Junkyard Find: 1979 Chrysler Cordoba
After yesterday’s Junkyard Find, which was AMC’s answer to the very successful Chrysler Cordoba personal luxury coupe, it seems only right that we look at the car that inspired AMC’s marketers to start searching maps of Spain for car names: the Chrysler Cordoba. Here’s a ’79 that I spotted at a Denver self-serve yard last week.
Cordobas sold pretty well, but they aren’t considered particularly collectible nowadays. This means that junkyard visitors still see a steady stream of the plush Malaise Era Chrysler coupes; I found this ’78 in the same junkyard during the winter.
Unlike that car, today’s Cordoba lacks the optional Corinthian Leather upholstery that we associate with the Cordoba (though it was available in other Chrysler models well into the 1980s). I so admired the Corinthian Leather bench seat in the junked ’78 that I bought it and used it as the basis for a classy garage couch.
The stack of sun-bleached Denver parking tickets tells us the reason this car ended up getting towed and scrapped.
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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OK, I apprecieate the comments offered about the Cordoba but I'm more interested in locating parts many of the exterior ones shown on the Murilee Martin pics of the '78 dated 7/7/12. Who can help me with my long search?
I believe in the 1970's and 1980's car makers spent more time designing coach lamps and company medallions for vehicles than they actually did on the overall vehicle.