Chrysler’s Safe Global Gamble: Cold Start

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I was kinda sick all weekend, so I didn’t get as much stuff done as I’d have liked. It happens. Luckily it wasn’t Covid, which I know because I did that test where you sing to a chipmunk and see how into it they get, then swab a combination of you salivas and put it on a little strip that shows some number of stripes. Mine ended up looking like the famous Gulf livery, so that means I’m in the clear. You know who else was probably in the clear? Chrysler, in the 1970s, with their unlimited-mileage one-year warranty.

I mean it sure sounds impressive, what with that image of a ’76 very Malaise-y Charger whipping around the globe like a satellite, racking up who knows how many space-miles. In reality, though? Chrysler knows hardly anyone is likely to go that nuts on this thing. The odds were very much in the favor of people driving an absolutely average amount of miles in that warranty year, because that’s how average things work.

Sounds bold, but really, it’s just not. That said, I hope there was some loon out there who drove their Cordoba or whatever pretty much nonstop and racked up 90,000 miles in that year. Maybe there were a few of them, and that’s what sent Chrysler into such financial trouble in the 1980s?

14 thoughts on “Chrysler’s Safe Global Gamble: Cold Start

  1. Strangely I still lust after a 1981 Cordoba LS. Red with Fake convertible top. My grandparents owned one with all it’s lean burn 2 barrel 318 glory. but that car was a very smart looking car, it likely should have been a Letter car based upon the difference betweent he regular old Cordoba or the time. it was a much nicer version of the Marada I think. At any rate, I was pretty disappointed when it was handed down to a younger cousin who promptly drove it into a ditch. I definitely think a basic 5.9 Dakota engine with a 5 speed manual would have really made that little red express a bunch more fun in the 90’s.

  2. “…image of a ’76 very Malaise-y Charger whipping around the globe …”

    Based on the thickness of the top of the grille and the fact it looks like it has letters on it, I think this was the Cordoba. Granted, this was the era in which badge engineering thrived at the big three.

  3. I just put over 39,000 miles on my new car in exactly 12 months, if I’d have been shopping for a Chrysler product back then, I’d have said challenge accepted.

    Of course, you’d have to deduct the time the Cordoba/Charger would have spent in the shop, so the total would have been brought down

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