As a replacement for the Dart/Valiant/Duster, the Aspen and Volaré don’t seem to be as popular with collectors. This 1978 Dodge Aspen has a couple of nice and somewhat unusual features which sets it apart from the herd. This one is found on eBay with no reserve and a current bid price of $2,450 and there are almost five days left to get your bids in. It’s located in Fairfax Station, Virginia.
The T-Tops are a great option, although the “driver side T-Top is not original, but its not noticeable and doesn’t leak.” It would have been great to see a photo of the non-original T-Top section and one with the T-Tops taken out but maybe the seller would send one to any interested parties.
It’s hard to tell from photos but this sure looks like a nice car. I can’t quite tell what condition the paint is in, it almost looks like it’s a matte finish?
The interior looks great and this car has a 4-speed – yes! The 60/40 split bench in front looks perfect as does the back seat. The trunk looks a little dirty and the paint appears to be peeling a bit in that area, maybe that’s why the body looks like a matte finish? There is no mention of bodywork or paint in the listing.
The 225 slant-six is in need of a good detailing but it “runs and drives very good”. There’s more overspray apparent under the hood, it would be nice to know what the story is on that. Overall it looks like a nice example, is it worth a gamble?
Yes the paint could stand a good buffing. It may come back quite a bit. Being a 1978, that four speed could have an overdrive fourth gear. That would nice for the highway to relax that slant six some. Maybe the serious MOPAR crowd would know for sure.
4 speed with a slant 6?!?!? Ummm… I don’t know about that. If you’re gonna do all that moving around down there by your knees, you might oughtta have something under the hood to back it up. Although, it would be good on gas. Just saying…ya know…?
My mom’s first ‘new’ car was 1977 Volare wagon with a slant 6 and the 4 speed. Technically a 3 speed over drive. Had the same crooked shifter. Have all your doubts. My dad sat for 3 hours on the order sheet with the owner of the dealer. My grandfather was a C-P dealer in the 60’s and my dad knew the process. He ordered every other doo dad available. Lights all over. Road wheels, trim rings, etc on a Volare Premier. Then ordered a slant 6 stick with no AC… to drive to Michigan from Vermont. My grandpa told him how ridiculous it was. But slant 6 4 speed was definitely available.
Bought a 78 Aspen brand new from the dealer for $4800.00 had to wait 3 month to get a 4 on the floor slant 6 did not get the vinyle roof my dad said it would rust quicker up here in the north winters but was worth the wait. But Dodge put a mismatch rear end in it so when I got that fix I could light the tires from a stand still no problem. Was a nice car at the time but in hindsight should of bought a R/T model for $1000.00 more. Back then at 20 it was a nice car to drive especially when all my friends were drive Gremlins,Civics, Datsun, Mini, and Pacers.
That gearshift lever could be about a foot shorter, unless you had fantasies of being a model for those Odd Rod bubble gum cards.
Maybe “Ratfink” will buy it.
My dad bought two of these in 76…one was the 6 4speed car no ac…there were good cars, the automatic car had an am/fm radio tho…i remember my brothers driving the crap out of em’ too..he bought a 76 Cordoba the same day..leather sunroof 360,
Rust under that vinyl top.
I think this is really a sharp looking car. Despite it’s horrid build quality ( I believe the poster child for recalls, topped only by the Saturn?) and that poor strangled slant 6, it never asked for any of that. Chrysler sure milked that motor for all it was worth, but at the time, with insurance killing the muscle car, this was a pretty good replacement. Looked nice, fun to drive, right size, nice color ( not black or silver) I’d love to have it. Why are these cool cars always so far away?
Hey Rube, if you want to talk recalls, you need to look at Ford Australia. We’re not a huge new car market in Australia (about 1,000,000 new cars per year). Ford currently has 169 active recalls at the moment. Their latest recall is their best of all time. The Ford Ranger 4-wd diesel utility has a fault which allows things like grass to collect around the exhaust, with a significant risk of the vehicle catching fire. They don’t have the parts to fix them yet, but are still selling them new out of the showroom without fixing the fault. Scary, or what?
Why are all the cool cars so far away? .. because if they were closer, our garages, backyards, and storage units would be overflowing with them!
I have the same gripe nearly every time I browse here, or other classic car sites!
Aspen/Volare was not as popular as Dart due to the nosedive in Chrysler quality that took place. However, with time, the poorly built cars took residence in the junkpile, while the better built / better maintained ones like this one stuck around.
Give me a Dart or Valiant over these any day of the week. The Darts\Valiants were just hands down better cars. It is no wonder sales tanked. It is a shame that the two automakers that could afford it the least had good, dependable small cars at the beginning of the 70’s(AMC & Chrysler)dumped them and replaced them with junk cars that looked worse than the cars they replaced. The Dart\Valiant and AMC American lived on for years being made in other countries. I still love the ’68-’69 Valiant that was built on a shorter wheelbase than the Dart. With a 225 and auto I would get 22-23 mpg on highway. I imagine with a 4 spd overdrive that it would be possible to get between 25-30 mpg in the same car with just the transmission swap.
I don’t get the distance thing…..I regularly have cars/trucks transported from the west coast to the east coast for around $1,100-$1,200 a car depending on the time of year and how patient I can be with the pick up/drop off dates. May not make sense on a $3,000 car but it’s really not that big of a deal otherwise.
Friend in high school had an Aspen wagon with a Super six/4 spd combo…was neither fast or slick shifting. I also seem to remember my grandmothers 76 Aspen SE 225 as the slowest car I had ever driven in the early 80’s. Doesnt mean I dont want one, maybe I’m a masochist.
I think for a no reserve it’s a great car.
The look and t tops is nice too.
Does anyone know if the four speed shifter is correct ? It just looks out of place with height but
not up on aspens 👀
It’s correct, sir. I did a quick search and they all look like that. It is an aftermarket look for sure, I don’t know why they made it look like that.
How’s your Aspen?
For sure, this is a three-speed + overdrive. I one rented a Volare wagon at a Denver Rent-A-Wreck thus equipped. As he took my credit card, the clerk casually mentioned 4th gear was stripped, but 3rd was fine. Good times!
Ha! Good thing 2nd gear was still there, that would have been an interesting drive. The “A833 4 speed overdrive” was definitely available in the 225 slant-six Aspen, at least according to Allpar, the Chrysler bible.
My first car in 1981 was a 1979 Volare Venetia with the super six/ 4 speed combo and because at that time in Mexico there were no catalytic converter or emission regulations and restrictions the car runs on leaded gas and was pretty fast for a 6 cylinder by the way.
The A/C never works fine and when you turned on the car lost half of it’s power, another crazy thing it’s that in the morning you’ve to warm up the engine at least for 3-5 minutes or more so the engine would run properly.
I’ll love to take this one for a joy ride!!!
There was one of these posted recently on Craigslist in Atlanta, 4 speed/318, loaded w/ options, $1,500; but it had serious rust/moisture issues! :-)
Probably the three speed with O/D. I had a 76 Aspen wagon with the slant 6 and that transmission. Got pretty decent mikeage but it took 3 days to get up to 70 mph. Lol! First coupe I’ve seen with that drive train. Cool little car.
Even though I don’t like this model, it is a good enough looking car to rip out the engine and transmission to install a V8 with a real manual transmission.
That would be a cool car, with A/C.
Put a ’71 Demon 340 next to that Aspen and then ask yourself which one you’d rather have. I can answer that, seeing as how I had two Demons – one a 340 car, the other a 318 with a 360 crate engine. I wouldn’t give that Aspen a second glance.
Maybe i have a rare bird: 1984 Dodge full size Van slant 6 with a factory 4 on the floor. Cant kill the drive train….i just keeping cookin’ the voltage regulator on it. Any help?
Get an alternator with a built in regulator.
the T-tops were not factory. ASC did them. same as in the Olds and others
For some reason, I’ve never been a fan of the 1978 and 79 model years for the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare.
What most have said – yes – an overdrive based on the 833….and available – like a lot were bought – in the little Dodge pick up with the slant 6 or V/8 – everyone was doing the overdrive thing mid 70’s to early 80’s trying to keep up on the mileage thing. Own a few of them – Ford and Mopar….
I had a 1978 F100 w/302 and 3speed w/O.D. That combination wouldn’t get that truck out of it’s own way. Found out later that Ford used transmissions from a midsize passenger car. 1st Gear was like starting out in 2nd. She had some long legs.
These cars had fctory paint issues though. As well as Mopar using rusty parts. Wife had a new 78 Aspin Super Coupe. Within a year the tops of the front fenders went flat. No shine. Took it to dealer for recall work. Fenders got repainted, and the tone didn’t match. Year later. Same thing occurred. This time it wasn’t under warrenty. Two years later had a issue with steering. Took it to dealer. Told me tie rod’s had rusted through. Asked me if the car had been parked in water? No it was always garaged when not driven. How do tie rod’s just rust through? . Had same issue with Lil Red Exspress too. Chrysler was notorious for doing this.
Jamie featured this 2 years ago, in the same location and same condition. This cannot be worth more than $3k. It looks pretty rough, even in these pictures.
https://barnfinds.com/rare-1978-dodge-aspen-special-edition/
Sold for $3705.
Just to let you know, I bought this car – now the Aspen is in Germany
It’s 1 of only 40 build T-Top with 4 speed manual “no overdrive”. Gearbox is noice, needs overhaul. Paint is not original (was dark blue metallic) and a garage job. Driver side top is plastic. Interieur very nice. Also motor, brakes, etc.works very well
Without top
These were terrible cars, new. List of issues was atrocious. Many who owned these during the Detroit tears of trash cars, are now on there 10th Toyota or Honda.