I am the third owner of the Swinger and with only 62,000 miles on it when I purchased it, the
condition reflects the light use. The Dart was built in Canada and I really can't hold
that against it. As far as I am concerned, it's a true blue red-blooded American car.
My buddy and I did a VIN search and found that all the options present were installed at
the factory. This includes an extra trim package and an AC that stills blows cold.
What's really delightful about this particular Dart is that everything works and I did
not have to fix it all. The gauges (even the fuel gage), the original AM radio, the map
light, the trunk light, the AC, the "lights are on" buzzer and the manual foot pump for
the windshield squirters work as they did 30 years ago.
The feature title "Ocean State Swinger", is a dead give away that I drive this car in
Rhode Island and New England. I found the Dart through a regional publication that has
classified ads for everything from canoe paddles to porcelain keepsakes. I spoke to the
young lady selling the Dart and obtained directions to deep within western Massachusetts.
Undaunted, my cohort in crime and I traveled some 80 miles in his 1974 Plymouth to take
a peek at the Swinger. Now let the record show that we did not take advantage of the
young lady selling this car. However, the girl selling the Dart could have penned a
novelette or at least a brochure on "How Not to sell an old car." Without going into
the gory details, the car had been off the road for only 2 months, but looked like it
had been parked beneath an incinerator. A little soap, a little water goes a long way,
baby. That and numerous other blatant errors she committed in how to display a
car-for-sale cost her a bit of green. There is a lesson here, if you're selling a car,
at least wash the damn thing.
 continued...
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"It looked like it had been parked beneath an incinerator. A little soap, a little water goes a long way, baby. "
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