Is it a Cordoba? Is it a 300? I guess you could call it either. Chrysler technically called it the Chrysler 300, but it was a $2,040 option package for the Cordoba. Chrysler had not used the 300 name since 1971, so in 1979 they decided to stir a little excitement and made this special edition of the Cordoba. Thanks to Barnfinds reader Ikey H. for bringing this 1979 Chrysler 300 to our attention, which is for sale here on Craigslist in North Ridgeville, Ohio.
All 1979 Chrysler 300s were produced in Spinnaker White with red, white, and blue accents on the body. Some of the exterior features included unique 300 grille, unique wheels, front fender louvers, body colored bumper guards, and body-colored sports mirrors. This car has had a repaint during its life. There is no rust on the exterior.
One of the features of the interior was, you guessed it, Corinthian leather, which was covering the front bucket seats and a rear bench seat in red. Other interior features included a console with engine turned applique which matched the accent also found on the instrument panel. Tachometer and color-keyed seat belts were also included. The front seats show a bit of wear, while the rear seat appear in good condition. The air conditioning blows warm air and an aftermarket radio with cassette is currently in the car. The instrument panel gauge cluster was replaced at some point, so the 43,000 miles showing on the odometer cannot be considered accurate.
This is a case of a performance name that returned, but the performance didn’t. While no Hemi is found under this hood as many 300s of the fifties and sixties had, it does have a 360 cubic inch engine with 4 barrel carburetor that produced 195 horsepower. A total of 3,811 1979 Chrysler 300s were made. The seller is asking $5,800, so are you ready to make room for it in your garage?
Whoever buys it, please remove those cheesy 300 graphics from the doors.
I see that all the time here in Mexico.
People put a Mustang graphic on the side of a Mustang.
I want to yell in his ear “WE ALL KNOW IT IS A MUSTANG”.
The worst example of this I ever saw was the seats in a 1970 Ford.
It was a 1970 Ford Custom 4 door sedan that had the roof cut off to look like a convertible, and they had stitched into the seats the word “Galaxy”.
First of all it was a Custom, and it is spelled Galaxie if it was a Galaxie.
The owner didn’t know why I was laughing at his car. By the way, I saw this car at a car show. He was showing the chop top, not a very good job, like it was something to look at.
Those were put on by some dealers. Mine had them.
Grey, they are still cheesy.
I think I’ve only seen one of these in my entire life, and I think this 300 would attract alot of attention at a local car show. Not incredibly fast, but I’m sure it’s comfortable, and I like seeing that someone really took care of it. I wonder how many people traded in their early 70’s, (or maybe late 60’s ) Roadrunners, Challengers, Cuda’s, etc. in 1979 thinking “I’ve had my fun, plus I need something that gets a little better gas mileage.” Only to look back, and as Homer Simpson says, “DOH” !!!! (I’m guilty of selling some cars I should have kept, like a ’66 GTO DOH !) Kudos to all who just kept those beautiful muscle cars in their garages, so we can buy them and restore them, or just check them out on Barn Finds. THANK YOU TO ALL THE VETERANS OUT HERE.
I had a Cordoba,white like this one,same red leather interior,buckets,consol,floor shift,360 two barrel. I bought it on E-Bay late one night for 2000us from a nice couple from down in West Palm Beach Florida. My wife and I drove to Bangor Maine and left my Plymouth Grand Fury there,flew down and drove the Dobee back. It was a nice driving car, lousy gas mileage,not much power,but comfy as all hell. after I got it back to Nova Scotia I started daily driving it some,and slowly but surely,every single accessory broke down and failed. First the A/C,next the power windows,then the gauges quit,one by one,finally the power steering pump gave up the fight. those 70’s cars were every bit as bad as I remembered them quality wise,but we sure had a great trip back from Florida in it.
A Chrysler 300. Uh, yeah, OK. This is in the ‘Mustang II Cobra II’ category of regrettable name-appropriation.
I’m an attorney in my day job, and my practice at the time was mainly probate estate administration, anyhow in the mid 90s there was a 300 identical to this one that was part of the inventory of a probate estate, it was 100% complete and vary clean but didn’t run (according to the daughter it had transmission issues) Anyhow, I’m a car guy and it didn’t interest me, and I wasn’t the only one so uninspired. Turned out that the daughter couldn’t even give the thing away, nobody would buy it for even $50, ended up going to the scrap yard directly (local wrecking yard even turned it down).
That’s a damn shame.
wow!
I might be the minority here but I don’t think this is a bad car. No, it doesn’t match up to the best 300s but the spirit of the badge was a big luxury car with performance. This met that by 1979 standards, IMO. I would have bought it in a second for $50!
Joke all you want about Ricardo,and his “rich Corinthian leather” but the Cordoba,Charger and New Yorker had interiors that neither GM, nor Ford could match.My Dad,was a GM guy for life,but 0ne look at a 76 Cordoba,in this same white over red,and it was bye bye Grand prix,Cutlass,and Monte,and HELLO mopar !My Dad was very generous ,letting his 16 year old chase girls in that car.
All I’m going to say,is that they were very easily caught.(car was a magnet )
Incidentally,our car was top shelf quality wise,was never in the shop,and everyone thought it was a much more expensive car than it was-always a good sign.At 85 ,and with a series of health issues ,this would put a smile on his face.If it were local,I would pull the trigger,replace the drivers seat leather, remove those stupid graphics,and park it at his place !
I never did figure out where Corinthia was,and what made there cows so special.Is it anywhere near “Connelly ” ?
mainlymuscle, the ad campaign for the leather in these cars was genius.
We are still talking about it more than 40 years later, like it is a common word.
Corinth, South Central Greece.
True their just a jazzed up Cordova, but nicely executed. I had a LeBaron of the same year, no other manufacturer could come close to the quality of Chrysler’s leather interiors. Not even Mercedes.
Agree that the door graphics have to go. Chrysler didn’t put them on the cars – either this car has shown up on multiple sites and hasn’t sold, or somebody cobbled that stuff up and suckered a bunch of dealers into buying those decals and sticking them on their cars. This car looks like it’s been ridden hard and put away not at all nicely. Takes lots of sun exposure to deteriorate the seats like that. These cars at least had HD suspension and the aluminum wheels are nice, but the rear axle gears were meant for (laughable) fuel economy and not performance. The standard E58 cop car engine can be made to run well. Too much of the inside of this car is too close to toast to spend the time and money the next caretaker of this car would need to bring it back. I’ll pass on this one.
I’ll just say……….it’s been listed fer sale previously…..and it was the seventies big hair and all.
I owned a ’79 300 for a time about 10 years ago. It was a comfortable, pleasant car to drive. It started and ran beautifully in spite of, or perhaps because of the Lean Burn system. As a nod toward performance, these cars did not have a locking torque converter that had become de rigueur on most Chrysler products. Too, these were available in red in Canada. If I’m not mistaken, a 318 was the standard engine in the land of the maple leaf.
All Cordoba’s were built in Canada
This car would look good with those “Superfly” round lenses over the square headlights.
That’s got some upstate NYS Thruway heavy
Cruising potential