Chrysler killed off the wagon versions of the Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Dart compacts in america after 1966, which meant that the one latest small station wagons offered through the center Nineteen Seventies by American Dodge and Plymouth dealers were the Mitsubishi-built Colt and the Hillman-built Cricket. Meanwhile, American Motors was doing pretty much selling Hornet Sportabouts, so something needed to be done. That something turned out to be the Dodge Aspen and its Plymouth Volaré sibling, which debuted as 1976 models and included longroof versions. We saw a discarded Volaré wagon in glorious brown a few years back, and now it is the turn of a similarly brown Aspen wagon, present in a northeastern Colorado self-service boneyard recently.
For quite some time, American manufacturers giving place names to their products preferred to make use of the titles of picturesque (or at the very least wealthy) regions with warm climates, e.g., Bel Air, Capri, Monaco, Barcelona, Montego, Monte Carlo, Cordoba, Granada, Torino, Riviera and so forth. Aspen, Colorado, is not warm but wealthy people prefer to ski there and so it gave the impression of a properly aspirational name for the most affordable U.S.-market Dodge not built by Mitsubishi. In a while, other ski-centric regions of the American West, akin to Tahoe and Telluride, were used for vehicle names.
Aspen got much more absurdly wealthy within the many years that followed the Dodge Aspen (which was built for the 1976 through 1980 model years), so Fiat Chrysler couldn’t resist reviving the name on a luxed-up Durango with Chrysler badges in the course of the late 2000s.
The Aspen and Volaré replaced the dependable but antiquated Dart and Valiant, with the overall concept that they might be a bit larger and more modern-looking than their predecessors while still being low cost, easy transportation.
The chassis design was all latest, though it still used an old-timey torsion-bar front/leaf-spring rear rig. The powertrains were essentially similar to those of the Dart/Valiant.
The bottom engine within the Dodge Aspen was the 225-cubic-inch (3.7-liter) Slant-6, but this automotive has certainly one of the optional LA-series small-block V8s. Each the 318 (5.2-liter) and 360 (5.9-liter) were available in these cars; the 2 look similar at a look and I didn’t feel like catching hantavirus from all of the rat poop I’d have needed to remove to take a look at block casting numbers. If it is a 360 and it’s original, then it is the two-barrel version with 155 horsepower relatively than the four-barrel with 175 horses.
The transmission is the optional three-speed automatic relatively than the bottom three-speed column-shift manual.
In 1977, American Dodge dealers offered automotive shoppers 4 sizes of recent station wagon: the subcompact Colt (then in its final model yr in wagon form here), the compact Aspen, the midsize Monaco and the full-size Royal Monaco. 1977 ties with 1964 for the title of Peak Wagon in america, with 47 different wagon models available here that yr. The decline in wagon popularity happened slowly until 1984, when the introduction of the brand new front-wheel-drive Chrysler minivans and the Jeep XJ Cherokee marked the start of the top for the American longroof.
How much was the 1977 Aspen wagon? This one appears to be a top-of-the-range Special Edition, so its MRSP with 318 V8 and automatic transmission would have been $4,758, or about $25,403 in 2024 dollars. The most affordable possible 1977 Aspen wagon (with six-cylinder engine and three-on-the-tree manual transmission) began at $3,953 ($21,105 after inflation).
Meanwhile, the 1977 Colt wagon began at $3,900 ($20,822 today), so it wasn’t less expensive than the Aspen.
This automotive has some pricey options beyond the $270 ($1,442 now) automatic transmission, the biggest-ticket one being the $466 air con ($2,488 in today’s money).
The rear window within the Aspen/Volaré wagons didn’t open, but Chrysler still included warning stickers to stop users from driving or idling with the hatch-style tailgate open and huffing carbon monoxide.
There have been some notebook pages with maintenance and repair items dating from the Nineteen Eighties inside.
The Aspen/Volaré platform lived on, in barely modified form, through the 1989 model yr (when it underpinned such cars because the Dodge Diplomat and Chrysler Fifth Avenue). The ultimate latest Dodge wagon sold in america was the 2008 Magnum.
Hey, it’s Dr. Dolittle pitching the Aspen wagon!
This Article First Appeared At www.autoblog.com
