https://www.autoweek.com/car-life/c...Dormant%20and%2090%20Day%20Non%20Openers

Speaking of yards, this was in today's feed.
Sad event if it's as decent as it seems, plus it's a slick-top, which to me is bonus points...

Dead motor or trans? Divorce and the wife had it hauled away? Likely never know..

There are occasionally cars like that in salvage yards down here where the car body is not damaged and all the parts are still on the car. Makes you scratch your head.

Ford Taurus are good examples of cars that end up in salvage yards while still looking relatively ok - trans dies and it costs more to fix it than what the car is worth so they just turn it in.

Actually more of a rhetorical question, as it seems several cuts above what I'd expect to see.

The Taurus analogy is one I totally get, had one briefly for a daily when I thought I might have to retire the Breeze.
Good highway car, but ranged from unimpressive to crap in every other area that matters to me.
Could hardly wait to get rid of it ! (The Breeze soldiers on)

I have a mint 300 deck lid that would be perfect for that car! Too bad it will be crushed without many of the parts being taken off...

Could be badly rotted underneath. Been there, done that.

On the other hand, I'm continually amazed by the some of the cars that show up at a local yard I hang out at. Some of these cars were clearly well-maintained or someone's project. One was a bone-stock, showroom new '78 Marquis coupe. The elderly lady passed and her next-of-kin were out of state and simply called the scrap yard. Not everyone's favorite car, but in stunning shape. They also had two 60s T-birds, one a complete, rust-free driver and the other a parts car. Another man's project, and when he passed, the widow simply called the junk man.

The problem here is that 'pick and pulls' don't sell complete cars, paperwork or not.

For starters, who would want it?

These cars have absolutely nothing to do with a Three Hundred. Like the "Road Runners" and "Daytonas" these things are more of an embarrassment to Chrysler than a representation of their names.

Secondly, the cost to get it in a presentable condition is just not worth it.

Would be nice if it could have been sold for a reasonable dollar to the person that is into these cars, but likely belonged to someone who passed away and the lazy family had Pick and Pull give them $200 for it.

likely belonged to someone who passed away and the lazy family had Pick and Pull give them $200 for it. twocents

Yup. To the vast majority, its just an old worthless car.

About 20 yrs ago, I saw in a PAP yard what was essentially a new '79 Cordoba. If I remember correctly, car had under 20K miles. 'Just' a 318 2bbl car, but all the original belts and hoses were on the engine. Heck, the blue overspray on the manifolds from when the car was built was still visible. Inside, the rear seat belts were still wrapped in plastic, the gauges were all sharp and not faded. The only body damage on it was from where the forklift smacked it picking it up.

No it wasn't something highly desirable like an E-body, but it still made me mad.

Steve Magnante has his show Roadkill's Junkyard Gold where he goes to various yards around the country and talks about the cars in them. It amazes me the condition of lots of cars in there, some seem like they just need a battery and some fuel to be ready to drive.

One of the yards he visited had a ton of those 300s, most looked complete.

A yard that I used to frequent here in rural British Columbia; the owner fully admitted that many of the cars in "Mopar Row" were driven into the yard. And back in the day, he'd just take the petcocks out of the radiators and poke holes in the gas tanks and let 'em drain.

Three cars I vividly remember were a white, '65 Plymouth Belvedere 2-door hardtop, Poly/Auto, blue guts.... 100% complete
'66 Coronet Black on Black. Complete except somebody had removed the bucket seats, rear seat and console.
'69 Fury III 2-door Hardtop. Up in the air on stands as somebody wanted the wheels. B5 Blue, White top, Blue interior. Gorgeous car.
More A-body mopars than you could shake a stick at. I couldn't tell you how many washer bottles I scored and re-sold, or disc brake setups I harvested. Heck, even pulled a set of fibreglass Dart Sport fenders off a car. Think I paid $60 for 'em....

This yard had been around since the 50's and when I was visiting in the late 90's, early 2000's.... there were still Thunderbirds, Mustangs, Camaros, and even AMC's! J10/J20 trucks.... C-body mopars....
From 1971 to 2004, they did not crush a single car. Then, the owner got sick.... then passed away. The son tried running it for a little while as he had a great side business repairing cars (and Donny was AMAZING - he'd worked on so much over his life he was a repository of knowledge....) but, the repair shop couldn't pay the bills....

He tried selling the place to no takers. 25+ acres of land plus all stock, plus the shop & tools.

Eventually crushed out and sold the land. Today, it's just a big empty field with some kind of farm/tractor supply place running out of the old shop.

I'd want it, that's who! I know it's not a '70/'71 E body, or '69 C body, but if you've ever owned an E58 car, you realize they were great engines, especially for a smog era! Built to the hilt too! And these 300's were super comfortable, nice interior, and a beefed up suspension that drives, handles and stops way better than 60's stuff, yet still has some umph, with a/c and comfort. Everything doesn't have to be pure muscle. Also had beefed up rear end, dual exhausts, and enough goodies to make it fun. I wish I still had my E58 Aspen. Maybe someone did pass away, and family got taken.

The last era B bodies have grown on me too, among my current car wish list is a 77-79 Cordoba, Magnum or Charger. Either update the engine with EFI, or do a late model hemi swap, some suspension mods, and then have a rarely seen comfortable long haul cruiser. My teens and 20s driving a hot, noisy, rattly, engine singing due to high rar muscle car for hours seemed like a fine idea, but now I’m older and it’s just stressful. Still fun driving something like that for a half hour or so to a local cruise but once you throw extended highway travel into the mix, the fun fades fast!
My late model Challenger R/T is nice for events further away, but I’m tired of being yet another late model dominating the event. An unusual but comfortable late B seems to check the right boxes for that use!

My brother had one of those 300's. His was in worse shape than this one bodywise...and he drove it till it was junk. He has always been hard on all his vehicles.

I had a '79 300 - loved that car. The interior was simply gorgeous - nicest most plush interior of any car I've ever owned. The car rode & handled beautifully too. I bought it in 1985 & sold it in 1987.

I remember every Chrysler dealer had at least one of these to sell. In 1982, I was working my territory in Michigan's upper peninsula & drove past a Chrysler dealer - there were two of these parked in front of the dealership on display with "SALE" on their windshields. I did a U-turn & went back to check them out. A salesman came almost running out saying "I'LL MAKE YOU A HECKUVA DEAL!" I took one for a ride - it ran like crap - because the gas was what - 3 years old? As I recall, the sticker was somewhere around $8,500 & he was going to sell me either one for $6,200. Hell I was broke at the time, but I would've loved to bought one of those! Imagine - 3 years & still 2 of them unsold.

I did, bought one new , at the time it had the most powerful engine the Chrysler had in 79

Would go mid 14's in the quarter and handled great . and got 12 mpg no matter what you did with it . I loved flying down windy back roads with it

Put 187,000 miles on it before I sold it with nothing but normal maintenance

Bought it one HOT Aug day during odd even gas rationing . I wanted it because it had AC, bucket seats and center console. With the 3.21 sure grip it would smoke the back tires and had no problem going 100mph ( Speedo didn't )

I've had many Chargers, Cordobas and Magnums over the years (well, not as many as Magnumguy!), and there simply is nothing like them. GM had downsized their cars by 1977, and Ford had the LTD and their tape-striped LTD II. Sure, a Cordoba sporting a Lean Burn, lockup torque converter and 2.45 gears wasn't a racecar, but for fast cruising... and passing... and riding on a cushion of air, these were great cars. The E58-powered '79 300 (and the Magnum GTs) were different animals, and for 1979, were true 'performance' cars for the era, despite their size. This is when the Corvette was packing a whopping 195 hp, and 225 hp with the 350 'performance' engine.

The late-B cars have their fans here, and that 300 in the yard is just too nice for yard parts. But at least it wasn't crushed.

This is when the Corvette was packing a whopping 195 hp, and 225 hp with the 350 'performance' engine.

That statement reminded me that the LRE was faster than a Vette during that time..........

The car looks like it is in good enough shape that someone could make a nice driver out of it.
As someone mentioned it would be a shame if it was crushed before any of the good parts got taken off. If that was local to me I'd grab a pickup box of parts off of it.

Looks like someone already grabbed the tach.

Dave

The Taurus analogy is probably a good guess. Back in 2008 I was driving my wife's old Paseo and got in a fender bender. Car had over 300k on it but still ran great. It would have needed a new hood, radiator, bumper cover, grills and headlights. Car was worth maybe 350 and each headlight cost that. Cost more to fix than it was worth. Even with the leaking radiator, it still got me and my son home and temp never rose. A great car but it's time had come.

The Taurus was FWD though, and not a V8, so to me, no comparison. Just not the same feel and definitely not the same sound.