It’s not as hard as you might think to step back in time, especially with this woody-style ’77 Plymouth Volare wagon here on eBay with under 20,000 original miles. In our second Florida find of the day, this Volare sports working A/C and AM/FM radio, giving you everything you need in a summer cruiser. Not to mention the fake wood paneling appears to be in excellent condition, which is a must-have for a family truckster of this vintage. I’m always more interested in how the car maintained such low mileage than the vehicle itself, but I imagine this had a history of being owned by grandparents who only took it for a ride when the grandkids were in town. These low-mileage but low-value finds always beg the question of what do you do with it, but I’d feel perfectly sane driving it in the summer and adding some easy miles each year. Hopefully, the reserve gets lifted soon and someone ends up with a creampuff classic.
From my experience with a ’78 Aspen wagon, it is possible 20,000 miles is as far as it would go. Very well preserved.
Bought a 1977 Dodge Aspen in 1986. Paid $450.00. Dark green, green interior, auto, super six leaning tower of power. It had 100 k when I bought it. Drove it for 24 years, kept up on the required service. Used it to run a rural mail route for a couple years. Finally parked it in 2010 with 280,000 miles on it. It had some rust on the lower rear quarter panels . Still have the car parked here on the farm in eastern North Carolina, right beside my 1973 Dodge D100. Two of the best vehicles I have ever owned.
Bidding at $7500, reserve not met…. When I see something like this – a very mundane car, albeit in a very nice preserved condition, with a tall price tag I understand that the buyers are trying to reach back into their young years. This is good, this means that many of the people have had happy childhood and that the car is one of the best ways to reconnect. I treat this as personal thing, not a real market indicator.
My father had a 69 Buick Electra 225, brown with light interior. I see them popping up for sale, but have no real desire to pay a $100 to fill up a tank for a week. There are lot better cars IMO that one can get at this price, such as W123 wagons or E39 Touring…I bet that after daily driving it for a year or so, this will go back to being what it is – a very boring flashback to the time when Detroit was on its way to loosing the crown of the world’s greatest…
basically a descent vehicle, but didn’t want one then and don’t want one now..
Just.No.
One can hope that the inner fenders were installed when Chrysler had the recall on the Volare/Aspen cars, I remember riding in one when it was new, and I was impressed. but, alas, they didn’t last too long .. the slant six which everybody said couldn’t be killed.. was .. It ” might” attract attention at a Chrysler show , definetly at the Ice cream stand.. this is a dealer, and he probably got it at an estate sale for dirt cheap, a quick detail and wants to make a fortune on it . it isn’t a car that I would rush to buy, but, if I had a Chrysler collection, would just to tool around with it .. wouldn’t go too much higher than what is on the table now
A well preserved piece of junk. There were no good US cars built in 1977. This was one of the worst.
And yet, I don’t see any junk from japan, that has survived. Maybe because they rusted away right off the rice boat.
A well preserved piece of junk. There were no good US cars built in 1977. This was one of the worst. The Bonneville will outlast this.
About 7k more than I’d pay. And im a mopar fan.
this seller has 56 vehicles on ebay right now. surprised the reserve is still not met at $7800. might make a nice driver and way into the hobby. great find.
I agree, it’s so nice to see cars like this preserved, again, for whatever reason. Cars we grew up with. Unfortunately, this PARTICULAR car (and it’s cousin the Dodge Aspen) were the cars that almost killed Chrysler. They had the most recalls in history, I believe. It’s a shame, really, as the Volare really wasn’t a bad car. I think it was just a casualty of changing times. And don’t pick on the poor slant 6, Chrysler’s powerhouse 6 banger for years. Look at it, strangled with all that crap on there. It was never meant to be an emission compliant motor. This car really is a nice car, and it’s great to see these time capsules surface, no matter what dark past they may have had.
…..ahhh…
….there’s nothing like the smell of aged fake wood veneer burning in a fireplace….
In 1977 I was 19 and obsessed with cars. I knew the Consumer Reports repair charts forwards and backwards. Full sized Fords were actually OK in the late 70’s, but I remember the Aspens and Volares being solid black, which means they had rust and serious trouble with every system in the car. That being said, my sister bought cars with similar repair records and drove them for 15 years with few problems (she never drove over 40).
My girlfriend and I owned a red 1980 Aspen with slant 6, auto, 4dr. Second owner. That thing was bullet proof solid. Very little issues, and we drove it hard more times than not! Even after we were through with it, gave it to my brother to beat the crap out of it for a while…lasted again several years, until he was posted overseas, the car came back to me…we drove it some more…finally gassing up at a gas station, the tank let go! There was a junk yard behind the station, so that was where it was pushed! Time went by…then one day, a call came asking if we would give the car to a needy dude without wheels…he fixed her up and lo and behold, he drove it for a few more years around Atlantic Canada…weird seeing her on the road. We went through 3 cars by then!
most/all the issues with these cars are known and either fixes or work a arounds are also known. it does not have bad airbags that are in the news every day. i was thinking Ford had the recall record with the current Escape.
I had a 1976 Aspen SE 4 door. At 28,000 miles the rear end spider gear crapped out. Prior to that the carpeted panels that were mounted on the seat backs began to fall off.. I found some extra parts under the rear carpet.. and the fenders started to rust out at around 29,000 miles. I went to the dealer and since I had rustproofing…they… refunded my rustproofing.. $100. No repairs to the fenders.. We sold the car shortly thereafter..at night..in the rain..to a Chevy dealer..got a great deal.. bought a ’79 Chevette.. loved it.
My condolences on your Chevette, brother.
I rode in a Chevette back-when on the highway for 40 or 50 miles. It was the noisiest, tinniest, most cramped little can I’ve ever ridden in.
Great story, PaulieB.
The Chevette went with my ex-wife about a year after we bought it…never saw either one afterwards..
The Chevette went with my ex-wife about a year after we bought it…never saw either one afterwards..
Air Force bought these with a slant six two barrel and Canadian emissions for service in Germany. I can vouch they were able to make 110mph on the autobahn.
I mentioned my situation with the Aspen crunching the rear end (see above story) to a guy I knew who worked at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership and he said. “Well we had one of our prep guys take one off the delivery truck and drive it around the block. He made it most of the way too except the rear end seized on him. There was no lube in it.” Oops.
At this time Chrysler had discontinued quality checks. They just sent the car out and the owner had to bring it back to the dealer for repairs, over and over again. This was changed when Iacocca took over.
That not true at all. Did you hear that on fox opinion channel?
Maybe he heard it on NBC which staged the fake GMC pickup fires.
My father in law once decided to surprise his wife with a new car for her 35th birthday. Said car was a turd brown Volare wagon similar to the above. My wife said that her mom went outside, took one look at the car, burst into tears and ran back in the house…
HAHAHAHA. I feel her pain.
My father bought a light blue ’80 Aspen Wagon as a left over for 6k. Base model. No roof rack, no ac, and only a AM radio. By then i guess all the recall bugs were ironed out. Car never gave him a issue. The slant 6 made it to around 141k while my brother used it as his lawn mower hauler….
A friend of mine bought a 1980 Aspen for about $400 in early 1988 and never had an issue with it when he had it..although he died late in 1988. He did put quite a few trouble-free miles on it.