Dodge's Upscale Compact - 1976-1980 Dodge Aspen
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- Опубликовано: 22 авг 2023
- When the Dodge Aspen debuted for the 1976 model year, it won Motor Trend's prestgious Car of the Year award. The 1976-1980 Dodge Aspen was more upscale than its predecessor and was the last Dodge of its kind to be produced.
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Those straight 6's were bullet proof and so easy to work on .
If only they had have put the fuel injection on them and removed that carburetor!! It would have never died and millions of miles!!!
My little brother bought a 1971 Dart with a slant 6. When I went to do his first oil change I pulled the drain plug and nothing came out. Not sure how long he was running dry but that engine must've been something else to keep from blowing up.
_Slant_ six
The leaning tower of power ..
@@johnball3487 until the in tank pump or ECU crapped out, then bend over and smile, nobody's going to diagnose that roadside, towing to ( probably) the dealer, diagnosis, etc.
That 1980 facelift really made the Aspen/Volare even better looking. The '76-'80 Aspen R/T & Volare Roadrunner were really awesome looking appearance packages!
I agree! I'm the original owner of a 1980 Roadrunner. White with red interior. 47,000 miles. It won't melt asphalt but it turns heads everywhere I go.
Wow. I had a '76 Aspen with the slant 6. White with red velour interior. Lost track of how many times I drove between home in New Orleans and University in Boston. Zero issues for 6 years but road salt finally took it's toll.
My mom bought, brand new, a ‘79 Aspen coupe in Ensign Blue with the standard striped cloth interior and the slant 6. I learned to drive in that car. It rode really well and was completely reliable and rust free the entire time she owned it. Rust free despite spending it’s life in Wisconsin. She finally traded it in for a little red Toyota Corolla in 1988.
Rust free in Wisconsin? You sir are a liar or... that car never saw the salt roads 🤨
😂😂😂😂😂😂
She definitely downgraded
@@wydopnthrtl Maybe it got rustproofing at the dealer?
@charlesb7019, Myself, I prefer the A body Dodge Darts, Plymouth Valiants, and Dusters.
I have a 1979 Aspen R/T and a 1980 Aspen R/T! I love the F body Mopar! The perfect car to add more performance parts too! 🏁
I had a 79 R/T gold black interior made for export.
No lean burn was installed from the factory, and it ran very well.
What engine do you have in them 360 or 318 or the monster 440 I had the slant 6
@jamesweaver1913 Mine had a 318 but there was only two engine options, 318 and the 360.
My 79 has the original 360-4/ 727-3spd Torqueflite with the Suregrip rear axle, heavy duty suspension. And the 1980 originally had a 318-2/3spd 904 I think but now has a 1971 340 small block with the Edelbrock carb, intake and heads, dual exhaust and other suspension parts from a 1988 Diplomat police car.
Visiting the Dodge dealership back when these cars were being made I found a Dodge Aspen on the showroom floor. Walking around to the passenger side of this vehicle I discovered a Plymouth Volare on the showroom floor. I don't know how many orbits I made before it soaked in but the car was half Dodge and half Plymouth according to the emblems. True story.
I think substance abuse became a problem in Detroit's plants in the 70s. My sister once rented a Ford Fairmont sedan. Well in front it was a Fairmont. In back, it was a Mercury Zephyr. Blew my mind.
When I lived in Tulsa in 1979, one of my buddies worked at a GMC dealer. Was all the time telling us that GMCs were better than Chevys.
So he buys a brand new one, drives it to school. We are all outside, checking out his awesome new GMC.
Then someone notices the steering wheel with a Chevrolet bow tie in the middle of it. Hilarity ensues.
@@bizjetfixr8352 Allegedly, back in the days of land yachts, a Mopar plant screwed up, and spat out several Chrysler New Yorkers with rubber floors and 3 on the tree! 😂 Dunno if that was true, but it would be hilarious if it was.
I can verify your story, I worked for a Dodge dealership and that was quite common.
I just posted my comment saying the same thing!!!
Cars had true style back then 😢
I thought the Volare Aspen twins were extremely good looking cars. You could go from absolutely stripped to full luxury. My favorite M body was the 77/78 LeBaron and Diplomat 2 door. They were some of the best-looking cars of the 1970's.
Glad to see this video. I own a '78 Aspen wagon with slant Super Six (two barrel carb) and factory four speed floor shift. Classic Cream (light yellow) with tan plaid interior, Road Wheels, and factory AM/FM/CB transceiver with power antenna. It has 30,000 original miles and was bought new in Colorado where I bought it 12 years ago and drove it home to Pennsylvania without issue. I love it! These were really great cars after the bugs were worked out by 1977. Some people just love to hate on them, but that is the times we live in now. Hate seems to Trump being a decent person anymore.
Way cool car.
Sweet ride and good on gas I imagine.
You’re right and that’s a fine wagon you got there
Hate and Trump in the same sentence. Appropriate.
@@danielfox3003 You seem like the kind of person that buys their Bud Light at Target. So what are your pronouns>
I bought an 1980 Aspen in 1985 that had less than 21,000 original miles. It had the 225 slant six and a 3 speed on the floor. no one wanted it because it wasn't loaded. That car was one of the best I ever owned and served me well in over 140,000 miles. The only issue it ever had was occasionally the ballast resistor for the ignition would fail. It came with a single on the firewall so I installed one with a double. If it quit I would open the hood change two wires and be on my way. I would have driven it a lot farther but a lady in her Olds station wagon rearended me doing about 50 miles per hour, shoved the rear bumper almost to the back glass. If i could have found another like it I would have bought it in a heartbeat.
I was gifted a 1977 dodge aspen in white with burgundy interior of any of my cars that I’ve owned and I’ve owned so many I can’t even count. This was the one vehicle that had the coldest air conditioner, the smoothest ride and the best power steering. it’s unbelievable . I’ve owned Oldsmobile ,Buick, Fords, Toyotas ,Honda, Chrysler, BMW, Chevy and by far this is the only vehicle I regret getting rid of.
In the mid-80s, I bought a 76 Aspen, for $900 bucks...it only had 70,000 miles on it, and was a pretty basic version...but it had that very sturdy slant 6...I put another 100,000 on that car. It only stranded me once--in 1976, the car had a then new CD-type of ignition, with the little black box on the firewall. One night, as I approached my exit on the freeway, the car hiccupped a couple of times, and then shut down!...Fortunately, I was able to coast down the exit ramp, pull over, and have it towed to the shop. The shop dude called me the next day, saying that the car had started, and run, very well for nearly a half-hour!....but then, then they had almost given up fixing the problem, a mechanic tapped that little black box--the car stopped running. That box was thoroughly corroded on the inside!...After replacing the module. everything was just fine!..but at 170,000 miles, that trusty Chrysler transmission began to slip...I sold it to some backyard mechanic who claimed he could fix the trannie himself. That car might still be running, somewhere! That slant 6 was the smoothest engine I ever encountered.
My mother had a 1977 Aspen, very nice car. The larger six in it, automatic, PS. PB. 4 door, Vinyl top. She loved that car. Her last car. We had it still in 2004 and it still had less than 50,000 miles on it. Was garage kept. Inside and even the trunk was as clean as it was when it was new.
There was a Super Coupe in my neighborhood when I was a teenager, It looked cool for the day (1979) and even though these are pretty tame I still want one. I've owned 4 Barracudas and 2 Challengers since then and I still would like to find a Super Coupe or Aspen R/T or Plymouth Road Runner F body out there.
My Dad had an Aspen station wagon 318 without the lean burn garbage. A few years later I had a 77 LeBaron and it did have lean burn 318. Eventually I got it removed and replaced with the older style ignition and it ran so much better. Both vehicles served us well and I wish I still had mine.
I also had a Chrysler Newport that had points ignition and although it was fine went with a MSD set up to alleviate having to change points all too often. I hear the lean burn system was a loser, poor performance plus whack reliability. Once people put in an MSD distributor and box, the things ran real well. Or did you go with some other system?
@@gkauto1959 My Dad's friend was a Dodge master mechanic and he took a distributor from a 74 Duster and wired it to work in my Chrysler.
Im sure that was a fast and cheap fix for the immediate problem but if it were YOUR car and you depended on it everyday to get you to work, wouldn't you rather put in a complete MSD system, distributor, wires, MSD 6A box and leave it at that or stay with a revamped 74 distributor?@@BrewBlaster
Love mid 70s to end of the 70s car styling when the down sizing started.
The first car I drove was a Dodge Aspen as they used them for driver’s Ed in high school.
My first car was a 1978 Dodge Aspen R/T in RR7, Sunfire Red Metallic with the red, orange and yellow body stripes. I was fortunate that mine came with the 360ci engine. I LOVED that car. I kept it from 1981 (16yo) until 1999 (married with a 2nd child on the way). Sold it and my Dodge Stealth R/T which was my daily driver. I kick myself every day for selling the Aspen!
I LOVED THAT CAR!!!!
In the early 90s I was a manager of a pizzeria. Occasionally I would also make deliveries. I didn't want to beat on my regular car so I purchased a 1979 olive green with a velour green interior special edition Dodge Aspen sedan with the Super slant 6 with the 3-speed automatic. I purchased it for $300 with 95000 miles on it.
It ran and drove great I had it for about 2 years got it up to 120,000 miles on it and I noticed it had this weird sag in the middle.
Took it to my buddy shop he put it on his lift and we realize the frame was rotting away. I sold the car to someone for parts 200 bucks. LOL
I had a friend who parents had a 78 Dodge Aspen wagon special edition same engine same trans. I used to love the color of his it was metallic caramel tan it was a very pretty color especially when washed and in the Sun. His father junked it because it had some Rust and the transmission went out at 166,000 miles.
I owned a 1977 Premier Volare back in the early 80's. A reliable car but what a rust bucket! Went through tons of Bondo keeping that car on the road until the rear quarters got so bad, I just threw in the towel and sold it for scrap.
The Aspen was my favorite Hot wheel when I was a boy.
We had a 76 Volaré station wagon with the 318 V8. Awesome vehicle. 💖 I will never understand why DaD picked a forest green one, except maybe that was the only one available at the time. When my brother bought it from DaD in 87, he painted it midnight blue, which was the perfect color. Thankfully, it had tan interior and NOT green interior, so the combination still looked really good.
When I bought my first car in 83, a 76 Olds Cutlass, it had burgundy interior. That limited my exterior colors. 😅
My mom bought a new 1976 Aspen 2 door with the 225 slant 6 in blue . The flex plate kept cracking along with some other things but all in all it was a nice car and a nice looking car my sister let her boyfriend drive it and he totalled it . I always like the look of the Aspen. Wish I had one today , with a 5.3 LS in it 😊
An absolute beauty. So much better-looking than anything else today.
i just love the intro music...it takes me back like 40 years!!! TY NJ
My Dad had a 77 Aspen. By 78 it was a pile of rust.
4:55 that was his interior, exactly! It was the nicest part of the whole car.
Great show and review ! My parents owned a 76 Dodge Aspen sedan, the car had reliable mechanical components but the body was the pits , nevertheless the old Aspen lasted us 12 years before my parents bought a full-sized Pontiac Parisienne wagon .
A side note , even though these F body cars had a reputation for recalls and some issues they were pretty decent and reliable . Unfortunately most of the cars from the 70s had issues the GM X cars took over the Aspen/Volares place in most recalled cars.
My first car was a 76 with a 318.
Worked at a Dodge dealership '78-79. The Aspens on the lot, with 318s and lots of CA smog equipment, couldn't keep up with contemporary Dodge (Mitsubishi) Colts.
GREAT to see new videos on this channel! More to come?
Fantastic cars🎉
My mom had an Aspen. 77 I think. Baby blue with a white vinyl quarter top, t-tops, white vinyl interior, bucket seats, console shifted automatic, 360 V8. I would love to find another one like it. Mom probably wouldn't want to drive it now, but I bet she would love to take a ride in it. I'd even be happy with a slant 6 Volare. Just beautiful cars
I had a green one with the white vinyl quarter top and T-tops as well! Kindava ugly duckling while wearing hubcaps and stock tires but if I would have had a brain, and took care of it enough to add some wheels and tires and love to it, it would have been a cool car to hold onto!
I had a few of these...bought them cheap and ran them. I never had a problem with the slant 6's...but the bodies rusted out.
I had a 1977 Volare'. It had the 225 slant six automatic and was a reliable car.
I had a 77 Volare. It had the 225 Six. Never got real good gas mileage. Ate transmissions every 33000 miles. I bought it for $3275 in Sept 1978. I worked for Chrysler at that time and it was a used Executive Lease car with around 11000 miles. I ended up donating it to an EMS school so they could train EMTs how to cut apart cars to rescue people.
I worked in the Fastener Design dept which was a section of the dept which was analyzing the front suspension tower failures that resulted in the buy back of thousands of Dodge Taxi NYC cabs.
I bought a brand new Aspen RT. Really nice car. Good Post. Thank You
These should have gotten the Rust Of The Year Award in 1976
We love these videos, thank you .
Central California watching
Real beauties. ❤no more like that anymore. Thank you for sharing.
My 74 Dodge Dart was one of the best cars I ever owned. The bulletproof 225 slant 6 was amazingly dependable. I worked for Budget Rent a Car. We had a fleet of Aspens in 78 and 79. They were a disaster. I hate to say it as I'm a Mopar guy, but they broke down constantly. That said, my brother had an Aspen wagon and put 130,000 miles on it. Go figure.
Man! I love OldCarMemories! Keep the videos coming guys thanks! I had a 1977 Aspen with a 225 slant 6 Very hard to kill motor. Unfortunately the frame and body rusted out, But the motor was still strong.
When I was growing up and the '80s, my family acquired a 77 Plymouth volare wagon. Would love to have that car back. It was slant six 225 automatic and I distinctly remember it was tan with a brown vinyl interior but it did have air conditioning, power steering and power brakes and automatic transmission. Highly reliable. I think the transmission went out on us once replaced it and kept driving it. This was at a time when my father did not want to like repair or work on any kind of vehicle of any sort. As you can imagine me being just the polar opposite we didn't get along his idea was repair it just enough to where it will run and drive somewhat safely. Mine is where no go beyond that. Make it better and better and better. So yeah we didn't get along. Love the video. Love the channel. Keep up the excellent work
I can relate... my dad wanted to know why I (as a teenager) wanted to change the oil. 🙄
And... I later became a OEM design engineer in SE Michigan. Some parents have zero vision for their children
"Mine is where no go beyond that."
Can you say that in English?
I now want an Aspen Super Coupe. Holy cow that is a mean looking car! Great video!
One of my dream cars
The Aspen/Volare where the last cars to be built at the Hamtramck plant in Michigan. Before it was demolished in 1981
Always love your content!
I had a 77 Aspen wagon with a 318. It wasn't a bad car, it was tough, durable and reliable.
The 224.7 cubic in Slant Six is 3.7 litres not 4.1 litres.
I bet he mixed it up with Chevy's 250 straight 6, which is 4.1
It's a 225 slant 6
Thank you so much for another great video! They are obsoletely the best of the best!
My friends dad had an Aspen 4 door when I was a kid. Cream colored with a blue vinyl top and blue vinyl interior. Straight 6, 2 barrel carb,loud( not in a good way ) and a sweet AM radio lol. Looked like a NYC police car.
Thanks for this excellent video! My family had a blue 1976 Dodge Aspen coupe when I was growing up, and it is still one of my all-time favorite cars from childhood. Thanks again!
Don't know if you watch a animated show called Bob's Burgers? But the family car is a Dodge Aspen station wagon. Thanks for the video.
Dodge to this day never quit got it right.
In high school, my friend had one. You could shake the wheel back and forth, and the car wouldn't react.
no comparison can ever be made between those older muscle cars and the newer ones when it comes to driving fun , the way they looked and the personality, imo
My sister bought new one of these mopar I think the first year. She had it 1 year and the front fenders rusted. They replaced them under warranty. She traded it in after that
My parents had a 78 New Yorker nothing but trouble the first major issue was oil consumption. Dealership said it was break in for a new car
After 1,000 he was still using a qt of oil each week
Took it back in and they found it was missing the o-rings
I won’t get into my Sundance which wouldn’t even make a good paperweight
I liked my Sundance!
My mom loved the Volares. She had a 77 sedan and an 80 Volare Duster coupe
I bought a 1976 dodge aspen brand new 2 door coupe red ext. With white interior 318 auto 3 speed, really liked that car kept for 2years and bought a 1978 Chrysler Cordoba white with red interior, i miss the 70's cars they had a lot of class then!
Styling was excellent...but the reality of mediocre reliability was an issue.
Great video, keep ‘em coming
I love old cars. These are great. I would have to say they were better built back then, then they are now.
I hate to disagree...but today's cars (very boring, etc) are so much more reliable, built by robots that do not make mistakes, etc...and they are much more safe than the older cars were. You are just being nostalgic...but so am I!
@@curbozerboomer1773 I would say total either way safer now. But it was built way stronger back then everything in the years of those years were built way better.
Great vid really enjoyed!!!
The Aspen was actually Chrysler's first downsized intermediate, predating the '78 GM A-body and the Fairmont/Zephyr. EPA index has Aspen/Volare in the midsize class. And the Aspen wagon has 138 cubic feet volume, even more than the "full size" 2005-2008 Magnum (133.1).
Coupes were on the 108.7" short wheelbase with reduced rear legroom, 4-doors at 112.7". The 1980-1981 LeBaron and Diplomat 2-doors were downsized from the 112.7" M-body to the 108.7" Aspen platform.
Wow. Great to see this video. When I was just out of high school, my grandpa retired and my grandma and grandpa move to Delray Beach Florida. So he decided that they did not mean both cars. They kept my grandmothers car which was a Chevrolet caprice classic and my grandfather gave me his 1978 dodge Aspen.
It was definitely the elevated model because the interior was a light brown leather and on the outside was cream with brown pinstriping. It was definitely the luxury car. It rode like a Cadillac. I loved driving it for the couple of years that I did. it also had a lot of quality problems on the outside. The inside was like a brand new car. Outside, it was a rust bucket and it was rusting along the seams . It was rusting all along the Landau top. I traded it to a friend for an MGB convertible.
Good clip Ben!
I like to watch at 2x speed the music is cool and the narrator sounds normal at that speed haha.
Seriously though awesome channel.
Good looking car!
Great content!!!
Great video, i like these cars and theyre pretty hard to find now
Wow never new about that Petty edition . Wouldn’t mind a wagon with a manual and those rally wheels 😊
We had a lovely 1979 Aspen sedan in sable/tan. Only problem was, within two years the transmission disintegrated while driving along in city traffic. Fortunately, still under warranty.
That was a very rare situation!...The transmissions in those cars were legendary, for outlasting the rest of the vehicle!
I actually had a 1978 Volare Station Wagon that had a 318 under the hood
Thank you for your APPRECIATION to your subscribers
The car I bought my secretary when we started fooling around in the office. Don’t blame me, It was the 70s!
For such a low quality car... she must have been a low quality..........
Nice 😊
Hmmm. I worked for a small delivery company in the 1970s...the owner was a player, and drove around in an XKE...he knocked up the secretary, his wife found out, and left him...By the time I left that company, he was frequently passing out from drugs/booze, in his office! Karma does exist.
Well...a woman who would bang the boss, likely is low quality!@@wydopnthrtl
@@curbozerboomer1773 Ah, good times!
Funny that a Chevrolet Nova was a compact car. So was a VW Beetle,as well as Datsun, Toyota...😊😊😊
I personally owned a Plymouth Volare for many years. I thought it was a great car. It rode and handled well. It was comfortable. It had the Super Six engine (Slant 6 with a 2 barrel caburetor). It had plenty of power - surprisingly - but got decent fuel economy. (17 around town, 22 on the highway). It did not have the rusting problems some of the 1976 models had because it had plastic inner fender liners. The early cars did not have those. There was also the station wagon body style, which Chrysler compact cars did not previously offer. There was a lot to like about these cars. I felt like this video was actually a fair assessment of what these cars were - as opposed to what you read on the internet - usually posted by people who never actually owned one of these cars.
I love seeing you video notifications, that means its gonna be good night!
These were really good looking, even by later standards.
FIL had a 77 dodge aspen wagon straight 6 with a manual. If you could drive that, you could drive ANYTHING! Had about 400k before it gave up the ghost. Great video!
A friend had an Aspin that I borrowed from time to time. I don't know what trim level it was, but it was very nice. Loved driving it.
The F body probably could have been built for '73 - it's design was mostly done by 1970, but Chrysler had bigger priorities in the '74 C body which were released a few weeks before the Arab oil embargo, and the A body fortunately kept selling well. The plain looking Ford Fox body knocked the wind out of the Aspen/Volare.
I remember those cars for their crappy carburetors that only seemed to make the car run right only when the temperature and humidity were just so. But they were solid cars.
My first car was an Aspen with super 6, it was reliable and a great first car. They were pretty basic and an easy car to work on and maintain, not to mention great on gas. You could also fit 4 hockey bags in the trunk, which is a must in Canada. I had some of best times of my life in these and I will always have a soft spot for the dull and boring 78 Aspen.
Definitely an evolution of the Duster/Dart.
Great video, you didn’t mention the Roadrunner package that was offered on the Aspen.
I really liked the Aspen SE.... great car
I had a 77 Aspen wagon with a 225 slant six and that metallic green paint. Big green lima bean we used to call it. A friend of mine had the same year Aspen Duster with same color and powerplant. His was a manual though. I also had a brown with cream vinyl top 75 Plymouth Volare brougham. Classy car, very well built cars you could drive through a brick wall.
I love 70s cars.
I had one it was banana yellow had craiger rims and a 318 moter and dual pipes ole car sounded and drove like a caddy 😊
Grandpa had the Valarie Version. I Always got sick riding in it. The Valuer Seats and how they felt against my skin. It was Grandma's Car and the one they took on Long Trips. Had the 318 and only got 18mpg tops. No Cruise Control. No A/C. Dark Red Paint Or Light Maroon and Dark Red or Light Maroon Interior. Over 250,000 on the Rebuild back in early 90's. Also Repainted Twice. Once by a Buddy and the second time by the College Auto Class. Uncle ended up with it after Grandpa Died in 2005. I wanted it and could have used it. But Uncle Sold it.
Volare 🙄
Need more videos please 😊
Back in the 70s, I worked for a guy who bought a Volare. He traded a Plymouth Fury II with a 318 ci engine. I liked the Fury (he would send me on errands to pick up food, etc.). The Volare.... well - I always felt a little uneasy. And even thou it was a new car, it had issues. Like a dead battery. The belt in that thing was huge and I guess it was hard to get the tension right on the pulleys.
The 2 door Granada could have looked better without that frame around the door window.. My grandfather had a 76 4 door Aspen with the 318...man that was a rocket...
My mom had 1977 Volare, baby blue 4 door. No a/c, no FM radio, no passenger side mirror but for some reason was equipped with the optional "light group". Car had lights everywhere: driver facing signal indicators on top of the fenders at the end of the hood, glove box, trunk and under hood lights. Foot well lights, map lights and door puddle lights. Some odd build configurations back then.
Night and day comparing my 1968 Barracuda with a 230HP 2 Barrel 318 as to the later 318's in the late '70s and '80s which were anemic.
Different era, different products..Those Barracudas were very badass!
We had a premier Volare wagon growing up the lean burn was a nightmare
I had a brand new 78 black with the red orange and yellow striping live it wish I had it now
Dad bought a 78 Plymouth Volare with the 318. It was the last new car he paid in $$
I remember a lot of local Police Dept drove Aspens early 80s
My stepdad has a. 78 aspen SE that he trying to fix up now. And have a co worker that has a fully built Aspen R/T pushing over 600hp
Good video, but what about the rust issues?
Can you do a video on the G-Vans Chevy please and thank you.
The original 1960 Darts were full size cars and offered a full line of models
and options with Phoenix being at the top ~ 225 cu in slant-6, 318 cu in V8, 361 cu in V8 or 383 cu in V8.