Chrysler 180

[Asimo]

I may have posted this before - I worked briefly for Chrysler in 1975- as a postie at their Coventry (Stoke) engine plant.

One of the tasks was putting letters into window-envelopes.  I remember doing lots of the same letter to Chrysler 180 / 2Litre owners, which more or less explained that the camshaft failure they had experienced at a very low mileage was normal, and outside of the warranty so tough luck.

It was one of those cars often heard tick-tick-ticking. 

This is a base model (1.6) from Leboncoin today €3200, low miles. https://www.leboncoin.fr/voitures/1837526067.htm/

 

As often the Australian market model is the best. Thrice the price but thrice the engine as well. https://www.gumtree.com.au/s-ad/wesley-vale/cars-vans-utes/1975-kb-chrysler-centura/1258998070

I've never liked vinyl roofs much, but the white vinyl roof was very common on these in UK, and I think it really suits.

[privatewire]

Takes me right back to my high school days as my old headmaster had a 2 litre seemingly for the entire time I was there. I thought it looked impossibly luxurious, mind you anything would look luxurious compared to my dad’s decrepit Hillman Imp with 5 of us crammed into it.

[adw1977]

January 1980 2 litre brochure.  I think all the other Chrysler UK models had been rebadged Talbot by this time.  The branding at the back of the brochure is Talbot.  Presumably the 2 litre remained a Chrysler to the end.

Full brochure link

[NorfolkNWeigh]

6 hours ago, adw1977 said:

What year are those prices from?  It seems Chrysler pricing got more realistic later on!

Yes, I thought that . 1974 What Car.

Interesting that even 5he basic 180 was more expensive than a basic DS, but by your ‘79 price list a Cx2000 was more than £1500 more expensive. That’s about 30%- I think - math is hard.

[ETCHY]

3 hours ago, adw1977 said:

January 1980 2 litre brochure.  I think all the other Chrysler UK models had been rebadged Talbot by this time.  The branding at the back of the brochure is Talbot.  Presumably the 2 litre remained a Chrysler to the end.

Full brochure link

I can't believe it lasted until 1980 !

[Steviemillar]

I always really liked these especially the later ones.  A neighbour of my parents  took delivery of a brand new Chrysler 2 Litre in a lovely metallic green with vinyl roof  on 1st January 1979. Compared to my dads K reg Mini 1000 it was like a spaceship to me! 
just checked and the road tax expired on BSS407T on 1st September 1984 so only five and a half years on the road. 
I did see it later on in the 80s parked up in the local scrapyard, I was devastated!!!
I can’t find an exact photo match for that car, it would be like the one in this brochure/advert.

[outlaw118]

Didn't Dan @Hirst (Made Under Licence) have one?

Shame someone pissed him off and he disappeared....

[AnthonyG]

Almost every recent Spanish TV series I’ve watched (like the woman’s prison drama on Walter Presents/All4) has one of these appearing somewhere. In the prison thing one features as a getaway car for a bank job in a characters’ back story!

These are recent shows so I think they have quite a few fans in Spain, and some survivors in excellent condition. 

Over here - if it had been branded a Humber and fitted with the planned V6 - would it have sold any better?  Not sure, the car was very ‘faux American’ in style and I doubt that would have appealed to traditional Humber buyers, and those who wanted ‘faux American’ wouldn’t have bought a Humber. 
 
Once it had been lumbered with the Chrysler name and the 1800/2 litre engine at launch you would have been very loyal to the local Rootes dealer to buy one instead of a Cortina/Victor/Ventora. 

Once the Granada was out in early 72 Ford effectively offered a much better version of the same concept, and sales probably dwindled to close to zero after that. 

In France they were sold to a different market, and you could get them with 1600 engines. They were very much an extension of the existing Simca saloon range, and may have appealed to Simca diehards, wannabe Yank tank owners, and the odd weirdo who didn’t want to buy a Peugeot 504. They were probably a bit cheaper than the Pug as well. 

[adw1977]

There's an AROnline page with lots of info on the 160/180/2-litre.

[lesapandre]

On 10/19/2020 at 7:18 PM, outlaw118 said:

Didn't Dan @Hirst (Made Under Licence) have one?

Shame someone pissed him off and he disappeared....

He is on Twitter if it is the same:

@garagehirst

 

[Dead_E23]

I remember getting in one of these with my Mum as a fairly young child (it was probably a taxi) and feeling a sense of bewilderment that what appeared to be a big luxurious car on the outside was rather uncomfortable inside.   Were these available with quite hard, slippery vinyl upholstery?   

[Largactil]

2 hours ago, outlaw118 said:

Didn't Dan @Hirst (Made Under Licence) have one?

Shame someone pissed him off and he disappeared....

I thought it was Bobbydoo who had one? (Also long gone from here)

[155V6]

Father_155 had a 2-litre in the late 80's.It was ok,but I preferred my Mk3 Cortina.

[adw1977]

1 hour ago, AnthonyG said:

Once it had been lumbered with the Chrysler name and the 1800/2 litre engine at launch you would have been very loyal to the local Rootes dealer to buy one instead of a Cortina/Victor/Ventora. 

Once the Granada was out in early 72 Ford effectively offered a much better version of the same concept, and sales probably dwindled to close to zero after that. 

The 180 was the same length and wheelbase as the Victor/Ventora, but an inch wider. 

Compared to Ford, it was an inbetween size, being 2 inches shorter and narrower than a Granada, with a wheelbase 4 inches shorter.  Compared to a Cortina, the 180 was 10 inches longer and an inch wider.  The choice of 1.8 or 2.0 engines would have made the Chrysler look like more of a Cortina competitor.

[strangeangel]

We had a 1974 2 Litre from when it was two years old. I can remember going on a hateful holiday to Spain in it - these days I avoid anywhere where the temperature might exceed 25 degrees - upon which I made the mistake of leaving my Ruts and Sex Pistols tapes on the back shelf where they promptly melted. I can remember the velour seats being mega comfortable. and the ride very soft. Even then it was an unusual choice; most of my peers got picked up from school in Fords.

 

 

There's at least one more picture of this car in this cracking thread, which is well worth viewing in its own right (not mine, I hasten to add!).

 

EDIT: While Dad was rolling this, my Mum was driving a Simca 1301 estate, and Dad replaced the Chrysler with a '78 CX2400, so you can probably see where I get it from!

 

[lesapandre]

Kind of like the Austin 1800 - falling between various established segments with stiff competition and not particularly durable. 

The Humber/Sunbeam/Hillman badges could have created some interesting cars. I wonder if any of the V6 engines survived spirited out by some brassed of  design engineer. Sigh. I expect not.

[AnthonyG]

8 hours ago, 155V6 said:

What's the Uren Savage GT,a Cortina?

Hopefully a 2-door GT with the 3.0 V6😎

 

It was indeed a Cortina Mk3 with an 3 litre Essex V6. From memory they were 4 drs but maybe 2 drs as well.

There was something called the Uren Stampede which was a Capri Mk1 with a Boss V8 bolted in, a sort of home brewed Perana. 

All this craziness ended in 74/75 after the fuel crisis and ensuing recession killed off the appetite for this sort of thing. Sadly for future shiters, it also killed off the already pretty limited UK market that existed for things like Aussie Chargers/Valiants/Falcons/Fairmonts. 

[Spottedlaurel]

15 hours ago, Amishtat said:

This was my friend's example about four years ago, the oldest of the few I've ever seen on a J plate. Alive and well to this day in Kent,although someone fairly local to me has a very smart black one on either an S or a T, I can't remember which and frustratingly don't seem to have a photo of it.

This one maybe?

 

It had previously been for sale on an ad in the window of a local shop, then turned up one day outside a nearby garage.

[Richard_FM]

I heard they rusted at the same rate as Simcas of the time.  Supposedly due to slow sales they were often stored outside for months before being delivered, which meant they were already rusting by the time they reached customers.

According to one source the V engines were too close to the Essex units for Ford's liking, which was one of the reasons they were dropped.

Even though the 1600cc version wasn't sold here, there was quite a snarl of models at the top of the Chrysler UK range, with the Avenger, Hunter and 180 being within of 200cc of each other.

[ProgRocker]

7 hours ago, Spottedlaurel said:

This one maybe?

 

It had previously been for sale on an ad in the window of a local shop, then turned up one day outside a nearby garage.

That may have been the one I saw advertised on the 'Car and Classic' website around 7 years ago. 🤔 

[Amishtat]

Yes, that's the one! Saw it parked in Sudbury one sunny Saturday morning about five or six years ago, no idea why I didn’t get a picture. 

[ChinaTom]

This must be the one I saw quite regularly in Attleborough a few years ago. I love them - they look great. I am of the age where things like this,  Gammas, K70s, Tredias etc are great even if they were crap. In a world of mondeo LXs, I am admiring the Epica.

[outlaw118]

23 hours ago, Largactil said:

I thought it was Bobbydoo who had one? (Also long gone from here)

He had a Tagora or two if I recall @boobydoo

[ETCHY]

I always remember the metallic  green Majorette toy I had of one of these, it had opening doors & springy suspension.

[155V6]

1 hour ago, ETCHY said:

I always remember the metallic  green Majorette toy I had of one of these, it had opening doors & springy suspension.

[ETCHY]

2 minutes ago, 155V6 said:

Superb, that's the one !

 

[busmansholiday]

My mate had one of these in about 1979. Traded his Avenger in against it, the one that he tried to change the points on and droped the nut down the inside of the distributor. Didn't go well when he started it up with a replacement nut..

I had to remove the sump, and replace the oil pump / distributor drive for him then set it all back up. Except I put the drive  back in 180 degrees out. When I realised what I'd done, I swopped the plug leads around and hey, presto, it all worked.

I always wondered if the poor bastard who bought his Avenger stood there for hours trying to make out what was wrong with the ignition system.

[NorfolkNWeigh]

This 2 Litre seemed to be all over the telly a few years ago, I even saw it on a transporter on the M25 one night with other period street furniture.

 

[anonymous user]

My only memory of the 180 is that a school friend's mother drove one and I can remember travelling in it when going for tea after school. I was much more impressed when I was driven home by his dad in his banana yellow, hand painted, Spitfire 4, with no roof, in the rain.

[bigstraight6]

My memory of these is when I worked in a motor factors back in 1986 and a punter rocked up in one of these it was a nightmare trying to identify the parts required.