Yeah, after '62 Valiants turned into generic boxes except for the Barracuda variant. Chrysler did the same thing Ford did when it built the Mustang on the Falcon chassis. Ford had a lot better PR.
My friend's minister raised eyebrows when he bought a Barracuda but until '70 it really was just a Valiant and didn't have the cachet. After all, they were called 'pony cars' and not 'fishy cars'.