CMonty,

We had a '76 Volare wagon (the Plymoth version of the Dodge Aspen) with that same faux wood panneling - the total "surf wagon" for me and my two brother growing up in So. Cal. We had to "wax" that thing with brown shoe polish to keep the wood-look contact paper from going white. My dad, for some unknown reason, ordered the thing new from the factory with a three speed manual with overdrive - the only large wagon I've ever seen with a row-yer-own tranny. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/mrt.gif" alt="" />

With that 360 and the way my dad hot rodded that wagon around - it ate a steady diet of one clutch every year. One of the first cuss words I ever heard out of my dad's mouth was while I was "helping" him drop that tranny for the umteenth time and it dropped off the jack and damn near crushed his arm (yeah, the mantra "saftey first" was something I learned later in life). I remember the first time I did a clutch job on a VW I was amazed that the clutch in that wagon was just slightly bigger than the VW clutch - unbelieveable!

That question your buddy posed ("Have you ever met anybody successful, that drove a Dodge?") still has me laughing. Everyone I know that has had a "Diamler-Chrysler" product has been disappointed by it (with the execptions being the Dodge Raider, the Cummins diesel trucks with manual trannys and any other vehicle which had either a Mitsu, or any other non-chryler motor).

Anyway, thanks for the memories. <img src="/forums/images/graemlins/cheers.gif" alt="" />

Take care,

Jim