Well it's midnight and I'm setting here suckin' on my fifth localy brewed Porter beer, 8.6% so if I ramble a bit you'll understand.
This story starts in 1973 when I was 20 and I bought my first Mopar a 68 Coronet R/T with a 440. Since then I've owned a 73 Fury, 72 Charger SE 400cid, 75 Ramcharger 440cid, 01 Dakota R/T and a 70 Cuda. (in order of buying)
Anyways in '74 times were tough so I headed north looking for work and ended up in Fort Nelson, BC. mile 300 on the Alaska Hyway. I went to work in the local sawmill, but was soon laidoff, so with a new family to support I went to work driving Taxi. Now at that time the hyway was gravel for 250 miles south and as far north as it went. This was one nasty road, rough, dusty, and twisty. Most of our fares were south of town to the local Rez and out to the oil rigs over brutal winter roads.
Now one of the things that really ticks me off is people saying that Mopars of that era had good power trains but the bodies didn't stand up. This is not true!!! My first day at the work with the cab company I noticed a Chevy van sitting in the weeds, I asked the deal was with it. He said if I wanted it I could have it. Now this thing was only 6 months old and had 40,000 miles on it when parked and was completly thrashed and would not pass inspection. I looked around at the cabs, and all of them were Mopars and a couple of years old, so I asked him what the deal was. He said they tried Chevy's first, the town actually had a Chev dealership at that time, not now by the way, and he said they got 40-50,000 miles out of them and they were finished. The suspensions, electrical and bodies simply fell apart. So they tried Fords and they were alittle better, 60-70,000 miles, then the same problems. Tired of buying new cars that lasted less than a year they started buying used police cars from southern towns, at that time all RCMP cars were Mopars. These cars already had 50,000 plus miles and he said they got another 60,000 plus miles out of them.
I drove for them off and on for two years and we only replaced a couple of cabs in that time, one of which I bought, the above mentioned 73 Fury with 120,000 on it. I left there in 75 and returned for a few months in 78 and they were still buying used Mopars for cabs.
So the next time somebody tells you Mopars had crappy bodies tell them what I do, they're full of sh_t.
This story starts in 1973 when I was 20 and I bought my first Mopar a 68 Coronet R/T with a 440. Since then I've owned a 73 Fury, 72 Charger SE 400cid, 75 Ramcharger 440cid, 01 Dakota R/T and a 70 Cuda. (in order of buying)
Anyways in '74 times were tough so I headed north looking for work and ended up in Fort Nelson, BC. mile 300 on the Alaska Hyway. I went to work in the local sawmill, but was soon laidoff, so with a new family to support I went to work driving Taxi. Now at that time the hyway was gravel for 250 miles south and as far north as it went. This was one nasty road, rough, dusty, and twisty. Most of our fares were south of town to the local Rez and out to the oil rigs over brutal winter roads.
Now one of the things that really ticks me off is people saying that Mopars of that era had good power trains but the bodies didn't stand up. This is not true!!! My first day at the work with the cab company I noticed a Chevy van sitting in the weeds, I asked the deal was with it. He said if I wanted it I could have it. Now this thing was only 6 months old and had 40,000 miles on it when parked and was completly thrashed and would not pass inspection. I looked around at the cabs, and all of them were Mopars and a couple of years old, so I asked him what the deal was. He said they tried Chevy's first, the town actually had a Chev dealership at that time, not now by the way, and he said they got 40-50,000 miles out of them and they were finished. The suspensions, electrical and bodies simply fell apart. So they tried Fords and they were alittle better, 60-70,000 miles, then the same problems. Tired of buying new cars that lasted less than a year they started buying used police cars from southern towns, at that time all RCMP cars were Mopars. These cars already had 50,000 plus miles and he said they got another 60,000 plus miles out of them.
I drove for them off and on for two years and we only replaced a couple of cabs in that time, one of which I bought, the above mentioned 73 Fury with 120,000 on it. I left there in 75 and returned for a few months in 78 and they were still buying used Mopars for cabs.
So the next time somebody tells you Mopars had crappy bodies tell them what I do, they're full of sh_t.
