1971 Plymouth Scamp - I Could Have Been a Contender

What with Chrysler muscle-car values through the sun- or moon-roof these days, we tend to forget about Plymouth's (and Dodge's) like this 1971 Plymouth Valiant Scamp. 

This poor thing probably has more issues than the obvious considering the Facebook Marketplace ad has it listed for a scant (scamp?) $1,500. And, ah geez, it's on a trailer to boot. If they threw the trailer in as well this might be a sweet deal for $1,500, though. 

$1,500 is still a chunk of change for a car that's going to need thousands of dollars of body work even before you get to the interior and the real fun stuff, the powertrain. And then what would have? A Plymouth Scamp you dropped like twenty-grand on? That makes no sense to me. 

Still, I would have loved to have had this when I was in high school, sans all the rust and dents of course. Even in "Exorcist Green", vinyl top and the smaller of the two "Slant Sixes" available on it at the time. This would have made for an altogether better "first-car" than the junker, 1974 Mercury Comet four-door sedan I did end up with. I'll stop short of saying this would have been "cooler", but in reality, it sort of would have been. 

Especially, with Chrysler's 318-cubic inch V-8 under hood. Man, I could have been a contender, but in the deepest throws of the second gas crisis, V-8's were verboten; not that many of these left the factory with one. 

It's not like Chrysler's venerable "Slant Six" was that much better on gas but back then it was all about the pre-tense of "fuel economy" versus being actually "good on gas". My 250-cubic inch, six-cylinder Comet got 10- maybe 11-miles per gallon. Highway. 

Although classified as "compacts", there was nothing really compact about them, these "A-bodies" were proof that Chrysler could do something right back in the 1960's; say what you will about their muscle cars, but they never sold well. 

Meanwhile, they popped these out like popcorn and America gobbled them up thanks to being "sized-right", their spacious interiors and relatively frugal powertrains. Oh, all that and they could be had for a song. 

"Scamps" were nothing more than two-door Valiant's, which were also nothing more than "badge engineered" Dodge Dart "Swingers". However, they offered a dollop or two of styling mojo that the bolt-upright, grocery-getter-ganny mobile Valiant two-door sedans sold from 1967-1970 severely lacked. 

Plymouth built these through model-year 1976 replacing them, the Valiant and the Duster with their woe-be-gone Volare series.