Comments: 1-15, 16-24
When I first attained the car I noticed the seats were worn very badly.
There was a huge dent on the drivers side front fender with a lot of little holes in it, as if shot with a shotgun. That has been fixed.
The left blinker didn't work, but later began to work on its own with no necessary repairs.
The headliner is ripped.
The fuel gage doesn't work, so I devised a gasoline dipstick made, of course, out of wood.
The car steers right when accelerating and pulls to the left when braking.
The alternator broke.
The voltage regulator broke.
The carburetor needed to rebuilt, and then later replaced twice.
The air conditioning actually worked as a heater, then the pump seized and had to be removed.
The engine caught on fire.
The power steering leaks.
The anti-freeze leaks.
The oil leaks.
The windshield has a huge crack.
The front suspension is so bad that it looks as if I had purposefully lowered my car.
The transmission slips randomly.
The trunk leaks when it rains heavily.
The distributor cam wore out for some reason, resulting in the contact points only opening for three cylinders.
There is a small hole in the muffler, so the exhaust sounds weird, like a Volkswagen Beetle.
When the car turns left or right at all, the whole car rocks back and forth,
making it feel as though you are crossing a bridge during an earthquake.
There was blow-by resulting from worn valve guides and a broken piston ring. The plugs had to be replaced every day due to this.
I eventually had to take the whole engine out due to its cantankerous ways.
This is the worst car I have ever had, or come into human contact for that matter. This car surprised me, because I had heard nothing, but good things about slant sixes. There are two possibilities for this phenomenon. A, its just a lemon, an original factory lemon: or, B, the guy who sold it to me lied about the mileage, instead of 86,000 miles it has 586,000 miles.
Everything broke.
Most dreadfully, there was a blow-by problem in this car of which the likes I had never seen or heard of in my entire life. It looked steam driven, driving down the road with a two foot wide diameter jet-stream of blue-black smoke following the car.
Lets not forget the backfire, which usually came out of the gasoline leaking demon possessed carburetor, eventually causing a fire in the engine.
My mom makes me drive with a fire extinguisher now.
I took out the engine and am in the process of putting in a rebuilt engine from a Chrysler Le Baron.
So you believed that a 32 year old car with badly worn front seats, not to mention all these other mechanical problems, only had 86,000 miles on it?
Like Forrest Gump's mama said, "stupid is as stupid does"
This sounds like one sorry-ass car.
Better cars than this get flattened at monster truck rallies.
You have my sympathies.
Hey kid. I'd go with theory "B." Virtually everything you named is a result of poor maintenance. You fail to appreciate the fact that it probably HAS gone 586,000 miles and is still running in spite of the number of leaks, tears, and dents that are just waiting to be repaired by their owner.
And a Le Baron engine? Are you unaware of the reputation that Le Barons bear?
Why don't you just follow the lead of all your trendy schoolmates and get a nice, new Jeep Wrangler or Mitsubishi Eclipse.
This must be one of the most hilarious reviews on this site!
Just wish I could see this guy lurching down the road with the blue-black smoke cloud trailing behind him, then stopping to check his gas tank level with a stick! lol!
Even if the car is as terrible as you describe it, you must remember that it is a classic Dodge and deserves the attention required to restore it to it's original beauty. I'd suggest putting a Dodge made 318 into if you are actually going to do an engine swap, more power and OK gas mileage for a V8.
It is difficult to understand why you would spend any money fixing up this car. When you are through paying $$$ to get it into halfway decent condition, it will still be a Dart.
You would do better to dump this thing, and if you want a Mopar from that era to restore, get something that has some potential like a Challenger or Barracuda, or even a Charger. Yes, you will have to pay more than the dirt-cheap prices a worn-out Dart commands, but at least it will be worth putting money into.
I disagree with the most recent comment. Darts are very popular restoration cars, and when restored right, are better performers than E and B body cars, not to mention cheaper acquire and restore. The A-body Darts are light and nimble with the correct suspension. I'd suggest you continue fixing it up, you will be happy in the end. Also, be glad that you have a '72, 1967-1972 are the most popular body styles.
To the writer of the above comment: you actually believe that a 4-door Dart is worth restoring?
Check the old car value guides and see how much a four door sedan is worth in #2/#3 condition, if that body style even shows up at all.
And the Dart/Valiant body did not significantly change after 1970 until the end of production in 1976 with exception of federally-required 5-moh bumpers and minor grille/taillight changes, so why would a 1972 be especially desirable?
Yeah, you dudes are all correct, my car is crappy and I was stupid for buying it, but I can't just go 'get' a barracuda, charger, eclipse or whatever because I am a broke student. but I am selling it for 500 bucks and the 78 lebaron engine is in and kicking just fine.
Sincerely.
The dude who owns the dart.
Dart dood!!!
Don't drive depressed.
Defend delightful Dart driving, delete derogatory digs!!
D.
The 67-72 Darts are the most desirable because of their front and rear ends. Their clean, uncluttered grilles and rear ends and the bumpers are relatively small. But starting with the 73's, the grille was changed into an ugly pointed, mesh style, with some big black bumper guards on the new equally massive "safety bumpers". In '74, the rear end was changed. Instead of th four small rectangular taillights in the bumper, there were now 4 big lights above it. If you see the different years together, you'd definitely see the difference. I should know, I have a '72 dart, a '75 dart, and a '73 duster.
I own a 1974 Dart custom 4 door that is in awesome condition. It was used as grocery getter which is really what the 4 door darts were. But because of that, it has only 106,000 miles and is in great condition. it has a 318 and a 904. I've put about 2 grand under the hood in replacement and restoration. I wish I had a 70 or 71 swinger though, I've always just wanted a muscle car and I love darts, but I have a 4 door dart. not to be disrespectful to it because it is a very nice driving car and runs great, but i don't know wut to do. I've seen a few pics of 72-74 4 door darts that have big fat tires in the back and air adjustable shocks that look like total hot rods so I'm thinking about doing rims, tires, air shocks, and paint to make it look nice because it has such low mileage and is in such great interior, exterior, and engine/transmission condition that it would be shame to sell it. some kids make fun of it and some like it. I'm just not sure what to do so some advice from PEOPLE WHO OWN AND LIKE DARTS would be great! thank you!
Well, you don't have to own a Dart to know that if you jack up the back of your 4-door sedan and put fat tires on it, you will look like a total...well, not a total hot rod, but probably something that will get made fun of.
You want to do something to it, make it a low rider. Then at least you won't get laughed at.
As much.
Dart Dood... I have a Dart with 245000 miles on it.. i bought the car new.. and it never stops going and going. I'm sure much of what you say is to make people laugh.. but you sound like a ford or chevy fan.
Mopar rules.
I love darts. I have a 1972 swinger all original only 53,000 miles on it. it never sat out side, and almost not been driven
it is a great car and I just love it.
I drive it to work every day about 5 miles a day.
Great original color and black top.
Inside is all original and in perfect condition.