Chrysler Cordoba

Chrysler Cordoba was the name of an intermediate personal luxury coupe. Although Cordoba is the name of a city in Spain, the car’s emblem was actually a stylized version of the Argentine cordoba coin. Either way, the implication was Hispanic, and this theme was carried out with somewhat baroque trim inside and by having Mexican movie star Ricardo Montalban as the car’s advertising spokesman. Many remember his eloquent praise of its soft Corinthian leather interior. The Cordoba became one of Chrysler’s few genuine hits of the 1970s, at a time when Chrysler was teetering on bankruptcy. Built in Windsor, Ontario, demand actually exceeded supply for its first couple of years, when production was over 150,000 annually. Half of Chrysler division production during this period and occasionally more was composed of Cordobas.