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Old 04-07-2014, 10:56 AM   #16
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Originally Posted by chryslersrt8 View Post
If we are talking my most outrageous demo, it had to be the first Plymouth Sapporo that we got in. Bright red, rear wheel drive, a turbo with great low end boost, and a great sound system ( ok so I was young and wanted everyone to hear me coming) made it a ball to drive until the snow came.
Was that the Plymouth version of the Dodge Challenger that was built by Mitsubishi?

For some reason when I think back to the old MMC Challenger I think of NHTSA Crash Ratings - I think the MMC Challenger had the distinction of being the worst car sold in the U.S. at the time.
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Old 04-07-2014, 11:08 AM   #17
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Wow... memory lane... and I was oh so young then!

Of course the 3 Lil Red's are high on the list. The various Shelby GLH & GLH-S's rate well. The Shelby Lancer Turbo Intercooled 5spd gets honorable mention as does the coolest of cool Daytona's and 600ES conv'ts do too.
Remember back in the days when a Dodge Dealer needed to have a separate franchise to sell the "hot" versions of the Shelby? It was confusing for the general public because all Dodge Dealers could sell a Shelby Charger but only a select few in each market could sell a GLH-S.

At about the same time the Chrysler Dealers were getting solicited for a "Europa" franchise so they could sell the Maserati TC. (And then there was a separate franchise that could be added to the Europa franchise that allowed Chrysler dealers to sell Alfa Romeo vehicles... ?)


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Originally Posted by 79LilRedExpress View Post
But...I think my favorite was a 79 Magnum GT in Emerald Green Sunfire Metallic with leather, T-Tops and no vinyl roof. The Goodyear Flex-ten radial tires stuck to the road like glue. There was nothing on the road at that time that even looked remotely like the Magnum.
The Magnum had the look but unfortunately didn't have the power to back it up - that was true of almost all cars from that era. Is my memory correct that you could get a Big Block 400 in the Magnum but you couldn't get a 440?

In my opinion another Dodge car that had great looks from that era that lacked adequate power was the Dodge Mirada. I still like the looks of that car but think the name, the poor engine choices, the Carter Recession and Chrysler's near death experience all contributed to making the Mirada a short term and mostly forgotten vehicle.
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Old 04-07-2014, 11:15 AM   #18
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High School, Dodge Super Bee, 383 Magnum.
That must have been awesome.
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Old 04-08-2014, 07:04 AM   #19
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The Shelby Dakota was the first Dakota to come with a V8.
I remember that if you pulled back the huge weather strip in the middle of the cowl above the firewall, you could see where they mashed it in with a sledge hammer so the V8 would fit... Gotta love it !

And yes X, the 400 was an option for the Magnum in 1978 only.
I had a 360 4BBL and my boss had a 400. We both felt the 360 ran better.

Last edited by 79LilRedExpress; 04-08-2014 at 07:14 AM.
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Old 04-08-2014, 08:49 AM   #20
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CJ5 with a 304 V8...'79 0r '80 can't remember for sure and a 1987 Cherokee Chief with a 4.0 liter 6 cyl. After the wheezer 2.5 and 2.8 GM engines this was a breath of fresh air. But my all time favorite isn't even mine......Its my fathers in 1969, an AMX that I still own.
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Old 04-10-2014, 11:43 AM   #21
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CJ5 with a 304 V8...'79 0r '80 can't remember for sure and a 1987 Cherokee Chief with a 4.0 liter 6 cyl. After the wheezer 2.5 and 2.8 GM engines this was a breath of fresh air.
I remember the first time I drove a XJ with a 4.0 I was amazed at the power and throttle response. The 4.0 liter was an awesome engine for its day - it's a real tribute that AMC was able to develop that engine on their own given their limited resources in the mid to late 80s.

Concerning the GM 2.8 liter, I remember hearing rumors that GM sold the engines to AMC without any warranty coverage and GM intentionally shipped their lowest quality engines to AMC and kept the better ones for their own vehicles.
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Old 04-11-2014, 12:49 PM   #22
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Originally Posted by 79LilRedExpress View Post
The Shelby Dakota was the first Dakota to come with a V8.
I remember that if you pulled back the huge weather strip in the middle of the cowl above the firewall, you could see where they mashed it in with a sledge hammer so the V8 would fit... Gotta love it !
That's funny - I had never heard that before.

I do recall that the Shelby Dakotas were first Chrysler products to use electric cooling fans because there wasn't enough room for a crank-driven cooling fan. The fans were pretty noisy when they kicked in.

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Originally Posted by 79LilRedExpress View Post
And yes X, the 400 was an option for the Magnum in 1978 only.
I had a 360 4BBL and my boss had a 400. We both felt the 360 ran better.
Wow, that's sad to see the Big Block (1978 was the last year for Chrysler's Big Blocks) go out with such a wimper. As a kid I remember there was a neighbor who had a 400 Big Block with a 2 Barrel carburetor in his 1978 D-150 and the truck's performance wasn't very impressive.
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Old 04-17-2014, 01:15 PM   #23
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Default OK, did anyone have a Chrysler Cordoba as a demo?

I was watching a Tivo version of the recent Mecum auction in Houston and they sold a 1976 Chrysler Cordoba for about $6,500 - the car only had a 318 but it looked pretty good.

The Cordoba craze was before my time but I've heard from several Chrysler Dealers over the years that the Cordoba was a hot product in the mid to late 70s and it was a car that they could make money on. Hell, I wouldn't be surprised if the average Cordoba gross in the 70s was higher that the gross average for a Dodge Dart today.

Did anyone here ever have a Cordoba as a demo?
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Old 04-17-2014, 04:59 PM   #24
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1976 Cordobas were especially hot with the 400 cubic inch engine. It was first "Lean Burn" engine. It ran on regular fuel as no catalytic converters. Only problem was any time engine had a problem, every shade tree mechanic blamed the computer. In 1977 the engine changed to catalytic converters like all other models.

Styling wise the grill had a cleaner look in 1976 and the interior, especially with leather looked good for its time. Starting in 1978-1979 the car started getting "cheaper" and it seemed to act light and weak, especially in the rear end. Sales started sliding, which accelerated when the restyled angular version came out in 1980. Sakes never recovered.
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Old 04-18-2014, 07:54 AM   #25
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Great advertising sold this car...

With Ricardo Montalban pitching Cordoba~ The Small Chrysler with "Soft Corinthian leather".
Which by the way, I don't believe that there is such a thing as Corinthian leather...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsg97...yer_detailpage
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Old 04-18-2014, 08:53 AM   #26
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Originally Posted by 79LilRedExpress View Post
Great advertising sold this car...

Which by the way, I don't believe that there is such a thing as Corinthian leather...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsg97...yer_detailpage
That's funny! I remember when Jeep had the Naugahyde seats in the Wrangler, We actually had a customer come in and ask to see a picture of a Nauga. I laughed so hard I had tears in my eyes, turned out he was serious. OOPS
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Old 04-18-2014, 12:16 PM   #27
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1979 Chrysler Cardoba, 2-tone Drk. Blue with Gray hood and roof, chrome factory wheels it was a Sweet Ride!!!
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Old 04-18-2014, 12:26 PM   #28
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Originally Posted by chryslersrt8 View Post
Starting in 1978-1979 the car started getting "cheaper" and it seemed to act light and weak, especially in the rear end. Sales started sliding, which accelerated when the restyled angular version came out in 1980. Sakes never recovered.
That's an interesting comment concerning the 1978-1979 Cordobas. I always liked those the best because I thought the styling of the stacked rectangular headlamps was perfect for the car's front end.

Do I remember correctly that Chrysler offered a "300 Series" of the Cordoba for 1978? I'm thinking it had the same Police 360 4BBL that was the standard engine in the Lil Red Express but I could be wrong.

Concerning the 1980 version of the Cordoba, I've always heard that it was one of Chrysler's better cars from a quality perspective in that era but there's no question Chrysler missed the mark on styling. While I was never a huge fan of the 1980 Cordoba, I really liked the 1980 Dodge Mirada.
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Old 04-21-2014, 12:40 PM   #29
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Originally Posted by 79LilRedExpress View Post
Great advertising sold this car...

With Ricardo Montalban pitching Cordoba~ The Small Chrysler with "Soft Corinthian leather".
Which by the way, I don't believe that there is such a thing as Corinthian leather...
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vsg97...yer_detailpage
That was an awesome commercial - I love the way Ricardo says "Cordoba."

Concerning the origins of Corinthian Leather, there's a Wikipedia page indicating the term is a complete fabrication that was coined by Chrysler's advertising agency of that era - Bozell. Here's a link to the Wikipedia page - click here

Somewhat surprisingly, the term was first used to help promote the 1974 Chrysler Imperial but didn't gain mainstream attention until Ricardo used the term to promote the 1975 Chrysler Cordoba.

There was a great video on YouTube at one time where David Letterman was interviewing Ricardo Montalban and Ricardo finally confessed that the Corinthian Leather term was a marketing fabrication. It was a funny clip but it appears to have been removed from YouTube.
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Old 04-23-2014, 06:17 AM   #30
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Default Demo

I always found it better to just buy my own vehicle and get demo allowance above my pay plan. To much of a pain in the @ss sales mgr always calling on weekends or week nights saying we have someone here that wants to see your demo. Got tired of unloading it and not only that but going into something else after i just put gas in the vehicle i was driving!!
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