Ah, the family wagon, just in a smaller, more economical size. That’s what the late ’70s Aspen and Volare “twins” promised Mopar fans. This low-mileage (74,055 claimed) example is located in the mountains of Asheville, North Carolina and is up for sale here on eBay, where the buy-it-now price is $2,600 and even lower bids are invited. While this car certainly has some rust issues in the floor, they aren’t terminal and the seller has done a good job of picturing the damage. The Aspen is said to run well and has been the beneficiary of recent fuel system and brake work, although it does need tires. This seems like an inexpensive way to both enter the classic car hobby and get a useful vehicle at the same time!
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- Clean but plain lines
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- Closeup of rust
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- 318 V-8 with AC
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- Floors need attention
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- Do you think this is actual mileage?
My girlfriend (now wife) had a new lemon yellow 1978 Aspen wagon. Terrible build quality. Constantly broke down. The corner on the window surround on the driver’s door was vicious, poked me in the face plenty of times. Wound up replacing with a 1980 Pontiac wagon based on the Grand Prix. This series had lotsa problems.
Frankly, I’m surprised that it survived to 74,000 miles. These always rust so badly, it’s on its way out now
~ Slant six and a four speed, please.
I have an 85 van with the same set-up. Performance? No. Bullet proof- yes
In 1979 I blasted one of these from San Diego to Vegas at over 90 mph the entire way, topping 120 on the downhill into Nevada. Dangerous as hell but fun. Years later a drunk plowed is Vette into the back of it, completely destroying the Vette – like his headlights in the top of a palm tree wrecked. Bent the back of the Aspen pretty good but it lasted for years after that in dry Vegas weather. But nowadays, I’d put a cage in that wagon and run it in Lemons, beating on that wheezy 318 like a red-headed stepchild.
Oh and those RV-2 “thumper” A/C compressors are pretty bulletproof in normal use but have a habit of grenading at around 6,000 RPM. Don;t ask me why I know this. Nowadays RV guys use em for onboard air compressors as they have an oil sump and run without refrigerant.
Vehicle is located in Asheboro, NC close to Greensboro, NC
I liked Valiants a lot, but these were junk. Maybe the police package Aspens were OK.
Drove a Volare (same car) company car back in the day-worst build quality of any vehicle ever!!!! Hit a small chuck hole on my country road and broke bolts holding upper a frames on to the chassis!!! Chrysler had not even used hardened bolts in build of car!!! These also rusted generally from tops of fenders down!!! This is not a barn find but a canidate for scrap pile, no one should even think something like this should ever be a “classic”. Just a t#*d of a car!!!!!