Junkyard Find: 1980 Chrysler Cordoba
It seems strange, but sufficient Chrysler Cordobas still exist to provide a sporadic flow of fresh examples to self-serve wrecking yards. In this series, we’ve seen this ’78, another ’78, this ’79, and now today’s personally luxurious blue ’80.
The downsized second-gen 1980-83 Cordobas, which were based on the Volare/Diplomat platform and didn’t differ much from their Dodge Mirada siblings, sold very poorly. You aren’t going to find many of these things today, either on the street or lined up before the Crusher’s jaws.
Soft Corinthian Leather was still an option— Ricardo Montalban would have quit in disgust otherwise— but this car has the more affordable soft Corinthian Velour.
With a smog-o-lated 318 under the hood, chopping a few hundred extra pounds out of the Cordoba for the ’80 model year made this car a much livelier performer.
The landau roof and touch-o-plastic-class grille treatment were properly Cordoba-ish, but where did the “gold” medallions go?
Not to worry, Ricardo liked what they did to his car!
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, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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Looks like Chrysler designers "borrowed" some styling cues from other automakers. The front end somewhat resembles a 1978-80 Mercury Monarch, while the taillights look a bit like those on a 1977 Buick Electra 225. This car is a reminder of why GM absolutely dominated the personal luxury segment in the early Eighties. With this mediocre redesign of the Cordoba and the introduction of it's Dodge Mirada sibling, and with Ford's poorly received 1980 redesign of the Thunderbird and Cougar, both automakers pretty much handed the personal luxury segment over to GM on a silver platter.
It's sad when you see a car like this. You can tell it was lovingly cared for during it's lifetime and when it's owner passed on or was no longer able to drive, it went to a family member or friend who drove it into the ground. This happened to my great uncle's '71 Riv. It sat pampered 44 years in a garage and meticulously maintained the entire time. When he and my great aunt passed, his daughter destroyed it within a year and it went to a junk yard.