What made A bodies non-popular

I don't think the term unpopular applies to the A Body. The A Body generally out sold any of Chrysler's other models in most given years, easily reaching six figure production numbers. Granted most of those units were the garden variety slantys and 318's but there is no denying the A's styling appeal in addition to their mechanical simplicity and reliability. Hec, most of the B body guys I know also have an A or have many fond stories of the 340 A they used to own and how our 340's easily match the bigger cars. The respect is genuine. Seems like every other family I knew had one at one time or another and nowadays, they all want to buy 'em when they see one.

I appreciate the F Body's but IMO, Chrysler goofed up when it discontinued the A body after '76. With the F's, I don't know if it was pressure from the government or just plain old "we've got to introduce something new for the sheep" to look fresh with but they could've continued the A with strong sales, well into the late 70's. Even though those were dark years for Chrysler, they hit a home run with the Cordoba. While the Volares and Aspens stole some sales from the Dart and the Duster in '76, it just wasn't that much to signify a benchmark by introducing the new F. Little known fact is the '76 Dart/Duster 360 was one of the fastest factory muscle cars you could buy that year, effortlessly equalling or surpassing the performance of the almighty Corvette or Pontiac Trans Am, at least in a straight line.

In looking back, it's interesting to note that well into the 80's, there were still quite a few 10 to 20 year old Darts and Dusters on the road while very few Volare's and Aspens (in spite of decent production numbers) didn't last beyond 5 -7 years. Not picking on the F's (if I could have one, it would be a '79 Volare Road Runner 360 - best year IMO) but it's just what I witnessed during that time. Even the mega popular Dart/Duster peers from Ford, GM and AMC - Mavericks, Vegas and Hornets - returned to earth by the early 80's. I have to say, the AMC Hornet 360 is quite the sleeper. The Chevy Nova remained a contender though as they remained quite popular for a long time.