I was 4 when my grandmother showed up with her first brand new car at age 56. A car she truly wanted the second she saw it, a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba with a smog-exempted non-catalyst 400. Cruise, A/C, velour interior, gold inside, and tilt. My grandfather had bad eyes and stopped driving that year, but he was a CB junkie, so he had that installed for their road trips. She LOVED that car. It became mine in 1996 with only 52,000 on the clock. Great memories, great car. Just floated down the road. Of course, I wish I had kept it.
They could do this today. Take the leftover Challenger bodies in white, stretch out the trunk a tad, restyle the front and interior trims to look premium. Increase the sound dampening and maybe some little wood grain interior accents. And that thin stylized metal trim would be a standout today No hemi, no problem. It's a luxury cruiser, so it doesn't need to compete at the muscle car level. It just needs to be smooth and a sonorous exhaust that's not strained at high rpm. And they could stretch out that convertible top contract they have going for the last call challengers. They'd sell Tens! And all in Florida and Arizona.
@@Brian_Eugene_Lee Fake news. Didn't happen 🤣. They brought back the Challenger in the modern market. And Chrysler's lineup will consist of just the Pacifica minivan once the 300 is gone in a matter of weeks. They need something and Chrysler-Dodge has a track record of not wanting to reinvent the wheel with developing platforms. They can't make the Challenger less powerful and more emissions friendly, but stick a Chrysler badge on it and like magic. A whole different demographic that doesn't care about cylinder count or hybridization. Without the muscle car demo restricting the powertrain options, restyling the challenger platform would cut time and cost, and all they'd really have to do is try to cut a bit of weight out of it. I've definitely heard of far worse and unrealistic suggestions.
@@markcoopers1930 Why not? After all, the Challenger was really too big to be a proper competitor for Mustang and Camaro, and does what it does only through brute force. The wheelbase is as long as that of the Cordoba. The trouble will come when someone slides out of the "new" Cordoba and into the original and feel like they've gotten into a 911 it's so low, at less than 53 inches compared to the Challenger's 57.
This was the new “small” Chrysler at the time. As a kid, my best friend’s grandparents had this exact car. Not the type of car my family owned. We had a 1978 Honda Civic and a ‘74 Jaguar XJ6 at the time. Their Cordoba was always spotless and looked so regal …yet dated…sitting under their carport. My best friend’s mom had a gorgeous new black 1980 Buick Riviera with burgundy velour interior! That car was so choice! I felt so special riding in it. Even better than the Jag in some ways.
I ordered a brand new '77 Cordoba in early September 1976. I spec'd out everything I wanted on it. It didn't arrive until late October. It was exactly as I had spec'd it out, except it had dual chrome outside mirrors instead of body-colored painted mirrors. AND, surprise! ... While the '76 Cordoba with the Lean-Burn engine still ran on cheaper leaded gas, the '77 Lean-Burn required unleaded. (Bummer.) A few months later I noticed on the VIN tag that the car had been built in August 1976. How, I wondered, did Chrysler know in August 1976 exactly what I would order on my '77 Cordoba in September? The answer was that Chrysler was in such bad shape then that, to keep the plants running and avoid layoffs, they just kept building cars that no one had ordered and parking them in a big lot somewhere in Windsor, Ontario. When I ordered my car, before they built it they checked inventory, found they had an almost-as-ordered one parked somewhere, found it, and shipped it to me.
Chrysler called that build-them-and-stash-them system the Sales Bank. Their hope was to push them on dealers or, as in your case, to have cars on hand that would match up with something a customer had ordered. That system almost bankrupted the company by tying up so much money in sitting cars that didn't have customers ready to buy them.
I owned a 1975 Cordoba. White but with a burgundy half vinyl top and burgundy velour interior. I just had the 5.9L 360 2bbl. Sufficiently peppy but not quick. Keep in mind it was a foot shorter than the full sized Chryslers and 800 lbs lighter. Also the radio looks after market. The carpet square in the trunk isn’t stock. Mine had fully lined carpet if I recall, so maybe it got moldy and was removed. Note the Cordoba had a more solid ride than its Ford and GM counterparts like the Grand Prix that was VERY floaty even for the time. I enjoyed the time I had the Cordoba, even doing some family vacations loading it up.
Great video and as a side note, Corinthian leather was a marketing ploy. The leather came from New Jersey and was used in other Chryco products. It just wasn't called that. Lol.
I owned a Cordoba back around 1982. It was an early to mid 70s model with the round headlights. It was black with mag wheels and raised white letters on the tires. My girlfriend called it The Batmobile, so I had a license plate holder that had that name on it. When I was sent to Germany, I had it shipped there. Driving it home from the port, people would slow down and take pictures of it! Loved that car! Made me feel like a celebrity!
Sweet! I have a '76 Cordoba - 360 w/console and "Corinthian Leather" finished in KY5 Yellow Blaze w/white Landau and white interior on black carpet and dash. It's a really sweet reliable cruiser - took it to Carlisle Chrysler Nationals from Toronto in 2023 and it was great on the highway. 17mpg 😀
(2) Buddies of mine were GM guys until '75 when they bought new '76 Cordobas, both white with the tan interior & the 400 V8 & both had aftermarket fine wire wheels. Gorgeous cars & they looked great from any angle. Chrysler sold them like crazy & it seemed in the greater Detroit area they were everywhere.
My brother had one of these in the late 80's. It had the leather interior which I would refer to as "sticky" because of course the AC didn't work anymore and the midwest summers are hot and humid. Otherwise a fun car.
I owned a 1977 cordoba, just oozed class, was comfortable on long rides. It was a nice maroon colour, with the vinyl strip in the rear roof panel, with a small rear window and a beautiful coach light. Mine came with an 8 track, had a cassette adapter, so I could play cassette tapes. I really miss that car, the salt really ate the car up, that sucked but it was nothing new.
That white exterior brings back memories! Back in the late 1990s, when I was too young to think ahead; I bought a '76 Cordoba (WITH the Corinthian leather) for $300. Minimal body rust (didn't bother checking the frame), ran fine and drove so much better than one would expect from a 70's land barge...it must have had some heavy duty shocks or something. It would have been SO easy to restore, but my buddy and I threw some spray paint, and taped off some obnoxious racing stripes, and bounced it off guard rails and through corn fields...burnouts all over, hit trash cans at night...idiot teenage nonsense. It's one of my BIG regrets as far as cars go...I scrapped it when I was 19 because it had a bad fuel leak and I found something else to destroy. That interior is so awesome, I'd love to have that sweetheart! It's one of the cars I do a search on every-so-often in hopes that I can find a nice one in my price range, and "make it right". Comically, that $300 Cordoba is selling for about $3,000 these days in the same condition. Love the channel, buddy! '94 Fleetwood, '04 GTO, '02 Wrangler Sahara 5-speed, and a '73 Continental that's been sitting since 2014...I might have to hit you up sometime! Keep up the great content!
I have a 73 Formula Firebird I’ve had since I was 21. 455, 4spd, global west suspension…all that jazz. I’m now 44 and I’d trade it in a second for a minty 75-77 Cordoba with the 400 and Corinthian ‘leather’.
We had a black 1977 Cordoba with the Corinthian leather as our family car. My mom and dad divorced and my dad would not give the extra set of keys to my mom. My mom didn't want make the payments on the car thinking my dad may take it any day, so she let it get repossessed and went and bought herself a new white 1978 Dodge Magnum.
Back in ‘76 I bought a very slightly used ‘75 Cordoba. I loved the look and the way it rode and ran . It was a silver color with the burgundy red interior and vinyl top. It also had a factory sun roof, which to my dismay, began leaking badly after about 2 1/2 years. It started leaking after I had bought my wife a brand new’76 because I liked mine so much. It was white like the one in the video but it had a beautiful dark green trim in the interior and top, even the rims were green. It was gorgeous, they both had the “ rich Corinthian leather. My ‘75 had the 360 4 barrel, and the ‘76 had the 400 lean burn with that damn plastic carburetor. It worked quite well until about 48,000 miles but then it started warping and it made the car run terribly. Anyway I still kinda miss them, I just don’t miss the problems that came along, the interiors of both of them started just coming loose and falling when you least expected. I could go on, but just to confirm what I thought about them, dang! I sure wish I had them back!
You got fed up with the constant problems. Don't you remember? Go buy yourself a 2014 Porsche Cayenne and you'll get over it That's what I did! Money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a Porsche. Which is the same thing Let's Roll! Wolf 🐺
@@wolfalaska7638 well, I made possibly an even worse decision. Bought my first BMW. It was an’87 325ic but really my only regret is that I didn’t keep it forever, I traded up to another 325ic ‘94 model, but that was a bad decision, still like the BMW though, to make it short, I am on my 9th one, including an 88 M5 and a 98 M3 but I’m still hanging on to my present day X5
This cannot correctly be called a land yacht because the Cordoba was classified an 'intermediate' . The Newport and New Yorker were the full-size Chrysler cars of 1976.
The logo under the word "Program" says "SR" and was used by Sears. This radio is a Sears branded aftermarket AM/FM/8-track player. Probably more rare than the car is.
I had a75. They did come with trunk carpeting and a spare cover. I had all leather. 76 was the first year in the states where rectangular headlights were allowed. Cordoba had them in 77. It was a really nice car. Ryan needs the drivers side torsion bar adjusted.
This was my wife's first ever car when she was over in the US in the mid '80s as an exchange student, right down to the exterior colour & interior. The father of her host family was a used car dealer, and set her up with one of these because it was a "compact" and would be easier for a teenaged girl to drive than a full-sized car of the same era. She remembers it fondly as a big floaty boat that didn't particularly like to start on cold winter mornings (probably due to the notoriously troublesome lean burn/electronic spark systems).
My first car was a 1977 Cordoba back in 1986. I liked it so much I bought another one almost just like it 2 years ago. Of course, I still don't have the first one. It's a short story. Anyway, 400, 4bbl, lean burn delete, new electronic distributor and Summit racing air cleaner. I think I freed up about 10 horsies, up from the spec 190 it spec'd at. Love the car. Come check it out. Washington state. Oh, by the way, that '76 had a rug in the trunk. Mine has the full treatment although a little rough.
The engine wasn’t smaller, it was weaker. Pre malaise era Chryslers normally came with a 383 or optional 440 (standard in New Yorkers). By ‘ 76 they were detuned and clogged up with emission controls and Chrysler’s infamous lean burn system.
Just to make a couple points since you said you weren't familiar with this car and I am. The velour seats are much more comfortable than the leather ones. My black one had red velvet seats (or whatever it was) and I wouldn't have traded that for the "Corinthian" leather if it were a free option. Also, someone stripped that rusted trunk. It came with fully lined carpet; look it up. I've been an auto detailer for 40 years (before it was a thing) and I can tell you no car of this caliber was ever made that was not lined in the trunk; that's absurd. You can see that you can smash the front end at least a foot before even touching the radiator. Thanks for the tour; beautiful car (except the trunk)!
My dad had a '78 and I rode in it a lot. The '78 has the square headlights. It was confortable, and going by my dad's description, it was torquey. The performance and reliability of the car was increased significantly by replacing the engine's lean burn computer with duct tape. Nowadays you don't see cars that look this spiffy, but when I was a kid, every car looked like this.
From what I know, Dodge back then was a mid level luxury brand, Plymouth was entry level, Chrysler was by mid 70s a mid to high end luxury brand after Imperial was phased out
That radio was AM/FM and 8 track too if you did not know it is a aftermarket radio but it does have 8 track and I can tell that by the 4 green light on the radio to tell what track you are on and the 8 track would go in where the AM/FM feq reader was that would flip in to put the tape.
Had a 79 twenty years ago. A lot of people hated the stacked square headlights of the 78's and 79's. The round headlights are often cited as the preferred look. The only thing I hated about them was correcting people who thought it was a Monte Carlo.
Absolutely love it. Chrysler should have brought back the Cordoba -- rich Corinthian leather and all -- and built it on the same platform as the 300, Charger and Challenger. Since the American personal luxury car segment is basically non-existent now, they would have had the market all to themselves and it would have been a sensation. A little kitsch is something that's sorely lacking in today's deadly serious car market; and a smooth, soft-riding luxury coupe would have been just the medicine the market needed to bring it back to life.
I never owned a Cordoba but I did own a 1975 Dodge Charger and that was really a Chrysler Cordoba with some slight differences mine was dark green on dark green interior with leather bucket seats and a console shift it was a great car and the ride was like riding on a cloud it was great
For us of a certain generation, "personal luxury coupes" were our family cars. Cordobas were popular, although in the area I grew up in, and among my family circle, GM ruled the roost: Monte Carlos, Cutlass Supremes, and Grand Prix as far as the eye can see. We had a Buick Regal. I do recall my boomer dad and uncle, very much GM loyalists, saying the Cordoba was pretty though. The front is very similar to a Monte Carlo really.
Those rims on that car are called Chrysler Road Wheels and they were a factory option on them and all Chryslers back in the 70's I remember as a young child my grandfathers Newport had them wheels on it.
I rented one in Houston TX and it was OK. Kind of sluggish, but interior was super luxurious with the Corinthian leather (lol)....deep burgundy color. I think it borrowed a lot of styling cues from the Pontiac Gran Prix.
it was promoted as a small Chrysler...my father had a 1978, bucket seats, digital clock, changed headlights, trunk looked good, well fitted carpet on floor and spare tire.
@@Zebra_3 I owned a 1977 and a 1979 Chrysler Cordoba, it was no small Chrysler, it was mid sized. It was a big hit for Chrysler, it sold very well, was a beautiful car.
My mom wanted one of these - if she replaced her 66 Chrysler Newport with the 383 v8, she wanted the "smaller Chrysler" - I love these, with the round headlights - don't like the later square headlights. Would like to know what gas mileage was achieved with this engine city and hwy - wouldn't mind owning one of these!
My dad collected the sister Magnum. At one point having three XE and two GT one with T top. I also had one for time, They were reliable boats. Imagine the Cordoba was about the same.
Round headlights were not strange in '76. The were the eyes to a car's face. Rectangular headlights only were legalized in '75. I had a '77 New Yorker with the 440. Made this look small.
I had friends whose parents had a gold Cordoba in the late 70s & early 80s.... Used to get 8 of us pre teen & early teen kids in the back& their parents up front with one or two kids as well up front! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
They didn't last long though. Rust would usually get them, and if not the engine would need an overhaul by the time it hit 6 digits on the odometer. The Japanese imports that became popular during the fuel crises are what forced the American carmakers to stop coasting and step up their game.
the 400 big block is a B series big block it's really a bored out 383 because that is what Chrysler did they took the 383 raised the bore and come out with the 400. the 400 has the biggest bore of all the Mopar Big Blocks even the 440 they are great engines to do up due to it's big bore and short stroke you got a engine that will love the RPMs unlike the RB 440 would.
Now there's a car you don't see any more, and especially in such good condition. This was an aspirational car back in the day and it looked it. I'd drive it if I wanted a 70s coupe. Baroque styling with round headlights and upright grilles were popular in the 70s because it was "classy". Usually 70s cars would rust out early, and if they survived they'd need an engine rebuild. The Japanese cars that became popular during the fuel crises forced the Big 3 to get serious and stop coasting.
Have you ever seen a Japanese car from the seventies on the road? Do you watch videos about them? Find a nice one, take it to car shows. Find someone who cares.
Plymouth was originally was the lowest model cars then there was Dodge and then the luxury cars you had the lowest was Desoto then Chrysler then the top of the line was the Imperial that was back in the 40's and 50's then the 60's Plymouth and Dodge became one in the same really then Chrysler then the Imperial until 1967 then imperial name was used but it was the same as the Chrysler cars.
I was 4 when my grandmother showed up with her first brand new car at age 56. A car she truly wanted the second she saw it, a 1975 Chrysler Cordoba with a smog-exempted non-catalyst 400. Cruise, A/C, velour interior, gold inside, and tilt. My grandfather had bad eyes and stopped driving that year, but he was a CB junkie, so he had that installed for their road trips. She LOVED that car. It became mine in 1996 with only 52,000 on the clock. Great memories, great car. Just floated down the road. Of course, I wish I had kept it.
I used to work with a guy who had a Cordoba. It felt like it could go through anything, it was so heavy and substantial.
They could do this today. Take the leftover Challenger bodies in white, stretch out the trunk a tad, restyle the front and interior trims to look premium. Increase the sound dampening and maybe some little wood grain interior accents. And that thin stylized metal trim would be a standout today
No hemi, no problem. It's a luxury cruiser, so it doesn't need to compete at the muscle car level. It just needs to be smooth and a sonorous exhaust that's not strained at high rpm. And they could stretch out that convertible top contract they have going for the last call challengers. They'd sell Tens! And all in Florida and Arizona.
@@Brian_Eugene_Lee Fake news. Didn't happen 🤣.
They brought back the Challenger in the modern market. And Chrysler's lineup will consist of just the Pacifica minivan once the 300 is gone in a matter of weeks. They need something and Chrysler-Dodge has a track record of not wanting to reinvent the wheel with developing platforms. They can't make the Challenger less powerful and more emissions friendly, but stick a Chrysler badge on it and like magic. A whole different demographic that doesn't care about cylinder count or hybridization. Without the muscle car demo restricting the powertrain options, restyling the challenger platform would cut time and cost, and all they'd really have to do is try to cut a bit of weight out of it.
I've definitely heard of far worse and unrealistic suggestions.
@@markcoopers1930 Why not? After all, the Challenger was really too big to be a proper competitor for Mustang and Camaro, and does what it does only through brute force. The wheelbase is as long as that of the Cordoba. The trouble will come when someone slides out of the "new" Cordoba and into the original and feel like they've gotten into a 911 it's so low, at less than 53 inches compared to the Challenger's 57.
This was the new “small” Chrysler at the time. As a kid, my best friend’s grandparents had this exact car. Not the type of car my family owned. We had a 1978 Honda Civic and a ‘74 Jaguar XJ6 at the time. Their Cordoba was always spotless and looked so regal …yet dated…sitting under their carport. My best friend’s mom had a gorgeous new black 1980 Buick Riviera with burgundy velour interior! That car was so choice! I felt so special riding in it. Even better than the Jag in some ways.
I ordered a brand new '77 Cordoba in early September 1976. I spec'd out everything I wanted on it. It didn't arrive until late October. It was exactly as I had spec'd it out, except it had dual chrome outside mirrors instead of body-colored painted mirrors. AND, surprise! ... While the '76 Cordoba with the Lean-Burn engine still ran on cheaper leaded gas, the '77 Lean-Burn required unleaded. (Bummer.) A few months later I noticed on the VIN tag that the car had been built in August 1976. How, I wondered, did Chrysler know in August 1976 exactly what I would order on my '77 Cordoba in September? The answer was that Chrysler was in such bad shape then that, to keep the plants running and avoid layoffs, they just kept building cars that no one had ordered and parking them in a big lot somewhere in Windsor, Ontario. When I ordered my car, before they built it they checked inventory, found they had an almost-as-ordered one parked somewhere, found it, and shipped it to me.
Chrysler called that build-them-and-stash-them system the Sales Bank. Their hope was to push them on dealers or, as in your case, to have cars on hand that would match up with something a customer had ordered.
That system almost bankrupted the company by tying up so much money in sitting cars that didn't have customers ready to buy them.
i love 70s cars!!
My first car was a fully loaded silver '83 Cordoba with a 318 ci engine. I wish I still had that car.
Gotta love the K-Car analogy!! It's perfect!!
I owned a 1975 Cordoba. White but with a burgundy half vinyl top and burgundy velour interior. I just had the 5.9L 360 2bbl. Sufficiently peppy but not quick. Keep in mind it was a foot shorter than the full sized Chryslers and 800 lbs lighter. Also the radio looks after market. The carpet square in the trunk isn’t stock. Mine had fully lined carpet if I recall, so maybe it got moldy and was removed. Note the Cordoba had a more solid ride than its Ford and GM counterparts like the Grand Prix that was VERY floaty even for the time. I enjoyed the time I had the Cordoba, even doing some family vacations loading it up.
Great video and as a side note, Corinthian leather was a marketing ploy. The leather came from New Jersey and was used in other Chryco products. It just wasn't called that. Lol.
Joy-see leather!! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
hahahaha@@markhealey9409
@@markhealey9409I think Tony Soprano started his career smuggling & highjacking loads of Corinthian leather
It sounded very fancy, the way Ricardo Montalban talked about it on the commercials.
They skinned Corinthians in New Jersey to make the leather?
I owned a Cordoba back around 1982. It was an early to mid 70s model with the round headlights. It was black with mag wheels and raised white letters on the tires. My girlfriend called it The Batmobile, so I had a license plate holder that had that name on it. When I was sent to Germany, I had it shipped there. Driving it home from the port, people would slow down and take pictures of it! Loved that car! Made me feel like a celebrity!
Sweet! I have a '76 Cordoba - 360 w/console and "Corinthian Leather" finished in KY5 Yellow Blaze w/white Landau and white interior on black carpet and dash. It's a really sweet reliable cruiser - took it to Carlisle Chrysler Nationals from Toronto in 2023 and it was great on the highway. 17mpg 😀
(2) Buddies of mine were GM guys until '75 when they bought new '76 Cordobas, both white with the tan interior & the 400 V8 & both had aftermarket fine wire wheels. Gorgeous cars & they looked great from any angle. Chrysler sold them like crazy & it seemed in the greater Detroit area they were everywhere.
There were even quite a few Cordobas on the road here in the Flint area back during their heyday.
My brother had one of these in the late 80's. It had the leather interior which I would refer to as "sticky" because of course the AC didn't work anymore and the midwest summers are hot and humid. Otherwise a fun car.
I owned a 1977 cordoba, just oozed class, was comfortable on long rides. It was a nice maroon colour, with the vinyl strip in the rear roof panel, with a small rear window and a beautiful coach light. Mine came with an 8 track, had a cassette adapter, so I could play cassette tapes. I really miss that car, the salt really ate the car up, that sucked but it was nothing new.
That eight track to cassette adapter would be quite a find these days.
@@Rick-S-6063 Still have it in a box somewhere, would never toss it!
We had one of these when I took driver training in HS back in the 1970s. EVERYBODY got jazzed when it was their day to got to take it out on the road.
Sadly no Corinthian leather but still cool to see
That white exterior brings back memories! Back in the late 1990s, when I was too young to think ahead; I bought a '76 Cordoba (WITH the Corinthian leather) for $300. Minimal body rust (didn't bother checking the frame), ran fine and drove so much better than one would expect from a 70's land barge...it must have had some heavy duty shocks or something. It would have been SO easy to restore, but my buddy and I threw some spray paint, and taped off some obnoxious racing stripes, and bounced it off guard rails and through corn fields...burnouts all over, hit trash cans at night...idiot teenage nonsense. It's one of my BIG regrets as far as cars go...I scrapped it when I was 19 because it had a bad fuel leak and I found something else to destroy. That interior is so awesome, I'd love to have that sweetheart!
It's one of the cars I do a search on every-so-often in hopes that I can find a nice one in my price range, and "make it right". Comically, that $300 Cordoba is selling for about $3,000 these days in the same condition.
Love the channel, buddy! '94 Fleetwood, '04 GTO, '02 Wrangler Sahara 5-speed, and a '73 Continental that's been sitting since 2014...I might have to hit you up sometime! Keep up the great content!
I have a 73 Formula Firebird I’ve had since I was 21. 455, 4spd, global west suspension…all that jazz.
I’m now 44 and I’d trade it in a second for a minty 75-77 Cordoba with the 400 and Corinthian ‘leather’.
The stereo also is an 8-track player. You can tell from the Program 1-4 lights. The radio dial itself is the tape slot. ;-)
Ricardo Montalban approves :)
We had a black 1977 Cordoba with the Corinthian leather as our family car. My mom and dad divorced and my dad would not give the extra set of keys to my mom. My mom didn't want make the payments on the car thinking my dad may take it any day, so she let it get repossessed and went and bought herself a new white 1978 Dodge Magnum.
The 1975-1979 Cordobas were super popular with consumers; a rare sales success for Chrysler. I believe they sold 180,000 in 1976 alone.
There was a red, low mileage survivor for sale a few spaces down from us at Hershey this year.
Back in ‘76 I bought a very slightly used ‘75 Cordoba. I loved the look and the way it rode and ran . It was a silver color with the burgundy red interior and vinyl top. It also had a factory sun roof, which to my dismay, began leaking badly after about 2 1/2 years. It started leaking after I had bought my wife a brand new’76 because I liked mine so much. It was white like the one in the video but it had a beautiful dark green trim in the interior and top, even the rims were green. It was gorgeous, they both had the “ rich Corinthian leather.
My ‘75 had the 360 4 barrel, and the ‘76 had the 400 lean burn with that damn plastic carburetor. It worked quite well until about 48,000 miles but then it started warping and it made the car run terribly.
Anyway I still kinda miss them, I just don’t miss the problems that came along, the interiors of both of them started just coming loose and falling when you least expected.
I could go on, but just to confirm what I thought about them, dang! I sure wish I had them back!
You got fed up with the constant problems. Don't you remember?
Go buy yourself a 2014 Porsche Cayenne and you'll get over it That's what I did!
Money can't buy you happiness but it can buy you a Porsche. Which is the same thing
Let's Roll!
Wolf 🐺
@@wolfalaska7638 well, I made possibly an even worse decision.
Bought my first BMW. It was an’87 325ic but really my only regret is that I didn’t keep it forever, I traded up to another 325ic ‘94 model, but that was a bad decision, still like the BMW though, to make it short, I am on my 9th one, including an 88 M5 and a 98 M3 but I’m still hanging on to my present day X5
This cannot correctly be called a land yacht because the Cordoba was classified an 'intermediate' . The Newport and New Yorker were the full-size Chrysler cars of 1976.
yep. b-body
3:03 that is an 8Track Player
and it looks after market...
Definitely aftermarket!!
The logo under the word "Program" says "SR" and was used by Sears. This radio is a Sears branded aftermarket AM/FM/8-track player. Probably more rare than the car is.
I bought a 1976 Cordoba with the Corinthian leather interior when I was 17. I miss it so much.
My dad had a 77 Cordoba from 77-81. Nice cars. I remember being 13 and my parents being out of town and I drove it to the mall lol.
I had a75. They did come with trunk carpeting and a spare cover. I had all leather. 76 was the first year in the states where rectangular headlights were allowed. Cordoba had them in 77. It was a really nice car. Ryan needs the drivers side torsion bar adjusted.
This was my wife's first ever car when she was over in the US in the mid '80s as an exchange student, right down to the exterior colour & interior. The father of her host family was a used car dealer, and set her up with one of these because it was a "compact" and would be easier for a teenaged girl to drive than a full-sized car of the same era. She remembers it fondly as a big floaty boat that didn't particularly like to start on cold winter mornings (probably due to the notoriously troublesome lean burn/electronic spark systems).
My first car was a 1977 Cordoba back in 1986. I liked it so much I bought another one almost just like it 2 years ago. Of course, I still don't have the first one. It's a short story. Anyway, 400, 4bbl, lean burn delete, new electronic distributor and Summit racing air cleaner. I think I freed up about 10 horsies, up from the spec 190 it spec'd at. Love the car. Come check it out. Washington state. Oh, by the way, that '76 had a rug in the trunk. Mine has the full treatment although a little rough.
My father used to have a dark green Cordoba, it was a nice car, not real fast, but real nice.
The engine wasn’t smaller, it was weaker. Pre malaise era Chryslers normally came with a 383 or optional 440 (standard in New Yorkers). By ‘ 76 they were detuned and clogged up with emission controls and Chrysler’s infamous lean burn system.
Just to make a couple points since you said you weren't familiar with this car and I am. The velour seats are much more comfortable than the leather ones. My black one had red velvet seats (or whatever it was) and I wouldn't have traded that for the "Corinthian" leather if it were a free option. Also, someone stripped that rusted trunk. It came with fully lined carpet; look it up. I've been an auto detailer for 40 years (before it was a thing) and I can tell you no car of this caliber was ever made that was not lined in the trunk; that's absurd. You can see that you can smash the front end at least a foot before even touching the radiator. Thanks for the tour; beautiful car (except the trunk)!
I’d rather have the Corinthian leather!
My dad had a '78 and I rode in it a lot. The '78 has the square headlights. It was confortable, and going by my dad's description, it was torquey. The performance and reliability of the car was increased significantly by replacing the engine's lean burn computer with duct tape. Nowadays you don't see cars that look this spiffy, but when I was a kid, every car looked like this.
From what I know, Dodge back then was a mid level luxury brand, Plymouth was entry level, Chrysler was by mid 70s a mid to high end luxury brand after Imperial was phased out
Owned a '75..a gorgeous car.
Lookin extra happy at the 1:40 mark
Rich Corinthian Leather.
As a child my mom bought a new Cordoba in 1978. It was a nice, reliable car back in the day. It had the 360 cubic inch engine.
That radio was AM/FM and 8 track too if you did not know it is a aftermarket radio but it does have 8 track and I can tell that by the 4 green light on the radio to tell what track you are on and the 8 track would go in where the AM/FM feq reader was that would flip in to put the tape.
Beautiful collection. Factory fresh time capsule
Had a 79 twenty years ago. A lot of people hated the stacked square headlights of the 78's and 79's. The round headlights are often cited as the preferred look. The only thing I hated about them was correcting people who thought it was a Monte Carlo.
Absolutely love it. Chrysler should have brought back the Cordoba -- rich Corinthian leather and all -- and built it on the same platform as the 300, Charger and Challenger. Since the American personal luxury car segment is basically non-existent now, they would have had the market all to themselves and it would have been a sensation. A little kitsch is something that's sorely lacking in today's deadly serious car market; and a smooth, soft-riding luxury coupe would have been just the medicine the market needed to bring it back to life.
I never owned a Cordoba but I did own a 1975 Dodge Charger and that was really a Chrysler Cordoba with some slight differences mine was dark green on dark green interior with leather bucket seats and a console shift it was a great car and the ride was like riding on a cloud it was great
I had a '75 Monte Carlo, silver Landau top. I love the large headlamps, the car is almost flowing, curvaceous. m
Very nice 76 , I have a 77 Cordoba I love it.
Respect for the B-52s reference.
I love your videos! The only thing I find unfortunate is that we can't hear the sound of the engines!!
For us of a certain generation, "personal luxury coupes" were our family cars. Cordobas were popular, although in the area I grew up in, and among my family circle, GM ruled the roost: Monte Carlos, Cutlass Supremes, and Grand Prix as far as the eye can see. We had a Buick Regal. I do recall my boomer dad and uncle, very much GM loyalists, saying the Cordoba was pretty though. The front is very similar to a Monte Carlo really.
BTW - in 1976, these had fully carpeted trunks. This one is missing the original carpet. Even the spare was covered in a carpet cover.
I hate mid to late 70's cars but this one is handsome!
I just went straight to the comments to see how many people said “ rich Corinthian leather” .😂were showing our age
Those rims on that car are called Chrysler Road Wheels and they were a factory option on them and all Chryslers back in the 70's I remember as a young child my grandfathers Newport had them wheels on it.
Zack finally got to experience fine Corinthian leather 😂
Round headlights are strange???? Every American car ever built had round headlights until '75.
true, but they had 'em in '76 too......
Some cars kept round sealed beam headlights into the early 1980s.
On the Cordoba you were able to get the optional carpeted truck with a spare tire cover.
My parents had a 1976 or 1977 with a 400 as well. It got about 14-15 Mpg highway. It rode well and drove pretty good. Nice car. Just hated to feed it.
I rented one in Houston TX and it was OK. Kind of sluggish, but interior was super luxurious with the Corinthian leather (lol)....deep burgundy color. I think it borrowed a lot of styling cues from the Pontiac Gran Prix.
Had this exact car but with slightly bigger white letter tires. My all time favorite car. That lean burn crap was awful.
Almost similar to our Ford LTD 1976 era in Australia.
it was promoted as a small Chrysler...my father had a 1978, bucket seats, digital clock, changed headlights, trunk looked good, well fitted carpet on floor and spare tire.
It was actually titled as " mid size luxury," as it was a luxurious car, miss that car.
@@gillesjacques1022 Ricardo Montalban refers to it as a small Chrysler.
@@Zebra_3 I owned a 1977 and a 1979 Chrysler Cordoba, it was no small Chrysler, it was mid sized. It was a big hit for Chrysler, it sold very well, was a beautiful car.
@@gillesjacques1022 Ricardo Montalban is never wrong.
Most 70s cars are ugly. This is one of the few that aged well. Still an elegant car
My mom wanted one of these - if she replaced her 66 Chrysler Newport with the 383 v8, she wanted the "smaller Chrysler" - I love these, with the round headlights - don't like the later square headlights. Would like to know what gas mileage was achieved with this engine city and hwy - wouldn't mind owning one of these!
I own one, gas mileage is not your friend 10-12 city maybe 15 highway ( doesn't also help weighing 4,475lb) rides nice other than chewing gas
I love my 77 400 4 Barrel triple maroon Cordoba 😊
My dad collected the sister Magnum. At one point having three XE and two GT one with T top. I also had one for time, They were reliable boats. Imagine the Cordoba was about the same.
I have a magnum xe video coming out tomorrow 11/15!
Round headlights were not strange in '76. The were the eyes to a car's face. Rectangular headlights only were legalized in '75.
I had a '77 New Yorker with the 440. Made this look small.
Corinthian leather was a made up marketing term by Chrysler there's not really such a thing.
dont tell the people of Corinthia that.....
They had a trunk liner as most 70s cars did
I had friends whose parents had a gold Cordoba in the late 70s & early 80s.... Used to get 8 of us pre teen & early teen kids in the back& their parents up front with one or two kids as well up front! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Gotta have the dice
no dice.
Eno Cordova? Inspiration for the Star Wars name?
400 ci isnt small 360 aint small
Compared to a 440 or 455 or 460 or 500, it is!!))
Also know as the Dodge Magnum and Plymouth Fury.
Beautiful
It's wild that Chrysler named a car after a burrito place.
you are correct sir, i live a block away from KORDOBAHS TACOS in CORINTHIA ITALY !
Like your Magnum XE video, I'll say it again: 70s American cars were hideous!
CAn 91 cadi seats fit in a 80 Chrysler
This was the *small* Chrysler! It looks like its period.
It always looked to me like a Chevy Monte Carlo second gen 73 , 77 ,
Back in the day you really got your money's worth...
They didn't last long though. Rust would usually get them, and if not the engine would need an overhaul by the time it hit 6 digits on the odometer. The Japanese imports that became popular during the fuel crises are what forced the American carmakers to stop coasting and step up their game.
IF you owned one of these cars, you got to know your dealer real well@@bwofficial1776
yea.....thank God for Yugo......
It needs Corinthian leather ❤️
This is malaise royalty!
the 400 big block is a B series big block it's really a bored out 383 because that is what Chrysler did they took the 383 raised the bore and come out with the 400. the 400 has the biggest bore of all the Mopar Big Blocks even the 440 they are great engines to do up due to it's big bore and short stroke you got a engine that will love the RPMs unlike the RB 440 would.
I don't think the rear ashtrays meant for smoking rich kids
nope, smoking grandkids
Nice 🥰
my uncle says that he has a cordoba
your uncle is right !
Now there's a car you don't see any more, and especially in such good condition. This was an aspirational car back in the day and it looked it. I'd drive it if I wanted a 70s coupe. Baroque styling with round headlights and upright grilles were popular in the 70s because it was "classy".
Usually 70s cars would rust out early, and if they survived they'd need an engine rebuild. The Japanese cars that became popular during the fuel crises forced the Big 3 to get serious and stop coasting.
Have you ever seen a Japanese car from the seventies on the road? Do you watch videos about them? Find a nice one, take it to car shows. Find someone who cares.
how does this guy uploasd everyday... wtf
Plymouth was originally was the lowest model cars then there was Dodge and then the luxury cars you had the lowest was Desoto then Chrysler then the top of the line was the Imperial that was back in the 40's and 50's then the 60's Plymouth and Dodge became one in the same really then Chrysler then the Imperial until 1967 then imperial name was used but it was the same as the Chrysler cars.
Beautiful cordobas. They didn’t age well.
That's 100% ugly
in a handsome way.
One of the worst cars ever made. Thousands of people in the 1970s never made it to work or school. Most crashed. Caught on fire.
Seems like an exaggeration
I would ask all the owners in the 1970s. Most didn’t survive to tell there stories 😢
death traps ?
OR stalled when attempting to warmup
@@doug6191 I've found that just about all bad talk of cars from the malaise era is a major exaggeration. Exactly like "New Coke"
I see some previous Monte Carlo, latterGrand Prix, and Olds Cutlass supreme influence in the styling.
I was 12 years old when this car came out, I thought it was so classy looking.