I love the idea of a luxurious Plymouth and don’t get me wrong, there have been a few of them over the decades before they quietly (while the rest of us kicked our feet) went away in 2001. The seller has this upscale 1975 Plymouth Valiant Brougham listed here on eBay in equally upscale San Diego, California. They list a buy-it-now price of $9,500 or you can make an offer.
Color-keyed wheel covers get to me every time. This is my era, I basically grew up in the 1970s so even though it’s a popular time to make fun of now, as the 2020s will be in a couple of decades (or, now), I like all of this “stuff”. Vinyl tops, color-keyed wheel covers, matching beltline trim. If this one had opera lights that would be even better. And only two colors work for me here, brown or dark green.
Plymouth offered a two-door hardtop version of the Valiant Brougham but I don’t know if I’ve ever seen one in person. The four-door sedan version is rare enough and considering that this is a top-of-the-line offering, a four-door sedan works quite well for me. Dodge offered a similar car in the Dodge Dart SE. This particular example looks great and the seller says that the paint is original but could use a few touch-ups due to rock chips.
I love the formal men-wearing-hats look of the tall greenhouse on the Valiants and Darts of this era. This seller has done a great job adding many photos to the listing, including a couple of collages that included the only underside photos. I cropped a couple of them to show here.
The interior shines in this car but not literally as what may normally be shiny, slippery vinyl is a nice crushed velour fabric both front and rear and it all looks perfect. This is a clean, rust-free California car and it sure looks well-preserved. The seller has included three YouTube videos, here, here, and here.
This one doesn’t have the optional 318 V8, it’s a 225 slant-six which would have had 90 horsepower and 170 lb-ft of torque. It’s not a lot but these are great engines and the seller says that it runs great. Any thoughts on this Valiant Brougham?
This car is priced the same as the crappy red ’62 Valiant. This one looks like a very nice car.
This is the nicest one of these I’ve seen in picture. I could never find any interest in these, probably because most of the ones I saw in person as a kid were beat up hand me downs in the 80’s.
Great post Scotty, these were everywhere when I was a kid and I never paid a lot of attention to them. Now, I find it refreshing to see such a nice example all these many years later! I like the color-coded wheels as well.
90 HP is what these had 5 years later. I believe these are 100 or 105 net HP. I think the net HP of an unencumbered one was 110. 145 at the old rating.
What it needs is a 2 barrel carb to bring it up to a whopping 110. IIRC for 1975 the six was rated at 95.
I had a ’74 two door Brougham, when I was in high school. It was dark brown, had the 318 in it, the color keyed wheel covers and the fender mounted turn signals. Good car that I replaced with a ’76 Volare.
The 1970s could be called the “Brougham Era.” Manufacturers took their basic models, slathered on luxury features like Tammy Faye Bakker slathered on makeup (and to similar effect), slapped on a “Brougham” emblem, and padded their bottom lines thicker than the padding on a landau roof. I think my favorite of these is the Matador Barcelona II coupe. It looks like a grand prize offered by one of Las Vegas’s seedier casinos.
You know where I stand on this. I want it with a four-barrel / dual-exhaust 360 and all the A38 suspension pieces.
No power brakes? No a/c? Some luxury!
We had a very similar car, but the custom, not Broughm. Our’s had air but vinyl seats, not cloth. Same rootbeer brown exterior, but saddle, rather than beige interior. In 75, 225 was anemic, choked for unleaded and emissions. Also had the fuel saver light on the hood mounted left turnsignal indicator. Not fun but unbreakable. Front subframe rust did her in after more than a quarter million miles…
I like Root Beer.
What makes this cool to me is that it’s the dressed up, high end version of a low end vehicle. Cant be a whole lot of them around anymore, especially in nice shape
Beautiful looking car. My oldest brother had a 75 Plymouth Duster when he first started driving.
I also like the 3.7 litre slant six engine. I’d buy it in a heartbeat 💓 if I had the money 💰 to buy it.
Nice clean car. for me I would have to yank the motor tranny and rear and make it a sleeper ….
Not a sleeper if it’s the only Valiant left in town.
Swap a Civic Type R driveline into a Civic Touring non-Sport.Or maybe it’ll be easier to swap panels and trim over. A bonus is that it’ll idle as quiet as the tamer version. Either way a 45-plus year old classic car can’t be a true sleeper since it’s too recognizable, especially if you go with a cam profile and exhaust that give you a RidicuLumpy(TM) idle like so many old-school carbed V8 builds.
I like it but they are asking $9500 best I can do is $4000 tops add says to make offer wonder if my top dollar would offend the seller
Offer away they can say yes or no
I also like that Chrysler kept the vent windows and horn ring long after they disappeared – sadly – from GM and Ford.
Put the charm on them , tell them how you grew up riding in a car just like it , use some salesmanship my friend, I’ve seen a cold stare turn friendly talking about the old days which face it we all will come to the bitter end eventually unfortunately.
I love all cars from the 70s. I even “shared ” a 71″ Dart with that venerable bullitproof 225 slant six. This car here is going to last forever because of it. The 318 was sucky in these cars. Has Dodge. Oopps I mean whatever company owns them now bring back that slanty beautiful engine? And it’s engine. Not motor. Motors are in Teslas and other prissy cars?.