A fun fact for trivia night is that Chrysler offered a 1970 Newport Cordoba model, a special trim level for the full-sized Newport that is rarely seen today. Most of us are more familiar with the mid-sized B-body personal luxury version, such as this first-year 1975 Chrysler Cordoba. The seller has this example posted here on craigslist in Chesapeake, Virginia, and they’re asking $7,950. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Tony P. for the tip!
Our own Russ showed this same car at the end of 2023 here on Barn Finds. I have a thing for the round headlight Cordobas that were made for model years 1975, 1976, and 1977. The first-generation cars were made from 1974 for the 1975 model year until the end of the 1979 model year. They switched to square (rectangular) headlights for the 1978 model year. This car looks fantastic for the most part, I don’t see any glaring issues inside or out. Some of the dark spots on the lower driver’s side appear to be reflections of spots on the ground.
There are the dark spots. Having grown up in rust country, I normally think of those dark spots in back of the wheels as rust, but they look like reflections, so that’s great news. We don’t know the underbody condition but if it’s anything like the top side, hopefully, this is a solid car. They list the mileage as being 41,000 and it sure looks like a low-mile car.
As Ricardo’s second cousin, Chester, used to say, “… soft Corinthian Velour…” This car doesn’t have the famous Corinthian Leather and you can see manual windows, too. Not that there’s anything wrong with either of those features, but my personal luxury car would have full power at least. I actually like fabric seats but they’re a hard sell in 2024, everyone wants leather. Things look good inside.
This car also has the base engine, Chrysler’s 318-cu.in. OHV V8, which was factory-rated at 150 horsepower and 255 lb-ft of torque when new. It sends power through a three-speed TorqueFlite transmission to the rear wheels and the seller says this one runs and drives great, has newer tires, a new carb, and a new battery. I’m guessing it may be priced a bit high if it’s still for sale at the last price as it was last December, what do you think?
Manual windows and no fine Corinthian leather? Interesting 🤔
Nice looking though rather standard equipped Cordoba. The vinyl top has lost its finish and now just absorbs water and the rwl tires look out of spot. At least the fabric is comfy and the color ain’t bad although I’d have preferred green.
The Chrysler greens in that year were an extremely pretty shade… I came close to ordering a 75 Cordoba but got confused on the color… there were too many… and that’s a good thing….
Unlike today’s paints and the 2 interiors… the one you don’t like and the one you don’t want…. work truck black…
No Corinthian leather???? Count me out!!! :)
Why does this move my comment to a “reply”?
In 1980? maybe 81 my brother traded a RM125 for a 75 Cordoba this very color. Leather buckets, console, moon roof, 400 and AM/FM radio with the button on the floor that changed radio stations. It was also crashed in the front with the right fender banged up some. He ended up selling that car for some reason that is lost to history. Side note, he traded a really nice 69 charger for the RM, not sure what motor the car came with, didn’t know to look for numbers then but I put a 318 into it out of a 69 or 70 fury. Column shift with the buddy seat and all a dark green. He couldn’t ride the RM worth a crap as he was too short. Kept falling over everytime he stopped and ended up on top of the damn thing tearing up his Levi’s, that and running into things with it. I loved it as I was 6 inches taller than him and still in highschool
I too like the round headlight Cordobas and Chargers of this body style, but in our part of the world, one never sees them even at vintage car shows.
My Dad bought a white with red leather interior Cordoba from an older lady many years ago. It was his pride and joy and looked great beside his ’76 Gran Fury Brougham in Burgundy he and Mom bought new. Upon his passing my Brother was willed the Cordoba and both cars remain as a memory of our parents to this day. I believe the Cordoba has around 60,000 original, rust free miles and the interior is perfect. I seem to remember he paid around $2,000 for it in around ’90. It was missing the center caps on the special hubcaps which were an upgrade option. There were maybe 6 pieces to these caps which had a turbine fan appearance. Even in 1990 I had a serious problem securing these pieces from n.o.s. parts suppliers and believe it or not, actually sourced some from an obscure small town Chrysler dealership which had them in plastic bags in the back room. I rarely if ever see these style caps on Cordobas and was told they are rare.
This brown car appears really well kept with the vinyl top the only problem area. I hope it goes to a great home and best wishes to the seller ~
I had a 78 in dark green with white leather, 400 4bbl thermobog carb. Also had a 77 Cordoba Crowne Coupe with a factory sunroof, dark brown with a tan velour interior like this one. That also had the 400, but the thermoquad actually ran good. This one, if the seller is negotiable, seems to be reasonably priced.
The seats appear to sport either vinyl or leather inserts between the cloth sections, under the center armrest and on the seat trim. The cloth has faded somewhat, but doesn’t have any rips or tears in it. Cloth is more comfortable in hot weather, as it’s less likely to burn your legs than either vinyl or leather. Vinyl or leather will likely last longer, at least until the plasticizers outgas from the vinyl and it begins to crack, or the leather dries out and cracks as well. Cleaning the leather and applying saddle soap once a year or so will keep it supple, and for vinyl, there’s always Armor All!
The rest of the car presents nicely, but the faux Mercedes Grille that Detroit was so fond of copying in the mid-1970’s isn’t my favorite. The Cordoba bears a more than passing resemblance to it’s Chevy competitor, the Monte Carlo, while the T-Bird had grown to a two-ton parody of itself by this time, riding on the Lincoln Mark-Series chassis. It took the onset of the 1973 oil embargo to get the T-Bird back to its mid-size car roots in 1977, just in time for Iran to shut off the oil spigot again in 1980.
This car is a relic of a bygone age, when American cars ruled our roads and Dad drove to his office alone and in style in one of these luxobarges! The “personal luxury coupe” was the last gasp of this era, when it was “Dad’s Car”, while Mom drove the Family Station wagon all day, running errands, grocery shopping and picking up the kids after school from practice, because practice didn’t end until after the “late” bus had gone, LOL! Football practice, baseball practice, basketball practice, band practice, or hockey practice, it didn’t matter, it always ran long!
I remember how this was advertised – as the new “Small Chrysler.”
Instead of delivering 8 mpg, it delivered 12.
I don’t know what the sales numbers were, but this was about the time that people started to wonder what future Chrysler Corporation had, if any.
That, and the horrific quality-control of those years, are probably why there are relatively few survivors.
I agree with the cloth fabric seats. Sick of leather. Over 30 years of leather. Remember when velour was what everyone wanted in their cars and every once in a while you’d see something with leather in it and you’d go oooh aaah.