Electric Blue is a perfect color name for this bright blue. I don’t see it too often and automatically assumed it wasn’t a factory color, but it is. This car looks almost like new, which is amazing after almost six decades on the planet. I wish I looked this good. This 1968 Plymouth Valiant 100 is posted here on craigslist in Darlington, South Carolina, and they’re asking $14,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Rocco B. for the tip!
I know, $14,000! I also remember when this would have been a $2,500 car, but I also remember when gas was 29.9 a gallon. Whatever we think of a seller’s asking price, hopefully we all know that it isn’t 1968 anymore, and prices do go up on many things over the decades, including vehicles. Whether a four-door low-spec Valiant with a slant-six and manual on the column is worth $14,000 is beyond me. Hagerty is at $11,200 for a #2 excellent condition example, so there’s that. Just think of this car being $0.96 per mile traveled.
The seller says this car is original, other than a few maintenance items, which presumably means this beautiful and perfect paint is also original? If it is, this car should be in a museum, it’s literally that nice. The third-generation Valiant was made from 1966 for the 1967 model year until the end of 1973. We don’t get to see the driver’s side at all, which is a bit strange, but I have to assume it’s as perfect as everything else about this car seems to be.
The interior looks perfect, big surprise. Being a low-trim 100 model, it doesn’t have carpet, but instead has black, textured rubber/vinyl flooring. The all-vinyl seats look like new, both front and rear, as they should for a car that’s traveled fewer than 15,000 miles. This one is said to have had three owners over the last 57 years. This car looks like it’s undergone a Concours restoration; it’s truly in amazing condition for being all original, other than a few maintenance items. The seller says it has “factory rally gauges”, but they’re only shown in one of the interior photos.
This is the clincher photo for me, and thanks to the seller for providing a photo of the engine compartment! I assumed the engine compartment would be dirty, rusty, and just generally beat looking, but that is the exact opposite of this perfect, clean-looking space. This is Plymouth’s 225-cu.in. OHV slant-six with 145 horsepower and 215 lb-ft of torque when new. Backed by the three-speed column-shifted manual sending power to the rear wheels, I’m assuming this car runs as perfectly as it looks. I’m on board with Hagerty’s $11,200 excellent condition value. I have never seen a nicer one, how about you?
Thanks SG. And what a find Rocco. Seems well bought for 12k. And fun to drive w the 3 pedals and torquey Slant6.
With tariffs on new cars driving up prices, this Valiant will be a steal. Some news services say that a base model new car with no radio or A/C
could cost as much as $60K by summer. Too bad the banks won’t give you a loan on a car this old, but if
they did, I’d take a friend, fly up, and
drive it back to Florida! Then all you need would be the truck from Duel and then you’ll have a perfect set.
You’re talking about a $20k car today (cheapest base model whatever, say Nissan Versa is about $20k) TRIPLING in value in a couple months?? I dunno what your source for that is. Also there are classic car loan companies out there. Jus sayin…
Unfortunately scare tactics work, they always have and always will. No one should ever rely on one source and one point of view. Outrageous claims in headlines are there to drive views, which in turn drives revenue.
My brother in law would write about a certain baseball team for several publications, the base pay a nominal amount, less than $50 an article. If an article reached a certain number of views he then receive additional compensation. Only about one in five reached that threshold, he has since stopped writing for outside publications to focus on a subscription model where readers pay a monthly fee for access.
Steve R
This makes me wonder if Chrysler had kept the Valiant name instead of Volare, Reliant, Neon, Breeze and the other stupid names if Plymouth might still be around. Toyota has kept the name Camry for decades, and what is a Camry?
There is something to be said for names and evolving. Buick had the best selling full size car in America in LeSabre and decided to dump it for Lucerne?
Oldsmobile had the hot selling Cutlass and let it go. Chevrolet has the Malibu and should have transformed it into a crossover like Toyota did with the Corolla Cross. Now it is a rental special offered in what only five colors?
Where is the excitement with US automakers? What are they making today that will be a classic tomorrow?
Chrysler needs models badly. I propose the Chrysler Valiant offered in sedan, crossover and convertible offered in some fun colors.
I had a hand me down 1968 Valiant 2 door with a 225 and an automatic. Nowhere near this nice, though someone added an aftermarket AC unit and 8 track player.
This looks great, but I just can’t see spending $14k on this.
If you walked into a Chrysler Plymouth showroom 1968. That’s exactly what this Valiant looks like to me. I love this color too. I don’t know why but it always seems that 4 door Valiants are usually white or beige. I don’t think this is restored it just looks too perfect, especially under the hood. Someone really looked after this one. I agree with Stan, the 225 Super Six is very torquey with the 3 speed stick. I’m not going to comment on the price, but think about it…… Its 75 bucks for two small bags of groceries these days, nothings cheap. But if bought right, someones getting one sweet car. Nice write up Scotty and great find Rocco. Thank you.
At my high school “back in the day”, this is what would have been referred to as a “narc car”, especially if it had a spot light on it. It would have fooled everyone…
But Godzilla… the cops 👮♂️ 👮♀️ 🚔 can’t drink coffee ☕️ and eat a donut 🍩 while operating a manual 😲
If as original as it seems, and the mystery side is good, I could be tempted by this.
Running thru the gears with a column shifter would be so fun. And it would remind me of my dad every time I looked at it, him and his 66 Belvedere wagon and 75 Dart.
It just looks like a moment in time.
Ah, yes, column shifters. I grew up with floor shifts… on the folk’s ’35 Plymouth rumble seat coupe and ’37 Buick Special. My first car was a ’46 Olds “66” Club Coupe with a 3-speed column shifter. My second car, a ’50 DeSoto, had the column-shifted 2×2 semi-automatic. My last column shifter was the slickest of the lot, a ’61 FIAT 1100 sedan with 4-speed column. I loved it and it, as they used to say about TC MGs, “the shifter falls readily to hand.”
Granted, there’s monkey linkage involved in having column shifters but, to me, it’s worth the trade off. Try driving any of the ’50s era European cars; their column shifters might just make a convert out of you!
It’s a beauty. Manual drums but i see p/s. Again a beauty in all it’s simplicity. Okay i gotta say it, i’ll check the radiator hose before going on a long trip ;). To this day i’m sure David Mann must have said to himself ” why didn’t i listen to the sales guy and order it with the four barrel 340 and heavy-duty cooling “
“How can he go so fast”?
You’ll never make the grade!
Well, once again here is my ’69 Valiant story….
A college buddy drove one of these 225 Valiants in the celery green color; it had been his Grandmother’s car. It was low-miles and in perfect condition. I think he had it for 3 years, then decided to buy something sportier and sexier (maybe a Vega GT?).
He came up with the bright idea to blow up the engine just for fun, so he drained all the oil out of the car and drove it around campus for 3 days, probably with the oil light on. On day 4 he gave up and poured 5 quarts of oil back in the thing and sold it for $300.
Rex the celery green comment had me howling 😂. The ending had me sad 😔
My roommate’s mother bought one of these in 1970. Slant 6 and 3 on the floor. 3 of us drove it from Ann Arbor to Florida one spring break. It’s a very honest and useful vehicle and everybody knows you can’t kill the Leaning Tower of Power. May not be worth the ask but compared to a late model asian sh*tbox I’d rather drive the Mopar any day.
I drove a 63 in 63 for about 6 months and the gearing was no fun at all. My 52 ford flathead was more fun as was my 63 Volvo 4 banger.
Great looking Valiant! Outstanding color, slant six engine, 3 speed. Add a vintage A/C unit & you are good to go! $14K seems a little high, but maybe able to negotiate the price!
Nice car, but I doubt that those gauges under the dash are “factory”. Chrysler did a good job back in the day of offering gauges as standard equipment for everything except oil pressure, when most of the competition were giving us idiot lights.
This is a nice, basic car which should stand out at a cruise night or car show just because of its simplicity and rarity. Nobody would put money into restoring a four-door basemobile but when they show up, they do attract interest.
The coolant overflow recovery system is a nice touch. Coolant overflow recovery systems weren’t standard until later. All in all it’s a well done addition to the engine compartment.
My brother bought one the same colour a few years back (2015 maybe?) Got a decent deal on it ($3500 CDN) IIRC.
Took it to a spring shop to have the Torque springs adjusted and it rode like a dream afterwards. Had to have the points adjusted too. He then drove it 4000 kms home.
Be careful of the gauges. Chrysler gauges are known to fail. Thin electrical contacts I think were the problem.
This one is a beauty. Not 14 large beautiful but, a guy can dream!
In my experience almost every seller sets their price higher than their bottom line. Every buyer will want to negotiate a better deal. That’s the process. So far I am holding true to my pledge at the beginning of the year not to pass judgment on price. I have tried to readjust my thinking that unless I am making an offer myself then my opinion on the asking price is irrelevant. Also like everyone else I can’t believe how the cost of everything has gone up so much in the last few years. So $14K? Who really knows anymore. I like this Valiant a lot and I doubt if you could find any nicer. Someone is going to get a time capsule vehicle that harkens back to a time when Detroit was producing simple, economical and affordable cars unlike the rolling computer carts built today. GLWTS.
I think it’s worth every penny of $14K. Has the larger (225) slant six–could have been the 198 or the 170–and I see power steering and a radio, both being infrequent options on a bottom-of-the-line Valiant 100. If taken care of, this car will last 200,000 miles without any major problems.Try buying a new or newer car today that will last you that long for that money. These Valiants were some of the most reliable cars ever made. And the 225 six with 3-speed stick shift in a lightweight car like this is no slouch! It will surprise you. I had a ’64 Valiant with the same power train.
This car brings many of us back a few years. Simple times with $100 valiant and darts. What I see is a very unique dash with rally gauges like my barracuda! Cool car worth every penny!
I want it bad, very bad, but not 14k bad .
Beautiful. No stupid computers, stupid stop start, stupid TPMS, just simple and easily repairable. Drive like I do and 25 mpg is a reality.
Much better than most new cars
I had one.
Bought it for 50 bucks.
Sold it for 200, just because it ran.
Saw it abandoned on PCH 3 months later.