Car Stuff: Random Sighting #6

Once I started taking pictures of older cars that I spotted around the area, I started noticing more of them. Sometimes they lurk in driveways, while others are parked on the street.

Today's subject is a car that we passed several times while driving; when it registered in my mind what it was, I asked the Mrs. to stop the next time we drove past it so I could take some pictures. I was very excited to see one still on the road, and not just being saved for car shows and cruise nights.

It's a 1968 Dodge Dart two-door hardtop. Its basic design was introduced for the '67 model year and remained in production for a decade, with minor changes to the front and rear ends every couple of years. The Dart and its corporate cousin the Plymouth Valiant were very popular cars when they were new, because they were well-built, dependable, and economical to own and operate. (There's a reason so many law enforcement organizations preferred Dodge and Plymouth police cars for decades.)

I know this car is driven regularly because I've seen it parked in various spots around this general area, including sometimes in a nearby driveway. This certainly would have been basic transportation when new; it's a Dart 270, the middle trim level of three available that year. I can recall that the parking lot of my elementary school always had several Darts and Valiants in it, cars that belonged to both teachers and staff.

By the way, you can identify the year of Darts like this fairly easily due to the small round side reflector lights. '68 was the first year they were required by the federal government, and the round ones were used on many Dodge and Plymouth models for that year only; for '69 they were replaced with larger rectangular lights.

This car also has a trailer hitch, which may seem a little unusual, but it could be used to pull a small boat or trailer of some kind, especially if it has the small V-8 that was such a workhorse engine in so many Chrysler products of the period (our green station wagon from a few weeks back had the same engine).

This car has obviously seen better days, but it's still on the road after 45 years. I've always liked these cars, especially the Dart GT convertible from this year, but any model from any of the 10 years of this design would be a fun car to have.