Do you remember the TV commercials from the 1970s where Ricardo Montalban was hawking the new Chrysler Cordoba with its “rich Corinthian leathers? Before you get all excited, it was real leather alright, but the Corinthian part was just marketing speak. The Cordoba was Chrysler’s personal luxury car, produced between 1975-83. This fine example from 1977 is a survivor that may only have 33,000 miles on the clock. It’s located in Brawley, California, and here on craigslist for $10,000. Thanks for the heads-up on this one, rex m!
The Cordoba would be the first Chrysler-branded vehicle that was smaller than full-size. Its purpose was to compete against cars like the Oldsmobile Cutlass, Buick Regal, and Mercury Cougar. Chrysler was at a crossroads in the mid-1970s due to a lack of public interest in their 1973 full-sized C-body models when the OPEC oil embargo drove buyers away from big cars. The Cordoba proved to be a much-needed shot in the arm, at least for a while. Chrysler sold more than 450,000 of the cars in its first three years, including just under 140,000 in 1977, the model year of the seller’s car.
Some of the car’s success may be attributed to the Ricardo Montalban commercials, like the one here. Interiors were more luxurious than the similar Dodge Charger SE with a velour cloth notchback bench seat and folding armrest as standard. Contrary to what you might think, those “rich Corinthian leathers” were optional, something that the original purchaser of this ’77 edition didn’t spring for. Regardless, it looks practically new and seldom used at just 750 miles per year on average. The paint is shiny and there are no noticeable flaws with the body, certainly not any rust. The interior is equally nice, someplace to relax in while driving to the movie theater to see Saturday Night Fever on the big screen.
This Cordoba has been treated to some new apparatus, including the 4-barrel carburetor, automatic transmission, power steering pump, and a new set of tires. It’s powered by a 360 cubic inch V8 which we’re told runs well. These cars aren’t in huge demand within collector circles as $6,000 seems to be top dollar, at least according to NADA. While not necessarily a classic, you’d probably have the only one at Cars & Coffee.
Worth more than $6K, NADA off on this one. Nice Cordoba, it will sell for considerably more in this market.
What would have been a hoot would have been for Tattoo to hawk the Plymouth Horizon , a subcompact that was being sold at that time, as a counterpoint to Ricardo’s ads.
The poster child of Chrysler’s failures.
Ugly, slow, poor quality build and materials.
Don’t mince words, tell us how you really feel.
I love it when a guy tells it like it is. The interior photos show poor quality assembly, blahhhhhh materials, not a place I would like to spend time in. The fact that Chrysler registered some success with this turkey always amazed me.
I used to sell these. Often times there would be Charger SE emblems inside and out by mistake. This was a sad period in time for Chrysler Corp. IMO.
The 1975-’77 Charger SE was the Dodge equivalent. It used quite a few different parts (grille, header panel, taillamps, etc.) despite the similar appearance. The Charger Sport in those years looked like a same-year Plymouth Fury–the “Rosco P. Coltrane” B-body rather than the C-body Gran Fury.
The Cordoba and Charger SE rolled off the same assembly line!
Failure? Sold over _450,000! Drive train was solid. What were the build quality issues?
I think Tomw is off the mark, these were not unattractive vehicles . The lines were sleek, the landau roof looked right , and even though the “Lean Burn” was a pain, it would still get up and move at highway speeds The interiors were plush for the time. There biggest rivals were the Grand Prix, T-bird, and Cutlass Supreme. The Monte too, but ’77 was the end of that. These were nice cars, and I think they get a bad rap from non-owners. These were upscale cars thar their owners loved, andI was one of them.
These are great cars and they don’t get the attention they deserve. I’ve had a 75 in my collection for probably about 10 years, I bought it with 2,200 miles and it’s a little over 3000 currently. With a collection of about 25 cars, this is one they called me whenever I’m thinking about which one I want to drive, wonderfully unique look and great to drive. They don’t bring a lot of money so dollar-for-dollar the enjoyment factor is very strong, especially if you’re good with owning one of the unique milestones in Automotive History. It certainly looks like the next owner will get it car they can thoroughly enjoy.
Put the CB Radio back in it and we’ll be East Bound and Down.
Had a black ‘78 with red “ Rich Corinthian Lather”. Went over 200,000 miles until motor quit.
There was a girl in our neighborhood who when she passed her driving test her brother bought her a 76’ Cordoba just like this color combination but, hers had Corinthian leather and a console floor shift. Rode beautiful
A friend of mine bought a ’76 brand new dark brown with the vinyl roof, and his had the 400 lean burn engine. It was good for what it was, but he was always tinkering with the engine. But boy would it move on the road!
Yeah the lean burn engine concept was a dud ! My aunt and uncle got a brand new 1976 Cordoba…….it spent more time at the dealer than on the road, never wanted to start and stay running ! They dumped it after 1 year and got a nice smooth Cadillac Seville !
I had a 76. It was like driving your couch down the road. Extremely comfortable. A bucket of rust by 84 when I sold it.
I am a Cadillac man but we had a 76 New Yorker brougham,with “Corinthian Leather’ It was as nice or nicer than any I have had in a Cadillac. Plus the 76 New Yorker was indestructible.
Except, perhaps, their PW motors!
I just love it when some people use a car like this to trash the us car industry and its products and then race about how great their imports are. Go try to fine a 77 toyota, honda, or datsun that still survives. Rare indeed. Chrysler did have issues with the loan burn system but I would remind folks that was only necessitated by government diktat.
77 model year imports had good assembly quality but used very poor quality steel, fabrics, plastics, etc that were rusting and disintegrating in a few short years.
My 79 datsun 210 was so rusty that it bent like a banana when put on a lift.
There was two brothers in my town growing up and they were the only ones in town who worked on foreign cars guess what they became millionaires. Yes higher prices to fix but they were never short on having cars to fix
In the spring of 1978 the local paper here in Michigan had twice as many 77 Cordoba listings than all of the other vehicles put together. People were begging someone to take over the loan balance. My sister had one, it was beautiful, dark green with a white vinyl half roof. 400 lean burn. If you were fool enough to pump the accelerator when starting it, you were gonna have to put new plugs in it before it started again. It backfired out the carb and exhaust and if you got it flooded it would kick back on the starter and break the starter nose right off. The Chrysler dealer couldn’t do anything with it. If you were lucky enough to get it to start, it was fun to drive. Sis told me the only way to make it run right was to put your foot in it, which she loved doing lol. She sold it twice and the guys kept bringing it back and finally got rid of it at nearly 20 years old and less than 14k miles. I expect the sellers car managed to get 33k miles on it cause it was in a warm climate.
Where’s the “Fine Corinthian Leather” ?
Dad bought a new 77, looked pretty and good styling but was not put together well, trim falling off in the first year. Poor quality and not up to GM standards of the time.
In 76 I purchased my first brand new car. A black Cordoba. It was loaded and the window sticker was UNDER $7,000 I was just 20 years old and my parents thought I was out of my mind to buy such an expensive car. What sort of made this car unique was that I ordered it with the 400 cid police engine option with a 3:23 ratio rear end, and even came with dual exhaust. BUT boy did it suck up gasoline , or maybe it was just my heavy foot…LOL
Thinking ‘Lean Burn’ Shake and Bake computers were only installed on the 400ci motors in 1977? This one definitely needs the engine bay cleaned up. Nice looking car otherwise.
Always thought these were pretty and always wanted one. I love the period color combination, as well. I would buy this one and tell people it had “Corinthian Velour.”
I have a 79 I just picked up 2 months ago,it has 74k original miles, and has no rot,pprevious owner got rid of lean burn crap,runs great,starts every time,nice riding car,and overall build quality is pretty darn good in my opinion, and I have owned lots of vehicles, some were horrendous junk,not the cordoba, sorry for those who had problems in the past, I’d bet majority of complaints were about the lean burn garbage that was on all 1976-1989 cars,with maybe a few exceptions,its government mandates that force companies to come up with unreasonable, unrealistic changes in short time frames that produce sub-standard products.
BEST VALUE at the time. The GM line – ups were great cars as well. BUT- if you look at what you got for your money – the Chrysler Córdoba was definitely the “ Classiest “ looking and riding car of the time. The 318ci with a 4- barrel set up, No lean burn, duel exhaust, and reasonable acceleration, it actually gave you both decent MPG and performance. The 360ci and 400ci gave you a little more “Kick” but drank quite a lot more fuel. A friend of mine has a 1977 with the 318ci 4- barrel set up and he’ll get 17-18 mpg highway. Not bad for a 1970’s car! His is fully loaded, with sunroof, wire wheel covers with white walls. Truly gorgeous burgundy paint with cashmere leather interior. It was a custom ordered model. Now- if he would just sell it to – me.
I have a 1977 Chy Cordoba w/t-top, 32,000 miles on it. It got us around 20 miles per gallon and was wonderful to drive!!!