Often times, old cars make great time machines. This 1980 Plymouth Arrow showed up in my Facebook Marketplace feed recently and I was whisked back to 1983 when I was shopping for a car to replace my first car, my pathetic 1974 Mercury Comet.
Ultimately, the car I would buy would be my less dreadful but still awful 1975 Chrysler Cordoba. Along the way to Corinthian Leather town, though, my search took some unusual twists and turns. I test drove a somewhat ratty, but fun-to-drive, V-8 powered 1976 Chevrolet Monza and a low-mileage, fairly clean, $900, 1979 Plymouth Arrow that was very similar to this freakishly nice 1980.
These sold new for about $3900, but their resale values were terrible. Hence, that '79 Arrow I test drove had such a low asking price. In 1983, finding a four-year-old car for just $900 was uncommon.
Naturally, this big car loving, red-blooded American boy passed on it. Despite its nimble handling, superior maneuverability, and much better fuel economy. What's more, by the early 1980s, Japanese automakers had established a reputation for sparkling build quality and reliability. The Arrow, though sold as a Plymouth, was built by Mitsubishi.
In the four-plus years I had my Cordoba, I don't think it went more than three-months at a time without something catastrophically breaking on it. It was also slow, handled like a truck and got terrible gas mileage. The kicker is it didn't even have Corinthia Leather.
I have to dig deep in my memory banks to remember why I passed on the Arrow, but it was probably because I didn't think it "cool" enough. That and that I knew I could get the Cordoba from a friend's parents for a couple a hundred less. $200 was nothing to sneeze at when you're making $3.10 an hour slinging hash in the cafeteria of the local hospital.
I know, I know. How could someone who was 19 years old at the time and had a penchant for automobiles think a Cordoba was cooler than a Plymouth Arrow. Well, let's be fair, it's not like this is the most "rad" car on the planet either. While the design is quasi-interesting, there's also a dork-factor to it that's hard to quantify, I could argue that my Cordoba was less dweeby, although a vastly inferior car.
Desperately needing an entry in the subcompact market to compete with Chevrolet's Vega and Ford's Pinto in the sub-compact class, lacking the funds to make one of their own, from 1976 through 1980, Chrysler bought these cars from Mitsubishi, they were known as the "Celeste" in Japan, and rebadged them as "Arrow".
For $6,990, I could go literally back in time now and do what I should have done forty-plus years ago; bought that little Arrow for just $900. This one has a new carburetor, clutch, brake lines, coil, battery and fresh paint. After market sunroof too. Poster of the ad bought it from someone who spent thousands to get it into this shape. I believe it.
You know, whoever was first to say that youth is wasted on the young sure knew what they were talking about.
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