The seller of this 1974 Dodge Dart Sport wonders how a car that lived in Maryland for over three decades has “no rust anywhere”, even retaining its original factory undercoating underneath. They have it posted here on craigslist in Bluemont, Virginia and they’re asking $13,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Tony P. for sending in this tip!
Sadly, we don’t see any underside photos to see that original undercoating, and all of the photos in the listing are small, vertical photos, which adds to the mind-bending frustration of seeing this gorgeous survivor. This car looks as close to new as I can imagine, and the Deep Sherwood Metallic paint looks great. The seller mentions that the driver’s side quarter panel appears to have been painted at some point, but otherwise, the paint and stripes are said to be original.
The fourth-generation Dodge Dart was made from 1966 for the 1967 model year, until the 1976 model year and then they were gone, replaced by the Aspen and Volare. In 1974, government regulations required 5-mph crash-friendly (is there such a thing?) rear bumpers to go with the front bumpers that were enlarged the previous year. You can see the Dart Sport script between the tail lights and they weren’t powered by a 360 V8 unless they were a Dart Sport 360, and none were powered by a 340 V8 in this era.
The interior looks as nice as the exterior does. The seller says that the front seat cover has been replaced, but otherwise, it sounds like it’s original inside. The back seat looks perfect and the pass-through trunk also appears to be in excellent condition. Dodge combined the lap and shoulder belts into what they called the “unibelt”, which is the same design as exists on almost every vehicle 50 years later. You can see the details, edges, and corners look almost perfect on this car.
This isn’t a Dart Sport 360, so it doesn’t have a 360, and a 225 slant-six was the standard engine. This one is running a 318-cu.in. OHV V8, which would have had 150 horsepower but the seller has a four-barrel carb on this one so expect that hp number to be a bit higher. It also has a “new intake, distributor, wiring harness, fuel pump and pressure gauge, high output alternator, aluminum radiator, and master shutoff switch.” Hagerty is at $11,700 for a #2 excellent car so this one may be a bit on the high side, what do you think it’s worth?
There is a lot of weight up front for manual steering and manual disk brakes, but otherwise it is a nice car. In my mind $13k is a tall ask, but in this market someone will pay it.
For the 100th time, don’t buy anything from Craiglist! I digress.. these were low budget heaps back in my day, a graduation present to the daughter from High School. They ran a little while but most ended up at the end of a junkyard crusher. Today, with Dodge and Plymouth being marketed at circus-like auctions as the end all in vintage collections. Couldn’t be further from the truth and somebody asking 13k for this tin can is absolutely criminal. The Dart has a long history and most of it bad including the brand new Dart which is turning into a big mess. We are all thinking that in granddaddy’s barn, anything we find will turn to gold. Anybody ever ask; There’s a good reason it was put in the barn in the first place?
jv -smash palace
You are way off base. These were great cars and sold extremely well because they were very reliable cars that were well engineered. The A Body Chrysler market continues to get stronger and these are going up in value. This one looks like it has good bones and a lot of originality.
My wife had a 1974 Duster, 318. Ran good until 1982 when the person I sold it to had the frame snap while going around a curve. 5 minutes after he drove away.
an easy reply for someone who is not a mopar lover!!! these cars with a 340 in them were kicking all the other brands ass in the 70s. may not be your cup of tea but bashing the brand is not becoming!!!!
Nice to see one in apparently nice shape, but these began rotting the very first time they got wet. If the quarters were resprayed, it’s probably because of rust/rot repair. Underneath pics are a must, especially at that price. This car should be looked over very carefully. If it is solid, he may get some reasonable offers, simply because there’s so few left.
Like any vehicle, it depends how they are maintained, stored and if they were exposed to a lot of salt.
The paint on the hood and trunk lid looks like they tried to rejuvenate it but failed. As stated by others, rust was a problem for Dart and Valiant of the era. Not too keen on the wheels either. The factory rally wheels would look much better. Could be a decent car to own but not at that price.
These seemed to be a bigger and more stylish car than the Maverick and Nova crew. In their day you would find them all over. Besides, what’s better than a half vinyl roof than a wrap over stripe, too
I gotta disagree with JE Vizzusi. I owned several Darts back in the days of my youth and they were excellent cars at great prices. The 318 is a bullet proof engine even when neglected on maintenance. I think this is a very nice Dart Sport but the asking price is ridiculous.
Everyone keeps saying the price is to high but I say, can you find another one in anywhere near this kind of shape? I’ve owned 2 Dusters and an older (69) Dart and the only problem this era had was the front end always seemed to need work. Personally I think all this car needs is more hp brought out of the motor and better music. Worth every penny.
My first car back in 1981, I was 18.
They were good cars V-8 or slant six and way better than a pinto or vega the same price
But the Pinto and Vega were subcompacts, the Mopar A-Bodies (Dodge Dart/Demon/Dart Sport, Plymouth Valiant/Scamp/Duster) were compacts. They competed with the Ford Maverick/Mercury Comet and the GM X-bodies (Chevy Nova, Pontiac Ventura, Olds Omega, Buick Apollo/Skylark). Chrysler never got serious about competing with Ford and GM in the subcompact market, and had to rely on captive imports from Mitsubishi (Plymouth Cricket, Dodge Colt) to have a subcompact to compete against the Ford Pinto/Mercury Bobcat and the Chevy Vega.
They want more for it than the market should bear.
Paint on the roof and trunklid looks pretty oxidized.
Have to see pics of the underbody and front suspension before I would even consider 10K.
I had a 74 dart sport 360. Black with a white stripe down the sides.
Hood scoops, headers,dual exhaust. Black interior. One of my favorite cars. Wish I still had it. Only stopped once by the cops. No ticket. The good ‘ol days!
I had a 74 dart sport 360. Black with a white stripe down the sides.
Hood scoops, headers,dual exhaust. Black interior. One of my favorite cars. Wish I still had it. Only stopped once by the cops. No ticket. The good ‘ol days!
Had a 1975 Dart Sport 360. Not that fast but alot of torque. Could easily smoke the bias ply rear tires.
The paint is shot…I think the author needs some glasses, lol.
The 360 came with the Volaré/Aspen. Now those were serious rust buckets. The favorite Dart motor was the 340-4bbl. The rugged 318 served as the foundation. Relatively inexpensive, all high-performance and with a strong aftermarket support, the Dart 340 ruled the roads in my area for a time. But these rusted, too, so buyer beware.
The 318, 340 and 360 were all LA block engines, so some judicious machine work, combined with a “stroker” crank can get you more cubic inches, if you so desire. Source: Wikipedia. This was the height of the so-called “Malaise Era”, with the anti-smog gear strangling both performance and fuel economy, while providing the horrible drivability the engines of this era were known for. The good news is that almost fifty years later, that can all be fixed, while providing lower emissions and improved fuel economy than the primitive emission controls common in that era. New cylinder heads will restore the reduced compression of the anti-smog motors, and modern aftermarket electronic ignition and fuel injection systems will restore the engine to pre-smog performance while reducing emissions and improving fuel economy in the bargain.
This one has a trunk, but didn’t Dodge sell some of these as a hatchback with a fold-down rear seat? The called it a “Convertriple”, if I remember correctly.
Good memory Robert.
AsI recall, it was equipped with a sunroof along with the hatchback and the fold down rear seat. It was called a “Convertriple” because it offered open-air motoring like a convertible via the sunroof, the cargo capacity of a small station wagon via the hatchback and fold-down seat, with the small size and good gas mileage of a compact coupe. It was a marketing lie, of course, but I thought they sold quite well at the time. Hatchbacks peaked in the US sometime in the 1980’s and have been declining in popularity ever since. They were eclipsed first by minivans, then later by the compact SUV’s known as “Crossovers”, with their all-wheel drive and increased ride height.
The 360 4-Barrel was available in the 1974 model. It easily out ran the previous year’s 340 4-Barrel that had been neutered by cutting the compression.
Also, the forward folding rear seat was also known as the ”Space Maker Package (Dodge? nomenclature).
But for a single year,1976, the Dart joined the police force with a 360-Four Barrel, standard Front disc brakes, and BIG anti-sway bars front and rear, plus the Leece-Neville alternator, oversized radiator and better spring rates in the torsion bars and rear leaf springs.
This should make someone a great cruiser or daily driver.