Say what you will about Volares in general, this 1980 appears to be in great shape, has reportedly only 31,000 miles, no rust, and is for sale here on craigslist near Sykesville, Maryland. If this floats your boat, read more below…
No, they weren’t the prettiest nor most reliable, but they were a product of their time: a midsize car of good economy but not the best looks or build quality. They were part of Chrysler Corporation’s last-ditch in-house efforts to avoid complete ruin. Made from 1975 to 1980, the Volare and its Dodge sibling Aspen, offered three body types, four engines, and four transmissions over the 4-year run. They were built in one of four plants in the Americas and were technically good on aerodynamics but not so good at catching market share away from Ford, GM, or AMC. The F-body platform was replaced for 1981 by the infamous “K-Car” and minivans that saved Lee Iaccocca’s bacon.
Objectively speaking, this car looks to be in amazing overall condition for nearly 40 years old. The seller says that it runs and drives fine with a six-cylinder and automatic, has no rust, and only 31,000 ticks on the clock. We are only treated to three pictures, unfortunately. There is quite a fan base for these cars nowadays, what do you think of them?
Yuck, red. Maybe a red interior was standard in non-fleet Chrysler cars from about 1972 to 1982, and all other colors were extra-cost options? That said, I want it. Six-cylinder or not, it will look like a muscle car compared to your average plastic jellybean today.
Must still be a contest going for fewest photos in a listing.
The sixes were horrible during these years. Strangled for life. The lean burn tech was miserable. The 2bbl helped for a few years but if I recall correctly, by 1980 they were gone in the States (but lived on in Canada?) The hoods on the 1980 models seemed flimsy too. Worst of all, that ugly opera roof. Never a fan of vinyl roofs anyway and the opera roof was the ugliest of all. Interesting that this low spec car has a standard interior but a tuff wheel, upgrade or something done recently? The wheels are not from that year but I like them, though some 1968 Magnums without the trim rings and full chrome are always the best choice over all for a Chrysler product. Have a friend with a recently restored Dodge Mirada that I tried to talk into some 15 inch (repo) Magnums for that car, but after spending 5K on the restore, his wife was a little grumpy about spending more on a car with little upside in value. She doesn’t understand that he loves that car and will never sell it anyway.
I agree, the super six was awesome, but why did they stop using it, was it a pollution problem? Sid, I thought you were an old Porsche man????? Since when did you learn to love old Plymouths? (Not that there is anything wrong with that, have a soft spot in my heart for them. I had a close relationship with a 76 Volare for a number of years)
I remember looking at the “frequency of repair” ratings in the early 80’s (my parents subscribed to Consumer Reports, who surveyed thousands of subscribers to come up with the ratings). Red dots were good, black dots were bad. All systems were listed- paint, body hardware, engine, transmission, brakes, etc. Aspen and Volare had the honor of being the only car with a solid column of black dots! Needless to say I avoided them when purchasing the nearly 125 cars I owned in the 70’s and 80’s.
That being said, there are always good examples of a car and bad ones. To still be around 38 years later, this has to be one of the better ones!
The bullet-proof slant 6 is probably one of the best engines Chrysler ever built. They ran forever. I forgot what kind of quality rating Volares had, but 1980 was about the crotch of the worst quality control Chrysler ever had before Iaccoca saved the day. The K-car that followed was an absolute joke, and looked it. Those had all the visual appeal of an enema bag.
However, the slant six was NOT the choice you’d want for the Volare patrol car, as was discovered by one of our local law enforcement agencies when some genius administrator decided it would be a way of reducing the fiscal expenditures for gasoline (“Gas Embargo”).. as the town is at 4300 ft altitude and the area is mountainous these failed miserably-the officers would have to shut down their red/blue lights to gain FOUR MPH, giving them a thrilling 67MPH top speed up a three mile hill…
Funny stuff
wow $6500 for this car…I will take my ’79 Dodge Magnum G.T. with police package and 360HP motor.
Not the most reliable–yes. However, I think this is a pretty attractive car given the competition at the time.
Nice looking car, I don’t remember that rear quarter window shape, and the vinyl top looks like dealer installed?
That is the shape they were squared off like that
Nice cars. Had one.
But a V8 is a must in one of these.
No go.
Nice looking? The only thing I see that looks nice, style-wise, is the steering wheel.
But, it is a good thing that someone finds this specimen attractive, otherwise it will disappear. Kudos to the buyer.
Nobody’s noticed that the car has a “Tuff” steering wheel (highly doubtful it was there when the car was built) as well as 15″ Chrysler “C” Body road wheels (which it definitely didn’t have when it was built. 31K is good. Probably would want to replace everything rubber in the car if you wanted to make it a driver. And keep in mind those bench seats were designed by the Marquis deSade. Long trips are torture on the spine.
I doubt the miles. Different steering wheel. Different rims. The vinyl top actually looks correct (1980 had the same landau top as earlier years but the blacked out the trim around the opera windows only in 1980) but they don’t show much in regards to the interior. It is well maintained, and a nice car. I would buy it & drive it with pride. But the miles are not accurately represented.
my dad had the 1980 Plymouth Volare wagon with 225 slant six and Torqueflite auto trans and my grandfather had the 1979 Plymouth Volare wagon with 225 slant six and Torqueflite auto trans, both were great cars gave great service.
i’m only interested in the wagons.
Worked at chrysler dealer when these cars were new i owned a 1978 volare with 318 engine car was underpowered removed lean burn computer replaced ign with point type distributor older model carb did away with lock up torque converter changed rear end ratio fron 2.45 to 2.93 lost 2 mpg on trip but modifications made all the difference in the word lots more power in nc at the time emission test were made at tailpipe car still passed