(first posted 2/11/2015) If Chrysler’s mid-1970s full-size lineup confuses you a bit, you’re not alone. During this time, there was an onslaught of similar looking cars with similar sounding names, often differing very little from one another in features and appearance. To make matters worse, Chrysler kept shuffling names around, adding and dropping them on a seemingly annual basis. From 1974-1978, the full-size Chryslers included the Newport, Newport Custom, Newport St. Regis, Newport Custom St. Regis, New Yorker, New Yorker Brougham, New Yorker Brougham St. Regis, Town & Country, and the Imperial, the last of which, was, for all intents and purposes a Chrysler in everything buy name. Does this clarify things a bit?
First and foremost, our featured car is a Deep Sherwood Green 1975 Chrysler Newport Custom 4-door hardtop. With 11,626 produced, the Newport Custom 4-door hardtop was the third most popular Chrysler for 1975, after the Newport sedan and New Yorker Brougham 4-door hardtop.
The Newport Custom first appeared in 1967 as a “step-up” from the regular Newport, which was then Chrysler’s lowest-priced car line. By 1975, the Newport Custom still occupied the same niche between Newport and New Yorker – basically a Newport with a few extra options.
Things would be shuffled around the following year, with the discontinuation of Imperial. This event caused the Chrysler New Yorker Brougham (all New Yorkers sported the “Brougham” suffix after 1974) and Newport Custom each to essentially move up a rung, filling in the gaps. The New Yorker Brougham now comfortable occupied the former Imperial’s body, and the Newport Custom went movin’ on up to the East Side into the previous-year New Yorker Brougham’s body. To confuse people again, in 1977, the Newport Custom name and the regular Newport’s body shell would fall by the wayside, with the Newport inheriting the Newport Custom’s (neé New Yorker) styling.
For 1975 though, Newport Customs were more difficult to distinguish from regular Newports, differing only in badging and the addition of standard paint stripes.
Inside, all Newport Customs added a 50/50 divided bench seat with dual center armrests, with four-door models adding a passenger’s side recliner. Cloth-and-vinyl or all-vinyl were available in seven color schemes. This car features a more subdued “parchment” color, but with its woodgrain, brown dash, and exterior colors, I think it fits this car well.
The Newport Custom also gained additional woodgrain trim and unique door panels, for more upscale aura. That being said, this particular woodgrain pattern reminds me of the laminate-covered desks of my elementary school. Love it or hate it though, this same fake wood was found in every Mopar product with woodgrain. It doesn’t look half-bad on the door panels, but on the dash it somehow comes across far cheaper looking.
Power windows, air conditioning, AM/FM stereo, manual vent windows, and rear speakers were all options that this car is equipped with.
Unlike other automakers, who merely provided a speedometer and fuel level gauge by this point, Chrysler is notable in that it continued to offer a fuller complement of gauges, at least as optional in most of its vehicles, through the Malaise Era and beyond. Although hardly cockpit-like in layout, the assortment of gauges, buttons, and levers on this dash do give a more commanding feel of driver involvement, even if it’s only a feeling.
The most unusual feature of this particular Newport is this funky aftermarket hood ornament. When it left the factory, this Newport Custom did not have a hood ornament, as none did this year. It seems odd to me that someone would go through the trouble of adding one on, and not use a period-specific Chrysler “coat of arms”, or at the very least, a more widely available Pentastar. There are certainly much worse aftermarket parts that could’ve been added to this car, but it still annoys me to some degree.
(1976 Newport Custom)
The Newport Custom was available as a 2-door hardtop, 4-door sedan, and 4-door hardtop like our featured car. The 4-door hardtop body style of the 1974-1978 Chryslers was by far one of the most elegant silhouettes of its time. Its vinyl roof, and the slight concavity to its rear windshield and C-pillar made its roof look like a graceful canopy. Especially with the windows down, this roofline blended tastefully with its gently sloping long deck.
(1977 Newport sedan)
For these same reasons, the 4-door sedan looked rather clumsy by comparison, with its very upright roofline sitting atop the body in a far less integrated manner.
As it’s been said before, these final C-body Chrysler Newports and New Yorkers were the last true American pillar-less hardtops when they ended production in 1978. It is unfortunate that these cars never got a proper send off. Instead, their significance is often overshadowed by their untimely release at the height of the 1973 Arab Oil Embargo, corresponding sales disappointment, quality woes, and Chrysler’s shaky overall state during this period.
That’s a shame because in truth, these were among the most beautiful cars of their era. The hardtop’s styling, combined with their formal radiator grilles and other neoclassical design elements came across as elegant, but in a more graceful and less gaudy manner than competitors from GM and Ford. Their chiseled shape also made for an interesting transition between the wind tunnel Fuselages and the straight-edged R-bodies. While they may not have been the most popular cars then, it’s good to see that they have a loyal fan base among collectors, especially the higher-trimmed “civilian” Chrysler versions.
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Oh how I miss the days when all cars were available in a wide range of colors, instead of just white, grey, black, and beige. That green and off-white exterior combined with the off-white interior just looks right.
hey chris…believe it or not…but all those colour options are for the most part still available these days.
its just that nobody chooses them anymore as no one manages to establish a truly meaningful relationship with their 3-year-lease cars.
That’s true, but while every color used to look good with chrome, not every color looks good with the omnipresent black trim used today. I opted for a red SRX, but the way it looked with the black lower side trim always hit me wrong. I loved the vehicle and traded it in for another. Choose a dark graphite metallic this time and the vehicle’s color scheme looks much more well integrated.
And they concern themselves over-much with resale value. Supposedly white, black or silver are worth more used – read that in a guide to leasing in the paper last year. No wonder it’s so hard to buy a used car in a decent colour!
I myself would like to see the return of the red interior. It just looks so wicked on some cars. My friend had a black 2006 Mustang GT with the spoiler and GT badges deleted and a factory red interior. It went from understated to downright menacing when you opened the doors and it was amazing, would not have been the same with the black interior.
The problem with anything other than a basic black interior in most of today’s cars is the different color (like the red in the aforementioned Mustang) is limited to two things: the seating surfaces and small door panel inserts. Contrast that with the Chrysler’s ‘complete’ parchment coloring of the interior (including the headliner) and an instrument panel, steering wheel, and carpet in a medium brown color.
There are a couple of exceptions. On the high-end German cars, you can still get a complete interior in an alternate color. But those are special order only and, man, it’s going to cost you some big-bucks.
Or you can get a 500. Refreshingly, Fiat has chosen to offer a wide palette of exterior color shades, as well as alternate interior color choices which go beyond just the seats and door panels of others.
Thanks for the detailed article. I really like the 1974-75 New Yorkers and later Newports with the horizontal taillights. I was born in 1977 and the 4 door hardtop version of these cars from the late 1970’s along with the 1974-76 Buick Electras (which weren’t as common around where I live) were my favorites when I was a kid!
Like most folks, if I had the choice I’d pick the New Yorker over a Newport but I wouldn’t turn up my nose at the Newport/Newport Custom. The sedan pictured MIGHT almost be appealing with chrome trim on the edges of the upper door frame. I can’t believe any model of Chrysler was this naked. A Plymouth? That’s another story. Even better would be the skirts the pictured hardtop sports.
My friends had a Grand Fury of this vintage, a decent enough car but probably one of the biggest if not THE biggest sedan I would drive. The steering was very light (a Mopar “trademark”?) and the brakes very touchy. It also was not very well assembled. This brand new car had a vinyl roof that was curling at the edges and the “parchment” interior was 3 or 4 shades of parchment.
Of the full-sized sedans of this period, I would pick a Chrysler to drive and for it’s styling, a Chevy for it’s styling and easily modded engine, a Mercury because it’s different and splits the difference between the other 2. A nice Grand Marquis 2 door, 4 door, or wagon would be quite welcome in my garage….if I had one.
Chrysler big blocks are not hard at all to modify, not that this is a plug but you can find parts galore for them from Summit Racing, and for reasonable prices. A little inconvenient compared to dropping by a NAPA, but they are available. .
Green was the it back in seventies.
Very sharp car. Wonderful styling – I loved these at the time. That dark green sure did work, coupled with the off-white interior! I really liked the fact that it was the last pillarless hardtop complete with vent windows.
I always wondered if they were rattletraps given Chrysler’s downward spiral in those years? How durable were they?
You certainly don’t see these anymore, or for that matter, most other cars of that era.
The 4 door hardtops were wonderfully rigid. Oddly, the sedans were not.
I’d have to politely disagree, we owned 3 mid ’70s C body Mopars: 2 sedans and a hardtop, and we drove each for well over 100k miles, often pulling a heavy trailer. The sedans were clearly more rigid over large bumps, which one would of course expect given that they had full height B pillars from floor to roof and full frame doors.
These were probably screwed together a little better than their lesser C-body brethren, which isn’t saying much. The sedans and Imperials were built at Walter P.’s original plant, Jefferson Avenue in Detroit. The big Dodges and Plymouths, along with Chrysler wagons were built in Belvidere, IL, where quality was notoriously poor even by ’70s Chrysler standards. The wagons were discontinued after ’77 when Belvidere converted over to the Omni/Horizon and Ma Mopar didn’t want to spend the money shipping the tooling to Detroit for just one more year of use.
That is a really nice color. The interior colors are nice as well — the subtle dark green of the dash and steering wheel bus goes well with the lighter upholstery and the color of the woodgrain. The interior materials are pretty dire, but an A for color coordination.
I don’t much care for the styling, though, inside or out. It seems very cluttered and the taillights look like they were borrowed from an Oldsmobile Cutlass of the same period (where they were better integrated). The sealed-beam headlights also seem poorly integrated; they give new appreciation for the New Yorker’s concealed lights and make me wonder if (lighting regs notwithstanding) the Newport would have looked better with wide rectangular halogen lights like on the European W116 S-Class. And the dash design! The secondary instruments (appreciated, it must be said) and minor controls are pleasantly no-nonsense, but giving the speedometer a wood-appliqué-and-plasti-chrome crown is bizarre and adding another fake-wood/plastic-chrome halo around the shift quadrant is definitely OTT.
“The secondary instruments (appreciated, it must be said) and minor controls are pleasantly no-nonsense, but giving the speedometer a wood-appliqué-and-plasti-chrome crown is bizarre and adding another fake-wood/plastic-chrome halo around the shift quadrant is definitely OTT.”
I could not have said this better. Faux would can look good if it substitutes for a piece that a woodworker would have created. There is nothing redeeming about those fake wood bezels. The faux chrome borders make it even worse. These kind of nonsensical bits are a turn-off to me like too much make up can distract from a woman’s attractiveness.
My thoughts exactly. And the same for the rectangular outline of faux-wood on the door trim. A nice “upmarket” touch maybe, but it looks somehow – odd.
Do you really believe that the same year full sized Chevy, Ford or Mercury dashboard was an improvement?
Why so serious? It’s the Seventies! Roll with it 🙂 !
I am deeply fascinated by the big block full size sedans of the70s and because of the full instrumentation and slightly firmer handling compared to the competition the Chrysler Co cars are among my favorites. I’d love this one because of its green color.
This would be a great road trip car.
A fan. 74-75 was an oddly unsatisfying period for me with these cars. The newports were kind of bland while the New Yorker was overdone with that huge swath of stainless slathered along the lower body. Imperial really stood out as the class of the fleet.
This is as nice as a 74-75 non-Imp gets. The 75 benefits from a color keyed steering wheel and column instead of the black one in the 74. I believe this was also one of very few 1975 cars without a catalytic converter. Very nice colors, too. I have long been a fan of the “parchment” interiors that Chrysler featured in the 70s.
I’m a fan of the full-length stainless rocker trim on New Yorkers. It harkens back to the 65-68 New Yorkers. Most of them had stainless rocker moldings like that.
I think the ’75 Chrysler styling looks pretty good for its era, and I like the colours on this one. The dashboard certainly looks cheap and tacky compared to Chryslers from 10 years earlier. I did a bit of image searching and it looks to me like most of the dashboard on this car is shared with the 1975 Gran Fury and Polara/Monaco except for trim differences.
This Newport looks to be well preserved. I’m guessing that’s 42,000mi on the odometer and not 142,000. I see the for sale signs sitting on the seat. Is this one for sale or just sold?
It was for sale when I took these pictures last August. It was gone shortly after, but then a few months later I saw it in someone’s front yard with the same “for sale” signs posted on the windows.
I agree. Compared to the dash of my ’68 Plymouth Fury VIP, the dash in the Newport looks cheap by comparison. I generally like these cars except for the vertical tail lights. The version with the narrow horizontal lights look much better to me. That the feature car is a four door hardtop is enough for me to get past the tail lights. One of the things I love about the older Mopars is a full set of gauges. Wish they still did that as my ’02 Concorde only has water temp, gas, speedo and a tach larger than necessary.
Oh, that hood ornament is actually a targeting guide for the Mopar torpedoes! lol.
I get the logic of vertical tail lights for the Newport, since the ’72-3 models had them as well, but this would have been a far better follow-on to the ’73 Plymouth, especially as the ’75 B-body coupes would also sport vertical tail lights – and if they’d a had some more money, they could have done the same effect on the sedans. The Newport could have used a simpler version of the New Yorker bumper and light set up, which is what they did from ’69 through ’71. Would have helped make all three brands (Plymouth/Dodge/Chrysler) more distinct.
I agree about the lights, I’ve always preferred the New Yorker/later Newport’s horizontal to these odd-looking vertical ones.
Dash boards from all the Big Three became cheaper-looking in general in the early-1970s as automakers began making interiors less reflective in response to safety concerns. That meant no more elegant chrome and vinyl surfaces in favor of cheaper-looking plastic-fantastic dash boards.
I’d rather see this Mopar dashboard than the gas gauge only/ribbon speedometer, tacky “wood grain” stretch of blahhhhhhh on the same year full sized Mercury.
After reading A U W M’s comments I went back and looked at the dashboard shots. I wish you could have taken a photo that included the whole instrument cluster….including the complete radio. I say that because I had forgotten just how cheap looking the plastics were in these cars. Actually, most of Detroit’s cars of the 70s used cheap (especially by today’s standards) plastics. But I suddenly remembered the radio in that mid 70s Grand Fury I drove. The good? Tuning AND volume knobs next to each other (did Chrysler start this?). The bad? The radio itself looked like a cheap, 3rd world knock-off of a cheap Japanese personal entertainment unit. The unit was behind the surface of the dash and the “window” for the station numbers was behind the window and the tuning pushbuttons were charcoal colored chiclets that stuck out of the dash surface. Even on the car here the “wood” looks incredibly fake.
That’s an interesting question about both volume and tuning knobs being on the same side of the radio. It would be quite a bit of trivia to discover that it was, indeed, Chrysler who began that particular fad. I think the first Chrysler products to have that arrangement might have been the 1970 E-body.
And to make matters even more curious, those ‘knobs’ on the first year E-body AM/FM or OEM 8-track versions were actually thumbwheels on the same side, the ones that were made of metal and notorious for getting too hot to touch. I think those Chrysler thumbwheel radios only lasted from ’68-’70.
In fact, I’d go so far as to guess that the heat transfer problem of metal radio knobs was one of the few good examples where the switch to plastic was a good thing.
My ’57 Plymouty Belvedere’s (2ht and convertible) have the side by side knob’s as did the dozen 1974 through 1978 Imperials and New Yorker Broughams, and ’77 Dodge Royal Monaco Brougham I had
radio doesn’t show well, my ’77 NYB, exterior, was ordered w/o skirts.
Those Chrysler radios made the installation of aftermarket radios more difficult. Aftermarket radios were more or less plug and play in GM cars, fairly close in Fords, and required special filler plates and other modifications in Chrysler products.
Could it be the reason that Chrysler did this?
And, agreed, those Chrysler radios had a tendency to look the cheapest of the big three’s offerings. I personally thought the typical layout of knobs on each side of the tuning dial was both more logical and a better look.
Even in later years, Chrysler radios made it difficult to replace with aftermarket units. I remember my mom replaced the factory AM/FM cassette radio on her ’99 Grand Cherokee with a Blaupunkt unit that had a CD player and it required a large filler panel to fit. At least it wasn’t a late-’90s Taurus with Ford’s “Integrated Control Panel”.
They realized the problem, so
They put a glass like cover on both radio and HVAC control panel with plenty of chrome buttons, even though the shape is identical, it looks so upscale, and usually those are the units get pulled off for sale instead of being thrown away.
So, many Dodge Aspen/Plymouth Volare or even Dodge trucks has a fancy radio surface as a result from upgrade from AM to AM-FM using the Chrysler radio from the period.
Here’s one more I got of the radio. Unfortunately it doesn’t get both knobs, but if you look at the first interior picture above, you can see through the steering wheel that both knobs are side-by-side.
My ’79 St. Regis came with the cheapest looking AM radio I had ever seen. The fact that radios that looked no different also came in the most expensive models was most disappointing. My ’80 Cordoba had the AM-FM 8 track version and it looked no better. Some years ago, I salvaged a wiring harness from an 80’s Daytona and got a AM-FM cassette deck from a very early 90’s LeBaron convertible and retrofitted the harness to the St. Regis and the radio was a direct bolt in. Got quite a few good years out of it and it blended right in with the ’70s interior without looking or sounding cheap.
Where’s the soft Corinthian leather in this example?
The Corinthians were only calves geting daily massages of cocoa butter and aloe vera at this point. You’ll have to wait another year or two.
Love your answer!
I love the acres of white vinyl in the interior of that Newport.
The true thrifty Newport owner might have covered the seats in that Fingerhut clear plastic to protect the vinyl.
The fake wood and plastic chrome thru out the interior?
I like it!. Hey it was the 70’s .
I just want to give ‘er a big hug.
I’m ok with the dashboard – certainly preferable to the mail-slots-in-a-vinyl-wall look of Caddies from this era – except that I don’t get why it’s brown. I’ve seen this on other cars from this era. Why not green to match the paint, or “parchment” like the seats?
Every Mopar with parchment interior I ever saw had a medium brown-ish dash and steering wheel. The parchment color would have been too reflective in the windshield. My 77 NYB had parchment interior, but the dash/wheel was a lighter, richer color of brown than this. Ditto the 73 Dodge van owned by a buddy’s dad. I have to admit that the shade on this dash is sub-optimal with the green paint. But I think it was written in the Chrysler management handbook that there had to be at least one paint/interior combination offered that looked bad together.
I had the same color scheme in the interior of my 1972 Pontiac Grandville. FWIW, the GM version of this dash color also had a fair amount of green undertone, not the greatest color. But, I did very much like the high contrast dash – carpet / interior look that was fairly common in the mid ’70s.
Ditto. Never liked those Cadillac dashes, and the “dimensional” fake wood in those cars makes this stuff look good.
One other treat is the large central glovebox – a return to an idea first launched with the ’65 Chryslers.
I do like these last of the C-bodies. They weren’t very popular back in the day, but they looked more polished and refined than their GM or Ford contemporaries.
Trailer Park Boys on Netflix prominently features old Chrysler metal, here’s the so-called “shitmobile”
I hate to say it, but this era of full size Chrysler immediately makes me think of the Trailer Park Boys as well. At least Ricky had a good size car to live in.
Laheys cream colored Chrysler saddened me though, it started out pretty nice and went to shit through the course of the show.
Thinking back on that show makes me realize it had quite a few cool cars, the drug dealer Corvettes, Julian’s sweet Monte Carlo (except for the cheesy spinner wheel covers), IIRC some 3rd gen F Bodies aswell. Might be time for a rewatch…
Yes, shorn of it’s roof and missing a door, the the latest installment of the franchise (Don’t Legalize It) shows the hapless NY finally in the Sunnyvale boneyard.
The last time this was mentioned, I checked the IMDB page. Evidently the original cream-colored car belonged to one of the actors, but was also used in the show. When the time came for the car in the show to start deteriorating, the one they were using was judged as too nice to trash (plus the actor probably didn’t want his personal car destroyed) so an (almost) visually identical car in much rougher condition was brought in to be sacrificed.
One of the spinoff movies on Netflix for TPB takes place in ’97, so it depicts Lahey’s New Yorker in immaculate condition.
Same with Ricky’s Newport.
Never have seen Trailer Park Boys. Sheesh… I derbied both ’74 and ’75 Newports way way back that were in considerably better shape than that wreck.
you do realize the shitmobile was mint at the beginning of the show!
This one takes me back to College. My roommates parents had one identical to this except in Burgundy and with Parchment Cloth interior and the premier wheel covers like featured on the 77 sedan above . It had the 440 in it and I can remember going somewhere in it and my roommate punching up to 120 mph. I always thought that car was just beautiful and really never saw another quite like it. They traded it for a 78 Sedan similar to the 77 above which was yellow. What a let down!
I had a 77 Sedan also similar to the 77 sedan above except in yellow and with fender skirts. The skirts do make the sedan look so much better. My 77 had the 400 with the dreaded Lean Burn. Liked the way the car rode and handled better than the Big Barges from GM and Ford at the time. Not quite as isolated as particularly the Fords of the day. My Newport got surprisingly good gas mileage for such a large car, much better than the 73 Impala I had before it or the 77 Lincoln Town Car that replaced it. Now if the Lean Burn had worked right the driveability would have been wonderful.
A 74-75 Imperial is one I want for for my dream garage. Fell in love with the waterfall grill and hidden headlights on them.
Lean burn works great!
Remove all the parts that comprise it, plus the cat, adjust timing and the carb.
Plug about a dozen vacuum ports.
Good to go!
Adding a chrome (race) ignition box and some fat plug wires with good plugs is the final touch.
Great car in a great colour. Green has all but disappeared from most carmakers’ palettes these days.
A stately car and much better then the underpowered replacement 79-81
I think the 1978 Newport was the last true American 4 door hard top?
Even though its not my dream `75-78 New Yorker coupe, I would definately take one in this condition.Color options are nice,and its good to see a vinyl interior in this color as opposed to today`s 50 shades of gray mouse fur. No pretentions about this car-its a big cruiser and proud of it. IMHO, these were Chrsler`s best looking cars of the `70s, until downsizing and K Cars hit later on.The end of an era.
Count me as a fan. These Newports have a more premium aura than the GM and Ford competition. The tail lights, however, seem more suited to a Plymouth. The switch in ’76 to the former NYB units was a real improvement.
The excellent dashboard design is marred only by the awful fake wood and the many parts bin pieces. The worst are the rounded-corner vent outlets that appeared in everything from strippo Volares to work vans to Imperials. And was this the last car with a horn ring?
Such a shame these cars bombed thanks to OPEC and an indifferent public.
BTW, can anyone decipher the dealer label on the left side of the trunk lid? The car is registered in my state, and I might remember the dealer.
I adjusted it the best I could and zoomed in as much as possible in iPhoto, and it appears to say “Mullen Motors”.
I googled it and there is a Mullen Motors Chrysler in Southfold, NY. That would be my best guess. This dealer is only about 3.5 hours away from where I found this car, so I wouldn’t be surprised if this car came to Massachusetts in its lifetime.
Thanks for that Brendan. Mullen Motors is alive and well in Southold, NY, a small town at the very eastern end of Long Island. No surprise the car landed in Massachusetts. Here’s a wonderful piece on Mullen Motors:
http://www.autonews.com/article/20120625/VIDEO/306259994/1414/dealer-dick-mullen-at-75-we-dont-play-games-with-customers
Given the demographics of the area and the type of dealer Mullen is, the Newport was probably not the owner’s first Chrysler purchased there. Wouldn’t it be nice if the owner could address the hood ornament issue and affix a new, correct dealer tag to the rear. I bet Mullen has some buried somewhere. I hope that the car doesn’t end up being driven into the ground.
I clearly remember as a 12 year old seeing the last of these C bodies lined up in the sales yard behind the now-defunct South Shore Chrysler-Plymouth of Braintree in August of ’77. The sight of those proud cars has never left me: I knew I was looking at the end of an era. And despite my begging dad to choose a LeBaron, he settled on a Volare Custom.
Thanks for capturing a wonderful car.
Just thinking, considering the Volare custom was shaped into a LeBaron at some point, it’s not that far distant. A compromised traditional luxury with the tried and true V8 ( or Slant Six ) sharing rather close design language inside and out ( when comparing to later K-cars derivatives ) with probably 30% off, at least your dad still got 70%.
South Shore Chrysler-Plymouth; I pass where it once was on Rt. 3 all the time. The Chrysler dealer closed a few years ago, then it became a used car place, and in the last year or two they knocked it down an built a new CVS.
Foley Chrysler-Plymouth in North Quincy met a similar fate. After it closed a while back they knocked it down and built a Walgreen’s. Coincidently, Foley Chrysler-Plymouth was owned by the brother of the priest at our church in Milton when I was a kid (and still went to chruch). Here’s a picture I took of it circa 2006.
Not to mention those oversized rocker power window switches. At least the Imp/NYB kept the small, armrest mounted ones.
Beautiful car, outside and in, even considering the bad fake wood. It just looks classy, and the color combo is most excellent. These hardtops really did hit a nice balance between elegance and sleekness, and as has been said already, are a very natural transition between the fuselage cars and the boxy final R-bodies.
Given the choice I’d prefer the Imperial (I’m a sucker for hidden lamps, plus that waterfall grille) but this Newport Custom could easily earn a place in my driveway!
Nice car
I had a 1971 Dodge pickup that was essentially a 1974 Custom Newport in disguise. It had the entire front subframe, drivetrain, gas tank, steering column, and half the instrument panel from the Chrysler. So the guy who built it didn’t have any problems getting the instruments and such to work as they all came together. The truck had very Chrysler-like handling and plenty of load capacity as the truck body weighed less than the original Newport body had.
Nice article on a nice Newport.
I’m not sure I agree that the model line up was really all that confusing. When this body was introduced for 1974, it followed the model ladder that had been in place since 1972, two trims of Newport, two New Yorkers, Town & Country, and the Imperial LeBaron – marketed as a make, and not a Chrysler model.
I don’t believe that St. Regis in this era was ever anything more then a trim option primarily involving a funky vinyl top treatment on coupes that made fixed opera windows out of the rear side windows. This was Chrysler’s on the cheap response to the sudden proliferation of funky greenhouses at Ford and GM on their two door cars. It was also possible to afflict/bless your Dodge Royal Monaco and Plymouth Gran Fury coupe with this abomination/option, but I don’t believe they called it St. Regis.
If you throw out the Imperial LeBaron as a Chrysler anomaly that was trying to compete with Lincoln and Cadillac, the 1974 Chrysler line-up very much paralleled the model ladders at Mercury, Oldsmobile and Buick, the Chrysler brand’s primary competitors.
Chrysler was trying to do too much with too little, Oldsmobile and Buick both offered long wheelbase models with unique sheet metal aft of the B pillar. So, the fact that a high trim Delta 88 and a base trim Ninety-Eight were similar in luxury and features was mitigated by the fact that the Ninety-Eight was a unique and larger car.
Chrysler gave in to the realities of too much with too little almost each year during this body’s run. The low trim New Yorker was too similar to the Newport Custom, and was cancelled for 1975. The Imperial LeBaron and New Yorker Brougham were too similar and the Imperial LeBaron was cancelled for 1976. New Yorker Brougham lost it’s four door sedan sometime after 1975, Newport lost it’s four door sedan, probably after 1976, Town & Country was cancelled after 1977. The very last of these big cars was 1978, reduced to Newport in two and four door hardtops and New Yorker Brougham in two and four door hardtops.
The 1974 Chrysler line up….
Newport
Newport Custom
New Yorker
New Yorker Brougham
Town & Country wagon.
The 1974 Oldsmobile line up…
Delta 88
Delta 88 Royale
Ninety-Eight *Cancelled for 1975
Ninety-Eight LS
Ninety-Eight Regency
Custom Cruiser wagon
The 1974 Buick line up…
LeSabre
LeSabre Luxus
Electra 225 *Cancelled for 1975
Electra 225 Custom
Electra 225 Limited
Estate Wagon wagon
The 1974 Mercury line up….
Monterey
Monterey Custom
Marquis
Marquis Brougham
Colony Park wagon *Part of the Marquis family
While there a number of quirks and technicalities, the mid price brands were generally fielding a 5 car line up of large cars in the mid 1970s This pattern persisted at GM into the 1980s.
This 1978 Chrysler brochure page explains St. Regis……
This 1978 Newport coupe does not have the St. Regis treatment, but it is noted as an option……
Good points. There was also the Newport Royal, which started in ’71 as a stripper Newport, then became the base Newport along with the Newport Custom for ’72-’73, a net cut of two models in the lineup, as both the Newport and the 300 disappeared. It was re-badged Newport for ’74.
Nice car, I always find felt the 1974-78 Chrysler Newport’s to be very underrated cars that weren’t commonly seen, for some reason I prefer the Newport’s with the vertical taillights over the horizontal taillights, I would probably rank the 1974-78 Chrysler Newport/New Yorker to be ranked my second favorite full sized car (pre-downsized models) after the 1975-78 Mercury Marquis, I agree these cars looked so far better in hardtop form than the pillared sedan form where as I’ve thought Dodge and Plymouth of the same period looked better in the pillared sedan form
For some odd reason the 5mph bumpers on these cars looked a lot better than the 5mph bumpers on the Ford’s and especially GM model’s, I wish the full sized Chrysler’s of the mid to late 70’s were better sellers.
You feel like grabbing the GM and Ford designers by the shirtfront, dragging them over to look at one of these, and screaming in their earhole “Look, moron! How hard can it be!!!”
Well done indeed. Kudos to Chrysler.
Exactly! What they lacked in beauty, they more than made up for in engineering. Most Mopar cars used torsion bars and leaf springs for suspension rather than coil springs.
Despite my inexplicable attraction to full-sized Mercurys from the same time period, I might almost prefer one of these instead. This one hits a lot of sweet spots and these just have a less portly appearance than the Ford or GM competition.
One item of interest on Chryslers of this era is the power window switches are mounted vertically when (I believe) Ford and GM had them mounted horizontally, which just seems to be easier to use. It almost appears the window switches were an afterthought on these when it would seem it should have been a more primary consideration.
If I’m understanding you correctly, could it be because lower Newports didn’t receive the same door panels with full-length armrest that New Yorkers did? When lower models were equipped with power windows, I believe they just put the switch in the location of the manual crank. Here’s a ’76 New Yorker Brougham’s door panel, with longer armrest and the window switches mounted on it.
One item of interest on Chryslers of this era is the power window switches are mounted vertically when (I believe) Ford and GM had them mounted horizontally,
It wasn’t just a Chrysler thing. It really depended on model and trim level. New Yorkers and Imperials had the window switches mounted at the end of the armrest while the Newport had them roughly where the crank would have been. A loaded up Caprice or Delta 88 of that era had the switches mounted vertically, while a 98, Electra or Cadillac had them horizontal.
Another one I distinctly remember was the 77-79 LTD II vs the T-Bird. LTD IIs, even with the Brougham package with split bench seats identical to the T-Bird’s, got the window switches where the crank would normally be and the power locks were operated by lifting or pressing down on the plunger. All T-Birds got full length armrests with the window and lock switches mounted at the end. There was a blank metal plate (or with just the remote mirror control) if power locks and/or windows weren’t ordered.
I vaguely recall reviewers bitching about Chrysler’s driver horizontal power window main gang switch. I think the problem was Chrysler, more than Ford or GM, tended to use that type switch unless you were way up the food chain (like all the way up to the Imperial). While Ford and GM did on their lower-tier models, too, more often than not, a competing model Chrysler would have the lower-tier unit, while the equivalent Ford and GM products would have them integrated into the armrest. Seems like even the New Yorker didn’t get the integrated units until way late in the game.
What I’ve always liked about Mopar cars, particularly throughout the 1970s is that they continued to use gauges for the instrument cluster, rather than warning lights. Warning lights are a fine supplement to the gauges, but I feel they are a poor substitute.
These gauges were the best of both worlds – you got the full readout of the gauge for fuel, amps and temp, plus a LED that glowed red when the gauge needle went to the wrong end, so as to grab the attention of the folks who couldn’t be bothered to watch the indicators. I am not sure anyone else ever did this.
I agree. LEDs are a good supplement to the gauges, to get people’s attention, like “hey! Something’s going on here! I need attention!” I don’t know why General Motors and Ford felt the need to substitute gauges with warning lights. Lights may get people’s attention, but gauges, needle gauges, actually shows you what’s going on. 🙂
Why = $$ …
Are needle gauges more expensive than warning lights?
’91-’96 Buick Park Avenues (and LeSabres from a slightly later but overlapping time frame) with the optional full gauge package had all four of the small gauges backed up by nearby LEDs (usually red, but yellow/amber for low fuel). There was also a larger speedo and tach, plus a long strip of warning lights across the top of the dash several inches back from everything else. My dad drove a ’95 Park Avenue; I loved that arrangement.
Thanks Brendan for this article. I’ve always been in love with the ’70 – ’72 C bodies (and ’73 Fury’s) but these later ones had faded in to my periphery until I started seeing a couple here and there at Mopar events recently and I had forgotten (or maybe never really noticed) how nice they are. I love the sharp cuts and rolled under shapes of the lower body sides which were reminescent of Oldsmobile A, B and C bodies from a little earlier. I know those rolled sides are a huge waste of space but I really wish we could have a little form with our function in today’s cars.
The four-door hardtops had the most beautiful greenhouses of any full-size car in the 70s. And the two-doors were particularly handsome with the canopy vinyl roofs and opera windows – a refreshing change from Landau roofs.
I’ve never been a fan of hardtops. They may look attractive, and visibility is better, since there’s no pillar to obstruct vision out the side. The problem is that there’s no protection in the event of a roll-over accident.
It’s pretty damn difficult to roll something that long, low, and wide over. Personally, I’ll take that chance.
Put me down as another who loves this! Pinnacle of traditional American auto manufacturing – in design, if not execution.
It’s a decent car for a large 4 door sedan (which I seem to like better than small FWD 4 door sedans) but back in the mid ’70s I preferred the Chevrolet Impala and Ford LTD for full sized sedans. I especially liked the Ford LTD. Perhaps because it was used on so many TV shows back then.
Well this is a catastrophe.
I was going to post pics of my very first car which happens to be a green 69 Newport 2door w/440, 727, and dana limited slip, but it seems my pics are nowhere to be found. I am missing that car even more now that I can’t find any pics of it to look at.
My great aunt Berta had a 1975 New Yorker Brougham in this exact exterior color combo, though her interior was dark green. This interior trim style was offered in the Newport starting in ’76, so the model shuffling confusion hit both inside and out. As for Berta’s New Yorker, the car was not Chrysler’s finest. She only had it for 2 years and it had a number of issues–her first really “bad” Chrysler after a long run of reasonably good ones. The green color was very nice though, I remember we all liked it a lot.
OMG, it LIVES………..
When I was 18, and didn’t know about cars, as I do, now… I owned one of these land yachts. The one I owned, was a green 1977 Newport hardtop with green vinyl roof, with old Spanish style, paisley print green interior.
This POS was greener than the Incredible Hulk… and even bigger than his ass. lol
By far the WORST car, I’ve owned… and I’ve owned more than 80.
Sad, because I was raised with Mopars… and that was the ONLY Mopar I owned. It had the 400V8 and to get it running I had the previous owner come out to jump start the beast… which it only started ONCE in 15 times of trying to bring the POS to life.
Funny, the guy owned a yellow Volvo 144… and we know THOSE cars never have a problem starting.
When we finally got it running, I drove it to the nearest gas station, and put $8 in it… mind you this is back in 1988, when you can put $8 in a giant Chrysler and it would actually put some gas in the tank. lol
After I put the gas in the car, and attempted to drive away… the car had 2nd thoughts, and didn’t do a thing… come to find out when it was towed away and spent 3 days in the shop… the timing chain snapped.
I was homeless at the time, and ended up sleeping in that car on the COLDEST of winters… like I could afford to lose that $8, with my current circumstances. lol
Now, you know my hatred for that rolling piece of Lean Burn V8(what a JOKE) garbage.
I eventually, found the courage to believe in myself and move to Cape Cod and found a job and apartment… prior to that, I bought a bus ticket, left the Newport on that street and never looked back.
Late 50s – Early 60s Cadillacs also had radios with both knobs on the left. It must have been exclusive to Caddy as I can’t recall it on Buicks of the era.
I meant to write LATE 60’s I think Cadillac had the oddball radio layout from 1959 to 1968.
I loved the New Yorker of this vintage.
I too miss the wide selection of colors that were offered.
And the interior colors we have now are awful – grey, tan, and the latest craze – dark grey/black with dog brown inserts.
Oh,Man you’re right on the Gray/Dog Crap thing!!! I almost lost my Lucky Charms thinking about it! LOL!
Learn something new every day when I come here. I’d never heard of a ‘Lean Burn’ 400 CID/V8 from Chrysler before today. I gathered they all didn’t work well.
Reading about gauges and idiot lights . . . I have four total in my ’64 Falcon sedan. There’s 2 gauges (FUEL and TEMP) and two ‘idiot’ lights (OIL and GEN).
The horn ring looks anachronistic. But highly functional; why exactly did these disappear?
Nice looking car though the waterfall grille and hidden headlamps on the high-end trims was so much more elegant.
A great reread of a car I under-appreciated at the time. I can’t imagine how complicated it was for the manufacturers to offer 7 different interior colors! I think the only car from my younger years that had an uncommon (for these days) interior was my ‘69 light blue Galaxie with a blue interior. Personally I like darker interiors, and the last couple of cars I’ve joined the ever so trendy brown seats club.
While the limited interior choices probably started with the ‘70s Japanese invasion and American subcompacts/compacts, I could see where it saves a lot of money and complications for the manufacturers.
These cars never made it to limo duty, and were too upscale for taxi duty, and nobody would ever rent one of these at an airport if on vacation, much anyway. So they didn’t get much visibility. Toronto police were using Furys then, and the upper echelon police dept guys (yes all guys) mostly drove these Chryslers. I thought they were handsome cars, clean designs, great looking when I saw them out on the roads.
A friend had a ’75 one of these, (or a New Yorker) and also later a well used ’77. Unfortunately one of those caught fire while he was tooling around town and was written off.
My Dad had a blue with white top. Brings back lot a great memories back to 1975 before cell phones & the internet. A time as a kid when I could tell what kind of car was coming up the street. A Pontiac, Lincoln, Cadillac, Oldsmobile… now they all look alike.