I liked the 73 Duster I had, but it was just a rotten piece of steel. The 225 Slant 6 is probably still going, but that recycled steel body was terrible. Torsion bars ripped out of the subframes because of rot, and literally, the back seat fell out because of rust in the body pan. It had 70,000 on it when I got rid of it. When I got it, it had 50,000 on it, still had the original spare.
The other 70s car, the 79 Aspen, it had a 318 with a TF904 transmission. That transmission was garbage and I tried a couple under it before it just got old and I had to get something that ran. The 318 in it wasn't terrible, even though it had that early computer system on it. Just smoked like a train when you started it, but it ran well enough.
The 86 I had was a piece of shit, but I have to admit, that garbage 90° V6 it had ran well, even if it had the power of no.
Old Dodge/Chryslers were unibody IIRC. They didn't fare well in rust belt areas. The 318 and slant 6 were some of their best utilitarian engines, last forever with regular maintenance.
I always had the hots for the '69-'70 Barracuda's. Gorgeous body design. I never owned a Dodge/Chrysler ... My best friend has a '71 Challenger with a 383 ... sweet ride but my Saturn Vue Red Line could probably take it 0-60.
It doesn't sound like you have had a lot of fun with your cars. I know what it was like back in my teens and early 20s. One car to get around in and every month something else broke ... and I was near broke. Then there was the rust and praying it would pass inspection each year. I guess that is why I embraced new vehicles once I could afford them. I had had my fill of driving on hopes and prayers.
I have fun with my two modern cars, they're standards but have the amenities of a modern vehicle. Last trip I took was jumping on US22 and winding though the hillsides of Ohio.
You are absolutely correct, the Chryslers didn't fare well at all, body wise. But the Slant that was in the one probably ended up on a tractor, that's what a lot of them in the area I grew up did when the car rotted away. Fortunately no inspection here, but I enjoy not having to fix something every day. The Focus gets it's regular maintenance and that's about it.
The Subaru with a manual sounds like a fun ride. Subaru's are great cars and handle well, but some develop a head gasket issue and the turbo XT models can lose the turbo/ metal parts can go into the engine. My ex girlfriend had a 2005 Outback XT with ~75K miles, and blew the turbo. The problem may have been her incredibly short commute to/from work, I think it was 2 miles away. She drove like a little old Lady, never beat on it. Also, the 6cyl models are more problematic than the 4cyl models. I got most of the "statistical" info about Subaru's from Scotty Kilmer on YT, he's a popular car mechanic with over 5M subscribers. Subaru is making one of Toyota's new cars for 2023, weird collaboration. Other than driving through OH to get to the southwest from here, I did spend a little time in eastern OH, the ex-gf had a sister that lived there and I had an aunt and uncle in western PA, about 40 min south of Erie. I saw a lot of lovely old homes in that area of OH.
I'm a mopar man myself with a fleet of 'em. 70 bb duster , rams, jeeps, dodges, you name it.
I never had much problem with the engines, the transmissions were junk tho. The Slant 6 would get cold sitting at idle on a 90° day. Wonderful engine, stupid thing is probably still running somewhere.
I get your name now :-) great B body
Those slant 6's , run forever. After ww4 there will still be a functionsl /6
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