If you watched television in the mid-1970s, chances are you caught Ricardo Montalban hawking the new Chrysler Cordoba with its “rich Corinthian leathers”. The Cordoba would be Chrysler’s first foray into the personal luxury segment and was the first Chrysler-branded car not to be a full-size model. The Cordoba was around from 1975 and 1983, and this edition is from the auto’s final outing. It’s a semi-project car that needs a bit of tinkering, located in Lyons, Illinois. This Mopar is available here on craigslist for what sounds like a reasonable $2,500 with extra parts. Thanks for the tip, Pat L.!
Before it became a mid-size personal luxury car, the Cordoba was a one-year-wonder in 1970, based on the Newport. The name was taken from the Spanish city of Córdoba, Spain. The second generation of the regular production Cordoba was released in 1980, down-sized somewhat from its previous dimensions. It borrowed from the J-platform that dated to the advent of the Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen from the prior decade. By this time, the luster was wearing off the Cordoba and sales were way off. After building just 13,471 copies in 1983, Chrysler dropped the product from the lineup.
We’re told the seller bought this Cordoba as a project, but not much has happened with the car in the past three years, so it’s time for the machine to move on. The seller says the body and paint are in decent shape except for the rear bumper and fender extensions, for which the seller has a fiberglass rear clip to rectify this. The interior also looks quite nice from what we can see.
Chrysler’s 360 cubic inch V8 lies under the hood, and it sports a 4-barrel carburetor and intake manifold sourced from Edelbrock. Hooker Headers and dual exhaust have been added, so this car should have more pep than stock. It’s a runner that also stops, but one of the header gaskets is leaking and the tires are old, so some time with a mechanic will be needed. This is probably a well-used car that isn’t perfect, but considering what $2,500 buys these days, would you take it home?
Interesting Russ and I had completely forgotten about this mundane AMC frontend styling look on the last model year. Personally I have always loved the black with red interior combination or vice-versa. It’s already gone so Buyer may have gotten a great deal.
That was a great deal. Good luck to the new owner.
Better a cold Corona then a Cordoba. Cheeeers
I do not remember seeing even one of these with that front end.
Can’t beat the comfort of ’80s cars with velour interiors.
This Chrysler is missing the FINE CORINTHION LEATHER……lol
In 1983 it was either a 225 or 318, so if this is a 360, it is a transplant. Kind of looks that way in the pictures.
Yup, the 360 was a first year blip that saw very limited production due to an emissions compliance issue IIRC
Header gasket leak and a new set of tires? Looking at about 2, 3k tops. Not bad for a cruiser. Assuming of course that’s all that’s wrong. I wanted to check the ruse issue soI went to the site and the posting has been removed so I guess it sold. Thank God, Lyons is too close and the car too tempting.
By this time they had completely mucked up the Cordoba from it’s mid 70’s look.
In fact this 1983 model was it’s last year in production. Is it any wonder.
Beautiful car. If only Craigslist hadn’t deleted the ad, it would’ve been nice to see more pics of the car.
Craigslist doesn’t delete the ad, the seller does. Why keep the ad up and have people asking about the car, when it is already sold?
Good point. I know they can’t keep the ad up forever.
I had an 80 model in my late teens/early 20s. Had it for years. Loved that car. So much so that what led me here to begin with was me looking up to see if i could find another one for sale.