Why do you like Mopars?

[Kern Dog]

Excellent thread topic.

For me, it started off with the styling. I loved the Charger when I first saw it on the Dukes of Hazzard. I may have seen a Charger before that but didn't remember it.
The General Lee sounded crappy to me but it looked fantastic. The DOH never delved into anything technical about the car so I didn't know about torsion bar suspension or any other Mopar engineering.
As a kid, once my eyes were opened to the 68-70 Charger, I started seeing Challengers, Dusters, Road Runners, Darts, Demons and Barracudas. The Mopar stripes, scoops and styling just hooked me.
My first car was a 69 Dart....

I was 17 and for a first car, this one sucked. It had electrical problems and ate parts frequently. Today, I would have had it fixed and reliable in a few days but back in 1982, it had me beat.
Years after, I wanted a 68-70 Charger but actually considered doing a front suspension swap to a 70-81 Camaro style subframe, thinking that it was superior to the torsion bar design.

I bought a '70 in March 2000 and the more that I studied the car and read books about Mopar engineering, the more I respected them.
To this day I still think that there are some goofy ideas with these cars but overall, they are solid and reliable as well as beautiful.
I'm baffled as to why they put the starter, trans cooler lines and neutral safety switch on the side that has to also accommodate the shifter and speedometer cable. WHY didn't they at least put the ATF cooler lines on the right side?

 

[Cojohnso1]

Mine is styling. Notice how a Mopar can sport wider color variety? I believe it's because of more aggressive styling. If you look at let's say Chevy styling of the 60s/70s? They were safer. With safer rounded body lines. Not as sharp and pronounced as Mopar. Ford? Let's just say I don't get it? Did they try making everything ugly? Their top achievement is the Mustang. Why? Because they took a bigger chance. And was rewarded that is still paying dividends today. Mopar? Took more chances on multiple platforms. Chevy has a loyal following because they are/were cheap. Cheapest to build and restore.

 

[Dipstick]

I got into Mopars because they're not Chevys.

 

[Cojohnso1]

I got into Mopars because they're not Chevys.

There is truth in that for me as well. My friends were all Chevy guys. (Well, one Ford guy. But we think he was abused or something.)

Mopars are like the girls my Chevy guys really wanted. I see the way they look at them. Lol. But they just couldn't get around the cheapskateness of Chevy ownership.

 

[copper67sat]

Funny, someone asked me this very question recently...

My dad was a Ford guy, but we got a hand-me-down 71 Malibu from my grandmother that was the car I got to drive. It was just a 307/TH350, but I liked it. Had a list of parts to make it an SS clone - like I had any money to do that lol. Anyway, a drunk driver hit me and totaled it so I was looking for another Chevelle when I needed a car after I got out of college in 1987. The ones I found in my price range were pretty roached.

My dad asked a guy he knew from work who did auto work on the side if he knew anyone selling a decent car. Turns out this guy was selling his 67 Satellite 383HP. I had no idea what a 67 Satellite was, but went to look at it and fell in love with the lines immediately. Then he tossed me the keys and I fired it up. The sound of the starter followed by the rumble of that 383 - I remember looking over at my girlfriend (wife now) in the passenger seat and grinning from ear to ear. After a short test drive I was almost giddy as I tried unsuccessfully to talk him down a couple hundred bucks. Other than some minor accident/rust repair and a cheap respray of the original color, the car was original, complete and very solid mechanically. I loved everything about the car...and still do.

As I learned more about the car and Mopars in general, I became fascinated by their engineering and loved that they were far less common than GMs. Haven't bought another make since.
EDIT: It's the ONLY make I've ever bought as the Satellite was the first car I ever purchased.

 

[beanhead]

The Duke boys. And, when I was 6-7-8 years old the neighbor across the street had a black '70 Challenger.....as I grew up the memories of the rumble of the engine and that mesh grill coming down the street to interrupt our ball games always stuck with me.
I worked summers for a friend's family carpet store during high school and had piled up enough cash to get my first Mopar, a '72 Demon. With a /6 it was no race car but with some basic hotrod mods it was plenty fast enough for me at the time, plus it had "the look". That's the other thing that always drew me to the Mopars. I liked the colors/stripes/hood treatments better than the other guys.

 

[70chall440]

I suppose everyone has their reasons but for me it was that Mopar "spoke" to me in a way that none of the other brands/models did. Growing up there were Mustangs and Camaros everywhere, but IMO nothing matched the lines of an E body. While the Chevelle's and Novas were plentiful they could not hold a candle to the charisma and muscle of Road Runners, Superbees and Chargers.

In short, I liked/loved Mopars because they were different, a wild card and usually terrified the other brands.

 

[Ron H]

Well – something was kinda odd how I liked mopars as a little kid when the late 50’s mopars were on the roads. My folks didn’t own any, well my dad’s 1st car was a 35 Plymouth he had and sold long before I came around. I would be standing in the back seat and I’d say like that car, like that car, and my dad commented everyone I liked was a Chrysler brand! I had two uncles that owned a ’57 DeSoto and ’58 Dodge that I got giddy about and they let me play ‘driver’ in their cars. Later my elder cousin bought a new ’64 Sport Fury and I got a ride in it that I never forgot. Then he talked his dad into letting him get a ’64 Polara 426/4sp only a few months after he got the SF and his dad took over driving the Fury selling his Olds. A neighbor worked at a Dodge/Plymouth dealer and remember those cars he brought home and I’d ride past on my bike and stare at them remembering how awesome they looked. Then I bought my 1st mopar, a ’70 Cuda vert 4sp and took all kinds a **** from my elder brother as he was a die-hard GM guy. My mother’s only beef was she didn’t like the color. But, yeah, can’t count how many mopar models I like, especially through the late 50’s and early 70’s. Somehow I got some mopar DNA in me, lol.

 

[T2R9]

It was my wife. I loved cars as a kid and if it had wheels I would play with it. My Dad did not know how to use a screwdriver. Loved Chevelles and my first car was a 72 307 oil burner. Met my wife at the Navy base club in Philly and our first date was a monster truck show at the Spectrum. She told me she would like to crawl under one to see how it was built. I was hooked at 21. She bought a Duster as our first car and taught me how to do body and paint. Always told me about her 70 cuda so I bought one in 85 and was hooked.

 

[drpreposterous]

This part will likely be repeated many times in this thread: Because they weren't Chevies, Fords or Pontiacs (yawn). Anyone who grew up feeling just a little bit different, alienated or shoved out of the popular crowd tended to find a perverse satisfaction that what we had was better, just not appreciated or understood. Led me to love Studebakers as well. That said, my other reason is entirely familiar as well: Dad worked for Chrysler design. First car I ever sat it was a '59 Savoy. Those fins did it...

 

[cosgig]

That’s an easy one for me. The day my Dad brought home this car, all of the stars aligned for my brother and I, and we were instantly Mopar lovers. Anybody who ever saw this car fell in love with it, and it was the target of many a jealous person. We had no garage to hide it in, it sat in the driveway. I remember my dad hiding in the bushes until well after dark on Devils night with a garden hose to protect it.

 

[Cojohnso1]

Funny, someone asked me this very question recently...

My dad was a Ford guy, but we got a hand-me-down 71 Malibu from my grandmother that was the car I got to drive. It was just a 307/TH350, but I liked it. Had a list of parts to make it an SS clone - like I had any money to do that lol. Anyway, a drunk driver hit me and totaled it so I was looking for another Chevelle when I needed a car after I got out of college in 1987. The ones I found in my price range were pretty roached.

My dad asked a guy he knew from work who did auto work on the side if he knew anyone selling a decent car. Turns out this guy was selling his 67 Satellite 383HP. I had no idea what a 67 Satellite was, but went to look at it and fell in love with the lines immediately. Then he tossed me the keys and I fired it up. The sound of the starter followed by the rumble of that 383 - I remember looking over at my girlfriend (wife now) in the passenger seat and grinning from ear to ear. After a short test drive I was almost giddy as I tried unsuccessfully to talk him down a couple hundred bucks. Other than some minor accident/rust repair and a cheap respray of the original color, the car was original, complete and very solid mechanically. I loved everything about the car...and still do.

As I learned more about the car and Mopars in general, I became fascinated by their engineering and loved that they were far less common than GMs. Haven't bought another make since.
EDIT: It's the ONLY make I've ever bought as the Satellite was the first car I ever purchased.

View attachment 1113409View attachment 1113410

My 3rd car was a '68 sports Satellite. I had for less than two months before it got rear-ended sitting in front of my house. At the time I still had my 2nd car. A '66 GTO. We raced the 2 cars many times in the short time I had both. 389 335 HP vs 383 335 HP. And as expected. VERY close. Both with 3.73:1 rear-ended gear. GTO was 4- speed. Satellite auto 727. As expected the Satellite was more consistent. If I got GTO off the line well? The 4-speed had a little advantage. But most of the time consistency won. Which ever car jumped out ahead? Could hold.

Fun times of the late 70s. Both cars were purchased for $300. Satellite got smacked. And I beat the GTO to death as a late teen. But GTO was my last GM purchase. I bought my 1st 440 '69 GTX a couple years after. It was a step up. And never looked back.

 

[JDmac72chrgr]

It was my wife. I loved cars as a kid and if it had wheels I would play with it. My Dad did not know how to use a screwdriver. Loved Chevelles and my first car was a 72 307 oil burner. Met my wife at the Navy base club in Philly and our first date was a monster truck show at the Spectrum. She told me she would like to crawl under one to see how it was built. I was hooked at 21. She bought a Duster as our first car and taught me how to do body and paint. Always told me about her 70 cuda so I bought one in 85 and was hooked.

View attachment 1113424

Did you take that Mopar over to Front St, Delaware Ave (now MLK blvd) and over to JFK stadium on weekends for some, hum, "CRUISING", hum, (wink wink nudge nudge) there ST2?

 

[Pops1967GTX]

The Date October 17, 1968
​

 

[moparedtn]

Mercy, where to begin...
Of course, being a little gearhead from elementary school, we were always swapping magazines
with each other in school - those that had monster drag racing heroes in wheelstanding beasts,
most of which were Mopars.
We drew them, read the CarToons, learned how to draw RatFink stuff, learned all the E.T.'s of the stars,
all that stuff. Of course, we had no idea how anything actually worked on a car, but that didn't matter...

My dad wasn't an actual enthusiast of cars, but having had to drop out of school and go to work in rural
TN when his own dad died and left the family without income, he had out of necessity learned how to
wrench on old jalopies, most of which he bought for less than $100.
Whatever it took...he could make them work when they were past worn out, because he had to.

By the time we kids were growing up, he had gotten to a better place in life and could (barely) afford
to get more decent cars (and even new ones!) - the most memorable of which was a '68 Monaco
station wagon. Brand new with a/c, woodgrain and a big block, that became the family truckster for our
formative years and I LOVED that car. Pop, not so much -it got like 8mpg.
On long trips in summer, we boys would roam around loose in the back, playing whatever games.
Better yet, when I could talk Pop into it, we'd flip up the third seat and leave the rear window down....
I absolutely loved listening to the cadence of that big block from back there.
It's like it synched up with my own heartbeat - and that would come back in play many years later!

The older neighborhood we grew up in Atlanta in had several Mopars in it, including one I still see in
my dreams a couple times a year - a 1969 Super Bee, copper with the lone Bee decal (no stripe) on the
flanks on both sides.
The fella that owned it had night shift wherever it was he worked, so that car was often home in the daytime
and I'd make special trips on my bike to go by there, hoping he was out there working on it so I could HEAR
it! It made glorious sounds, what with glasspacks and all that....

So I go through high school and buy and sell my own jalopies like candy pretty much. Most were necessarily GM
products (that's all there was in my neck of the woods in northern VA), but I always made money on them and
continued to trade up...for what, I had no idea.
One day in my senior year, I had a note on my Cutlass Supreme (really nice car!) and was tooling down the road
towards lunch, playing hooky from school as usual - when I spy a car coming up FAST behind me.
The car had a front end on it just like so many of those I remembered from the hot rod magazines, complete
with a big hood scoop. The driver was dark and menacing looking in his shades....and he motioned me to pull
over, which in those days would tick a young fella off.
It did me, anyways...
I pull over and jump out, expecting trouble. The car, a lime green creature with a blacked out hood (which I
eventually recognized as a Challenger) pulled right behind me and my best friend jumped out, laughing.
I was floored! I had never laid eyes on a Challenger T/A before, yet here it was - and my FRIEND owned it!
Turned out, all those years on his paper route paid off...

He takes me to a Mopar-only car show, my first ever - and I'm blown away.
Here were ALL the cars I'd only seen in magazines as a kid! The sounds, the colors, the styles - and the
camaraderie of the owners all struck me as if I was "home".
The engines made what I was used to with GM's sound utterly industrial by comparison....the cars were
stunning!
I made it my life's mission then and there to unload all my GM stuff and to get my hands on a Super Bee
of my own (harkening back to the one in my neighborhood growing up, remember) - which I did, in
short order (another car note - this time for a whopping $2,250!).

In the years since, I've driven dozens of cars of all makes. Heck, I've even liked a few of them...
but to date, I've only owned Mopars (with one lone exception - a '89 5.0 Mustang, bought when I gave
up on Ma during her fwd malaise) and STILL only own Mopars.
It'll be that way until I'm gone, too.

 

[roadrunnerh]

Here's my story:
My name is Harry and I'm a Mopar Addict. I was mesmerized by Hot Wheels and Matchbox cars from as young as I can possibly remember.

Born in 1968, my family always had Mopars. 8mm home videos of my Dad and his 1958 white and gold Fury. The 1974 Royal Monaco was the first car I ever drove. My sister had her license and at 13 in 1981 she let me drive through a local park road.
In the 70's as a young kid, my older cousins had Mopars - 1969 Orange 2 door Fury with black vinyl roof - Gorgeous. Another had a 1972 Dodge Charger SE 400 in Gun Metal with SlapStik auto. My Uncle just bought a brand new 1976 Cordoba 400 Black with burgundy interior. My Aunt drove a 1971 Newport 383 in Glacial Blue well into the early 80's.
In 1990, I bought my first Mopar - a 1968 GTX for $1100!!! PA Inspected Pass, warmed-up mystery 383 with a B&M Street and Strip shifter. R4 Red, black interior, bondo no rust showing, rough, but it looked cool and ran really well!
1992 A buddy from college moved out to Mechanicsburg, PA from here in Pgh. He was a C-Body fanatic! His 1967 New Yorker Forest Green black guts, loaded and MINTY. Ross' brother owned a red 1968 Sport Fury.
He called me up and told me about a Chrysler show in Carlisle. That was 1992. Aside from a couple years, I've been going ever since. Got my 1968 Road Runner in 1993 after selling the GTX for $1500!!!
Bought my 1975 Scamp in 2011 and have been KNEE DEEP in my 383 swap as of late. Trying to tune and sort through "issues".
I've loved Mopars dating back to when I was a little kid admiring family member's cars and riding in them.
You asked...LOL

 

[Kern Dog]

Dr Preposterous is a funny name.

 

[halftrackman]

Well. my first new car was a 68 red roadrunner I order it,from walkers in gary Indana. 30 day,s later I got my new car wow I paid 26 hundred for it. later I bough 2 more new Roadrunners, I owned several mopar.s

 

[halftrackman]

These are two of my nephews mopars

 

[Pops1967GTX]

https://va.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_qoueyiT0mh1z5woe5.mp4