Dodge Darts for Sale

Dodgeâ€™s A-body Dart managed to go full circle in its decade-and-a-half on this earth; it started and ended as basic transportation, by dint of its comparatively petite size (compared to its then-contemporary Dodge siblings) and the long-lived Slant Six po...

Dodgeâ€™s A-body Dart managed to go full circle in its de...

Dodge’s A-body Dart managed to go full circle in its decade-and-a-half on this earth; it started and ended as basic transportation, by dint of its comparatively petite size (compared to its then-contemporary Dodge siblings) and the long-lived Slant Six powerplant destined to live in several million K-frames. Along the way, the Dart had a role in the muscle car era during. Dart passed from this world as an economy car too.

Dodge’s Dart didn’t remain an economy car all its life, it went on a journey. From hubcapped, bench-seat 170-cu.in. sixes that transported your auntie back and forth to church on Sunday to fire-breathing Hemi-powered drag racers delivered in primer with a fiberglass front end and a massive air scoop, tuned to run 11-second quarter-mile times. That was a Dart, too. Millions more lay in between the extremes: 225-, 273- and 318-powered grocery getters; deep-breathing 340, 360, 383 and (occasionally) 440 hot-heads. Even cushy luxury machines with soft interiors and color-keyed wheelcovers.

Dart evolved somewhat with the times, take on a whiff of Chrysler Turbine car in ’63, with a facelift in ’65; a thorough redesign in ’67 with a new K-frame to accept bigger engines, with a facelift in ’70; endless permutations thereafter that followed increasingly onerous federal regulations until its eventual passing at the end of 1976. The Dart was an economy car that wouldn’t leave you stranded--reliable and cheap transportation. But it was also a capable performer when equipped as such. And Dart had style, even when Dodge needed a fastback coupe to counter Plymouth’s Duster. When the personal-luxury era replaced the muscle car era in the mid-‘70s, Dart adapted, and when the oil spigots in the Middle East were screwed shut for much of 1974, and economy cars were suddenly in vogue, the answer was Dart.

Three and three-quarter million Darts over a 15-year spread (and countless more of its bargain-basement stablemate, Plymouth Valiant) showed that you really could be all things to all people, and still succeed. Because so many were built, lots still survive. They make a perfect entry-level collector-car today.

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