Junkyard Gem: 1977 Dodge Aspen Wagon

Chrysler killed off the wagon variations of the Plymouth Valiant and Dodge Dart compacts in the USA after 1966, which meant that the one new small station wagons provided by the center Seventies by American Dodge and Plymouth sellers had been the Mitsubishi-built Colt and the Hillman-built Cricket. In the meantime, American Motors was doing fairly effectively promoting Hornet Sportabouts, so one thing wanted to be executed. That one thing turned out to be the Dodge Aspen and its Plymouth Volaré sibling, which debuted as 1976 fashions and included longroof variations. We noticed a discarded Volaré wagon in superb brown a few years again, and now it is the flip of a equally brown Aspen wagon, present in a northeastern Colorado self-service boneyard not too long ago.

For fairly some time, American producers giving place names to their merchandise most popular to make use of the titles of picturesque (or a minimum of rich) areas with heat climates, e.g., Bel Air, Capri, Monaco, Barcelona, Montego, Monte Carlo, Cordoba, Granada, Torino, Riviera and so forth. Aspen, Colorado, is not heat however wealthy folks wish to ski there and so it appeared like a correctly aspirational identify for the most affordable U.S.-market Dodge not constructed by Mitsubishi. In a while, different ski-centric areas of the American West, comparable to Tahoe and Telluride, had been used for automobile names.

Aspen received much more absurdly rich within the a long time that adopted the Dodge Aspen (which was constructed for the 1976 by 1980 mannequin years), so Fiat Chrysler could not resist reviving the identify on a luxed-up Durango with Chrysler badges in the course of the late 2000s.

The Aspen and Volaré changed the reliable however antiquated Dart and Valiant, with the overall concept that they’d be a bit greater and extra modern-looking than their predecessors whereas nonetheless being low cost, easy transportation.

The chassis design was all new, although it nonetheless used an old-timey torsion-bar entrance/leaf-spring rear rig. The powertrains had been basically an identical to these of the Dart/Valiant.

The bottom engine within the Dodge Aspen was the 225-cubic-inch (3.7-liter) Slant-6, however this automobile has one of many non-obligatory LA-series small-block V8s. Each the 318 (5.2-liter) and 360 (5.9-liter) had been accessible in these vehicles; the 2 look an identical at a look and I did not really feel like catching hantavirus from all of the rat poop I might have needed to take away to take a look at block casting numbers. If it is a 360 and it is unique, then it is the two-barrel model with 155 horsepower relatively than the four-barrel with 175 horses.

The transmission is the non-obligatory three-speed computerized relatively than the bottom three-speed column-shift handbook.

In 1977, American Dodge sellers provided automobile consumers 4 sizes of recent station wagon: the subcompact Colt (then in its remaining mannequin 12 months in wagon kind right here), the compact Aspen, the midsize Monaco and the full-size Royal Monaco. 1977 ties with 1964 for the title of Peak Wagon in the USA, with 47 completely different wagon fashions accessible right here that 12 months. The decline in wagon recognition occurred slowly till 1984, when the introduction of the brand new front-wheel-drive Chrysler minivans and the Jeep XJ Cherokee marked the start of the top for the American longroof.

How a lot was the 1977 Aspen wagon? This one seems to be a top-of-the-range Particular Version, so its MRSP with 318 V8 and computerized transmission would have been $4,758, or about $25,403 in 2024 {dollars}. The most affordable doable 1977 Aspen wagon (with six-cylinder engine and three-on-the-tree handbook transmission) began at $3,953 ($21,105 after inflation).

In the meantime, the 1977 Colt wagon began at $3,900 ($20,822 as we speak), so it wasn’t less expensive than the Aspen.

This automobile has some dear choices past the $270 ($1,442 now) computerized transmission, the biggest-ticket one being the $466 air con ($2,488 in as we speak’s cash).

The rear window within the Aspen/Volaré wagons did not open, however Chrysler nonetheless included warning stickers to stop customers from driving or idling with the hatch-style tailgate open and huffing carbon monoxide.

There have been some pocket book pages with upkeep and restore objects courting from the Nineteen Eighties inside.

The Aspen/Volaré platform lived on, in barely modified kind, by the 1989 mannequin 12 months (when it underpinned such vehicles as the Dodge Diplomat and Chrysler Fifth Avenue). The ultimate new Dodge wagon bought in the USA was the 2008 Magnum.

Hey, it is Dr. Dolittle pitching the Aspen wagon!