice and the little 340 engine Valiant hotrod sold like ice on a hot day. Or, for the more practical, even the six-cylinder or 318 was a nice looking (albeit slower) way to get around.
For the low, low entry MSRP of $2549, one could get a nice-looking, bare-bones 340-powered coupe that would run with cars costing well over a grand more (quite a princely amount back in 1970). Unfortunately, the designed on-the-cheap Duster handily sucked-up (cannibalized) way too many of the much more expensive (and higher profit) E and B body Mopar sporty coupes to suit Chrysler execs. IOW, the Duster proved to be ‘too’ successful. In a supreme irony, the people responsible for the Duster weren’t exactly revered around Chrysler corporate hallways.
As to John Herlitz from Pontiac, it reminds me of an early design proposal for the fresh-from-the-ground-up 1970 E-body Barracuda looked so much like the 1968 GTO, it was rumored that GM threatened legal action.
Sadly, the video doesn’t seem to be available. 🙁
The F body Aspen/Volare were rushed to factories, since Ford was making hay with the Granada. But as with any ‘undercooked’ car, ended up with a bad rep and Mopar’s near death.
The basic RWD design did last til 1989, at least, so they got some profits from it.
I don’t know about that, being the record holder for recalls likely meant that the profits on most of them were wiped out with the costs of that and the warranty work they required.
For all the different V8-powered A-body cars I had, none of them was a Duster. But my 318 4-speed 1969 Valiant Signet coupe looked just like one from the inside, and the squarish old-folks look of the Signet combined with a lack of engine callout id’s to fool quite a few people. That little coupe was pretty fast.
Step Mother’s 318 ’72 Scamp was a mondo-sleeper. That regular (leaded) gas burning, baby Carter 2-bbl, Torqueflite ladies car who jump like a startled cat with a slight snap of the accelerator; I never had/drove an equivalent body style to that Scamp (Dart 340), but knew of a guy in Junior College that had a ’69 Dodge Dart 340 GT which was scary fast . . . . he stacked it up going way too fast into the Terra Linda northbound exit (San Rafael, Calif.) – said Dart became one with the ice plants missing an an overpass pillar by a matter of feet. Front suspension was tore up along with many State of California ice plants (which this guy had to pay back the state for re-doing the landscaping).
More amusing/or sad part of this story (on how you look at it) was, in the day, around 1977, this guy had beer in the cooler in back and had been drinking it; nothing alcohol offensively charged happened to him – CHP took the report, called the tow truck, and cited him for unsafe and excessive speed. He went to traffic court and had to pay for the landscape damage.
Cops in the day would pull us over, either confiscate our beer (!!) or make us pour them all out in the curb – and send us straight home!!
Where am I going with this? That the 318s were plenty quick in these cars and 340’s even more so – scary fast. “A” body, big block GM cars, and just about any Mustang (I beat a 351W Mach 1 by three car lengths) never had a chance . . .
I got on top of the concrete barricade/divider on I-40 E heading into Knoxville back in the 80’s in a torrential drownpour on balding tires. I mowed down a couple dozen of those green reflector strips on top of the divider. Sure enough, the state DOT sent me a bill.
Plymouth used the Duster name for 3 different cars after the A bodies. Volare’, Turismo and Sundance Dusters. Never the same again.
There was a restyle down under in 71 that stayed till the coffin closed in 82, that coulda been imported to the US if theyd bothered.
I had just wondered the other day why, when Aussie production of the prior model stopped in ’71 and demand for small(er) wagons here picked up, they didn’t bring the VG-VH wagon tooling up here.
Having been born in 1969 and seeing a ton of these as a kid (though I don’t think I ever rode in one), these cars say “70s” to me like nothing else…they never looked particularly great nor particularly bad, they were just part of the landscape. And then they all ended up in high school parking lots in around 1981.
I still remember seeing the new Valiant Duster at the 1970 Chicago Auto Show. Thought it was cool sporty ‘muscular’ Valiant coupe after seeing so many plain boxy ones since ’67. Also, loved the cartoon ‘dust-storm’ icon. [I was 8]
Paul, you’re right about all the “Dusters” . . . I recall the ’71 and ’71 Duster “Twister” (served the same purpose as the ’71 and ’72 Chevelle “Heavy Chevy” – no go showboats . . . well, if you had a 318 you did have SOME go – and Twisters had non-functioning hoodscoops); Feather Dusters, Gold Dusters, Silver Dusters Space Dusters.
No Dust-Buster-Dusters. We had to wait for ’89 and GM’s geeky 1st gen minivans for that!
In the 80s, Drove a V8 duster with 3 on the floor from a rent-a-wreck place after a catastrophic failure of my 75 rabbit. After a month driving it, they offered it to me cheap but it was just too agricultural so I passed. As I recall the rear suspension was really prone to skittering over rough roads if you drove at all fast.
Really wanted to like it but it was just too crude.
well, some of us like the rude and crude type american bulldog tough mopars. I have a 76 Duster 360 and it is a brute and is still going and going down the road to transpo infinity.
My Dad was a first class Mopar man. Probably because Grandma worked at the Kaiser(Willys) jeep factory in Toledo. But I guess he was ahead of his time as Chrysler didn’t buy out Jeep until later in the century but anyway, he was also partially responsible for me being the motorhead I am today. After his stint in the USAF he must have gotten a better paying job because about the time I was around five years young I can remember the families annual pilgrimage to the local Mopar dealers. My earliest memory of any specific brand of car we had was the old 62 or so Valiant sedan with me standing by while my mother clicked of a roll of 110 on her Brownie. I can distinctly remember them having an arguement about buying a Barracuda. My dad loved them but mom wanted something more pratical so they hung onto that Valiant for another year or so. Than when the new body style rolled out in 1967 they decided that it wasn’t any smaller than what they had so home we came in a copper with white bucket seat fastback. I thought we were something special as all I remember was that air cleaner said Commando and that meant it was fast! Than mom got a job and needed a car so than a 68 “Cuda joined the fleet. It was also copper. Than dad traded the 67 in on a leftover 69 after a salesman showed him a picture of the new 70 E-Body. All the fish were the same copper with white buckets and all were 4 gears.How cool was that? I mean mom could do a redline launch and catch rubber on the upshift! I assume the 69 may have been a 318 but I do know they weren’t uber rare Formula S’ or big blocks. Anyway dad saved the 69 for my older brother to drive when he turned 16 in 1976. It sat patiently waiting in our single car garage while us kids innocently put a few(lot!) door dings with our bikes or the occasional rake falling off the wall rack. Well my brother blew it big time IMO. When the time came he decided that the quasi muscle car wasn’t his style(?) and dad ended up parking it down on the corner gas station with a for sale sign on it. $300 and there was some lucky dog driving it to school the next monday. Oh well. Born to late again! My parents continued to be Ma and Pa Mopar as they were both selling real estate out of a pair of gold Plymouth and Dodge station wagons and later mom drove a New Yorker and dad started building houses with a small fleet of Dodge D-Series trucks. The family car for “us” teenagers was his 75 Coronet coupe with the torquey 400. I can remember making my buddys cough up gas money so we could spend all Friday cruising the strip in it. I’m guessing if my parents hadn’t been that successfull with thier finances there might have been a few A-Bodies in the fleet. Us kids certainly had enough friends that drove them. Quite a few of the wide hips(might be a late 70’s Stevie Nicks child bearing hip joke in there) models IIRC. I still see these showing up almost as frequently as the 70’s X-Cars in the junkyards.
My father had a 71 duster. Forrest green, vinyl interior and the little tornado sticker on the back. It was all very impressive to a 5 year old future gear head. What other car on earth had a cartoon tornado on the back?
Of course, in my zeal to begin working on cars, I decided one day to play gas station and put the garden hose in the gas tank. I don’t remember much from that day, but I do remember that the duster would not start the next day. Flash forward about 25 years and a thanksgiving dinner when the topic of old cars came up. My father relayed the story of once buying gas that turned out to be about 1/3 water. He cursed out the station at the end of the street and had to have the whole fuel system removed and dried out. But never until that day did he know that the real culprit was much closer to home…. Ah memories…
If these cars were produced today, these so called “compact” cars during those era would now be considered a full fledged full size cars. Remember that the 2012 Dodge Charger which is considered a full size car would be exactly give or take an inch or two will be almost identical to the exterior length dimensions of these Plymouth Valiant/Dodge Dart twins.
Oh God … This dredges up repressed memories of an absolutely beautiful 74 Duster 360 that I traded off on a new Dodge Omni in 1979.
I had a 73 Gold Duster and previously had a 63 Dodge Dart. Except for the solid-state ignition system of the Duster, the Dart was better in every way. By 73 the body was overweight and the brakes were atrocious. Both cars, however, suffered from the common slant 6 problem of not reaching operating temperature in cold weather.
That was what big sheets of cardboard in front of the radiator were for! On the plus side, the damned things were almost impossible to overheat.
That’s why parts stores sell replacement thermostats.
Never understood why someone (who owns his car, as opposed to a fleet beater) would just jam cardboard down there. First, it almost always shifts (yes, I did it when I was young and dumb and didn’t know my…never mind) and gets in the fan or makes a mess. Second, changing a thermostat is easy, if you prepare with an hour of reading Chilton’s and buying K-mart tools.
I did replace the thermostat, more than once, with a 195 degree version even. But in really cold weather, the car would struggle to maintain operating temp because the heater would be sucking heat out of the coolant almost as fast as the engine was producing it. And even on the hottest days, the temp gauge would live about 1/8 of an inch up from the bottom edge of the operating range. Those slant 6s were just cold blooded, that’s all.
My favorite “special edition” version of this body is the Dodge Dart Sport Convertriple
Is it just me or does the Nissan Altima (especially the 07-12) remind you of a modern version of these?
Never had one; never got close to one.
But for my money, the style is a winner. Certainly the design under the pretty skin is. But the combination of Grandma’s Valiant face, to a suddenly Camaro-ized body, complete with Bill Mitchell hips…it just appeals to that part of me that loves the kit-bash mode.
Pretty common vehicles in México, these Valiants now are jewels for car collectors in this country. They are even better wanted than their similar Dodge siblings, although the latter had in their time the higher price of the two. I have a 1971 Dart 2 door hard top and at the gas stations constantly the younger (but very young, 18-25 yo) attendants ask me “what make is it? Is it a Valiant?” Certainly, these models had more appeal than Dodge’s.
My first car was a 1974 Duster that I purchased from my brother-in-law’s grandmother for $900 (in 1986). It was a light silvery green, with dark green bench seat interior. It had the 225 1bbl slant 6, automatic trans, and under the dash A/C (which worked great!), power steering & power disc brakes.Other than that it was pretty much a plain jane model. Mine didn’t have the fold down seat option.
My best friend had a Feather Duster at the same time, and I remember it having aluminum front & rear bumpers, I don’t know if it also had aluminum front fenders,door skins, and hood/trunk lid or not. I do remember his was a totally stripped version with rubber flooring instead of carpet, no heater or A/C, no radio, and bucket seats that looked like they might have come from the B-100 van series…really thin & plain. He did get better gas mileage than mine did, and it was faster than mine too, until I blew the original engine and replaced it with a Super 6 from a ’79 Diplomat…lol
I also ran across a Hang-10 Dart, this one equipped with a factory sunroof, and 4 speed manual. It was in a junkyard and the yard owner wouldn’t sell it… I tried for over a year to buy it from him. It was running & complete, and he was saving it to restore for his personal collection.
I bought a ’75 dart sport with 83k, all original, golden fawn, slant six, auto, a/c. But the real kicker is the interior. It has the
“Caravan Tan” interior which has desert hue horizontal striped seats and vertical striped side panels. Does anyone know how rare this option was? I herd it was a mid- year offering.
Hey Steve,
I just bought a 1974 1/2 Caravan Tan here in my home town of Halifax Nova Scotia Canada..
Nobody even knew what the car was including myself…until the day it arrived at my house on a deck truck and it had the original back seat sitting in the trunk …when I asked the previous owner what it was he said it’s just ugly …lol
Here is a pic of the car as it sits now not restore just out of 30 years of storage
please if you could send me some pictures of the interior i would like to see what its suppose to look like…someone change this one over to black interior but still has the gold dash white headliner and the original back seat came with so i’m looking for off white buckets and ordering gold carpet just need to see what the door panels were like. …And I think these cars are pretty rare as not many folks know much about them.
My parents had a Gold Duster, slant 6, not a bad car, Mom was not the best driver what she put that Duster through was amazing…..why use the brakes when you could take out curbs, hydrants …to.slow you down… I was scared to let her drive me anywhere in bad weather…mom finally gave up driving…. the Duster gave good service…replaced with a Horizon.
A little too large in the posterior for me. I’ll take a ’67 Valiant.
i bought a 1970 340 duster ,put on a 6pac and 4 speed and 391 gear, wasnt any ford or chevy small blocks that could touch me , i even gave the 383s, and gto 389 more hell than they wanted,saywhat you will about them rusting, how many 70 model chevys and mustangs do you see running the roads, i bought a 73 350 malibu for my wife, in the 1st year you could throw a cat thru the rust holes , and by the time it got 70000 miles on it, it used as much oil as it did gas, im 61 years old and had nothing but mopar products the last 40 years, just got rid of a 2002 dakota with 292000 mi, i put 2 sets of brakes ,a water pump and rear axle bearings is all i done in 12years, so i stick with mopar, i have a 74 duster, 2003, durango,2011 dakota and 2000 jeep classic and all run fine, wish i could say that for the 67 mustang,the 1983 ford ranger and chevy malibu i had over the years, my brother just had the engine blow in a 2013 chevy avalanche, he bought a 2015 ford 150 crew cab , been in the garage more than on the road, and his wife had so much trouble with her 2014 altima, with 20000 mile she traded for a 2016 durango….. just saying
Why all the (barely disguised) sarcasm for this car, Paul?
Ford had the Falcon, which was re bodied into the Maverick, which was made over and marketed into the Granada, wayyy into the late 1970’s.
Chevy hung in with there (barely) rebodied Nova into the mid 1970’s.
Properly optioned (318/340 V8 engine, Torqueflite automatic tranny, power steering, power disc brakes, factory A/C, whatever nicer, upscale interior and exterior chrome package being offered) the Valiant 4 door/Duster coupe was a much superior car to the Falcon clones or Nova in performance, price and fuel economy.
Sarcasm? I was dead serious, as I always am. 🙂
Just as I am. 🙂
My parents bought one of these new in GOLD. Slant six, basic, basic.!It was reliable, never broke down, AM radio. Point A to point B. Sold it after 7 or 8 years, traded it in on a new Plymouth Horizon…..big,big mistake….traded the Horizon in for a Ford Escort….bigger mistake.
My 1972 Gold Duster in brown with gold vinyl roof and accents looked sharp and with its 318 V8, was quick (and easy to retune for performance instead of emissions).
The rounded Duster roof also greatly reduced wind noise around the boxy A-pillars of the Valiant/Dart sedan. It was quieter than the A-body sedans I owned, largely due to teduced wind roar.
The Duster was, in a way, the last and most successful Chrysler fuselage body design. But as the luxury compact market burgeoned, the original 1967 four door sedan body with its formal, squared rear and “little limo” look could have made its mark, too. But by then the larger, “slant rear” design had superceded it. But it was admittedly roomier inside though looking less elegant.
I’ve always liked the two door post Valiants…they just scream “I want to be a drag racer ” to me….:)
In 1975 and 1976 The “Dart Special Edition” & the “Valiant Brougham”, based on the 2 door “Swinger” hardtop and 4 door pillared sedan, gave these upscale Mopar models thick carpeting, wood grained dashboards and door panels, velour seating, comprehensive sound deadening, exterior vinyl tops, added chrome trim and other “Broughamification” details.
When combined with the under-rated 318V8/3 speed Torqueflite automatic powertrain, these were quite pleasant and peppy “compact’ cars with usable back seats and spacious trunks.
I always wanted to experience one of those Broughams from the inside. I was used to the more typical Mopar skimping on interior materials and sound deadening. My scamp was so much nicer after I sprayed a couple of aerosol cans of that thick black undercoating on the floor under the back seat.
One of these cars with some real sound insulation and a nice level of upholstery (that involved door panels made from something more than hardboard and (wrinkly) heat-seamed vinyl) could have made for a nice ride.
My great-aunt and former C-P dealer got a ’74 Dart SE as her last car, replacing the ’67 Belvidere II she bought when we closed the dealership. It’s been a long time, but I can remember the fancy wheelcovers and the lush, but kind of odd upholstery which was a bit loose. Unlike the really taut and durable dark brown corduroy in my mom’s 85 LeBaron Town and Country a couple of Brougham generations later.
“And Plymouth didn’t shy away from that association: here’s the (now) rare 1968 Valiant Whirlpool edition, available in white, avacado or harvest gold. No ice maker, though.”
That gave me a good chuckle. I still miss my 68 Valiant Signet – never once let me down…
My mother had a Duster of this era in Puke Green. She said it was something of a lemon. The way the car met its end was unique: Mom ran it out of gas and parked it safely on the shoulder of the Interstate to go get help. When she and a friend returned with the gas perhaps 30 minutes later, the Duster was totaled – someone had smashed into it and taken off – no note, no nothing. When Mom told me the story, though, it wasn’t with any bitterness; I think she was glad to be rid of the thing.
My BFF Bill had a brown 74 Gold Duster. Managed to fit a refrigerator in the trunk for his new apartment.
All that size and no rear legroom, less than 30″ according to the specs. Less than the same era’s Ford Pinto.
Left him stranded with some sort of carb problem on his way to pick up his Grandfather from LAX, who subsequently took the bus home and was killed by a hit and run driver as he was walking home crossing Hollywood Blvd late that night.
To this day his family still blames HIM for their Grandfather’s death, 30 years later.
Not a pleasant memory of that car.
Dad bought a new stripper ’74 Duster in Forest Service Green, in and out. 225 3 on tree, I installed an AM/FM Cassette and 2 door speakers. High 20’s on highway, he put lots of highway miles quickly on it. It was problem free, sold it when his interstate sales job was over and Mom didn’t like having no AC, manual shifter and no PS. Replaced with a ’77 Dodge Aspen 4 door sedan that was loaded except for 225 engine. This car was a total dog and got much worse MPG, really needed a 318, the ’74 ran much better. I think he paid around $2500 brand new for the ’74 Duster.
I read somewhere that the Feather Duster/Dart Lite were favorites with drag racers for their light weight parts. They’d buy them, then transplant in a 340 (or even big-block) drivetrain. It was sort of the Mopar version of the seventies’ SBC Vega.
I always associated Novas with Dusters, especially in their proclivity for being painted that avocado green. I had a ’71 Nova–very bullet proof. Am I wrong about the similarity between the Duster and the Nova? What about with Ford? Fill in the blank: “The Duster is to the ___________(Chevy) as it is to the ____________(Ford). Thank you in advance!
I’ve always rather liked the Duster, for reasons that I’m not entirely sure of. Something about it just looks sort of right. It also accomplishes a neat visual trick of looking significantly larger than its Valiant progenitor. Guess it’s the hips and the rear overhang, but it seems a good size class bigger.
There were Dusters (and their Dodge relatives : Demon [1971-1972] and Dart Sport [1973-1976] ) everywhere when I was a kid . Heck , even the City of Whittier held onto their fleet of them through 1990 !
My 2nd car was a 1973 Duster with the ‘Gold’ Package . It was TB3 Basin Street Blue ( quite close to [Richard] Petty Blue) , black interior , black stripes , black 3/4 vinyl top .
318 / 727 (a ‘factory upgrade’ — no A-904-LA transmissions available when the car was built , so an A-727-A was substituted ) , 8.25″ rear with 2.76 gear .
Power Disc Brakes (disc brakes were standard with the 318 , or when Sure Grip was ordered) , Power Steering .
Ice cold Air Conditioning ( oh, how I miss the days of REAL refrigerant : R-12 !! ) .
I added a factory AM-FM radio , which I wired to the aftermarket rear speakers which the prior owner added in c.1974 .
I bought it for $70 in February 1992 .
It got totaled out on 11 Sept 1992 when some arse ran a traffic light and plowed-into my beloved Duster .
( Its V.I.N. was ‘VL29G3B375353’ … just in case anyone happens to see it in a ‘restructured’ state 😉 … )
Hey I still remember the VIN for my 74 Dart Sport. LL29C4B139311. I sold it in 1983, regretfully.
I remember those heavy seats – you pushed the button on the side to allow entry to the rear seats, but then if you just let the seat back go, it would crash heavily back into position. Most passengers could have cared less, but when driving alone, the damn seat back on the passenger side would vibrate from all that banging and crashing.
The John Herlitz connection is an interesting one, as his first effort at Chrysler was the Barracuda SX, a showcar that looked a lot like what would be the 1968 GTO, up to including a loop bumper that looked like a chrome Pontiac Endura rubber bumper. The story goes that GM didn’t like the similarity (Herlitz had just left GM for Chrysler) and flexed their legal muscle to squash any thoughts Chrysler might have had to put the SX into production.
So, did Herlitz get the last laugh when the 1970 E-body went for a ’67-’69 Camaro look, while the Duster took on a ’68-’69 Lemans roofline?
In many ways, the Duster was the real successor to the first-gen Mustang. Plain-Jane compact underpinnings with a sporty profile, a wide range of options, especially for the performance minded, affordably priced, yet not so amped up to warrant prohibitive insurance.
One of my neighbors traded in their ’67 Galaxie 500 sedan on a new Gold Duster. Aside from noticeable sagging when three of the rather large family members filled the rear seat, it looked good and held up well.
At same time, most Dusters were just daily drivers, many with slant 6. Like Novas with 6’s. Just nowadays, many are resto-modded with V8’s with splashy paint and trim to ‘clone’ the 340 versions. Leading to some thinking “all Dusters were muscle cars”. And no, they didn’t come with Hemis, 😉
Every time I see these US Valiants and Darts, I’m amazed at the degree of autonomy that Chrysler Australia was allowed during this period.
But we’re talking about Dusters here. I don’t have a ’74 of any stripe, let alone a Gold Duster, but here’s a ’71.
Beautiful work as usual Peter. I’m starting to like the colours and options on your models, as much as the subject cars. 🙂
Thanks Daniel! Here’s another.
As with the green one, I took (quite) some liberties with the interior colours.
Love it! The underhood detailing is superb. Very nice Renault as well. Colour choices are always excellent.
Australia had stringent local-content laws, and was halfway round the planet from Detroit, so there would’ve been scanty reason to duplicate the US designs just because they and their tooling already existed. As long as stuff had to be tooled and built there in Australia, it was best for business to suit the design to local needs and wants.
One upshot of this was that when Chrysler Australia sent some Valiants and Chargers to the US and asked the mothership for evaluation and input on how to improve their handling at some point in the 1970s, the mothership’s response was that they’d never encountered Chryslers that handled as well as the Australian cars, as sent.
Yes, local print media picked that one up. Supposedly they said the Valiant we sent them was the best handling intermediate they’d ever driven. I always wondered whether that was a bit of a veiled snark: the Valiant is/was a compact…..
I think you’re right with your comment that without these cars, Chrysler would have been in trouble financially much sooner. I could never understand why they didn’t have a car that looked like a Pinto or a Vega, to draw in subcompact customers. I know they didn’t have the cash to develop such a car, so they brought in the Horizon/omni instead, but those cars were more upright. At the time I think North Americans wanted their subcompacts to look the same proportions as the bigger cars, just in a smaller package.
All this is not to say the gambit would have worked, but I still see it is a miss by Mopar.
As was ditching the Duster and Dart Sport for the Volarepens. They should have kept the names, updated the styling, given it better suspension, and kept the Dusters and Darts going. Maybe even the Scamps and Dart sedans too, by better integrating the greenhouse with the body.
The Omni/Horizon weren’t “brought in”—not the way the Cricket and Colt were. The European Talbot/Simca Horizon and the American Plymouth-Dodge cars diverged pretty early and significantly in the development; good writeup by a relevant Chrysler engineer who was there is here.
Interesting to note then the Duster in South Africa was sold as the Valiant Charger.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/ifhp97/49438222607
However the South African Charger didn’t got the Hemi 6 from the Australian version.
The South African Chrysler range was an interesting mix of American and Australian cars and parts. The US Dart rebadged as a Valiant; the US Duster rebadged as a Charger, and…well, here.
As to the Hemi-6 not leaving Australia/New Zealand: yeah, the Australian Valiants exported to South Africa (maybe also elsewhere) had the 225 Slant-6 or the LA V8. I don’t know why they did that; I’m guessing it was at the request of Chrysler South Africa, who might have considered the 225—particularly in its interesting South Africa-only configurations—adequate for the local needs and wants, and might not have wanted the expense and hassle of stocking a bunch of new parts and training a bunch of mechanics on a new engine.
From what I read on this text, it’s was due to local content requirements.
https://www.allpar.com/threads/the-desoto-rebel-and-valiant-rebel.229674/
And interesting to note then the Hillman Avenger aka Plymouth Cricket was sold in South Africa with a Peugeot engine due to local content. Could we said it was a foreshadowing of things to come? 😉
I do see the claim about the Peugeot engine in the Avenger, but I don’t see anything in the article you linked suggesting South African Valiants had the Slant-6 rather than the Hemi-6 on account of local-content requirements, one.
Two, Allpar is notoriously un-fact-checked.
Chrysler didn’t have to look too far for inspiration for their 1976 Plymouth Volare and Dodge Aspen station wagon tail light design. Essentially, the Duster’s design turned vertically. Including the chrome surround, with matte black inserts.
Side-by-each, they aren’t close to alike unless the criterion is super vague, like “more or less sorta rectangular with a chrome/black surround”.
Sorry. The chrome surrounds, with matte black inserts, are the same look and feel. One is concave, the other convex. The thin chrome pinstripes on the lenses are the same style. The three pane lenses match-up in size (generally). With the white lens in the same location. One could have easily have inspired the other. Basic design is near identical. 🙂
Eh. There are similarities in the general design, but no, I’m still not onside with basic design is near identical. For that, I turn to ’72-’80 Dodge and ’08-’13 Ford pickup truck taillights:
What’s the different between me using ‘basic design’, and you using ‘general design’?
Make the lens look more similar, and the designs have a distinct family resemblance. I’d say, one most likely inspired the other. Yes, in terms of maintaining a corporate look.
Family resemblance, yes, we’ve agreed from the start. But that’s as far as it goes for me. If you’re having fun photochopping ’em and going “See?!”, though…enjoy!
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
You never mentioned ‘family resemblance’ initially. Rather, ‘they aren’t close’. Big difference! They were clearly trying to make them look similar, as other Chrysler products from that era used the same basic chrome surround with the matte black insert. That is a huge component of them looking so much alike. Same with the chrome pinstriping in the lens.
That’s three or four more interior-colour options at the economy end of the product range in the early 1970s than one gets these days even at the high end of the product range.
…and an aluminum intake manifold, the first factory-installed one since the first-year 1960 Slant-6 engines.
I can maybe put up with that weirdness, but that downzag of the lower body line ahead of the rear wheelwell has just never worked for me, and the accent band just makes it more conspicuously ugly. On this Silver Duster, the accent band in total reminds me of not-very-careful exhaust pipework.
I once read that the auto styling term for those hips was ‘double-diamond’, essentially the slight flairing of both the front and rear fenders, with one of the most superb examples being the classic 1968-70 Dodge Charger. In the case of the Duster, it was more like ‘single diamond’.
In any event, the Duster’s quarter panels seem analogous to how a woman’s hips can be exceptionally attactive when young but as they age, they become less so.
That seems to be what happened to the Duster’s styling: very attractive in the beginning, but by the mid-seventies, not so much anymore.
I think it’s one of those subtle details that shouldn’t be accented, using female analogies it’s more like a pretty women who wears way too much makeup that in effect makes her less attractive. I like the lines on the duster, but the more natural the better.
Other car I’ve found that same detail less flattering on is the 67 GTO, 66s had that same dip impressed into the sheetmetal but the 67s had these huge chrome accent cladding in that area to exaggerate it, I like some of the changes for 67 (the taillight panel) but that looks less and less good the longer I look at it. The Charger execution of the double diamond theme is apples and oranges, the way it extended all the way into the front of the door terminating in the grooves was a stroke of genius, it’s both exaggerated and subtle at the same time
It was/is quite amazing to me that the Duster and the Valiant shared the same basis chassis and unibody. None of the lines are the same from the cowl forward. That must have been quite a tooling budget! Still, one of the few Chrysler successes post-fuselage. One has to maybe think that the “boy-racer” clientele of many of these may have eventually turned off the clientele they were really after – the secretary after a “sporty car, but practical”. A similar mistake like that is what did in Pontiac, I contend – after their peak in the 2000’s, people associated Pontiac’s with boy-racer body-moldings and the folks who bought them.
All of the lines are the same from the cowl forward. From the beltline down, all of the lines are the same forward of the rear edge of the door. From the outermost crease down, the lines are the same clear to the rear of the car.
“… turned off the clientele…” Huh?
Actually, lots of low-performance Dusters sold, with slant 6 or 318. Commercials had actress Judy Strangis as “Mean Mary Jean” to appeal to young women, promoting the sun roof and folding rear seat. Appealed to many folks, not just ‘boy racers’.
Not all Dusters were the 340 “muscle cars” and not in same market segment as Mustang/Camaro. The E body Cuda was the Plymouth ‘pony car’.
Once on the used car market, then Duster/Dart were popular ‘budget builds’ in Hot Rod and Car Craft magazines.
It’s interesting how automotive likes and dislikes can change as we grow up (debatable) and get older (unfortunately concrete). As a kid growing up in the mid 1980’s forward, I never liked any of these A bodies very much. In my mind, they had this aura of poverty about them, often being owned by families who were down and out. As such, the cars were often dirty and battered, with many of their owners living far off the beaten path. And they had those weird sounding starters.
An early encounter was a 1968 Dart that always arrived to pick up one of my older schoolmates when I was in kindergarten. It was a dark blue 4 door that was heavily used, and was missing its right rear side marker light. Like, there wasn’t even a hole where one would go. Did they forget to put one in at the factory? Did the owner perform body repairs and not install one, even though there was a plug right there for it? How could they be so careless?? Yes, I was a weird little kid. One of the last hangers on was a Crop Duster, or rather a 1969 Dart hardtop in olive green, that steadfastly refused to die. This car was equipped with windows too dirty to see out of, looking like they had 30 years worth of cigarette smoke smeared into the glass. It also had sagging rear springs, a faded safety orange flag atop a long fiberglass pole that was attached to the rear bumper, and one of those bend-it-yourself tailpipes that poked upward instead of downward at the bumper. This emitted ever larger quantities of blue smoke as the car doddered around town well into the mid 2000’s. It usually could be found at the big casino near my place of work, from dusk til dawn, for the first couple weeks of every month. Not sure if the owner outlasted the Dart, or if it was the other way around.
So I never really noticed the hip augmentation on the later cars pictured here, but now I could picture myself in one. Quite easily. And that unmistakable starter sound would be icing on the cake.
My grandmother owned a pair of Plymouth Dusters in the ’70’s-early ’80’s, before I came along. She loved them though and still talks about them. The first one she had was blue and her father called her “blue streak” because of her notorious lead foot as he said “All you see when Susan goes by is a blue streak”
After the blue Duster came a brown Duster and he said “Well, I’m not calling you brown streak because that just doesn’t sound right.” Haha.
Never owned, but seems like I rode or drove in a couple. Inoffensive styling, cramped back seat, but with that 340 engine, hold on when the loud pedal gets pushed. Seemed like a forgettable, but not bad, car, with a transformative engine option.
I’m fonder of Fords than Chryslers, but those things wouldn’t embarrass a 302 Maverick, they would humiliate them.
Ford faced a real dilemma with the Maverick. Designated as the replacement for the Falcon (which it was based upon), it was initially a stop-gap solution to having a competitor to the growing VW Beetle market, and was actually priced as such in the beginning. Those early 1970 cars released in April, 1969, had an MSRP of $1995, a 170 ‘Thriftpower’ I6, and were real strippos without so much as a glove box lid (just a shelf). Real basic machines (the old ‘seats and a steering wheel’ type car) to do battle with a similarly priced Beetle.
That problem resolved itself somewhat when the Pinto arrived to take on the Vega and Beetle and the Maverick was moved up to its proper compact place against the Nova and Mopar A-body, but the damage had been done to the Maverick; although ‘brand-new’, it was the smallest of the Big 3 (+ AMC) compacts.
But the bigger dilemma was the Mustang. GM had a big enough slice of the market that they could have a compact musclecar Nova, along with the Camaro. Further, the 3rd generation Nova coupe wasn’t exactly a looker and, unlike over at Chrysler with the swoopy Duster, there didn’t seem to be too much cannibalization between the Nova and Camaro.
Ford certainly didn’t want the same kind of Mopar situation with a 351 Maverick eating into higher-profit Mustang sales. It would have been quite easy, too, considering how Bunkie Knudson’s 1971 Mustang at least had the appearance of being quite a large car.
In that regard, more than a few prospective Mustang buyers would have surely went for a cheaper, faster 351 Maverick, instead, exactly the same as Mopar musclecar buyers saved a bundle by going with a Duster 340 instead of a higher priced (but no faster) E-body.
The bottom line is that a compact Maverick musclecar just wasn’t in the cards.
I think there was an interesting parallel with the Duster and the Australian Charger.
Both were basically hardtops with fixed or at least pivoting rear passenger glass, both had identical front sheet metal as the sedans.
And I know the Charger was a last minute spinoff from the VH range by Chrysler Australia managing director David Brown, because he knew the long wheelbase US designed coupes were going to be a dud for our market.
I think I have read the Duster was created in similar circumstances, and both were hugely popular although the Charger’s popularity was kind of brief, it accounted for almost 50% of Valiant sales early in its life, and without it Chrysler Aust. future would have been uncertain far earlier than it ended up being.
Back when I were a punk high school kid I would’ve loved to have a Duster as my daily ride. Alas, living in the Midwest where salting the roads in winter was a daily occurrence whatever examples were left a decade past their heyday were quite rusty indeed.
However this fall I did stumble across a 1974 Duster parked at a rather, er, shady, car dealer two towns over.
Bright screaming yellow paint with a 1970/71 Duster 340 “blackout” hood and front fender treatment. I suspect that given this car is on aftermarket wheels the paint job and screaming yellow hood scoop are aftermarket as well. Inside the interior showed a bench seat and column shifted automatic transmission. $15K, which isn’t unreasonable for a nearly (gulp) fifty year old car.
Loved Valiants and Dart. Loved Dusters.
Loved those Leaning Tower of Power sixes and the 318 V8s.
But not the Chrysler full size cars.
Not the Chrysler intermediates.
Just the A bodies.
Yes, by 1974, the 7 year old A body was old looking. Chrysler needed a replacement badly. Sadly, somehow that need was understood to mean, “we need a bad replacement” in the form of the Volare/Aspen.
Us A-body fans didn’t want an entirely new car built like a British Leyland product – we just wanted a new modern design on the A-body. Keep the good parts and update the sheet metal – why was that so hard?
I suppose we ought to be very grateful that Chrysler DIDN’T “fix” the A-bodies before 1971 – or we would have ended up with those horrible Volare/Aspen lemons in 1971.
Frustrating how you can love a car company with products like the Valiant/Duster/Dart and watch if completely flop like it did. It was painful to watch for us.
I thought the cleaner lines, and more modest rear on the ’75 Nova, made Dusters look so dated. A tighter body all around.The Duster looked straight out of the 60s. Which, it was.
Now compare this ’75 Nova to the Aspen/Volare coupé. Since we’re talking lately about cribbing!
While I often show a soft bias towards Chrysler products, as my dad bought several, I do prefer the ’75-’79 Nova styling to the F-Bodies. Both in four door, and coupe versions.
Loved the F-body wagon design at the time, but found the coupes and sedans generally milquetoast in their styling. The Monteverdi Sierra showing how modern and clean the F-Body sedans should/could have looked. Significant improvement, on what Chrysler attempted IMO.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/monteverdi-sierra-the-plymouth-volare-gets-some-italian-tailoring/
The European styling influence, was a tasteful improvement.
My dad owned a ’78 Aspen wagon, and the modular instrument cluster and steering wheel design, reminded me, of the cluster and steering wheel on the 1970 Buick Electra 225.
See, for yourself.
I never, ever liked any of the F-bodies. I’ve always thought they’re just plain ugly, all of them on any bodystyle, at a fundamental level that not even a pretty thorough Euro-makeover (Monteverdi) fixes for me completely, though yes, the Monteverdi makes a bunch of improvements.
Leaving age and everything else aside, the ’67-’76 Dart design appeals to me; the ’76-’80 F-body does not. And then I look at the ’77 Caprice design and go Okeh, so there was no reason why a car of that era »had« to be ugly in these ways I perceive on the F-bodies, or I look the Colonnade wagons and the Fairmont wagons and go okeh, so it’s not that I don’t like »wagons« of that era, and…yeah. I do not see or appreciate the design merits of the F-body Mopars.
(Now lookit ’75 Nova front face vs. ’72 Dart!)
If the ’72 Dart inspired the nose on the ’75 Nova, I do think Chevrolet improved upon it. Making it more commercial and graphic, with wider appeal.
Biggest problem I had with the F-bodies, was Chrysler did not advance enough from the A-bodies, other than attempting to market them as ‘luxury’ compacts. Even though base Aspens and Volares, could remain very spartan. The F-body wagon did fill a large void in the small wagon market. At least for a couple years. I believe, they were the top selling wagon in the US in 1976. The wagons offered good cargo capacity, in a manageable size. With great visibility, and lots of options. But, they needed to be lighter, with better mileage. 3,800 lbs. was heavy for a compact wagon. With much better quality control, and build quality, of course.
The faux Mercedes grille, and formal nose of the Volare coupe with a traditional Duster-style coupe body, contrasted badly. And the sedans were just very bland looking. Looked like generic taxis, from the beginning. Even in Premier and Special Edition trim. Chrysler really needed to push the envelope further on the F-bodies. As I and others have said, in the end, Chrysler could have saved millions, by thoroughly updating the Dart and Valiant. Why the F-bodies were obsolete against the Fairmont and Citation, within 2-3 years. The poor recall record and bad reliability, just reinforced, how terribly executed they were. Though my dad’s ’78 Aspen wagon served him well until 1991, without serious rust, in Ontario’s salt. Unlike you, who thought they were bad until 1980, I do think the F-bodies were improved after 1977.
1975 model year was hurt by rising prices and many cars getting catalytic converters, and needing unleaded gas. So, middle class buyers kept their wallets closed, for a time. Many A bodies were just driven into the ground into the 80’s. ChyCo’s Super Bowl ads with ‘buy a car, get a check’, started rebates for decades.
1976 MY was like the gold rush, buyers ‘got used to’ gas prices and wanted new cars, especially PLC’s.