In 1977, Chrysler found itself in a rather precarious situation. They were losing money at a rapid rate, their newest model the 1976 Volaré and Aspen, had serious quality issues and rust problems, their midsize Coronet and Fury were popular only with little old men, taxi operators and law enforcement, and there would be no relief in the form of a new product—the FWD Omni and Horizon–until MY 1978. And then there were the full-sizers.
The redesigned full-size Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler never really got a chance. Production was still in its early stages when the “oil shortage” caused by events overseas caused the sale of Big Three biggies to plummet rapidly. GM and Ford did not get hurt as bad as Chrysler due to their overall better shape and subcompacts like the Vega and Pinto. Stop laughing, they sold! If not for the A-body Slant Six Dart and Valiant, Ma Mopar may not have lived to fight another day. But at any rate, the C-body Mopars never regained the popularity they had had in the 1965-73 period.
The one-two punch of the gas crisis and subsequent 1975 recession hurt all car sales, but in 1976 things were picking up and most Americans were eager to ditch their little penalty boxes for some full-size comfort. Everything from LTDs to Caprice Classics and Lincoln Continentals and Caddys got a healthy sales uptick–even the Chrysler New Yorker and Newport. But for whatever reason, the Dodge and Plymouth C-bodies never got much of a boost, and were discontinued after 1977. But the Chryslers sold!
Maybe it was because folks ponying up for a big Mopar wanted the prestige of the Chrysler name for not a whole lot more money. Maybe it was due to the fact that they did not want drive the same unit as many local police officers and fire chiefs.
Or maybe because the Chrysler was arguably the best looking–though I must confess a soft spot for the hidden-headlighted Royal Monaco–especially as a coupe with the rarely-seen Diplomat landau roof! But today’s post is about the Chryslers, isn’t it?
While the New Yorker Brougham (née 1974-75 Imperial LeBaron) had a lot to do with the Chrysler sales boost, with its elegant roofline, fender skirts, waterfall grille and hidden headlights, the Newport was nothing to sneeze at, either.
Especially one in the right colors and options, such as this lovely ’77 example in Burnished Copper Metallic with beige vinyl roof, beige interior, whitewall tires and Premier wheel covers. Pretty!
If you wanted a pillared full-size Chrysler in 1977, this was your only option, as the New Yorker Brougham came as a two-door coupe (with opera window) or four-door hardtop only. All Newports came standard with a 400 CID V8, the excellent TorqueFlite automatic transmission, 15 x 5.5 steel wheels with HR78 x 15 BSW tires (whitewalls optional), torsion bar front suspension, and asymmetrical rear leaf springs.
These cars were full-size and proud of it, with a 124-inch wheelbase (same as the flossier NYB), 226.6″ overall length, 79.7″ width and room for six real people–not four adults and one kid, as is the case with many cars today.
That’s right, you had a bench seat. No center console was available, even as an option. You want stretch-out room? You got it! As was the case in most every full-size car up to about 1985. And unlike the Ford LTD, Caprice, and Marquis, you actually got more than a gas gauge and a speedometer: All Chryslers (and Royal Monacos, and Gran Furys) received alternator and temperature gauges too.
As the 1977 Chrysler brochure stated, “A look inside Newport reveals the richness of deep, body-conforming foam cushioning…bench seating with folding center armrest in beautiful cloth and vinyl…and finely detailed door panels.”
But despite the ladling on of praise in the brochure, the 1977 Newport still had to have several option boxes checked to make it really nice: air conditioning, tilt/telescope steering column, power windows, power locks, rear window defroster and stereo radio were all optional. Even an AM-only radio was optional!
Another interesting difference in cars of the ’70s vs. today is that smoking was more important than drinking. Indeed, ashtrays were the ’70s version of cupholders when it came to cars. Even rear passengers got a place to park their butts! On luxury models like Cadillac and Lincoln, they were lighted–and even had their own lighter. It was a different time…
So, anyway, I lurk on eBay on a regular basis, checking out the cars available. One of the richest veins for high quality Curbside Classics on the “Bay of E” is classicsllc, which is where I spotted this burnt orange (okay, okay, copper) ’77 last year. I was very impressed with it, primarily due to the fact that it was a Newport (New Yorker Broughams seem to have survived in far greater numbers), and that it was in a really appealing color combination.
It’s flashy and all with its fancy wheelcovers, cool paint, snazzy vinyl roof and even A/C, but look! No radio! Maybe the original owner just liked to whistle as he drove? Or maybe he had four kids and appreciated the silence on the way to work.
I’ve always liked the chrome emblems on the dashes of old cars. Some regard them as silly (Well, Bob forgot what car he was driving, so he looked over and remembered it was a Chrysler! Yuk yuk yuk!) but I think they’re pretty neat, and just a part of the attention given to style over plain old function. I think this is more attractive than many of the melted-candybar dashes found on many 2014 models.
So, no radio, no power windows, guess the original owner was a little old-fashioned. I can dig it; I for one appreciate the fact that both of my cars have knobs and buttons on the radio, with no silly touch screens in sight. Guess I’m the new generation of automotive throwback!
And underneath the proud hood? Why a nice big V8–all the better to tow your Airstream or new speedboat. And was a towing package available? Well of course! The 440 V8 was also optionally available if the 400 didn’t have enough oomph for your taste.
I have no idea what this car sold for, but whoever the new owner is, I imagine the contrast from going from a 2014 Fusion or Accord to something like this, with no infotainment system, no GPS and–gasp!–no center console will find it strange and unusual. And hopefully, pleasantly refreshing!
it’s been a while since i remember seeing a car from ’70s without radio. the last one i saw was a barebone Volare with nothing- no radio no AC no right mirror vinyl seat ( cloth is optional ) and basic wipers. i always appreciate mine since my Volare was sold new in Arizona so AC was included. but almost all other Volare/Aspen i see from Michigan at least got a radio, some were nicely decorated without AC but comes with AM-FM radio.
the first thing i did after getting my Volare was putting a $9 antenna and spending $10 fixing the radio unit, listening to AM580 Windsor-Detroit until winter comes so i can listen to some FM radio stations
My father’s cars all had stereo radio units – and his last two had killer tape decks for the time – but I honestly don’t recall the radio ever being turned on when I started any of his cars, nor when I was a passenger. He said he liked the quiet.
True story: One Saturday in 1985 or 1986 (when I was in college), I washed and waxed his ’84 Fleetwood, and decided to play a Dire Straits cassette while I cleaned the interior. No sound – just a “clunk…clunk…clunk” as the tape kept trying to move, then reverse – and worse, I couldn’t eject the damn thing! I made a beeline to the dealer before Dad could find out, which still (mercifully) had the service department open, where they extracted the tape and told me that it was a common occurrence when the decks weren’t used regularly. The service manager made a note to clean the unit during my Dad’s next service (without telling him), but I learned to never, EVER play tapes in decks that don’t see much use.
CKLW!
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You can most likely thank Chrysler’s infamous “sales bank” for the weird options on the 70’s vintage cars. A 77 Volare Road Runner with V8, bucket seats, column shift, and NO center console? We’ve got it. A 67 Fury III with slant six, AC, and three speed manual transmission? Got that too.
That Fury would be a good highway cruiser once it got up to speed and would return decent fuel economy on a trip. But don’t even drag race a 1600 dual port Beetle in it!
Whenever I see one of these for sale, they always seem to have the 400ci V8.
In my young and stupid years back in the very early ’80s I derbied two of these, one a ’74 the other a ’75, and both had the 400. I’d bet the 440 cars are quite rare.
When I was shopping for a used car in college, I drove a Polara of this vintage with a 400. Being used to brougham era Cougars and weak two barrel 327 Chevys, I though “Alright! Now we’ll see what something with power feels like”. I was so let down. It was just as sluggish as the Camaro and the ’76 351 Cougar that had been in the family. Hot Rod lied to me when they claimed there was no substitute for displacement.
Thank you for this posting. I think this car is beautiful and would be happy to have it just the way it is — no radio and all! One of the thing I find depressing about current cars is the lack of a bench seat, even as an option. Cadillac, Buick and Chevrolet were the last holdouts and they have caved.
It’s really a shame these cars weren’t introduced in the Fall of 1972, as I believe they were supposed to have been. The story might have been very different.
They aren’t wide enough to support a bench seat. The biggest, XTS, is a narrow car. You wouldn’t want a bench seat in that car.
In many cases, its not really about being able to seat someone in the middle, its about the stretch out room that you get when you don’t have a console, thats what makes a bench seat more comfortable in many cases, you’re not boxed in by the console and the door.
It almost feels like you’re in a Mercury or Gemini capsule what with the huge consoles and airliner door sculpting cars have these days. It’s very claustrophobia inducing.
I hope some new car interior designers are reading this!
Spot on Carmine. No one has ever sat in the center middle of my Lincoln, and probably never will. The benefit is really for the driver and right-side passenger.
Am I the only one but when I check the design of the roofline and frame doors of that Newport 4-door non-hardtop sedan looks like an updated version of the 1965-68 Newport 4-door 4-windows sedans (there was some briefly 6-windows versions)? That might explain why full-size Chrysler sales recovered a bit compared to Dodge and Plymouth.
Know what you mean – I made a similar comment on an earlier post. These cars were really Engel closing the circle.
I could never really understand the demographic of this car. Who bought these big Chryslers in the mid/late-70’s? Who really ponied up their own money for one of these behemots? Compared to the sheer line ’76 Seville and ’77 GM B-bodies, these seems so painfully out of fashion. Would the kids cringe if their father brought home one of these instead of a ’76 Sedan De Ville?
In my experience, these Chryslers were purchased only by men over 50 who were straight-ticket Republican voters and wore black Florsheim wing-tip shoes. Perhaps the voter-thing didn’t apply outside of the midwest, but it sure seemed like that to me.
Also, it seemed that in 1976-78, the Newport Custom and New Yorker were seen much more frequently than the basic Newport, a turnabout from much of then-recent history. The Custom didn’t cost much more, but looked a whole lot more luxurious. For once, Chrysler let the buyer put that extra money on full display.
The new Newports I saw were usually ladies over 70. Not kidding.
The Cordoba stole many younger Chrysler buyers, that is those under 60 back then.
My Great Aunt Berta was 75 when she got her 1977 New Yorker. It was her second to last Chrysler product (she traded them every 2 years). Two Buick Electras followed the Mopars, and then she stopped driving altogether. These Chryslers, in particular, just seemed designed for an audience (age, mindset or both) that was rapidly fading by this time.
I’ll agree with the midwesterner thing, my New Yorker was from Key Chrysler-Plymouth in Ohio, and I’ve seen another Newport coupe that was from Ohio too, it seems these were popular in that area. Over 50, probably a bit paunchy men, that was its main demographic.
Maybe Lou Grant had one!
Good lord, Jim, I’d forgotten about the quintessentially Midwestern Florsheim shoe shops! You were doing quite well if you shopped there v. Thom McAn. What’s more, I’ll bet a lot of those Chrysler owners filled up with Clark gasoline…”The Premium People”.
Thom McCan morphed into CVS. I think KMart sells the shoes.
I thought Thom McAn turned into Foot Locker. No joke. I wouldn’t know this if I hadn’t checked Wikipedia several years back! LOL
You pretty much described my Dad the buyer of a ’78 Chrysler Newport, we went car shopping, my Dad started out looking at a Mercury Cougar XR7 which was a beautiful car, but that 351 with all those vacuum lines was rather scary. We headed over to the C-P dealer to look at Cordoba’s and I pointed out to my Dad who was 51, Republican & wearing black Florsheim wing tips how much car you got with a Newport. The Newport coupe was dove gray, with a silver top, skirts & a red pin stripe. It was really a striking car. It proved to be VERY reliable even with the Lean Burn 400. Here is a similar car, sans the lovely skirts, but with the desirable road wheels.
Old people. Lots of old people. Back then they loved their big cars.
Not just old people. families liked big cars too, If you had a wife and 2 kids and you were going to go for a week on the road, say to see the Grand Canyon or Walt Disney World, you wanted one of these or a full size wagon, Think you’re getting 7 or 8 pieces of Samsonite in a Civic or a Corolla and then driving 200 or 300 miles a day at 60 70mph with a car full of people?
I remember many vacations as a kid with my parents and grandparents in our Electras and LeSabres, trunk filled to the gills, cooler full of sandwiches, coca-colas and beer on the floor in the back seat. Thats how you did it back then.
Agreed. Even if you don’t have a big family, big cars made good highway trip cruisers. Most of my family trips as a kid were taken in the ’79 Malibu or the ’86 Parisienne–as I was an only child, I had an entire wide back seat to stretch out on. And we never once had problems fitting all the luggage we could care to bring. If I had a sibling the only change would have been that I would have had to stay on my “side”. Goes to show you don’t automaically need an SUV or minivan once the first child arrives, though cars with the same amount of interior and trunk space probably don’t exist anymore with the expiration of the Panther Fords.
Agree that middle aged parents in 1976 still loved big cars, they just liked GM and Ford tanks a lot more. Big Mopars sold to old timers still wearing fedora hats while driving, then.
In Australia too. Around this time Chrysler Australia, reacting to public perceptions that the Valiant was too big, ran an ad showing a family being able to fit all their holiday gear into the trunk of a Valiant, with the tag line. “Valiant. For the Good Times”. Even had ol’ blue eyes himself singing it.
My gosh. I’m a generation or so younger than you, but you reminded me of my childhood with clamshell Samsonite luggage, coolersful of sandwiches in the Delta 88 or the Custom Cruiser. I always wanted McD’s.
Clamshell luggage…that brings back memories. For some reason all of our pieces were the same color of medium blue even though they weren’t a matched set. Didn’t have any reason to replace with the “modern” wheel bags until 1996, when I traveled by plane for the first time since the early 80’s.
It was somewhat common knowledge in the auto industry in the ’50’s, 60’s and ’70’s that Chrysler/Plymouth had perhaps the clearest, most narrow demographic/psychographic customer base of any Detriot manufacturer. It was a narrow demographic group, but in the 1970’s they comprised very large group of car buyers and represented a large chunk of America.
They were solidly middle class “guys” and, in the case of Chrysler, many earned the income of an upper middle class American. But they ut not their hunger to become something “better”. They liked who they wdidn’t share their hunger to climb ladders; they liked their salt of the earth background and where they came from was “home”. These “guys” were loyal to their jobs friends and car brands and were not management-types momentarily occupying a low rung of a ladder they would soon be climbing. This guy topped-out in the middle class. As such, they were more likely to add onto their existing homes rather than buy one in the more “pretentious” side of town. They were the guys who used their hands, shopped at Sears and drank Bud or Miller beer (not wine or liquor). They were more than likely “Union”: Factory Foremen, Engineers, Draftsmen and Machinists. They were Construction Site Supervisors, Assembly-line Managers and Airline Mechanics. They lived everywhere in America, but the industrial states of Michigan, Ohio and Pennsylvania had more of them than any of the other states (especially the latter two). It followed, then, that Ohio and Pennsylvania were Chrysler strongholds and because of this, Chrysler/Plymouth sold better in PA and OH than anywhere else. George Kennedy epitomized this forgotten American as “Joe Patrone: TWA’s Station Head Mechanic” at Chicago’s ficticious Lincoln International Airport in the movie: “Airport” the highest grossing movie of 1970. At Chrysler, Joe’s continued business was a given.
I grew up beside these men and saw them daily, but I saw them from a distance, being the son of a “Corporate”. I grew up in perhaps the epitome of the “US Company Town”: Bethlehem, PA, home town and corporate headquarters for Bethlehem Steel. Today my visits home have shocked me when I see how different Bethlehem is today: it’s the most vibrant city in the entire state of Pennsylvania and in fact has the highest population growth of any city on the East Coast for the last 10 years (7%). It now has a muti-based, balanced economy and, from 1996 onward, there is NO “Steel Company”, the first year to hold that distinction since 1820. 1820!
Back in the 1970’s Bethlehem had only two sides: The North Side with it’s Historic Moravian district and Central Moravian Church, lush quiet neighborhoods filled with Pennsylvania stone colonials and the South Side, with it’s row homes and small detached houses surrounding the the eight mile long, 30,000 worker “Bethlehem Plant” oldest and second-largest of Bethlehem’s 15 plants. Today, only the four giant Blast furnace towers and a few of the more character-imbued brick buildings remain. It’s been transformed into a circus. Not true. Actually it’s now a very popular museum/casino/performing arts, convention and shopping center topped off with a four-star hotel/luxury condominium high-rise.
And just like Bethlehem Steel and it’s Bethlehem Plant, Chrysler/Plymouth’s All-american “guy” has vanished along with all the vanishing Bethlehems all over this nation. Both were victims of the social transformation of this country that ocurred in the ’80’s, ’90’s and ’00’s as we moved from a nation that makes “things” into a nation that sells “ideas”. You might also say we as a nation went from “hard” to “soft”. Chrysler/Plymouth was part of the “hard” and it was proud of that fact. Unlike Bethlehem Steel, the company name still exists. Unfortunately just like Bethlehem, one bad foreign owner gutted most of it and a new one has just relegated the remains to the lowest two levels of its brand hierarchy and taken the jewel in the crown (Jeep) for itself.
This is an interesting perspective, expressed well.
I think you have nailed the Mopar buyer of the 70s, especially the large cars. By the 1970s, nobody bought a Chrysler to impress anyone. You bought a Chrysler because you liked them and they spoke to you. You were impressed with engineering and the deep down metal guts of a car or truck. All of that fashion shit was for someone else, and they could buy their Monte Carlos and their Buicks and their Mark IVs.
Unfortunately, in addition to the demographic factors which you describe, Chrysler slowly chased a lot of those buyers away with one too many lemons.
I’m also from Bethlehem, although not from a Bethlehem Steel family. I can’t tell whether you think the Steel-dominated Bethlehem of the 1970s or the city of today is preferable; in some ways you seem proud of both eras. (One incredibly stupid thing done in the mid-1970s, not long after I graduated high school, was the closure of several blocks of Broad Street for a pedestrian mall; many years later it finally became a street again.)
My parents bought a new 1977 Chrysler, despite my dad not having been a Chrysler type of guy as you describe: a New Yorker 4-door, black with black vinyl roof. He settled on it because it was similar in size and appointments to the ’72 Lincoln Continental he’d bought as a demonstrator (from a friend who was then a Lincoln-Mercury dealer, but who had since gone back to Pontiac); he didn’t want another Lincoln or a Cadillac, and hadn’t yet bought a foreign car, except for the stick-shift Peugeot we’d had in the early 1960s as our first “second car.” Unfortunately the Chrysler had a dog of an engine – the lean-burn 440 – and wasn’t assembled very well. Looked great, though.
I was from the north side, which included many other sorts of homes than “stone colonials.” My whole neighborhood was built in the mid-1950s (near Gov. Wolf Elementary) and we lived there 1960-70 before moving to something larger.
Ten years after his first and last Chrysler, my dad became a Subaru driver, and never stopped. Last time I was in Bethlehem, a few weeks ago, the number of Subarus was almost Vermont-like.
Thanks for sharing, Ken Ramonet and gottacook–I’ve always been intrigued with once-mighty companies and how they affected the cities they dominated. Farmall closed in Rock Island in 1985 and it dealt a severe blow to my hometown. The facility was originally build for the Moline Plow Co. but IH took over in 1926. It once covered 1,900,000 square feet. I was only a kid and it didn’t directly affect anyone I knew, but you could see it downtown, in the condition of the roads, and so on through the early ’90s, when things began to get better. Today, Rock Island is in pretty solid shape–though the roads are still terrible! 🙂
Joe Patrone drove a Buick Wildcat in the book, and I believe also the movie. But, I still like your line of thought! 🙂
In both the 1968 novel and 1970 movie version of Airport, Joe Patroni drove a Buick Wildcat.
Was it a Wildcat in the movie? From what I can recall, you hardly see the car, but the headrests are 1969-1970 GM car for sure, I thought it was an Impala. I remember Dean Martins pilot character had a Toronado in the movie, did he have one in the book?
No, in the book, Dean Martin’s character drove a Mercedes SL. The entry in the Internet Movie Car database lists Patroni’s car as a Buick LeSabre, but the photo in their entry doesn’t show enough detail to know for sure which Buick. I think in another shot you can see more of the car and make it out as a Wildcat. I’ll have to check my DVD copy.
That line under the window does correspond with 1970 Buick, so it’s probably a LeSabre or Wildcat, I also remember the cheapie Mercury wagon that Burt Lancaster drove on the airfield.
I think that was a 69 Ford Ranch Wagon, actually.
I had to go to imcdb to see, they have it as a Ford Country Sedan, 1969, for some reason I thought it was a Mercury, must be the wrap around rear taillights that it had, which seemed more Mercury than Ford to me.
Thanks Ken, and all the others, for answering my question. Really great insights. Joe Patrone, I get it….
Hey Ken, I grew up in Bethlehem too, and I suspect we are not too far apart in age. My dad worked for The Steel for about 35 years. I will save my usual non-family-friendly comments about replacing the company that made the steel in the Empire State Building with a casino. Now the town is growing, yes, but as an affordable distant bedroom community for New York and northern NJ.
More on topic, I don’t remember Bethlehem as a particularly Mopar town. Lots of Valiants and Darts, definitely, but not too many big Chryslers or Dodges. Unless you count the fair number of squared-up K.T. Keller era cars that were still on the road up through the late 60’s. I guess those were the kind of sensible-shoes machinery that appealed to the prosperous but still frugal generation that grew up in the Depression.
For a couple of years in the 60’s we had only one car, so Dad got a ride to work in the AM, and Mom and I would pick him up in the afternoon. I remember waiting outside the long-gone Navy Building and seeing mostly a parade of Chevrolets, from the late 40’s all the way up to new, with a few Fords and Mercurys and Pontiacs mixed in, along with a few of those Keller-era Plymouths. And all the Advanced Design Chevy/GMC trucks you could possibly want. I’m sure the Ford and Dodge dealers in town occasionally sold a pickup or two, but you never saw them.
This is all very familiar to me. I grew up in McKeesport, a U.S. Steel town on the Monongahela River, where my family sold cars (Ford, then Chrysler-Plymouth) from 1917 – 1967. Growing up in the 70s, McKeesport was more of a GM and Ford town, but there was a decided shift in who bought Chryslers, from doctors and business owners like my grandfather, to senior guys in the mills and other industries. Chrysler started this trend with the introduction of the Newport in the early 60s, significantly lowering the price of entry for the brand over the Windsor it replaced. I still remember my neighbor, the General Foreman/Shop Manager for a business that made ravioli molds, driving a ’71 Newport Custom, then trading up to a ’73 New Yorker Brougham.
In those pre auto-mall days, towns were heavily influenced by the strength of the local dealers. We had an OK business, but the family wasn’t really interested in investing in modern facilities – which was a good thing, because the guy who took over and built a new, Mopar-standard dealership on the edge of town lost his shirt.
Case in point. The local Cadillac dealer closed in the 60s, and you had to go to Pittsburgh for your DeVille or Fleetwood. But at the same time, we had a very strong Lincoln-Mercury dealer, and you were just as likely to find an Imperial as a Cadillac in a country club parking lot that was a sea of Continentals and Marks.
In Canada the Newport was a very popular model as traditionally the Canadian market was skewed toward lower priced models. mainly because cars and trucks cost more to produce and ship from eastern factories, Yes Chrysler Newport swerve bought by families but as a kid I remembers seek GM many owned by “older people.” Meaning fifty-plus back then. I recently appraised a Newport Sedan and came away impressed with the huge amount of interior room. An ideal family sedan back in the seventies for those families that could step up to such a more expensive sedan.
My dad bought a 77 Newport Custom Hardtop when new. He was 44 at the time with a young family. It was our first car with radial tires. Previously, he had purchased two 73 Dodge Polaras during the first gas crunch for just 5k. The Newport was 5k as well (but we only got one at that price). It was a great road car and I have lots of fond memories of it. Two songs always seemed to play on the radio when on these trips and to this day they remind me of the car. They are Chuck Mangione’s “Feels So Good” and Gerry Rafferty’s “Baker Street”.
That color combo (copper with a beige vinyl roof) was very popular in the mid to late 70’s. In my neighborhood, it seemed every third Le Mans/Cutlass/Regal was copper. Different world now… not much color in cars these days.
One fact-check item – this is not a Newport, but a Newport Custom. There is but a single 3 year period where this really mattered, and it was 1976-77-78. When the New Yorker moved into the Imperial body for 1976, the Newport Custom moved into what had been the 1974-75 New Yorker (only without the gaudy bright lower body cladding). The Newport stayed just like it had been since 1974, with the vertically rectangular taillights and the plainer grille.
[Edit – this would be valid on 76, but Tom got it right for 77 – Mea Culpa!]
My car-mentor Howard owned a 77 Newport Custom, only his was a dark brown 4 door hardtop with fender skirts. Identical interior, only without the tilt/telescope wheel shown here. These were very attractive cars when new – something that the Plymouth or Dodge could not match. Truthfully, I always thought these sedans looked a little plain, but the hardtop roof with its slight sway was simply beautiful.
The decision to add fender skirts or not also greatly changed the look of these cars. I prefer them with, but Chrysler at least gave some snazzy moldings and a nice shape for those cars that came without. These Premier wheelcovers were nasty to clean. A lot of that area was plated plastic, which required a lot of delicate scrubbing with minimal amounts of chrome polish to make them really sparkle.
JP, this may be a base Newport for ’77. A quick check shows the Custom had chrome moldings on the sedan window frames, and a fabric insert on the upper part of the door cards. They may have dropped the ’74 base tailights for ’77?
Holy Crap, Dave B – it turns out I didn’t know as much as I thought I knew. I would have been right if this were a 76, but it appears that in 77, the old base-Newport trim level got ujpgraded to what had been the 76 Newport Custom. Wow – some things you know so thoroughly, it turns out you don’t know at all. At least for me.
You, sir, have schooled JPC on 1977 Chryslers, something I would have bet could not be done. Well done, sir!
🙂
Very nice find Tom! I often find myself searching eBay and cars.com just to browse what’s out there too.
As for the Newport, while I do like much of its styling, the pillarless hardtop body style looked so much better. The center pillar looks a little clumsy on the 4-doors. One thing I really like about these Newports was the grille. It just really fit well on this car.
I’ve never been a fan that particular cloth upholstery. Although very common on cars in the 1970s, it looks very uncomfortable.
I agree, but I think the bigger difference is the C pillar – it had a whole different shape on the hardtop than on the sedan. The hardtop C pillar had a gentle sway to it, much like the 66 Galaxie 2 door hardtop. The sedan’s version was quite blocky. This was one of the few Chryslers in which the sedan and hardtop used substantially different sheetmetal. The 74 Newport 4 door hardtop I wrote up recently makes an excellent contrast to this car.
The hardtop
Very true about the C pillar. The hardtop’s was such a graceful and elegant design feature compared to the blocky roofline on the sedan. I think that a slightly less vertical B pillar would look better on the sedans too.
I think we have opposite tastes–I never liked the grille on these Newports. Looks too much like a wannabe Mercedes piece, and I also think that it shares some elements with the big Fords of the mid 70’s. They look great from the side or the back, but from the front, not so much. Make mine (optimally) a New Yorker, or a Royal Monaco, or even a Gran Fury. And I also really like the brocade upholstery, though I do agree it doesn’t look all that comfortable. it’s just so 70’s (and probably easy to clean).
Agree that the pillarless hardtops do look far more graceful.
On balance, even though I don’t care for the grille design, I’d still happily pilot this fine machine. Though a stealth radio install might crop up under the dash, or in the glovebox if there’s space. That delete plate is too cool to mess with but I do need some music!
Buy it for the Radio Delete plate. You’ll never see another 74-78 Chrysler with one.
Fortunately, someone who bought this car and wanted a radio in it (the AM-FM-CD-cassette in my 1995 Dodge Intrepid would screw right in, and the 1974 Chrysler C-bodies would have had the full radio harness) could unscrew it and set it aside.
The 1994 Dodge Monaco Pursuits that the California Highway Patrol bought even had the radio delete panel deleted, if I remember correctly. The CHP put a blank, black metal panel there, with toggle switches.
I know Chrysler was famous for their torsion bar suspensions… and am I right in saying that even the hood “spring” is a set of torsion bars???
You are indeed! I had forgotten about those.
JPCavanaugh is spot on from his earlier post–Chrysler effectively upgraded all the full-size cars. The Imperial was discontinued in 1975, but was reborn (with the same sheet metal and revised standard/optional features) as the 1977 New Yorker Brougham; New Yorker Brougham became the Newport Custom (keeping the prior interior and exterior trim), and the prior Newport Custom became the base Newport. Buyers who’d looked at a Chrysler in 1975 suddenly got a car that was a little nicer.
Chrysler did pretty much this same thing in 2002 when the LHS became the Concorde Limited, and all Concordes got LHS body shells, and revised standard/options lists.
Also interesting are a couple of standard features and one optional one I noticed: 1) Love the center glove box. Convenient. 2) The dash has not one, but two ashtrays: one under the climate control, with it’s adjacent lighter, and the other on the far right in front of the passenger (don’t recall if it had a lighter inside or not). 3) Remarkable that this car featured not only the tilt wheel with “deluxe” steering wheel (it may have had telescope as well, but can’t be sure), but also had cornering lights, which IIRC were options.
And, like others here, I really like the sleeker look of the 4door hardtop bodystyle with fender skirts. In some ways, the fender skirts are reminders to me of the “fusalage” body design of 1969–and have a soft spot for that look.
It was an an interesting time for Chrysler. …..
While I knew Chrysler did this both with the Newport/New Yorker in the 1970s and Concorde/LHS in the 2000s, I guess I never made the connection that history repeated itself. I always thought it made things confusing when they came out with the Concorde Limited (i.e. 2 cars with the same name, while only a few years earlier the LHS and New Yorker was really 1 car with 2 names).
I am pretty sure that at least in full size Chryslers of this vintage, the tilt wheel option also got you the telescoping feature as well. I love that feature on my 1966 New Yorker.
A beautiful color combination/car. I only wish I could afford to bid on it.
Looks like the copper on the Chrysler Turbine.
Chrysler was definitely dealing with some model overlap issues at the time, probably due to the fact that Dodge and Chrysler-Plymouth had separate dealer networks. Plymouth didn’t carry a LeBaron equivalent but Dodge did, and in 1977 the mid-size cars were given full-size names to hedge Chrysler’s bets against GM’s new downsized big cars. Dodge Coronets became Monacos and Satellites became Furies, completing a transition that began with the 1975 “small Fury” coupe, a basic version of the Cordoba/Charger. The big cars transformed into Royal Monacos and Gran Furies respectively.
Today, all Chrysler products can be had under the same roof, so no need for so many versions of otherwise identical cars.
Actually, the shift started at Plymouth in ’75 and Dodge rolled over the Cornet to Monaco in ’76. We had a ’76 Fury Salon in dark green over dark green vinyl – my dad, the Chemical Engineer, had a weird thing for vinyl. Looked like an undercover cop car, especially since his love of vinyl didn’t extend to roofs. It was really a reaction to the both the poor sales of civilian C-body Plymouths and Dodges, coupled with an attempt to make more of a fairly minor restyle of the fuselage B-body sedans and wagons. Ford would make the same move with the LTD II a year or so later.
Rare car over here except for the hubcaps and upholstery fabric the fabric appeared in several upscale Aussie Chrysler products my 78 Centura for one and the hubcaps were used on the 75 VK Valiant. The colour scheme Sienna with bone vinyl top is the same as my 73 Valiant Regal and 78 Centura GXL, Nice, I like it having bought it twice
While not nearly as many as this Newport (coincidentally a cigarette brand), multiple ashtrays were still pretty common about a decade ago. Both my mom’s ’94 Grand Cherokee and my grandfather’s ’97 Eighty-Eight had dual rear ashtrays in addition to the ashtray and lighter up front. Even our ’04 Highlander had a center rear ashtray. Conversely, my 2010 TSX has no lighter, and the small ashtray-like compartment in the console is labeled “Not An Ashtray”.
My 2000 Lincoln has a front ashtray and lighter between the pull-out cupholders and ashtrays in the rear doors as well. No lighters on the back ones, though.
I had a 77 Newport Custom Similar to this along with a 79 Marquis Brougham Coupe. The Newport had plenty of ashtrays but only one lighter, The Marquis had ashtrays and lighters at the rear of both doors for the rear along with one lighter and ashtray in the dash up front. I think it may have had an ashtray on the passenger door but I maybe getting it confused with my 77 Lincoln. My 96 Fleetwood has 3 ashtrays and lighters along with a power door lock only for the rear doors. The Buick Roadmaster has ashtrays that look similar to the Fleetwood but no lighters.
I thought it was very chintzy of Lincoln not to at least leave the power ports.
Gotta pay extra for that stuff today. “Smoker’s package”.
When I read an article and comments like these a severe “I am not worthy” feeling overtakes me — you guys are incredible with the Chrysler knowledge! Does anyone know what those knobs do under the A/C vents in the dash? I remember playing in my uncle’s Chrysler and those doing something neat, like maybe shutting off a vent or turning on a light?
Those manual window cranks bring back memories too. Only the ones in the Chryslers had that beefy “hub” and distinctive shape, everyone else’s looked generic by the 1970s.
The engine compartment looks terrific, kudos to the seller for not “detailing” the engine. There is nothing I hate more than that shiny clear dressing all over a freshly cleaned engine, a total deal-breaker for me. Almost as bad as when people (usually dealers) painted the old Ford air cleaners blue and the hoses black with rattle can, overspray everywhere.
I see three. The chrome one on the left is for the outside right hand rear view mirror, which was remote controlled. The one on the right turned on a dashboard map light. The one in the center, next to the mirror control, well I am spacing this one. Possibly a piece of drooping black plastic trim? It was a 70s Chrysler, after all.
My knowledge of these comes from a few years with a 77 New Yorker that came along a few years after Howard’s 77 Newport.
That sounds right to me. As a kid I didn’t care as much about what was under the hood as I did about the bells and whistles I could play with without the keys. Lincolns had a cool set up for the power door locks, they were activated by a hang down lever like on these Chryslers. It was always a bummer when the vacuum for the locks ran out.
It is drooping trim, my 77 New Yorker had the same flaw in the same place, the dash on these cars is made of a plastic sponge cake like material that always feels soft, like playdoh.
Looks like a nice roadtrippin machine! Love the color. Granted, that beige hardtop from a few weeks back was a much better looking car (as 4 doors go) but Id much rather do a bro-trip in something like this than any camacord.
What amazes me is the fact that a car as upmarket as a Chrysler didn’t have a radio as standard. We’re quite a few years after the “Japanese invasion” here (I’m aware they hit the States some time after they arrived Down Under), and Chrysler was supposed to be a prestige make, right? I would expect no-radio as standard in a Plymouth or a Dodge, but surely a base Chrysler ought to have had one? What about base-trim big Buicks and Oldses? Mercuries? Did they come with a standard radio?
Well, Chrysler was a middle-priced car, like Buick or Mercury. Nice, but not Cadillac, Imperial or Lincoln nice.
What about base-trim big Buicks and Oldses? Mercuries? Did they come with a standard radio?
Not until at least the mid ’80s, if not later. I still have the Buick full-line brochure from when my late grandparents bought their ’77 LeSabre. Not even the Electra and Riviera came with a standard radio.
Don’t forget that dealers ordered lots of cars without radios so they could install their own. It’s a safe bet this was one of them, and the customer didn’t bother to have a radio put in.
At least this was the case with GM cars. Maybe Chrysler was different because their radios were distinct with both knobs on the left. Either way, I’m sure there are a lot of confusing build sheets out there, and a lot of non-factory radios that were actually original.
Very true. Audiovox pretty much dominated the dealer-installed radio market and had factory lookalikes available for the Big 3 as well as AMC…
I can only suppose it was catering for the “if I don’t want it, I don’t want to pay for it” crowd, and that a percentage of them would have objected to having a radio as standard. I mean, just because its there doesn’t mean you have to turn it on! Resale value or saleability was obviously not a consideration, and given the sort of depreciation in those years I can understand it would not have made a significant difference.
Edit – after reading the newer comments above I expect the dealers wanting that profit margin for themselves was a bigger factor!
ps Ken & gottacook, thanks for painting a picture of things with your comments.
What? No one picked up on the ‘Lean Burn’ computer hanging off the air cleaner? That’s one of the most noteworthy aspects of Mopars of this vintage. I very early application of an analog computer to manage ignition timing, and (hopefully) allow a leaner mixture with little effect on driveability. It might have been worth a few m.p.g.’s, but driveability did suffer, particularly on the Slant 6 and 4bbl. 318’s.
Even more noteworthy is that it appears to be intact and still working.
My mother bought a new 1977 LeBaron with a Lean Burn 318 V-8.
She kept the car well past the 200,000 mile mark and never once had a Lean Burn related problem of any kind.
It was one of her favorite cars.
Pa Capn’s experience at Brown Chrysler-Plymouth is that the small blocks stood up to “smogging” better than 400/440s OR the /6s. The salesman might try to push a 400 on you, but you’d find a 360-4v easier to live with. Maybe someone with some engineering skills can explain why.
Regardless of the engine, the Lean Burn system’s Achilles’ Heel was the computer housing mounted on the air cleaner can. The two circuit boards (one for spark control, the other controlled the carburetor) were subjected to heat and vibration that often led to the failure of one or both boards.
When the circuit boards weren’t fried or the vacuum hoses (of which there were many) weren’t leaking it worked as advertised.
The story of Chrysler’s Huntsville Electronics division would make an interesting CC piece on its own.
The real early Lean Burn computers controlled spark only, I think the carburetor controls came in the early 80’s. Very true about them cooking in the heat. What was funny about them, and possibly one reason why they were mounted on the air cleaner was the ambient air temp sensor was soldered right onto the circuit board. There was a little air scoop in the filter housing that directed some of the incoming air into to computer. Lean Burn also used a crazy distributor that had 2 different pickups in it that could drive you nuts if only one went bad.
Lean Burn was a first, I’ll give Chrysler credit for the idea.
Couldn’t help but notice that the California Highway Patrol 440 Monaco’s didn’t have Lean Burn! Ran good too.
And “smog tuning” came a few years before the computers themselves, as carbs and timing were futzed with. A computer-free engine running leaner than originally intended isn’t necessarily better than one with the gizmo attached.
I came back for a second look and noticed the rear doors appear to be a foot and a half thick in this pic. Overly thick doors with their poor space utilization, hollow sound and rattles really turned me off to American cars from this era. The ’77 GM B-bodies and ’78 Ford Fairmont were the first US cars to get rid of this bloat in the doors. Even the Mustang II had it.
Doors a foot and a half thick! Well, who wants to seat four abreast anyway? 🙂
“Moommm, it’s hot and he’s touching me with his sweeeaaattt!”
I could do without today’s fancy (and overcomplicated) infotainment systems and built-in nav. (I do like my Garmin unit though.)
But rear leaf springs — in 1977? When was the last time a large or midsize GM car used such antiquated underpinnings? (I’m not talking about trucks, SUVs, or small cars.)
One big plus about this car’s presentation — the seat belts are neatly arranged front and rear.
Uhhh the 1976 GM B body wagons?
Don’t forget the 1970-81 F-body Camaros and Firebirds, which were known to be the best-handling American cars.
Funny thing about the GM wagons, their predecessors all had full coil suspension. Part of the general cheapening all 1971-76 full-size cars underwent?
Chrysler stuck with leaf springs in their rear-drive cars all the way up to the final LeBaron/Fifth Avenue/Diplomat/Gran Furies in the late 1980’s
I think the leafs of the 71-76 wagons were probably also due to the space needed to fit the forward facing 3rd row, the well under the floor and the disappearing door that went down into its own compartment down there, plus the payload and towing considerations that these wagons were capable of, properly set up these could town 7500lbs or so.
You learn something every day. I never knew (or maybe forgot) that these behemoths had leaf springs. Ironic that early 60s Chevy or GMC half-ton pickups (I forget which) had rear coil springs.
Only the GM “B/C” wagons had leaf springs, to make room for that awfully complicated & heavy clam shell tailgate, the rest of the full size line had coils at all four corners.
“One of the richest veins for high quality Curbside Classics on the “Bay of E” is classicsllc.”
Yes and also one of the most overpriced. If you want to know what the true “sales” prices are or the suggested retails of the dealer are you can check their non-auction site. http://www.mjcclassiccars.com/
But damnit they are gorgeous.
I love the big cars from Mama Mopar in the 60s and 70s. I always felt that they were the truest “drivers cars” of the massive barges that the Big 3 built in those years. Torsion Bars and full instrumentation BABY! These are the Big Cars I’d most want to drive today.
Well hey Dan, I’m not buying, I’m gawking, so I don’t care. 🙂
lol it is one of my pet peeves. My favorite example of outrageous pricing is the Chrysler Laser for nearly $15,000. What did they cost NEW?
classicsllc is another one of the Lash brothers names on eBay. They actually use four different names and their cars are photoshopped to the max and overpriced. Just looking at completed auctions and you would find maybe 1 in 20 sells and all the others do not meet reserve. On cars that are supposedly sold the bidders identity is hidden in feedback so you can’t verify who bought what if at all. They are very slick and for all anyone knows all that feedback could be bogus as it is untraceable. By the way the local BBB gives them an “F”.
I bought my 1979 lincoln town car collector’s series from them and had had no complaints. The car was not any different in real life than it was in the pictures. I don’t think he uses phtoshop as much as the lash guy or at all. He wanted $17,000 for it but i got it for 10K. He even repaired a faulty repair by his own shop weeks after i bought the car for $500 out of his own pocket.
I had a 77 Newport Custom Sedan which was very similar to this in the mid 80s. Mine was yellow with a brown vinyl roof, fender skirts, brown vinyl twin comfort seats trimmed like the old New Yorker, a 400ci engine, pw, ps vent windows and tilt and telescopic wheel. Mine also had the premier wheel covers, but no cornering lamps. The car handled great for a big car and got decent mpg’s considering its size. Much better than the 73 Impala and 77 Lincoln which bookended it. If I remember correctly it got about 18 on the highway which was about what my 79 Marquis with a 302 got, much better than the 73 Impala 350 or the Lincoln, but oh that lean burn! If it had been a New Yorker in a different color I would still probably have it and just took out the lean burn. Yes the Hardtops were so much better looking.
I’m curious about the dash board- was that big pad on the passenger side meant for an airbag? I know airbags were optional on some GM cars about this time, were they on Chryslers too?
No they weren’t but I’m sure they were preparing for that inevitability.
That was just dashboard padding so in the event of an accident, the passengers head would have something soft to hit. Of course with this car, the passenger might also end up with a big reverse image “Chrysler” imprint on their forehead.
They were indeed preparing. It’s why the glove box is in the center of the dash.
Very nice article – and beautiful car. I agree that the Chrysler’s were somewhat better styled than the Dodges/Plymouths, and that fact, coupled with the low promotion of those models, probably resulted in the Chrysler’s higher sales.
These models were likely styled by Ellwood Engel as his swan song before retiring in 73/74 – and embody his “fill the box” philosophy. which I always thought produced very attractive designs.
The execution was somewhat different – my memories of these cars compared to equivalent Ford/GM models were that they had typical poor late 70s Chrysler build quality and much cheaper looking interiors. I had a 79 Town Car and drove similar Cadillacs – both had a much more “solid” feel to them……..
I’m really warming to the mopar post 74 fullsize. That Monaco would be my choice, but this is still a handsome car. Headlights make me think of AMC.
Wasn’t the biggest problem with Lean Burn related to hanging the computer off the side of the air cleaner, thereby subjecting it to engine bay heat?
No coincidence, then, that GM put its first Computer Command Control units under the dash. More wiring, but safe and sound in an enclosed environment.
@msquare, yes – although it seems to have been solved in later years. I know an elderly gentleman who teaches high school science and has a last model year Diplomat 318 V8. It is pristine and has the original engine and lean burn computer.
I am very covetous of his M-body. It is likely the cleanest still in existence that is actually being used as a daily driver. He still teaches and it would be like your teacher in 1954 driving a car from the 1930s.
In 1977, The best selling Chrysler was the 2-door Cordoba. And the M-Body LeBaron was introduced. My Grandmother in New Jersey had a red 1977 4 door Chrysler LeBaron. It had a white landau top, 318 V8, 3-speed TorqueFlite tranny, A/C, AM-FM radio, power windows but no power locks. She kept it 15 years. I remember the Highland Park hummingbird starter and the clunk when the TorqueFlite was put into gear.
Just inherited a ’77 New Yorker Brougham and I need to replace the calipers. The only problem is I can’t seem to figure out how to get to the wheel bolts. I have the same wheel covers as shown in the picture but can’t figure out how to pull them off. Any way someone could point me in the right direction?
They go on and off just like any other wheel cover, are held to the inner rim of the wheel with spring clips that bite into the rim. Only difference is that those things grip like gorillas. Getting them off involves getting a tire iron under the edge and prying them off. They are absolute bastards to get back on. I remember having to hold the bottom on with my feet while I pounded the tops with a rubber mallet.
I really liked the 70’s Chryslers. I had a ’77 Royal Monaco 2 door with the stainless steel roof band and all the bells and whistles. Bought it used in ’81 for $800 and it still had the clear plastic seat covers on the back seats and around 200 miles on the engine. Drove it for almost 10 years w/almost no problems. Chryslers were made of better materials than GM cars. My mom’s Caddy had a plastic grill while my Dodge had metal. The Dodge didn’t have those cheap plastic exterior parts that cracked up either. Good cars, shame people weren’t buying them.