(first posted 5/15/2012) If you grew up in the Seventies, you know this car. You know it very well. If any one car could best define that wild and crazy decade, the Chrysler Cordoba may be it.
The Cordoba was Mopar’s answer to the burgeoning personal luxury car market. For years, Chrysler Division had a “no small cars” policy and thus the entire lineup was land yachts. But after the muscle car era faded in the early ’70s, it was replaced with personal luxury cars such as the Pontiac Grand Prix, Chevy Monte Carlo and Oldsmobile Cutlass Supreme. Chrysler did not have an entry in this new and hot market. Something had to be done. The 1975 Cordoba, advertised as “the small Chrysler”, was the answer.
The Cordoba originated as a premium Plymouth coupe, but as it was nearing completion (with its sibling the Dodge Charger SE), Ma Mopar decided that it would sell better – and at a greater profit – as a Chrysler. The ’75 model had all of the mid-1970s Brougham/luxury car cues: shag carpet, power everything, opera lamps and available wire wheel covers. And let us not forget the soft Corinthian leather! Buckets and a console were also there for the taking.
The Cordoba was based on the B-body Plymouth Fury and Dodge Coronet, but had unique sheetmetal, a 114.9 inch wheelbase, and the longest doors in the industry, at 58.5″ long. It also had several “neoclassic” features, the most obvious being the headlamps and parking lamps being set into tunneled pods. While it was meant to recall classic cars of the 1930s, there was more than a passing resemblance to the contemporary Jaguar XJ6 and XJ12 sedans. A two barrel, 150 hp 318 was standard, with Torqueflite automatic transmission. A 400 V8 was available for an extra $73.
While the Dodge Charger Special Edition (the standard Chargers were basically Coronet coupes) was virtually identical to the $5581 Cordoba, it did not sell near as well as its corporate cousin. The flossier interiors and snob appeal of the Chrysler led to 150,105 Cordobas vs. 30,812 Charger SEs in their inaugural year, despite a much lower price of $4903. It just wasn’t as Broughamy enough, apparently. Plus, Ricardo Montalban didn’t do any Dodge commercials.
The Cordoba was Chrysler Division’s only bright spot for 1975, as sales of New Yorkers and Newports slid by 12% from 1974. Cordobas made up 60% of total 1975 Chrysler production. It was the right car at the right time.
Cordobas were engineered in typical Mopar fashion, with unibody construction and front torsion bar/rear leaf spring suspension. An optional Sure-Grip differential helped keep Corbobas from getting stuck in the snow. Chrysler wisely chose to not mess with success. The 1976 Cordoba was virtually identical, but sported a simple vertical bar grille instead of the ’75’s busier version.
While 1976 sales were not quite as wonderful as 1975’s figure, it was still very good, with over 120,000 sold. It was Chrysler’s hot new product, and very different from the New Yorker Broughams, Town & Countrys and Newports it shared showrooms with.
While even the basic Cordoba was very comfortable, there were naturally many, many optional comfort, convenience and appearance options. While all Cordobas came with opera windows and an opera lamp on the B-pillar, a “halo” full vinyl roof or landau roof could be added. I doubt many Cordobas were delivered with the standard steel roof.
I first spotted our featured Cordoba on Easter, as I was returning home from my parents’ house. It was dark, but I spotted it immediately. I haven’t seen one of these in probably twenty years, so I returned the very next day for pictures. But it was gone. Several days later, I finally spotted it again, in the very same spot. It is in remarkably nice shape.
The ’76 is my favorite year of Cordoba. I like the simple vertical bar grille much better than the overdone ’75 and ’77 grilles. It hits all the Brougham-era luxury cues: landau roof, wire wheel covers, Spanish-doubloon type emblems, opera lights, and opera lamps. Could it have fine Corinthian leather?
No, but this is clearly a 1970s luxury car interior. This was one of the several optional interiors (other choices included brocade, velour or leather), dubbed “Castillian” by Chrysler. It was apparently the industry’s first Jacquard interior upholstery, formulated no doubt by leisure suit-attired scientists.
Cordoba’s appearance was little-changed for the 1977 model year, with the expected grille and tail light revisions. A new Crown landau top was introduced, however. Shown above, it featured a different window treatment and an illuminated band on the B-pillar. I would have loved to see a Crown-roofed Cordoba at night; it must have looked pretty cool all lit up!
Again as usual, Mr. Montalban was the official Cordoba spokesman. He would remain in Chrysler advertising even after the Cordoba was discontinued in 1983. Does anyone else remember the Chrysler Crystal key commercials he did in the 1980s?
Walking around this car, it’s hard for me to imagine this being advertised as “the small Chrysler”. But it was small when parked next to a New Yorker Brougham. And it’s much more svelte than the ’74 T-Bird I had photographed a week earlier.
1977 was the last year the Cordoba wore its attractive tunneled headlights and parking lamps. 1977 was also the Cordoba’s best production year, with 183,146 produced.
I can’t help but wonder where this car came from. It was absolutely mint. I haven’t seen one of these in a long time, and even twenty years ago most of them were major rustbuckets. A nearby neighbor had a nice navy blue ’78 or ’79, but other than that one, every Cordoba I saw was really worn out. Someone really loved this car, and it shows.
As for the Cordoba itself, a questionable facelift in 1978 (CC here) resulted in stacked quad headlamps and flatter, plainer tail lamps. While not bad looking, the 1975-77 was much more attractive in my opinion. The facelift also had the unfortunate effect of making the car look a lot like a 1976-77 Monte Carlo, at least from the front. Sales dipped to 124,825, but how much of that was due to its styling is questionable, as Chrysler was sliding into one of its periodic crises.
These Cordobas just screamed the 1970s personal luxury Brougham era, and may well be the only car non-automotive people will remember. Just say “Corinthian leather” and they will know what you’re talking about!
This car is so maddening to me on so many levels. First, it was simply beautiful when it came out. For being introduced at the height of the brougham era, it was exceedingly clean. But the problem was that it was a Chrysler from the 1970s.
Every generation, Chrysler hits one out of the park and gets a fresh bunch of people excited about a new car. Then they live with it for a few years, get rid of it and tell everyone they know what a pos it was.
This, unfortunately, was the Cordoba experience. Do we really wonder why Cordoba sales dropped off after the 3rd year? Because so few Cordoba buyers bought a second one. Lean Burn issues. Electrical and carburetion issues. The general structural cheapness of the B body.
Everyone forgets that back then, there was a small but hard core of loyal Mopar buyers that was probably about 10% of the market. The other 90% of car buyers wouldn’t touch one with a fork, having been burned in 1957, or 1961, or 1969. Then Chrysler would tease us with something with genuine appeal, emotions would overrule the intellect, and lots of people would bite. Then the inevitable.
Chrysler during the late pre-Iacocca era was one great steaming lump of dysfunction. If only they could have properly built what they designed. But Lynn Townsend was obsessed about volume and nothing else. Nobody was being evaluated on car quality, only on how much metal could be moved this month. Shove them out the door by any means necessary. Then, after Townsend retired and picked John Riccardo and Gene Cafiero (two people who simply hated each other and were incapable of working together) to succeed him as co-charmen, it got even worse. The Cordoba was the Chrysler nameplate’s first breakout success in years. It should have been a better car.
When I see this car, or its equally sharp second generation, it makes me daydream about a four-door. Chryslers stood for performance in the 50s-60s. If these had morphed into sport(ish) sedans, they could have been credited with a Great Mopar Enlightenment. Maybe? Or have I been brainwashed by Yogi Niedermeyer?
Doesn’t seem like a winning idea to me. You’re basically proposing a Chrysler version of 70’s Dodge Coronet 4-door sedan with a Cordoba front clip and other embellishments. This would have taken away from the uniqueness of the Cordoba as a personal-luxury coupe. Look at the Thunderbird. Wasn’t the 1967-71 4-door T-bird considered by enthusiasts to be a mistake? Additionally, a 4-door Cordoba probably would have drawn customers away from the fullsize Chrysler Newports and New Yorkers sharing the same showroom.
“Wasn’t the 1967-71 4-door T-bird considered by enthusiasts to be a mistake?”.
Yep probably, but it had those really cool suicide doors. I like them. Then again I like Edsels and P76s, so I am probably not the best person to be forming an opinion on this.
A Four door Cordoba? Ford in Australia had one. The Ford LTD, based on a 4 ” longer Falcon floorpan, shared with the wagon. Big sellers back in the day and the official government minister transport in Australia and New Zealand.
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/7/79/Ford_LTD_%28P6%29.jpg/640px-Ford_LTD_%28P6%29.jpg
Very true….also don’t forget that, during the recession of 1974-75, Townsend simply laid off the entire engineering department for several weeks to conserve cash! This really hurt the Aspen and Volare.
After my great uncle died, my aunt traded in their 65 Newport for a new 74 Newport. It turned out to be a piece of junk and in 76 she traded it for a new Cordoba, blue metallic, white vinyl roof, white leather bucket seats with console interior, all the options. Her last car, and a very good one. My cousin bought virtually the same car and it was one of the bad ones, everything went wrong with it and they traded for a 78 Audi 5000 (don’t laugh but they loved the Audi; fortunately they were mechanically inclined). Quality control was clearly hit or miss. The early models with the round headlights were attractive cars. After owning so many big Chrysler products, my aunt called the Cordoba her “little car” and always remarked about how easy it was to park and maneuver. I think she was in her early 70s at that point so the demographic for the car must have been fairly wide, as sales seemed to demonstrate.
I owned a 76 back in the early 80’s. I experienced the electrical issues you speak of but I still loved that car. I felt like a millionaire on 25K a year!
I like the look of the 1976 model too. But then again I am a Star Trek fan and would purchase any car endorsed by Khan Noonien Singh.
Khaaaaaaaaaan!
While Ricardo first played Khan in one episode the original Star Trek TV series, the movie Wrath of Khan, which really made the character famous, didn’t come out till 1982. The Fantasy Island TV series didn’t even premier until 1978. When he first started plugging the 1975 Cordoba, what was RM most widely known for?
He had been in movies and television since the late 1940s. He definitely wasn’t on the “A” list at that time, but most people in 1975 had at least a vague idea of who he was. Once the commercials started airing, he became a household name.
My grandma was a big fan of his from the “latin lover” roles he played in the 40’s and 50’s, I think these commercials raised his profile alot and then he got the Fantasy Island gig. It’s funny that RM is forever associated with the Cordoba and Chrysler- it could have easily been Jack Jones and his New Yorker- Mr. Love Boat himself, selling landyachts.(isnt that Jack Jones with the New Yorker?)
So really, when Fantasy Island premiered, most people said “Hey, it’s that guy from the Chrysler commercials”?
Yes, we did! If I recall correctly, it was his work in the Chrysler commercials that attracted the attention of Aaron Spelling in the first place.
not really. montalbàn was a journeyman hollywood actor from way back. he was the go to latin guy on tv. he appeared in the man from uncle, dr. kildare, mission impossible and hawaii-five-o just to name a few. and let’s not forget his film work from sayonora (with japanese makeup) and the awesome escape from planet of the apes!
Yeah, as you pointed out Montalban was one of the standard go-to Latin charachter actors, he did a bunch of tv shows in through the 60’s and 70’s.
I mean he was already the star “Ricardo Montalban”, but people had been seeing/noticing him alot in the Chrysler Commercials, probably more than in his contemporary TV guest appearances, which I thought caught the producers of Fantasy Island eye.
That Cordoba commercial is really cool/suave- it’s like a mini Spanish soap opera, with the voice over, the Spanish Guitar, and the winding road. You almost want to write a TV show around it- who is this mysterious man in his home perched on a sea cliff- obviously wealthy, he can have any car he wants(any woman too no doubt…) and yet he chooses for himself this “new small Chrysler”, after all this is a man who defines luxury not as having Corinthian leather- his car has velour, but if he wanted it it’s there. How can you not cast a show around him.
But of course the reality was no Cordoba for Mr. Roarke- didnt he have a custom Volare wagone/convertible limousine thing with a striped Jungle cruise canopy? And Khan himself drove a Reliant. Oh well. Perhaps he didnt know what he wanted in an automobile.
IIRC, the custom Volare wagons were used to transport the Fantasy Island guests after they de-planed. I remember seeing one on display at the 1980 New York auto show.
Cordoba: The car for mysterious men with mountain top villas.
When you describe the Cordoba ad like this you make me think of The Most Interesting Man in the World from the beer ad. Well, Ricardo Montalban must have been his dad. 🙂
Don’t forget Ricardo was the Pinkerton man in “The Train Robbers”, a 1973 John Wayne western!
‘And Khan himself drove a Reliant.’
Brilliant!!!
James Mason and Lucius Beebe were two of the “celebrities” endorsing the ’61 Studebaker Hawk.
Yeah, James Mason, maybe…
Good question…. because if I had to pick a ‘latin lover’ type from the 30s-50s I would first think of Cesar Romero.
I knew someone would not able to resist screaming out Khaaaaaaaaaan! 🙂
“When he first started plugging the 1975 Cordoba, what was RM most widely known for?”
He was just a really popular B-Movie Actor in Hollywood from about 1941 onwards. He went back to Mexico sometimes to act there.
When TV become popular in the 1950’s he transitioned to being a Guest Star on many TV Shows and starring in made for TV Movies. By the 1970’s he had been around for so long and doing such a good job he finally hit the A-List with his own Prime Time TV Show.
Cordoba is a Spanish City so why not get the most well known Hispanic Actor in the US to plug the car.
Judging by what some people people have said about the poor old Chrysler Cordoba, it appears that it was the true Wrath of Khan. I’d still have one though.
Ricardo Montalban could act! Check out a very early role in an excellent Anthony Mann film noir, “Border Incident,” from 1949. (Added plus: John Alton’s “mystery lighting.”) I think you’ll agree that he did a fine job.
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0041198/
i should hate these but i don’t.
“An optional Sure-Grip differential was an interesting early version of ABS, but utilized only the rear wheels.”
Wrong. Sure-Grip merely denotes a limited-slip differential. It has nothing to do with braking. I believe you have this confused with Ford’s “Sure-Track” system, which indeed was a rear wheel ABS, offered on selected Lincolns and T-Birds in the 70s.
FWIW, Chrysler was the first domestic maker to offer a true 4 wheel ABS on Imperials, only in 1971. details here.
http://www.imperialclub.com/Yr/1971/SureBrake/
Yep, what Roger said. “Sure-grip” was Chrysler’s name for a limited-slip differential. Many people refer to this as “posi”, which is short for the GM name “positraction”. It has nothing to do with the brake system.
Yes, I was thinking of Sure-Track. Corrected.
this link does not work please update it !
I found it at: https://www.web.imperialclub.info/Yr/1971/SureBrake/
I want to think that the first Cordobas were pillarless hardtops in 1974, but changed to the fixed glass/opera glass in subsequent years. Commenter “Syke”-approved, I’m sure…
I liked these, but being the hogs they were – weren’t most cars of that period? – I drove my Nova quite happily.
Unfortunately, these were made of paper, the bodies were so flimsy and cheap and compounding what JP said above, they lost favor with the buying public quickly. Chrysler almost sunk a few years later, too.
On first impression, these were grand, and Chrysler couldn’t possibly have a finer spokesman!
A friend of my parent’s had a ’75 model new. At the age of about 2 months, the electrical system was completely shot. The windows didn’t work, and the trunk had to held down with a bungee because the actuator was always energized.
Despite their shortcomings, I’ve always thought the round light Cordobas were beautiful cars, even if they did look like a Chrysler Monte Carlo.
When I was quite young, our pastor’s wife had one, I remember riding in it and liking it.
As for Ricardo Montalban, I’ve always had a great respect for him, both as an actor, and just for being a classy guy.
While looking for Cordoba pics, I found one that was identical to the one the pastor’s wife had back in the early Eighties, so I thought I would share…
Other than the wire wheel covers, this the same car as my HS buddy had back in the late 70s. His had the 400, air, turbine wheels, cloth interior but buckets with a console. It was a bitchin’ ride for a 17 year old back then. But his folks threw some money to help him get the car, too.
i had this same car,people save yore money these r going to be classics
I’m with you on Ricardo Montalban. I wanted to be just like him when I was a kid watching Fantasy Island. I didn’t realize that when his wife died in ’07, they had been married for 63 years – wow.
I always liked Monte’s better. It’s all about the fenders!
My first recollection of the Cordoba was the one our next-door neighbor had. I can’t remember enough about it to determine what model year it was (I was probably 5 or 6 when they bought it), but I thought the gold coin hood ornament was cool.
Today I have mixed feelings about the Cordoba. On one hand, I think it’s a pretty sharp looking car for its era, especially the early ones with round headlights. On the other hand, it seems like a sell-out from the brand that, not many years before, had made a point of advertising that they only sold fullsize cars.
I guess they made the right choice for the times though, selling the Cordoba as a Chrysler and not a Plymouth, when they jumped on the personal-luxury bandwagon. In hindsight, Chrysler was late getting into a burgeoning market segment once again.
Our neighbors bought a brand-new one in 1975. They were originally from the Detroit area, so they were able to get quite a deal back in Michigan. They drove the car home to Pennsylvania. It was deep maroon with a white vinyl top and wire wheel covers.
My mother, who was a confirmed GM fan, thought it was the sharpest car she had ever seen. She wanted one, but my pratical dad couldn’t understand why such an “expensive” car had a cramped back seat! In the end, she never got her Cordoba, which, given Chrysler’s terrible quality throughout most of the 1970s, was probably for the best.
What strikes me about the Cordoba today is how it represents short-term thinking at the expense of long-term planning. Selling it as a Chrysler instead of a Plymouth undoubtedly boosted its sales, as the Chrysler brand definitely had more prestige than the Plymouth brand in the 1970s. In the long run, though, it seriously degraded the Chrysler name and marginalized Plymouth.
In 1971 and 1974, Plymouth had actually reclaimed its traditional third-place slot in the sales race. Plymouth sales dropped dramatically for 1975, and never fully recovered in the good years of 1976-79. It was Chrysler that received the Cordoba and LeBaron, both of which helped the division set sales records, but ended up destroying whatever “premium” status was left in the Chrysler nameplate. By 1979, Plymouth was virtually invisible – hardly in the same league with Ford and Chevrolet. By 1983, Chrysler was no longer considered to be a true premium nameplate.
We could wonder what if they had launched the Cordoba originally as a Plymouth? (Also, some rumors of the era mentionned it would had been called “Grand Era” or “Premier”) We could wonder if it would had helped Plymouth to not drop off like it did? It could be tempting to ponder what if DeSoto had survived to the 1970s as well but that’s another story. 😉
In retrospect, I think it was the right decision. I know I’m going against the grain, but Plymouth was supposed to be the entry level car. It truly had no business introducing a entry level luxury car. That was the purpose of the midlevel brands, yes? The Cordoba allowed Chrysler to logically downsize, in the face of rising gasoline prices and the effects of CAFE.
As with the example of the Charger SE, there was not a market in place for an unknown or repurposed nameplate. And a marque that had a reputation for making ‘performance’ cars a few years previous. Imagine the twisted marketing: The new Premier, from the same company that brought you the campy Road Runner just a few years ago… In 1975, the Chrysler name still had some luxury cachet. Although millions of stripper Newports had not really helped the situation.
Chrysler’s previous proclamations notwithstanding, the small Chrysler allowed them to introduce smaller cars into the future. Whether this was intentional in the early 1970’s (considering how long the leads were to introduce new cars) or just a happy accident for Iacocca and his minions in 1979 or so, is a matter of speculation.
Long term, Chrysler was not going to produce large, extravagant luxury cars, not like the previous Imperials. By the time the Cordoba was introduced, I think that Chrysler knew the Chrysler brand was in trouble, and that entry level luxury was the way forward. How it was managed after that decision, well, we see what has happened.
You can get a very nice minivan from Chrysler now. Along with a very well dressed small-midsized sedan of Mitsubishi/Mercedes/Chrysler lineage. And another bastard Mercedes/Mopar sedan with a HEMI (TM) (Dammit!) And a nice SUV.
Who would have thought of all this in 1975?
Interesting point, originally Townsend didn’t want a “junior Chrysler” until the 1st oil crisis hit forced to think otherwise. I couldn’t resist to imagine the following “what if” scenario: what if DeSoto was still there during the 1st oil crisis and inherit a “junior DeSoto” who could had been the “DeSoto Premier/Grand Era” going against the Monte Carlo?
In Canada though, Plymouth did have the Caravelle which was essentially an identical RWD Plymouth Volare’/Dodge Aspen based M-Body and it followed the Dodge Diplomat’s identical grille arrangement. The Plymouth Caravelle along with its identical twin cousins the Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge Diplomat came in at the same time in mid-1977. The Caravelle was not marketed until it became the Gran Fury which I believed was in 1982 or 83. IIRC correctly, Plymouth was supposed to be assigned this version of the Cordoba and it was supposed to be called the Sebring which ironically the Plymouth Satellite Sebring’s replacement. Instead it received the Dodge Coronet/Monaco based version of the coupe which was called the Plymouth Fury. Dodge was fortunate though to have the Cordoba based Charger/Magnum and the Plymouth Fury based Coronet/Charger/Monaco. All in all though they were all practically using the same chassis (dating back from the mid-1960s also used by their older design predecessors) which were also used by the Full Sized R-Bodies from 1979 through 1981 collectively known as the Dodge St. Regis, Chrysler Newport/New Yorker and in 1980 YES the Plymouth Gran Fury.
I’ve been pondering this point. The irony is that there’s always been a school of thought about the Thunderbird that says it should have been a Lincoln or a Mercury (a view many Lincoln-Mercury salesmen no doubt shared). Also, Chrysler had previously made the mistake of trying to offer an upscale Plymouth C-body (the VIP), which promptly got hammered by the Chrysler Windsor.
I think the problem was not the Cordoba or the LeBaron, but the reluctance/inability to separate Plymouth from Chrysler. As long as they were paired, there was always a hard limit on what Plymouth could do. Ford could offer the LTD, even though it was essentially a Ford-Mercury, or the Thunderbird, because Ford dealers weren’t generally selling Mercurys or Lincolns. Any time Chrysler-Plymouth had anything fancy or upscale, it was always going to make more sense to sell it as a Chrysler — that wasn’t short-sighted so much as a logical byproduct of the situation.
The challenge was that even at points where Chrysler and Plymouth could have stood alone, Chrysler didn’t do it, either not wanting to rock the boat or not wanting to spend the money. That left Plymouth to always have to play the bargain/price-leader choice, and most people like the idea of that better than they actually like paying for it.
I should like these cars, but I don’t, apart from the lovely interiors. A similar generation Jaguar 12 wears the look much better (even if it doesn’t run).
I want a 1979 Chrysler 300 Although it isn’t a Cordoba It was based on the same platform Except it came with the E-58 police power plant, not that engine was that great, dual exhausts and any color you wanted as long as it was Spinaker White. It was the only Chrysler of era I have wanted. Funny how the Ford LTD II and the Cordoba / 300 look a alike
Love that 300!
What strikes me as funny and puzzling is the marketing of this car as something exotic and European – Cordoba, Montalban, Castillian interior. It’s as if American wanted a european car but were afraid to buy one?
More like they wanted a Mexican/Peruvian themed car. The styling is supposed to evoke the Aztec/Maya/Inca themes conflated with conquistador era Spaniard motifs. Ironically, now they have all the Mexican cars they need, even if they are not advertised as such.
So how well did these sell in Central/South America?
exactly. we were terrified that they were delicate and required special order parts. the only difference is that today that is true of american cars, too!
May I please ( @ this late date ) add that the spanish marketing AND the car being a new smaller Chrysler we very pointed ways to plant the car upmarket. . . As Cadillac was also giving us the Seville that same year. It gave them the illusion of acting just like the cross town luxury car maker.
My memory of this car is that of a contrast between luxury and less than luxury. I was leaving Panama and being stationed in Cuba. I was picked up at the Air Station in cuba by a Navy Chief and his wife who were driving a new Cordoba. Even before we left the Air Station I was struck by the contrast.
We were taken from the Air Station to the main base on a ferry. The Chrysler was really out of place with all the Gitmo junkers. When we hit the base all doubt was erased. This Chief had just been transferred recently and turned out to have a more luxurious car than the skipper. You must understand that a guy I worked with had a chain latched across the drivers side door of his pickup. The chain was the door. That was worse than normal but a lot closer to typical.
I always felt that the guys who took this type of car overseas to an isolated base were in danger of having it break and not be able to find repairs. The Chief was lucky I suppose. The thing did not break in the time we were stationed together. That says something for chrysler reliability. Not many miles, of course, so I don’t know what it says.
’75 Charger SE tanked since buyers looked and said ‘that’s not a Charger’. So soon after the muscle car era to change it into a luxo-boat?
Also, Dodge division stole many Plymouth buyers, for the more ‘upper’ brand name. Selling the same exact cars led to “Why I can get a Dodge for same price.”
Yes, Riccardo and Cafiero. What a team! Brought us the 79 Cordoba with those stupid looking stacked rectangular headlights. The round lamps like this 76 were truly classic.
I always like the look of the Cordoba and I can remember scads of them on the road as early boomers started to make some good coin. They were priced pretty well for the interior they offered, which probably accounted for the initial good sales.
After a few years this success rapidly trailed off because they cars were utter junk. Few cars I have ever driven were as flimsy as the Cordoba. Every bump sent shudders down the car and it felt that the steering column was doing the cha-cha in your hands. The were also total rust buckets, the cars rusting to dust in record time. By 1985 these things were all but gone, at a time there were still loads of G body stuff around from GM.
The juddering steering column was always a hot button with me in every post-1970 B Body Mopar I was ever in. Every time you shut the door the steering column would shiver. Life is too short to put up with that sort of thing.
Which is why I always avoided driving them, let alone owning one.
One of my first cars – a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba. Maroon w/ White top, white leather seats with red carpets, console shifter, 400 under the hood. One of my absolute favorite cars, and one I’d gladly own again. Ran like a champ, was sorta quick off the line, endless top end it seemed. I had her up over 130 and kept running out of road before she ran out of speed lol. Not the best handling car, not the best brakes either and rarely did it pass a gas station without stopping for a drink. But so what… it was what it was, the best boulevard cruiser of the era. Just couldn’t figure out why the taillight lenses kept wanting to fall off.
YES — someone else remembers this!! When I lived in IL (lived there ’til I was 16), I remember seeing a lot of these cars running around with missing taillight lenses. It’s sad but that’s how I remember them.
After I moved to Alabama, my dad started up a small scrapyard in a rural town not far from Birmingham. We didn’t get a whole lot of cars in, but from oh…say maybe 1990 to 1992/3, LOTS of Cordobas came across our scale — I was really surprised because I didn’t think they built that many. And then all of a sudden they stopped coming in, evidently Alabama ran (slap) out of them… it was the weirdest thing.
Most were column shift cars but a few were bucket seat/console cars. I only remember one of them being equipped with a factory tach. I was probably 17 or 18 at the time. Out of curiosity I gently pulled on the taillight lenses & they nearly always popped right off in my hand (just like the ’79 Thunderbird lenses did, ha-ha!). I guess they didn’t use enough glue.
I’ve still got a box of those Chronometers in the shop somewhere — “mechanical” digital clocks that mounted at an angle above the glove box. (I started collecting car clocks when the scrapyard opened since they were free).
One last thing. I always liked the “Cordoba” name & thought it was an excellent fit for the car’s (intended) character. There was a neighboring town in Alabama called “Cordova”: everyone called Cordova “Kedover” and the same people called the Cordoba the “Cordova”.
Those Chrysler “Chronometers” seem to be the longest lasting of old car rotating dial clocks, I had one in my 77 New Yorker that kept perfect time.
“And let us not forget the soft Corinthian leather!”
Correction, it was riiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiich Corinthian leather!
Now, fetch me my keys Tattoo 🙂
I think you actually had it right the first time, “soft” Corinthian leather.
He did, but nobody remembers it correctly. That commercial simply dripped smarminess.
Yes but it was high quality smarminess.
Chrysler Cordoba… I like what they’ve done with my car!
OK, how did we get through over 30 comments without anyone mentioning Herb Tarlick? The TV show WKRP in Cincinnati? The dense salesman for radio station? He was always very smug about owning a Cordoba, which was sort of a recurring punchline on the show.
Do you also know just how many people think that Corinthian Leather is some special kind of leather and not just some name dreamed up by a Chrysler advertising guy? It seems that it is just about everyone. I have to say that the guy who did the ad campaign for the Cordoba was on the brilliant end of the genius range. 35 years later and EVERYONE remembers the Cordoba, Ricardo Montalban and the Rich Corinthian Leather.
I do remember! I may be young(ish), but that show was a favorite of mine as a kid. I would have said something, but I recall that the one time they showed Herb’s Cordoba, it was I think, a 1981 or so model, similar to this one…
Maybe he traded up? Though most didn’t, for some reason, even though it looked good, the 2nd generation of the Cordoba was not as good a seller as the first, though it could have had something to do with the stench of death surrounding Chrysler at the time.
Not only that, but no one stopped to think it didn’t make any sense. Corinth is a real place, on the Mediterranean — but not in Spain. It’s in Greece. It’s where the Corinthians lived that St. Paul was writing to, remember them? AFAIK, it’s not an area particularly known for producing leather.
Thank You, I was about to say, what no Herb Tarleck comments?
Herb was a broughamy kind of character with his Cordoba and wide lapel blue suits.
Yep, one of the most remembered ad campaigns of all time, its known by people who weren’t even alive when the Cordoba was in its prime.
Loved that show, even though I was too young to get much of it. I do remember Herb’s white Cordoba! Matched his belt and his shoes. 🙂
“OK, how did we get through over 30 comments without anyone mentioning Herb Tarlick? The TV show WKRP in Cincinnati?”
Here is why everyone has forgotten about Herb and his Cordoba.
Honestly who do you think about first when you recall WKRP in Cincinnati?
Oh GAWD yes!
I was a huge fan of the, uh, show…
Loni Anderson’s character was a skank. The real hot one was the actress who played “Bailey”. Now that was one good-looking specimen of a woman! Hubba hubba!
Either one would have made for wonderful company… 😉
Can’t argue with that!
Yes Bailey was rather cute wasn’t she 🙂
First time I got drunk was in the back of a Cordoba. I remember the friend who owned swapped motors twice in one weekend. Swapped in a 360 in place of the 318, and hated it so bad he immediately swapped the 318 back in. All in the space of about 3 days.
Nice vehicles. I liked this iteration of the “Monte Carlo” vibe as it spread throughout the industry.
My brother bought a Codoba for touring the west coast he said it drove like a bag of shit hes a car nut too and thats been his only comment on it, ironicly it was the same colour scheme as the Chrysler Centura I had at the same time Bone vinyl top over sienna body. But that thing went like a bullet.
Compared to the stuff you got in NZ it might have gone like a bullet but not to the stuff we were used to. A 350 Monte Carlo was a way faster.
I think Bryce was referring to the performance of the Centura – 245ci 6cyl in a 180″ long 2700lb car gave them pretty decent performance, in a straight line at least. Power was still quoted gross, but nonetheless should still be a better power/torque to weight ratio than a Cordoba.
Yes Centuras were extremely quick,
Although the ads always spoke of the “fine Corinthian Leather”, I believe it was actually an option. If I was ever to own one of these, I’d actually take the “Castillian” interior just for the 70s kitsch value.
I’m surprised that no one has yet mentioned the Cordoba-based 300 that Chrysler foisted on the car buying public for ’79.
The Cordoba exemplifies how Chrysler would continually shoot themselves in the foot when they would occasionally come up with a winner. It is almost a carbon-copy of the 1957 ‘Forward Look’ fiasco. The 1957 Chryslers were such hot sellers that quality control was non-existant just to get as many through the factory and onto showroom floors as possible. It took years to recover from that one.
So, too, went the Cordoba. A beautiful car timed perfectly, yet done in by the by then well-known, traditional, abysmal Chrysler quality (or lack thereof). The only excuse Chrysler could possibly have is that other domestic competitor’s products of the time were also some of the most poorly ever built.
It’s a pity because even though Chrysler was aping the also very nice ’73-’74 Monte Carlo, the Cordoba was still different enough to establish it’s own styling direction. I’m certain more than a few Monte Carlo owners defected to the Chrysler camp, only to be thoroughly deflated when the Chrysler qualtiy gremlins reared their ugly little heads.
My dad had one as a rental for a couple of days and was impressed with it. But he’s a GM man, so never bought one. The next car he did buy was a 1977 Pontiac LeMans coupe. I always thought the Pontiacs were the best-looking of the Colonnade A-bodies, and he did too. My aunt went with a ’76 Monte Carlo she drove well into the 1980’s, even though both would really rather have Buicks. Later, both did, my dad a Park Avenue Ultra and my aunt a contemporary LeSabre.
He finally did get his Chrysler, though, a 2000 300M that he’s driving presently. But that’s another story. Cordobas were nice, but they were for Chrysler people.
My first nice car was a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba. 360-2 barrel. Bought it in 1983 with 50,000 miles on it. Quicker off the line than my dad’s 1979 Cadillac but no rocket with that 2.45 rear end and 180 horsepower. Decent gas mileage (17 mpg highway) for a car of its size.
I thought it beautiful and very cool. I loved that car. Still do!
Downside–really weak brakes and the handling was very sloppy. Dreadful in winter.
Watch the orginal Ricardo Montalban ad on youtube and you’ll notice that the Cordoba that Mr. Montalban is driving does not have the Corinthian Leather interior. He makes reference to it, though. Odd.
Great write-up on a sentimental favorite of mine. A buddy of mine had one of these in the early 80s, and we teased him mercilessly for buying a Cordoba that didn’t have Corinthian Leather.
My only complaint about this website is that everyone here talks about broughams in the past tense. How about an article on contemporary brougham culture? Perhaps Paul could take some time off from working on his meticulously-researched articles on the Australian automobile industry to come up with something?
Of course, the Brougham Revival is really still in its infancy, and mostly confined to college towns on the west coast. It’s been a while since I’ve been to Eugene, but I understand it’s a real brougham revival hotbed. Up here in Seattle, the scene is pretty vibrant, and aftermarket brougham body kits for late-model Japanese and Korean sedans are hot sellers. At least a couple times a week, some kid will offer to buy my 1992 Nummi-built Geo Prizm. That particular model is prized for its squared-off shape and the little opera windows in the c-pillars. “Dude, man… that Prizm would look sweet with a vinyl top, man… wanna sell it, dude?”
The other day, at Dick’s Hamburgers in Lake City, I got into a pretty long conversation with a guy who had sunk quite a bit of money into giving his ’94 Corolla 4-door “The Full Ricardo.” The rear doors had been welded shut, with the cracks very neatly filled in. The rear-door window cranks had been removed to prevent unwarranted rear-seat ventilation, and the whole masterpiece was topped off with an aftermarket padded top from Landaus Unlimited in Tacoma. The whole interior was of course re-upholstered in available Corinthian Leather, with a state-of-the-art 8-Track deck nestled ‘neath the dashboard. What a sweet ride, and painted beautiful midnight beige!
Do they have the Grand Salon de Monaco body kit already? I’ve been waiting. I hear that body shops are stocking up on multiple stockpiles of metallic turd brown in anticipation to the Brougham onslaught.
In best Montalban voice….
I enjoy a car that handles like a drunken Hippopotamus on LSD….and Cordoba is that car.
It’s a fairly good looking car. Borrows so much from the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix. The rear styling and taillights, especially, seem ripped right off the back of the 1973-77 Grand Prix. And the switch to stacked square headlights took away the only somewhat unique design element.
Every so often, CC does this to me. I’m busy as heck, and then you guys post a bunch of stuff I really like.
I know they weren’t the greatest Mopars ever, but I have a soft spot in my (head) heart for these cars, even though I never owned one. I knew a number of folks who did, and frankly the quality reputation was spotty, to say the least.
One of my friends had a 1976 Cordoba in the late 70’s, about the same time another friend had a 1975 Ford Elite. It was the battle of the mini-barges. There was no contest which car was better, IMO. The ‘Doba (we called it the Doobie for reasons obvious to the cognoscenti) was faster, bigger inside and a better road trip car than the Elite. Something about the Elite had a ‘squishy’ quality to it; the car oozed down the road. That was not a good thing.
Of course, the ‘Doba had the 400 motor in it, which was all sorts of win, except when gasoline prices shot way up in 1979. Then, it wasn’t so brilliant. So long as we kept to reasonable speeds on the freeway, then the 40+ miles to the old Cleveland Coliseum wouldn’t cost us so much in gasoline, and we could spend more for munchies after the concerts…
After we all went off to college, I lost contact with my HS buddy with the ‘Doba, I don’t know whatever became of it. But I still like those old beasts. I still want one for my MM Dream Garage…
One more thought on the Cordobas: I thought that it made the transition to the second generation (rectangular headlight) design much more cleanly than the 1977 Monte Carlo.
I remember thinking then that the rectangular headlights were faired on by someone who really hadn’t bought into the plan. The rectangular headlights looked like they belonged on the other G-bodies right from the start.
Regardless, the 2nd Gen Cordoba managed to make the combination of modernity and baroque-ness (is that really a word?) actually work on that car.
Metallic Turd Brown? I’ve seen a few million brougham-era cars painted that shade. I think I’d almost prefer it to the bland spectrum that you see on new cars. Everything’s silver, black or white. My buddy’s Cordoba was silver, but that was before silver really took over as one of the few permitted colors..
One of the neat artifacts of the Cordoba was the coin like medallions that were on the car, I think they gave them out a key chains too.
Cordoba, the car with its own currency.
If I am not mistaken, these badges were done by a guy in Chrysler styling named Don Butler. Don was a distant relative of my mother who went to work at Hudson after the war, then moved to Chrysler in the 1950s. I know for a fact that he did the badging on the 1976-78 New Yorkers, so it would be a fair assumption that he did these too. I met him a couple of times, and would love to write something on him one of these times.
Senor Montalban had his own custom Cordoba made for him by Chrysler.
I almost kick myself for not grabbing a clean one of these that was for sale a cruise in about a year ago, it was a burgundy with white top 76 Cordoba with the 400 4bbl V8, hand crank sunroof and the “mojave” indian blanket style interior like the one shown in the article, they wanted like $4600 for it.
I’d be interested in one of these too, but the Lean Burn system and its associated maladies make me nervous.
There seems to be some confusion about whether the commercials described “soft Corinthian leather” or “rich Corinthian leather” or maybe even “fine Corinthian leather”. Which was it?
Oddly, even though the phrase “Corinthian leather” gets its own Wiki listing, it doesn’t confirm which adjective preceded it:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corinthian_leather
Also, does anybody remember who did the SNL parody of this? Wiki doesn’t mention this either. Was it Billy Crystal? I know Crystal used to do Fernando Lamas, but did he also do Montalban? Whomever it was, I do recall that the sketch ended with the Montalban impersonator intoning, “Dee Chry-sler Cor-dob-a, as fine a car as I am an ac-tor!”
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsg97bxuJnc
This should pretty much clear up the adjective confusion. I think it’s funny that he’s only talking about it being available as an option; the car in the commercial has cloth seats. Seems silly.
UPDATE: Paul has now reposted a CC he did on the Cordoba a year ago, and the historically correct descriptor for Corinthian leather is “soft.”
It was “rich” Corinthian leather, and people walk up to my Charger SE endlessly quoting Ricardo’s famous line. I gave up correcting them long ago. The more observant eventually see the Charger emblems. The pictured car is an original 24,xxx mile car w/factory paint and original, beautiful burgundy pleather, console interior. While the aftermarket has essentially forgotten that the car ever existed, you can still do a lot to it mechanically. I’ve done a 451 stroker motor (using a 400 block) in mine that looks like the bone stock 400 (w/Electronic Lean Burn pie pan atop), an 8-3/4 SG rear, custom Flowmaster exhausts and headers. Sure makes for one interesting head-turner and runs around 460 hp (not at the wheels). This one was bought new in ’77 by my grandfather. It’ll outlive me. They’re still out there, and [too] cheap.
P.S. – I stand self-corrected – it was “soft” Corinthian leather (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsg97bxuJnc)
I just read a great line on TTAC, and I had to bring it over here!
“If It Ain’t Brougham, Leave It At Home”
EVERYBODY thinks it was RICH corinthian leather….it seems we were brainwashed somehow…mass misconception!
Everyone remembers the line from the movie Casablanca,” Play it again Sam.” The trouble is, is that line was never in the movie.
Or “Luke, I am your father.” It was “No, I am your father.” (And if we wanna dive into more nerd trivia, it wasn’t even hat when the scene was filmed!)
I think this popular misquote came from Tommy Boy.
My mom still pines for hers…it was the regional service guy’s car, so had had all the problems worked out and he sold it to her with a box of ignition modules in the trunk…that’s all that ever went out and she had one left when the car was hit by a truck and totalled.
She loved the looks and the power and always said she bought it with the secret hope that Ricardo would be asleep in the trunk.
I sold this one in 1984 (out of desperation!) I’ve been looking for one with the same colors/interior but have only for several years. I found one on Ebay a few years ago… but it was sold the next day!
It is a 1976 with the white leather interior.
I had one of these in the early ’80s; one of the best cars I ever owned! Big enough to be comfortable on long trips, small enough to handle well (torsion bars are great!), and plenty snappy with the 400. Fortunately, I had zero lean burn issues in the 3 years I owned and loved that car. I loved the rich corinthian leather, the gorgeous coffee sunfire paint set off by a white landau top (I love that color so much that I just had a quart mixed for one of my motorcycles!), Chrysler’s unique cruise control setup, and all of those cool coin badges!
The early ones had the right look for the times. The 400 V8 gave great performance. This type of car is about a smooth, quiet ride. Here is where the car’s b body roots let it down. The car was simply not as smooth as the competition from Ford and GM.
I’m not sure the performance of a smog-strangled 400 could be described as ‘great’. Probably more like ‘adequate’.
It reminds me of a great anecdote about some Chrysler dealership that had a stoplight right in front of the entrance/exit. During the seventies, after a customer bought a new car and was leaving the dealership, the salesmen all prayed that the light would be green because, if the new car had to stop for the light, the engine would invariably die, holding the very real possibility of not restarting.
C/D tested one at 9.3 seconds 0-60. For a non performance car in 1976 that was great.
A couple hours in the garage with a carb kit and a set of distributor weights would be worth about 50HP. Even the low compression 400 would rip if tuned properly!
That particular color combo, right down to the 70’stastic interior upholstery, is the exact Cordoba that my father owned from ’75-77. Ours didn’t have wire wheel covers though, just the standard brushed chrome covers with the medallion in the middle. My grandparents had one in navy blue, with white half roof and matching navy crushed velour interior. Both were quality nightmares. Ours was gone by ’77 in favor of a chocolate brown over tan Monte Carlo. My grandfather, ever the Mopar stalwart, traded his for a ’77 Lebaron coupe in white over red leather. Neither car was remembered particularly fondly, but I have an aunt who still laughs at the crazy interior pattern, which she declared at the time might drive her to an asylum if she had to ride around in that thing every day.
An old co-worker who used to work at a Chrysler dealership told me everyone thought the Charger would be the best seller and were surprised when the Cordoba’s took off in sales. A lot of tail lights would fill up with water and they were pulling them off showroom cars for warranty, every one wanted a Windsor built car because there was a good chance a line worker didn’t deliberately sabotage a car. These were the early days of Lean Burn and employees knowing Chrysler rocket manufacturer made the electronics wondered how men made it safely back from space.
FWIW, the 1975-1980 newspapers use “rich C– L–” 3x as often as “soft….” Is it possible that Rich Little did a Montalban impression with the former? (Article is 1980)
I just noticed the subtle difference in the early grilles and the 1976 version ‘is’ the best.
i didn’t care much for the Cordoba way back when.
Now my eyes sees the world and some seventies cars in a different way. I prefer the first generation models. However, I couldn’t pass up a 78 model lingering in a garage this spring. The price was right, it needed a little TLC and just some minor repairs. No Corinthian leather, but a cruiser in Augusta Green metallic that turns heads. Now if I could only sell this big beast to someone who really appreciates this size of luxury car.
Ahh yes! Ricardo Montalban. Somehow I remembered it as “Fine Corinthian Leather”.
I’d forgotten about the “Crystal Key”.
His other famous line is of course “Welcome to Fantasy Island!”.
I thought the early Cordobas were better looking than contemporary T-Birds and Monte Carlos. But to me, the shaking steering columns were just another sign of how low American car quality had fallen by the mid ’70s.
Happy Motoring, Mark
My favorite Ricardo Montalban line was from Star Trek II: The Wrath of Khan:
“From Hell’s heart, I stab at thee, for hate’s sake I spit my last breath at thee.”
A few years later I was watching a movie about some obsessed guy chasing down a big white whale and heard that line again. I thought ‘wow, they stole that line from ‘The Wrath of Khan”. I felt like such an idiot when I realized that Paramount stole that line from an author named Herman Melville.
I had a similar experience with a Mel Brooks movie called Blazing Saddles, and the line “Badges? We don’t need no stinkin’ badges!” – A few years later there was an old Bogart movie on TV called “The Treasure of the Sierra Madre” and… DOH!
My eye will forever be jaundiced. My police department “work cars” from 1975 to 1978 always included Plymouth Furys and Dodge Monacos on the same chassis; even in a fleet with some Ford Torinos one year and Pontiac LeMans the next; the MoPars were always around. The Cordoba’s dash was a version of theirs, tarted up with fake wood, and cheap filigree moulded and chrome-plated into the matte black plastic, making it hard to dissociate from the fleet cars and instead conceive of as a “luxury” car. Even the seats were fancy versions of the buckets that came in our cars, with upscale cloth or Corinthian leather replacing the hard-wearing nylon fabric.
I see a silver one in decent shape every so often around Toledo. It’s silver without a vinyl top. A really are setup on those cars, as I don’t remember ever seeing another one without one.
One of the bosses at the hotel I worked at in Las Vegas bought a ’78 Cordoba which was soon totalled by his wife. He replaced it with a Dodge Magnum. It had a 360 that had been worked on by a local Mopar guru. It’s choppy idle didn’t fit with the looks of the car at all, but it was fun to drive, just the gear change it had from the stock 2.45(?) ratio to 3.55 made a huge difference. It was maroon with a dark tan vinyl half top. I really hated vinyl tops.
I watched Chrysler cars get killed quickly by the rust monster in Northern Virginia from 1969 through the early seventies. The fuselage bodied cars were beautifully styled and then they all went away. I can’t recall any Cordobas looking good for very long there.
Didn’t these things also have the power lock switch which was actually the manual door lock button but it was electrically powered? If so, I just thought that was so ridiculous and cheap.
As a kid and teen, with much time on my hands and loving cars, I detailed our cars to perfection (this is when “detail” had a meaning and didn’t = just a wash/dry/vacuum and maybe window cleaning).
Anyway, I was so good that I gained the entire neighborhood and beyond as clientele. I was in/out of ALOT of cars. These Chrysler things were always so cheap and trying to be something they weren’t. Even the “vinyl” roof wasn’t even padded or vinyl. It was like hard plastic and reminded me of the one piece plastic “hair” snapped on top of one of those little Fisher Price people that came with the school bus. I almost had my mother buy one of these things because I wanted the “power everything” car and they were obviously affordable. I’m so glad we never got one.
Yes, these are them. They’re stamped “Electric Lock”.
My 78 Córdoba has the power door lock buttons. Kind of odd really and I always worry about accidentally locking myself out.
Note that Mercedes used the same type of system for a long time!
And some Japanese cars do/did as well but there was still a separate power lock button in a convenient location. I couldn’t imagine the demographic for this vehicle, someone like my mother, reaching behind her to lock the doors. That cheap set-up is definitely not an American thing.
This brings back ptsd-like flashbacks of highschool in the ’70s when our principal owned a white Cordoba. I think it was a ’75. The man was known as “The Elmer” and had an unfortunate physical resemblance to Danny DeVito.
The year was 1979 and Dad wanted to replace Mom’s ’72 Toronado. She mentioned that she always loved the styling of the Cordoba so we went to the local Chrysler-Plymouth dealership to check one out. They even had one in the color she wanted in the showroom – dark brown with a tan top and tan ‘Corinthian’ leather interior. Well, the salesman goes to open the driver’s door to let us see inside and he has a very hard time getting it to open. Once he did, Mom sat in the driver’s seat and said it was comfortable. She got out of the car, and the salesman slams the door. When he does, the glass comes loose and crashes to the bottom of the door, breaking in a million little pieces. We couldn’t get out of there fast enough. Dad ended up ordering Mom’s new Riviera the following day.
My mother-in-law and step father-in-law purchased a new 1976 with almost all the options. I was never a Chrysler fan, but this car had the looks of classic design. He changed the oil and filter every 1000 miles and when it reached 50000 miles, he sold it to a distant family member.
I’ve always wanted one. I test drove one in the early 2000’s. It had that crazy Carolina blue leather bucket seat interior. It had belonged to the seller’s mother. It had been taken very good care of. He played a “Deep Purple” 8 track tape during the test drive. I decided then I would have one. Finally got it ! A “Spinnaker White” 1977 Chrysler Cordoba. Dark red “Corinthian Leather” buckets, with console and floor shift. 400 big block V8. Mechanic had it for three months sorting out electrical issues. I know the car has a questionable history. I don’t care. I absolutely LOVE this car ! It’s a nice smooth ride. It’s a powerful, and torquey engine. I want to drop a HEMI 426 in it. It came with a radio, but I had to go online and get the original factory 8 track. Guilty !!! I also love AMC Pacers and Corvairs. I’m for the underdog what can I say.
SO
How did it come to be that after years of seeing Monte Carlo, Cutlass, Grand Prix, Mark III, Eldorado, Thunderbird, Riviera and Toronado success, Chrysler WAS STILL NOT CONVINCED that it needed an intermediate size luxury car? We keep reading about Chrysler saying that it would not build a small car, yet was aware of that everyone else was aware and make boodles of cash doing it? Is that really the story here? I call BUNK. “Was going to be a Plymouth – BAH!” Who wants to drive a Plymouth sold as a Chrysler? This doesn’t wash.
If true, what the hell were they spiking in their lunch martinis at Mopar? Honestly, it doesn’t make any sense. Someone somewhere in Highland Park must have known someone who was driving around in a personal luxury car built by a Chrysler competitor, right?
I recall reading similar lines: “For years Chrysler said that they would never build a small car…” then revealing the Cordoba. Is this another Chrysler “1960 winter picnic where a rumor was overheard” story?
Did Chrysler not consider the plethora of personal luxury cars not luxurious? Anyone heard of someone explaining the reasoning behind “no small car”? Was Chrysler filled with blind marketers? If Chrysler considered Lincoln or Cadillac their competition – well, they had a small personal luxury car. If Chrysler considered Oldsmobile, Mercury or Buick their competition – well they also had a small personal luxury car. What is the thinking behind this commonly told tale regarding the Cordoba?
I think it is going to end up being debunked or a marketing set up by Chrysler to make the Cordoba appear to be a truly revolutionary car – which is was not. I don’t just dare anyone to dig further into this – I go immediately to the “triple-dog dare”.
Where these the last cars with a horn ring?