Solid T-Top: 1977 Dodge Aspen R/T
It may not be perfect, but this 1977 Dodge Aspen R/T is a good looking car regardless. It is essentially a solid car with only some very minor rust to be dealt with. Barn Finder Peter B referred the Aspen to us, so thank you for that Peter. The Aspen is located in New Hartford, Connecticut, and is listed for sale here on Craigslist. The owner has set a price of $15,000 for the car, but it does look like there might be some room to negotiate this figure with a serious buyer.
I quite like the look of this Aspen. I am aware that there are a few minor rust bubbles, but the floors and the underside of the car look solid, and in about the state that you would expect from a car of this age that has spent the majority of its life in Texas. The paint and decals show no real ill effects of a life in Texas, while features such as those very 1970s window louvers seem to have survived quite well. One of the great features of this Aspen is the T-Top. The panels and seals look to be in good condition, while the owner is also including a spare pair of panels, plus a few other parts, in the sale of the vehicle. The owner also has a lift, so any prospective buyers are welcome to test drive the car, and he is happy to put it up on the lift so that you can have a good look around under the car.
A black car with a black interior. It’s probably a blessing that the Aspen is fitted with air conditioning. In addition, you also get cruise control, a fold-down rear seat, an AM/FM 8-track player, and wood-grain trim. The interior itself appears to have held up quite well for a car of this era. It’s a bit hard to be sure, but it does look like the carpet just might be faded slightly, but that could also be a trick of the light. If it is faded, it’s really the only obvious fault in an otherwise flawless interior.
Under the hood of the Aspen is the base-spec 360ci V8 engine, which is hooked to a 3-speed Torqueflite transmission. The engine produces 155hp, and while performance is adequate, it is never going to be startling. The culprit here is weight. With a curb weight of 3,500lbs, the Aspen is no lightweight, so a ¼ mile time of 18 seconds isn’t startling. Having said that, the engine and transmission in this car are numbers-matching, and the owner refers to the Aspen as a “decent driver.”
Maybe this Aspen isn’t the most desirable car on the planet, but it does look like it’s a solid car in better than average condition. The performance may not be startling, but the drive-train is probably as close to bullet-proof as you are ever likely to find. As the owner correctly points out, large numbers of Aspens have been consumed over the years by rust, but this one has avoided that fate. Classic cars can come from any era, so a good Aspen might be a fair representative from the mid-1970s.
Auctions Ending Soon
2002 Subaru Impreza WRXBid Now8 hours$333
1975 Chevrolet Corvette ConvertibleBid Now9 hours$4,000
1964 Ford F-100 Camper CustomBid Now10 hours$2,000
2006 Jeep Wrangler SportBid Now2 days$11,000
1974 Datsun 260ZBid Now4 days$750
Comments
As a young man, I was permanently scarred by my parents purchase of a green Dodge Aspen station wagon. It’s only redeeming quality was the ability to carry 600 dozen Krispy Kreme donuts so we did. But I digress. Even looking at one of these models gives me a touch of the heebie jeebies. With apologies to the owner, pass.
Nice car.
You won’t find one as nice.
Alas price is a bit high.
10 Gs car
You think that car made you cringe? in 1986, my dad brought home a 1977 Aspen that was orange with a white interior. It had these ugly spinner SS hubcaps that I have idea how they got on there. I swear he bought the car just to piss off my mom.
I would love to find a clean Aspen wagon today! And please make mine that wonderful frosty green!
7,200 KRISPY-KREMES would give anyone the Heebie Jeebies Green Aspen wagon or not.
Ha! It was common when I was in school in the 70’s to sell KK donuts to raise funds for a particular project. Our class sold them to help offset to cost of going to DC. KK would give us a discount and we’d sell them for a couple of dollars per dozen. My buddy Sammy (RIP) and I made the trip to Tuscaloosa AL to pick them up. Man, that was the only time the Aspen smelled so good. 2 dozen donuts disappeared before we made the 45 mile back to school. You know… 6’2″ and I weighed maybe 125 lbs back then. Good times!
When I met my wife she had one of these she bought new. Twice as bad to have the tops of the front genders fixed because of carosion. Was a real drag. Late 81 I bought a 1978 Dodge Lil Red Exspress with one of the last 390 4 barrels on it. Traded away a 78 Z/28 for it. Big mistake. Truck had only 18 grand on the odometer. One day got home, and tried to back into parking space. Truck wouldn’t budge. Had it towed to a Speed Shop. Was told the tie rods had rusted through. Get that, the tie rods. Besides the tie rods, truck had rusty springs, front, and rear. Also said frame had bad signs of rust. Guy at Speed Shop said Chrysler was known for using rusty parts, and this was the worst he’d seen. Two months later the mechanic from the Speed Shop called me up, and asked me to come down to his shop. When I got there. Up on the lift was a? 1978 Dodge Lil Red with? You got it. Same rusted out places, including the tie rods. Turned me off to this brand. At that time the Lil Red’s were fastest thing on the road, except they were rust buckets right from the factory.
Hi my name is Michael also call me Mike never herd that one before been a mopar guy all my life and have owned 100s of mopars I’m 65 now I have a 73 RR right now no rust and it’s over 40 years old it only has 52000 original miles not saying they don’t rust out but I think that guy at the speed shop was FOS
Where do you guys keep finding these at?!?!!?????
I didn’t know they made as many of them as you have listed!
Today’s word is “startling.” Can you say “startling?” I knew you could say “startling.”
TV shows and muscle snobs tell us to hate these so that makes me like it all the more. However, something like this better be flawless if someone’s forking over 15K.
I had a plain 1978 ? Aspen with a 318 as a winter car for 2 winters.And yes, it was green .
This one looks real good but 15 grand. The first thing I would do is remove that honky pistol grip shifter.
You could have a ton of fun on cruise nights with your leisure suit and Saturday Night Fever 8 track tapes. Just call up Summit Racing and order a nice 408 stroker.
Ahh, 8 track tapes… the joys:
– putting them on the defroster outlets on frigid mornings to warm them so they’d play
– songs fading out in the middle, ‘ka chung!’ , then fading back in
– the player ‘eating’ the tape
– wedging matchbooks or something around the cartridge so it would play one channel without picking up another in the background.
– $6 for most new tapes then ~1972, which works out to $25 now
– ‘double album’ tapes cost $8 or $9 and sometimes had to leave a song or two off, or had a bunch of dead space at the end of one ‘track’.
People today don’t know what they missed….
Your retelling my teenage years
Too bad it isn’t a 4sp
Back in the 80s I was working in a salvage yard and lot of these models were driving in , but 10 years was about the life expectancy of cars here in CT. I had a bronze 78 Volare 6cyl coupe at the time so I never had to worry about parts (not that it ever needed any ! ) . This Aspen must have been a showroom order – I don’t think I’ve ever seen a more optioned one . The fold down back seat is super rare , more so then the Dusters/Dart Sports with the same option . 15G seems high to me , but if the price was right I would love to have this parked next to my Duster 340 !
Karl. I have the same car in B.C Canada.
All steel. 360 stock. runs mint
Vancouver area
If it doesn’t have rust atop the fenders about 8″ in front of the A pillar, it’s not a real Aspen. (how on earth did a car rust there? They somehow managed it)
76 and 77 Volare /Aspen fenders rotted on the top (like AMC Hornets, Gremlins, Concords, and countless imports, etc. due to poor water drainage. Chrysler replacement the fenders under warranty. The 78 -80 fenders did not rot like the earlier ones. I had a 1978 Volare for 15 years in salt corroding Connecticut . When I retired it (still running) she had rust in the usual New England areas like quarter panels , bumper reinforcements ,door bottoms, but the fenders were perfect !
One has to wonder how did Mopar take a car that was almost an updated Dart and make it have so many problems the original didn’t?
Nice but I’d be cautious about spending this kind of cheese on anything built after ’72. You’ll probably get your bell rung, and hard, when the economy tanks next.
And who stores a Dodge Aspen anyway? You’d probably want to be driving it, meaning you’ll have a $4,000 car in short order, even in this no-restraint market.
But if you have it to lose, why not.
In maybe 1972 my brother and a couple friends and I went out looking at used car dealers’ lots on a Sunday. (I think the dealers in IL were closed Sundays then… they still are on Sundays here in Indiana now.) We were at a Chevy dealer and I saw an orange Vega GT with what looked like a brown spider web on the front fender. Curious, I pushed on it with my thumb and it went right through! I bet that a) the dealer was PO’d to see that and b) I may have saved some poor soul from discovering THAT BAD of rust in a car that wasn’t two years old yet.
Correct me if I’m wrong, but I believe Chrysler replaced tons of prematurely rotted out front fenders on these cars under warranty.
Fantastic lead photo. The two tone red graphics on the black are eye catching. I never hated these like everyone else.
My family had a ‘78 Volaré wagon and it was a fairly tough customer. Decently strong running after my Dad and brother yanked the Lean Burn. I was too young to drive it, but several siblings put it it through frequent and varied extreme exercises.
By far the coolest Aspen I’ve ever seen, but still has a face only a mother could love.
This is a really great looking car, nicely appointed, too. But, (yeah, here we go…), for me, the price is quite high and I can not stand T-tops. I’ve heard way too many stories about them leaking, e.g., rotting seals. If it were a full top, maybe a little dickering, maybe I would consider it. If this was meant to be a show car, then, it is not for me. When I buy a car, I want to d r i v e it. Oh well….
Nice looking ride. It’s worth what someone is willing to pay.
2 doors to many. Crazy $
Always wanted one of these (prefer gold decal package, but whatever…) just cannot do $15K. $9 – $10k max. The car isn’t as rare as the seller states. There were 4,468 R/T’s made in ’77. 2,281 of them had the SuperPak option which added wheel flares. There was also a 4bbl available but this one sports a 2bbl. T-tops are a nice option when not leaking. A 4-speed would have really been attractive here (it was an option). Good luck to the seller. Very nice car overall. Come down $5k and you have a buyer right here…
As much as the T-Bar roof seems cool, every one I have ever seen leaks worse then I do when Van Helsing shoots me in a vain attempt to make his day better.
This car was 3 years old when I was born. My memories of Dodge Aspens are that of beat up taxi cabs. I’ve always thought they were ugly as sin. This one however looks fantastic. That’s a lot of money though…I mean, really.
Wonder why there are two shots of the interior which are clearly not the same car; stock shifter v. pistol grip and wood grain dash v. black.
I’m thinking same interior before/after updates including shifter handle and wood grain on the glovebox.
Had one just like it as a teenage car. It held up remarkable under the circumstances. Would be a nice car but way too much.
I had a ’76 Aspen R/T that I bought for $1200, it was an Arizona car, it had everything this car has except the T tops, mine had the manual crank open sunroof, being from Arizona, it wasn’t undercoated so the NH winters took its toll on it, I Junked it when the firewall started to rot out, I should have stripped it for the parts that are hard to come by, like the fold down back seat and the console, loved that car, it had a reverse manual valve body in the 904 trans and a possi rear with a .30 over 360 and a 600 Edelbrock carb, she would get up and go, surprised more than a few ricers with it.
My buddy owned that exact car in High school, he bought it as a leftover end of 77, same colors wheels stripes, 360 motor A/C , it was a nice highway car, he eventually made a all out race car out of it, 440 and all, sold it off in pieces in the 80s, he still misses it
hi how can I talk to you regarding the car I am interested in the aspen rt to buy
hi
os the car still for sale