The starter went bad at 165,000 miles.
This car was the best $200 that I ever spent. Great gas mileage, with plenty of power. I never had any problems keeping up with traffic.
The coupe also drove like a sports car. However it could be a real monster on ice covered roads.
The car was the most the most reliable vehicle I have ever owned. It never left me stranded or failed to start. The only problem I had, was the starter began to drag. This caused the battery to drain quickly. I installed a new starter, which fixed the problem.
I will always look back on that car with nothing but the fondest memories. I believe selling that car was one of the toughest things I've ever done.
You are probably the only person on earth, make that the only person in the universe that has EVER referred to
the Plymouth Volare as a Sports Car.
It's as much a Sports Car as a John Deere riding mower is a drag racer.
A Volare was what my parents bought me for my first school car. Extremely ugly, but mostly reliable with a strong slant 6 motor. Put that car through more than the usual teenage paces (spinning cookies, beating down gravel roads at excessive speeds, sliding around corners, etc.) and it continued to plod along. I actually bought the car back from my parents when I was in college so my girlfriend would have something to drive to work (She hated it), but it still ran well so many years later.
I'm in the market for a sports car. Can you advise me on whether I should go for one of these Volares, or should I
go for one of those Ford Pinto Squire Sports cars instead?
They're both okay, but if you want a real sports car, go with an '82 Dodge Aries!
It may not be a sports car, but with the 318 auto tranny, I had no trouble eating up a 99 mustang with the v6 5 spd, and my volare was in pretty sad shape and ran not so well. For what it would cost to buy one, their great cars, if you don't mind and ugly gas hog.
If the only problem he ever had was a starter that went bad at 165,000 miles, I don't think anybody can really say anything too bad about it. Maybe the "sports car" line was a little over the top, but the 318 wasn't bad either. I had a friend with a '77 Aspen station wagon, with a 318 and 4-speed. While beat and ragged, it had some real tire-smoking ability.
According to a road test from around 1977 a 2bbl 360 powered Aspen (Dodge's Volare) was just as fast as 4bbl 350 powered Chevy Camaro and Corvette and all were faster then the 400 powered Pontiac Trans AM so don't write the Volare/Aspen off as racers.
Well, all I have to say is that I bought my first car when I was 17. It was a '77 Plymouth Volare. I drove it from NJ to CA. I'm 32 now and I still have that car and it's runs great. Everyone who knows about cars loves my car and the friends I have that thought/think it's ugly or aren't sure if it's reliability...well, they've all had to get new cars. Oh, and I have no problem keeping up with anyone. It's a stick, it rides smooth and I think it's beautiful. :)
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