The Houdini of Cars…1976 Plymouth Volare:This neat...

[AACA Library]

The Houdini of Cars…1976 Plymouth Volare:

This neat vintage ad draws comparisons between the legendary magician and the 1976 Volare. *It even features a functional “magic trick.”

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[dan at larescorp]

The 76 Dodge Aspen I used to own had rusty enough floor panels that if the seat would have folded forward like that the trick would have worked.

[whtbaron]

And disappearing fenders as well. Some aftermarket suppliers actually started offering them in fiberglass to avoid the design issues.

[Bleach]

Mine made the gasoline disappear from the tank. 13 mpg avg from the 225! :mad:

[whtbaron]

That is low for a slant. Funny how in the smaller cars the best mileage often came from the small V-8 options rather than the "economical" 6. My uncle also had the 225. He was in the low 20's until he made a trip to the mountains and got some bozo mechanic to play with the jets to maintain power. After that his mileage was never the same. Could be that someone messed with your wagon as well.

[Bleach]

MPG's were low for a slant. The 63 Dart was always in the low 20's and had great power too. The wagon was the complete opposite. It was a slug and gas mileage was atrocious. The car had been to the dealer countless times for defects when new and the mileage issue was also addressed. Some things got fixed, others like the mileage never did. It was supposedly "normal" for the car. I have a feeling the rear end gearing was a big part of the issue. We kept using it until about 1983 and after that it was more or less parked until 1987 where I just gave it away to some family members.

[dan at larescorp]

I finally put mine to rest after the 5th transmission went out. That was enough.

[Bleach]

With all the problems we had with our Volare, nothing major ever needed to be done. My father in law was the "lucky" recipient of the car and he drove the car until about the mid 1990's. Amazingly it still ran good when he got rid of it with around 130K or 140K miles or so on it.