Barn Finder Rocco B has been scouting cyberspace, and he has located this 1977 Cordoba for us to look at, so thank you for that Rocco. This 1977 Chrysler Cordoba has clocked a genuine and documented 34,000 miles and is in nice condition for its age. You will find it listed for sale here on Craigslist. It is located in Exmore, Virginia, and is being offered for sale with a clean title. The owner has set a price of $9,500 for the Cordoba.
The Cordoba presents quite nicely. The owner says that the car has spent its life in climate-controlled storage since new. The paint and the vinyl top both look to be in good condition. The Mopar Rally Wheels also set off nicely against the paint. So far then, it’s all looking very promising.
The interior appears to present as well as the exterior. You get white leather upholstery, an AM/FM stereo, power windows, cruise control, and air conditioning. The dash and pad are free of cracks, the carpet looks good, and the rear seat, door trims, and headliner also look nearly as good as new.
There just had to be something, didn’t there? This damage to the driver’s seat seems really odd to me. It just doesn’t look right on a car with so few miles on the clock that has lived in a climate controlled garage. To me, it almost looks like there has been some sort of reaction to a chemical or cleaner which has done something weird to the leather, or it has been subjected to something heavy scuffing across the surface in this one spot. It certainly detracts from the look of the rest of the interior. You could live with it as it is, but I would probably want to fix it fairly quickly. It just looks like an issue that could deteriorate pretty rapidly.
Under the hood is the original 400ci 4-barrel, with Electronic Lean Burn. The good news is that the ELB system has been scrapped, and the car is now fitted with a Mopar electronic ignition kit. This is no bad thing, as the ELB system was notorious for its lack of reliability. The car is also fitted with an AFB competition carburetor, although the original Thermoquad unit is also included. The car is also fitted with power steering and power brakes. The car is fitted with older tires, but these have only covered about 5,000 miles. The owner has a comprehensive catalog of receipts for work that has been performed on the car over the years, and he also says that it is extremely nice to drive.
This 1977 Cordoba is a nice looking car with only the one obvious flaw on the driver’s seat. The rest of the car looks really good, and the fact that the mileage claim can be backed up with documentation is also a bonus. There aren’t a great number of these appearing in the market at present, which puts this one in fairly exclusive company. I found one with slightly lower mileage advertised for $12,400, and an example with slightly higher mileage, but without leather, for $9,995. That indicates that the pricing on this car is probably quite reasonable.
400 V8, no lean burn and no headache-inducing red interior? I might have a crush on this Chrysler.
Look closer, still has the lean burn box on the air cleaner.
Just a sticker Keith…Lean Burn has been replaced.
I’m not a fan of a leather interior, but what a gorgeous ride! The fact that it’s a round headlight model makes it all the more appealing to me, wish the new owner luck!
Had a 1976. Bought used in 1978 with 32,000 miles. It was red/white Landau, red leather, 318, no lean burn(too early?). Had to rebuild the 2 bbl about a month in. That car would get about 21 mpg highway, but about 6 mpg in town!
Traded it in for a new 1986 Civic. It had just under 100,000, still running great. I would love another one. The financial page here won’t allow it. Like the round light much better than the 78, eith the dual rectangular lights. This one looks amazing, personally I could live with the blemish on the seat for a while!
Nice car with cruise control and rally rims, and power windows.
Could that seat damage be due to the shoulder strap constantly rubbing on it? A short driver would have the seat forward enough to have constant contact. Too bad it’s there, as it’s a noticeable spot, and the rest looks good.
“Rich-Corinthian Leather”
….with crushed manure….lol!
Is that you? Ricardo?
Looks like a nice car. Chrysler’s answer to the Monte Carlo and Grand Prix in the hot personal luxury car competition of that era. Leather can scuff, scratch and discolor.
Absolutely stunning vehicle, my dad always rust in a vehicle is far more important than the engine. you could hot this car up in a day to a high level of horsepower but it would take weeks to fix up an early 70s high performance car full of rust
My first boss at a place that begins with a “K” bought one of these. His family was from Grosse Pointe and reputedly owned a sizable chunk of Chrysler stock. Very well-grounded guy for being a rich preppie.
This car takes me back to a time when I used a blow drier for my hair and wore shirts with wide collars. Hair’s a lot shorter now (what there is left of it) and polos and t-shirts replaced those flamboyant ’70’s shirts.
This is a great find with all the drivability issues addressed. And honestly, who gives a —- if the Lean Burn looks like it’s hooked up?
In the spring of 78 looking at the used car ads in the local paper showed 3 times as many Cordobas listed as all the other cars combined. After living thru a michigan winter with one of these backfiring, no start, sputtering nightmares, people were begging someone to take over the payments. Not even the dealership could make them run right. If you were foolhardy enough to pump the pedal even once it was flooded and would more than likely bust the nose out of the starter when it kicked back. The only way my sis could make hers go was to put your foot in it and you just can’t do that with all the snow and ice here. She sold it in 85 with 14k miles on it and again two more times and the guys brought it back and demanded their money back. It was beautiful, deep emerald green with very handsome green velour interior, but not much more than yard art. I consider it a personal failure that I couldn’t make that thing run, I wish I had known about disabling the lean burn like this one. Chrysler should have had their asses sued into oblivion over this deal. I’m sure they lost a tremendous amount of potential customers as it was. On the rare occasion it performed well, it was a joy to drive, plenty of power and handled well. The last time it backfired, it caught fire and the guy that had owned it for about a week, let it burn. It was about 12 years old and had less than 25k miles
Reminds me of the SNL spoof of the diamond cleaver, you know the one with the rabbi.
Oh my, another cordoba. This is a nice one too. My mom had a 76, a 77 and an 81. I never drove the 76, the 81 was a slug but that 76 would have been the death of me if she had given it to me instead of my sister. That car was powerful for a mid 70s car.
Apply some shoe sneaker white polish and top with white enamel appliance touch up paint and forget about the seat scuff. Its not a perfect world.
The one thing I remember in particular about the Cordobas is how the paint fell off . The silver ones , in particular
The lean burn was a nightmare. I had a 77 that used to like to stall while going 65 on the expressway!!! That was fun. But I love Cordobas – especially with the round headlights, road wheels and crushed velour!
I changed my mind on selling it after all your comments! Thanks!
If you ever sell let know.