Yahoo Autos Junkyard Gem: 1983 Chrysler Cordoba
When we think of the Chrysler Cordoba, we think of the bloated, Corinthian Leather-equipped Malaisewagon pitched by Ricardo Montalban during the middle 1970s. That car lived on the Chrysler B platform, making it first cousin to the Duke Boys' 1969 Charger plus countless police vehicles in 1970s television shows. Following the downsizing trend of GM and Ford during the second half of the 1970s — and spurred along by certain geopolitical events plus a "too big to fail" government bailout — Chrysler moved the Cordoba onto the much smaller platform used by the Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volaré for the 1980 model year.
Production of the smaller Cordoba continued all the way through 1983; sales of these mini-Cordobas were dismal, but I managed to find this final-year survivor in a junkyard near Pikes Peak.
I'm pretty sure you could still get Corinthian Leather in the '83 Cordoba, but this car has the base-grade "Monterey" cloth-and-vinyl interior.
Production of more modern cars based on the brand-new, front-wheel-drive K platform was in full swing by 1983, so the rear-wheel-drive Cordoba and its siblings (the Imperial and Dodge Mirada) got the axe after that year. American car shoppers could get the closely-related Chrysler Fifth Avenue, Dodge Diplomat, and Plymouth Gran Fury all the way through 1989, though.
The sturdy-but-sluggish Slant-6 engine came as standard equipment in the 1983 Cordoba, but this car has the optional 318-cubic-inch (5.2-liter) V8, rated at 130 horsepower when new. Chrysler continued to put 318s (as the 5.2 Magnum) into new trucks all the way through 2003, and the Viper's V10 was based on this engine's architecture.
These American Racing aluminum wheels (and their more prestigious Centerline competitors) were serious stuff back in the 1980s. Nowadays, 15" wheels are considered far too small to be worth grabbing at the junkyard, although I'm sure someone will grab these before the car gets eaten by The Crusher.
