In 1966, Chrysler-Plymouth tried to join the lucrative budget luxury segment established by the Ford LTD with a well-trimmed new full-size model called the Plymouth VIP. The VIP was a spectacular flop, selling only 67,252 cars in four model years, and its greatest rival turned out to be neither the LTD nor the Chevrolet Caprice, but its own cousin, the Chrysler Newport. Let’s take a look at the 1968 VIP and a 1968 Newport to see how they compare.
The LTD and Caprice have been covered at some length on Curbside Classic — from a commercial standpoint, they were among the most significant and successful domestic cars of the ’60s, launching what Paul has dubbed “The Great Brougham Epoch.” Mechanically, they were nothing special: A Caprice was substantially the same as a contemporary Chevrolet Impala save in styling and trim, while the LTD was a fancier Ford Galaxie with extra sound insulation and a plusher interior. However, the better-trimmed models proved very popular and extremely profitable, a reflection of rising incomes that left American consumers increasingly susceptible to upselling of the “for just a few dollars more a month …” variety.
1968 Plymouth VIP four-door hardtop in Sunfire Yellow / LVSMotorcars
Plymouth still competed with Ford and Chevrolet, although its share of the full-size market in this period was rather feeble, so it was no surprise that they would want to get in on the action. It was apparent that the LTD and Caprice were raking in cash by the bushelful, and the investment for this kind of thing was pretty low, so why not?
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan in Forest Green Metallic / Druk Auto Sales
The problem with this plan was that Plymouth had really never ceased to be a “companion make.” By the ’60s, it was no longer paired with Dodge or the defunct De Soto brand, but it WAS still paired with Chrysler, and Chrysler still had its own entry-level model, the Newport, which was priced (according to the 1968 brochure) “down around the low-priced cars” while offering the greater prestige of an upper-middle-class brand. This left the VIP wedged into a very narrow price range between the Fury III V-8 and the Newport. The Ford LTD and Chevrolet Caprice also competed with mid-price rivals, but at least in the U.S., they usually didn’t have to share showroom space with them, avoiding invidious comparisons.
1968 Plymouth VIP four door hardtop — starting at $3,326 / LVSMotorcars
In putting together this post, I realized that the price-crowding at Chrysler-Plymouth was considerably worse that I had previous thought. For years, I had been misled by Standard Catalog of American Cars 1946–1975, whose Chrysler retail prices for this period indicate a decent-size gap between the VIP and the Newport — for instance, they show a $479 difference between the base prices of a 1966 VIP four-door hardtop and a Newport in the same body style. However, I discovered that contemporary sources, like Automotive Industries, show a much, much smaller difference: just $57!
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan — starting at $3,306 / Druk Auto Sales
For 1968, the year of the yellow and green cars pictured in this post, I was able to consult the contemporary salesman’s pocket guides (which you can find at the 1970 Hamtramck Registry, along with a variety of other interesting material). These indicate that the original base price of the Sunfire Yellow VIP four-door door hardtop was $3,326, while the Forest Green Metallic Newport four-door sedan was $3,306 — $20 less than the four-door VIP. If the Newport had been a four-door hardtop, it would have listed for $3,444, a difference of $118. That wasn’t much room to maneuver at all, especially when the cars themselves were so similar.
1968 Plymouth VIP four door hardtop — 213 inches long on a 119-inch wheelbase / LVSMotorcars
(If you’re wondering, there was nothing particularly noteworthy about the 1968 model year — I selected it for the very prosaic reason these cars are no longer common, and it took some searching to find presentable survivors from the same model year with comparable photos.)
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan — 219.2 inches long on a 124-inch wheelbase / Druk Auto Sales
The 1968 Plymouth VIP was 213 inches long on a 119-inch wheelbase, while the 1968 Chrysler Newport was 219.2 inches long on a 124-inch wheelbase. However, this size difference had very little impact on interior room.
1968 Plymouth VIP four door hardtop / LVSMotorcars
According to the specifications, a Newport four-door sedan did have 2 inches more rear legroom than a four-door Plymouth Fury sedan, but the VIP wasn’t available as a pillared sedan, and the interior room of the four-door hardtop body styles was identical. (The more upright C-pillars of the sedan roof enabled the rear seat to be shifted farther back, as will become obvious from the exterior photos.)
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
Because the VIP was the top-of-the-line Plymouth while the Newport was at the bottom of its respective ladder, the VIP came with a few extra features, like a front center armrest, foam seat cushions, and a glove box lamp, which weren’t included on the Newport.
1968 Plymouth VIP four door hardtop / LVSMotorcars
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
The Plymouth also a clock, a coolant temperature gauge, and an ammeter, with the usual inverted-U-shaped speedometer:
1968 Plymouth VIP / LVSMotorcars
The Chrysler had a horizontal speedometer and an ammeter, but no temperature gauge, for whatever reason. There was space for a clock, but it was a $19.05 option on the Newport, and the green car doesn’t have it.
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
On the other hand, the Newport came with the 383-2V engine, with 290 gross horsepower, while the VIP had the standard 318, with 230 gross hp.
1968 Chrysler Newport with the standard 383-2V engine / Druk Auto Sales
You couldn’t order a Newport with the 318, but the 383-2 engine was optional on the VIP for $69.70. (The more powerful 383-4V and 440 engines were available on both the VIP and the Newport, but they cost extra either way.) TorqueFlite automatic was technically optional on both cars, although very few went without it. A four-speed manual was optional on the VIP with the 383-4V or 440 engine, but it went into fewer than 600 full-size Plymouths in 1967 and wasn’t available at all the Chrysler.
1968 Plymouth VIP with the standard 318-2V engine / LVSMotorcars
With its bright trim and “three castles” motif, the Newport didn’t look particularly down-market inside, even if its features were a bit sparser than the VIP’s.
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan with wind-up windows / Druk Auto Sales
1968 Plymouth VIP four-door hardtop with power windows and remote mirror / LVSMotorcars
You’ll notice that the yellow VIP has power windows and air conditioning, while the Newport has neither. Looking at the salesman’s pocket handbooks reveals that the markup on optional equipment was noticeably higher on the Chrysler than on the Plymouth. Ordering Air-Temp air conditioning and power windows would cost you a total of $511.35 on the Newport, but only $450.50 on the VIP. If you wanted a fully equipped car, the VIP would be a little cheaper despite the similarity in base prices. Of course, that just gave the salesperson more incentive to try talk you into a Newport!
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
1968 Plymouth VIP four-door hardtop / LVSMotorcars
Both cars could be ordered with leather trim, for $104.20 on the Plymouth, $189.80 on the Chrysler, but I don’t know that it was very common.
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
1968 Plymouth VIP four-door hardtop with air conditioning / LVSMotorcars
While I think the Plymouth has the better instrument panel, the Newport dashboard does look more upscale. The tan Jacquard cloth upholstery at least looks richer than the VIP’s vinyl-bolstered black cloth, although the latter’s foam-padded seats might be preferable in comfort.
1968 Plymouth VIP four door hardtop / LVSMotorcars
Rear legroom on the four-door VIP was tight for a car this size, a consequence of the sloped hardtop roof forcing the rear seat to be mounted farther forward.
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
The Newport was noticeably roomier in back, but that was due to its more upright roof rather than its longer wheelbase. A Newport four-door hardtop would be no roomier than the VIP in back.
1968 Plymouth VIP four door hardtop / LVSMotorcars
There wasn’t much to choose between them in trunk space either. Curiously, Chrysler only quoted usable luggage volume for the four-door hardtop, while Plymouth listed only the four-door sedan, but I suspect that the most significant difference in practical terms would be that the Plymouth had a usefully lower liftover height.
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
Both of these cars have power drum brakes, although front discs were optional by 1968, listing for $72.95 on the Plymouth, $73.85 on the Chrysler.
1968 Plymouth VIP four door hardtop / LVSMotorcars
Buyers in this period rarely specified discs if they weren’t standard. Automotive Industries survey data indicates than in 1968, overall installation rates for the front discs were only 4.1 percent for the full-size Plymouth, 8.4 percent for the Chrysler line. (These figures were unfortunately not broken out by trim series.)
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
If Plymouth had had independent dealerships, as its fans have often insisted it should have, the VIP would almost certainly have done better. Some of that might have been at the expense of the Fury III and Sport Fury rather than meaningfully expanding Plymouth market share — according to AMA figures, the full-size Plymouth had only 3.39 percent of the U.S. market in 1968, compared to 9.41 percent for the full-size Ford and 14.72 percent for the full-size Chevrolet line — but since the VIP was certainly more profitable on a unit basis, that wouldn’t have been a terrible outcome.
However, when placed in the same showrooms as the Chrysler Newport, the VIP simply made no sense. If you wanted a well-optioned hardtop, the VIP was potentially a little cheaper, but if your budget could stretch that far, the dealer had every incentive to try to sell you a Newport instead, to take advantage of the bigger margins on Chrysler options. The VIP also had lower resale values than the Newport. Unless you just liked the Plymouth styling better or really wanted a 318 rather than one of the bigger engines, the VIP lacked a unique selling proposition.
Model Year Production, Chrysler Newport, Plymouth VIP, Chevrolet Caprice, and Ford LTD, 1966–1969
Totals exclude station wagons
Faced with that choice, it’s clear that contemporary Chrysler-Plymouth shoppers were often swayed by the additional cachet of the Chrysler badge, as above chart illustrates. Here’s a production breakout in tabular form:
| 1966 | 1967 | 1968 | 1969 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Chrysler | |||||
| Newport 4D sedan | 74,964 | 48,945 | 61,436 | 55,083 | |
| Newport 4D Town Sedan | 9,432 | — | — | — | |
| Newport 2HT | 37,622 | 26,583 | 36,768 | 33,639 | |
| Newport 4HT | 24,966 | 14,247 | 20,191 | 20,608 | |
| Newport convertible | 3,085 | 2,891 | 2,847 | 2,169 | |
| Newport, total | 150,069 | 92,666 | 121,242 | 111,499 | |
| Plymouth | |||||
| VIP, 2HT Fast Top | 12,058 | 7,912 | 6,768 | 1,059 | |
| VIP, 2HT | — | — | — | 4,740 | |
| VIP, 4HT | 5,158 | 10,830 | 10,745 | 7,982 | |
| VIP, total | 17,216 | 18,742 | 17,513 | 13,781 | |
| Chevrolet | |||||
| Caprice Custom Coupe | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Caprice Custom Sedan | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | |
| Caprice, total | 181,000 | 124,500 | 115,500 | 166,900 | |
| Ford | |||||
| LTD, 2HT | 31,696 | 46,036 | 54,163 | 111,565 | |
| LTD, 4HT | 69,400 | 51,978 | 61,755 | 113,168 | |
| LTD, 4D sedan | — | 12,491 | 22,834 | 63,709 | |
| LTD, total | 101,096 | 110,505 | 138,752 | 288,442 | |
Brand hierarchy purists and Plymouth diehards might argue that the VIP was a perfect opportunity to shift Chrysler further upmarket to better maintain its prestige, leaving the lower end to Plymouth. However, that was always a difficult argument to make with dealers and salespeople. The Newport was a volume seller — it accounted for 45.8 percent of 1968 Chrysler sales — and the margins on Newport sales were higher than on VIP sales. Trying to tell franchise-holders that they should sacrifice a chunk of their bread and butter for the sake of some platonic ideal of brand positioning has often been a tough sell, and there was no guarantee that a dealer would make a bigger profit selling more VIPs and fewer Newports.
1968 Chrysler Newport four-door sedan / Druk Auto Sales
This close comparison of the Newport and VIP really emphasizes what a disaster the VIP was from a product planning standpoint. It wasn’t a bad car, if you liked late ’60s Chrysler C-bodies, and its value proposition relative to its cheaper siblings wasn’t much different from an LTD or a Caprice, but its price position relative to the Newport was so disastrous that I’m honestly surprised Plymouth sold as many as they did. Chrysler Corporation had managed a true retail pratfall: a product that customers had little reason to buy and salespeople had no reason to sell.
Related Reading
Dawn Of The Brougham Epoch: 1965 – 1966 Ford LTD, Chevrolet Caprice, Plymouth VIP, Ambassador DPL – The New Low-Cost Luxury Options Of The Mid Sixties (by Rich Baron)
Curbside Classic: 1968 Chrysler Newport – Da Garage Is In Debasement (by Jason Shafer)
Curbside Classic: 1968 Chrysler Newport – My Fountain Of Youth (by J P Cavanaugh)
Car Show Classic: 1966 Plymouth VIP – Playing Hard to Get (The Parts, Anyway) (by Jim Grey)
Curbside Classic: 1967 Plymouth VIP – Very Important Plymouth Or Footnote To The Great Brougham Epoch? (by Tom Kockau)
Curbside Classic: 1965 Ford LTD – It Launched The Great Brougham Epoch (by Paul N)
Curbside Classic: 1965 Chevrolet Caprice – The LTD Reaction (by Paul N)
1965 Chevrolet Caprice Vs. 1965 Buick Electra 225 Custom – Working-Class Luxury Takes On The Establishment (by me)
In profile VIP wins. The skirts and dark green color makes the Newport appear ponderous. The yellow color and chrome strip are much more appealing to me.
The Newport sedan definitely looks starchier, although from the sales figures, I get the impression that buyers didn’t necessarily consider that a bad thing. It made it seem more dignified, I guess.
Color giveth and taketh away, this Newport’s golden-tan interior looks a lot more inviting and luxurious than the VIP’s all-black one.
And if you wanted a sleek big car in ’65-’68 you’d probably be shopping GM.
I remember how thin VIPs were on the ground in their day, but I had never understood just how poorly they sold. This was eye-opening. Maybe this is why I never noticed the side trim on the 68 VIP, which looks awkward to me, having to follow some of the odd body sculpting.
I think there is another problem the VIP had to overcome – for decades there had been less differentiation among Chrysler’s brands than among those at GM (and even between Ford and Mercury, in many years). The big Plymouth and the big Chrysler were, for all practical purposes, the same car, right down most of the engine choices. Mopar buyers always understood this, and also understood that a Chrysler was a far “better” car than the Plymouth, just because of the brand name.
I noticed one trivial oddity on the green Newport – the fender skirt on the passenger side (I cannot make out the other one) is from a Newport Custom, which carried the ribbed rocker trim up onto the bottoms of the doors. That skirt has the tall Custom molding instead of the shorter regular Newport molding, and they don’t line up.
Good eye — I hadn’t noticed that, but you’re right. It’s just on the one side; if you look at the sale listing, there are closeups of both, and the other lines up as I assume it should.
The really odd thing is that the big Dodges, although they didn’t have showroom competition, sold drastically worse than the Plymouth Fury. The Fury outsold them by over 2:1.
Those sales numbers are dramatic. Newport was in the same range as Caprice and LTD, while VIP was down in the area formerly occupied by DeSoto. If I looked at those numbers without knowing anything about the brands, I’d automatically assume that the Chrysler was the low-priced brand and the Plymouth was the luxury brand.
I wonder if buyers compared the base price of a VIP vs. Newport and concluded “buy the more prestigious brand with the higher resale value”, not even noticing that the Plymouth would cost significantly less once both cars were optioned up. I find that an odd pricing strategy – make it look like these two cars are priced similarly and hide the higher prices in the options.
You can really see the difference in rear seat placement in these photos – in the post sedan the seatback is an inch behind the door opening, but in the hardtop it interferes with the door opening by a couple of inches. The hardtop also has the front edge of the rear seat cushion cut diagonally to make it easier to swing your legs in or out of the car, which isn’t necessary on the sedan.
The additional option markup is not huge, so you might not notice it unless you could compared the prices side by side, but an extra 5–10 percent on everything does add up quickly. It wasn’t so odd insofar as the option prices were largely the same across the Chrysler line, so if you ordered power windows and air conditioning on a Newport, it cost the same as it would on a New Yorker or a 300. (The accessory group prices were a little different because some minor features were standard on the pricier models, but Chrysler was rather tight-fisted on that, so it wasn’t a big difference.)
I believe 1968 was the last year for stacked headlights on the Plymouth and Cadillac. It was only a 5 year fad, I realize there were some cars in the 50’s that had them but they didn’t start the fad, the ’63 Pontiac did.
Brand debasement alert – the sales figures showed a huge spike in Ford LTD sales for 1969. That was due to the LTD being significantly decontented into Galaxie 500 “territory” while the LTD Brougham was added to be the full-fat model.
Great comparison analysis as always, Aaron. Thank you!
Interesting, how the VIP offers a significant preview of the next year Fuselage-era styling. Particularly in their profile, and proportions. On more modern styling alone, the VIP has an advantage over the Newport. For owners who value such characteristics. Newport appears very serious and dated.
At the same time, the Newport appears to have a more refined, and generally more attractive interior.
One thing that probably hurt their sales was that they had the same engines and transmissions. GM at this time allowed each division to have their own engines and transmissions.
A friend had a ’72 Newport four door sedan and I was amazed at the rear knee room, thinking it was due to longer wheelbase than “low priced three”. Two inches does not sound like much until you experience it. Best example is coach airline seats. The difference between 29 and 31 inch seat pitch feels huge.
I think the VIP is missing fender skirts.
It seems so. The brochure suggests that both the VIP and Fury III had skirts (the Sport Fury and Fury I and II didn’t). Because the skirt trim was series-specific (the skirts on the Newport are mismatched, as noted above), I imagine finding a matched set is a pain if one is damaged or lost, which would encourage more people to remove them.
Unfortunately, these cars don’t appear to be frequently preserved, so non-brochure photos of survivors that haven’t been obviously rat-rodded are not abundant.
The Newport had gravitas and that Chrysler name. It was a very cost-effective way to step out and above the low-price market in terms of image. And it looked a whole lot better, with that distinctive ’65-’68 Chrysler style. It exuded solidity (even if it might not have been perfectly so) and competence. There would have been no question as to which I would have chosen.
I prefer the exterior styling of the Plymouth, but the interior seat design of the Chrysler. If the Plymouth had put in the Chrysler seats, but kept their own instrument panel plus all the goodies (power windows, air conditioning), I think the VIP would have sold better.
I find it unusual that the red speedometer needle on the Chrysler sweeps across from left to right above the numbers rather than below. That’s opposite of the setup on the Plymouth.
I don’t like the stacked headlights on the VIP, so the Newport for me.
Thanks again for this comparison. The level of detail is something I truly appreciate, as I can now better understand the rationale utlized by car buyers in the late ’60s who overwhelmingly chose the Newport over the VIP (or any other Fury).
In this case, I find the VIP to appear younger looking and fresher than the rather stodgy Chrysler, but were I in the market in 1968 for a full-sized Mopar, I would probably have ended up with the Chrysler for most of the reasons discussed here.
And to those who noted that the GM competitors were more stylish, I would generally agree, however, the 1967-68 GM full-size offerings were just too bulbous, bloated, and ponderous for my tastes and seemed more like a caricature of the cleaner-lined 1965-66 models. Ford’s 1968 models were a miss in my opinion, coming after a really handsome 1967 Galaxie/LTD and Mercury was always a little too roccoco for me. The Chryslers and Plymouths were certainly more consistent in their angularity during the entire 1965-68 period and there was a certain solidity to their lines that I find appealing.
Keep in mind that the VIP was just the top of five full-size Plymouth trim series in this period. If you just liked the Plymouth styling, you could get a Fury III four-door hardtop for $259 less than the VIP. Lots of people did, as the Fury III 4HT outsold the VIP version 45,147 to 10,745.
(Photo via Fast Lane Classic Cars.)
I wonder what your extra $259 (not an insignificant sum for 1968) netted you in a VIP over the Fury III. If it wasn’t much, that, alone, could go a long way to explaining the big difference in sales between the two.
As to the Chrysler’s stodgy styling, with the exception of punching a hole in the quarter panels for the mandated 1968 side marker lights, it looks like the Newport’s sheetmetal is identical from 1965 through 1968. The front fenders even look identical since the front side marker lights went into the front bumper.
The Fury, OTOH, got a major sheetmetal refresh for 1967.