By the late ’70s, America’s love affair with hardtops was winding down. A few two-door hardtops would linger for a while longer, but the lineage of the American four-door pillarless hardtop ended in 1978 with the last of the really jumbo-size Chryslers: the Newport and the New Yorker Brougham.
Chrysler offered four-door hardtops for 22 years, from 1956 through 1978. During much of that time, this body style was often the preferred choice of domestic luxury car buyers. For certain periods, high-end marques like Cadillac actually abandoned pillared four-door sedans completely to field all-hardtop lineups.
Like Cadillac, Chrysler’s posh Imperial line offered no pillared models from 1970 to 1975. The 1976–1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham — which, as its fans know, was really just an de-contented Imperial — remained hardtop-only, although the cheaper Chrysler Newport offered both pillared and pillarless four-door models through 1977.
By then, this once-popular body style was nearing extinction. Some other domestic automakers still called their four-door models hardtops, or “pillared hardtops,” but the number of true pillarless hardtop models was diminishing industry-wide. Ford went the pillared hardtop road first, on both its full-size and midsize cars. GM dropped its pillarless intermediates with the 1973 Colonnade lines, and its full-size four-door hardtops disappeared after 1976.
There were a couple of reasons for that. One was federal safety standards. Unlike convertibles, which were only saved from extinction by court order, there was no single “hardtop-killer” regulation: Both two- and four-door hardtop models got side-guard door beams to meet Federal Motor Vehicle Safety Standard (FMVSS) No. 214, and the survival of these Chryslers is evidence that they also passed the FMVSS 208 rollover injury and FMVSS 216 roof crush resistance tests. However, having fixed B-pillars obviously made compliance with these safety rules easier, while also improving rigidity and side window sealing. Four-door hardtops, especially cheaper ones, had never excelled in those areas, another reason this style was becoming passe.
Hardtop roofs had also tended to sacrifice passenger space for style. This had less to do with the lack of B-pillars than with the shape of the roof: Hardtop body styles tended to have exaggerated rear window slope, which in turn tended to push the rear seat forward in order to maintain adequate headroom.
On these huge Chrysler four-door hardtops, the lengthy 123.9-inch wheelbase meant rear legroom didn’t suffer to any meaningful degree. However, considering the size of these cars — the Newport was 227.1 inches long, the New Yorker Brougham 231.0 inches — their interior room wasn’t as extravagant as the space they took up on the road.
For a long time, that had been a selling point. Cars like these were aimed at people who regarded conspicuous consumption as a point of pride, even in the “low-priced three.” When they were new, these models appealed most strongly to Americans of “the Greatest Generation,” who were then in their 50s or older. They had lived through the Great Depression, and while they might have fretted about high gas prices during the 1973–1974 oil embargo, they were not that interested in scrimping.
The Newport wasn’t even a particularly expensive car for 1978. This particular example is Canadian, with Alberta license plates, but when it was built in May 1978, the U.S. base price of a Newport four-door hardtop was $5,802, which was within a few dollars of a Chevrolet Caprice Classic V-8 and $171 cheaper than a four-door Ford LTD Landau.
The New Yorker Brougham was a different story. This was after all an Imperial in exile, and it started at around $2,000 more than a Newport. With the usual load of options, it listed for well over $10,000 — closer to $11,000 with leather upholstery — putting it in the same realm as a Cadillac Sedan de Ville or Lincoln Continental.
It may have relinquished its premium badge (although Chrysler had never had much luck getting people to stop referring to the Imperial as the “Chrysler Imperial” anyway), and if prestige was a priority, the obvious commonality with the Newport didn’t do it any favors, but the New Yorker Brougham had all the expected luxuries, including those overstuffed Imperial seats.
Some people love these seats, but some contemporary reviewers (in particular Road Test) had complained that these seats weren’t as comfortable as they looked, seeming to hit the back in all the wrong spots. I’ve never driven one of these big Chryslers and my seat time in them is too limited to really judge, although they certainly LOOK inviting in a sofa-in-the-den kind of way.
Between their size, their plushness, and their four-door hardtop configuration, both the Newport and the New Yorker Brougham were full-fat, jumbo-size indulgences of a kind that was soon to fade away for good. Chrysler proudly proclaimed them “full-sized motoring on a magnificent scale,” but with the success of the downsized GM full-size cars and the new federal Corporate Average Fuel Economy rules (which first took effect for 1978), the writing was on the wall. Chrysler and Ford hadn’t downsized their big cars yet, but that was imminent, and most contemporary buyers knew it.
The downsized R-body Newport and New Yorker arrived for 1979, shortened and narrowed to bring them down to about the size of the GM C-bodies. Chrysler called the new R-body four-door a pillared hardtop, but it was a sedan for all intents and purposes.
The reasoning was easy to see. The R-body had a 5.4-inch-shorter wheelbase, so to maintain headroom and legroom, the old hardtop’s sloping rear window had to go; the new sedan wasn’t actually taller than the outgoing hardtops, but it LOOKED taller. Weight needed to come down (by almost half a ton in the case of the New Yorker), so the extra structural bracing needed for a pillarless four-door hardtop was now an unjustifiable luxury. The two-door was dropped completely because the outgoing version had sold poorly.
The R-body Chrysler was still big (221.5 inches overall) and plush, especially in overdecorated New Yorker Fifth Avenue form, but no longer so indulgent. Sales picked up briefly for 1979 — Newport sales doubled — and then collapsed, a victim of a renewed energy crisis and Chrysler’s very public financial problems. Chrysler pulled the plug after 1981.
I don’t know if anyone in 1978 really mourned the demise of the domestic four-door hardtop. Contemporary magazine reviewers generally cheered the lighter, more rationally sized, more efficient downsized models, and saw the bigger older models as dinosaurs, too cumbersome and way too heavy on gas. These weren’t enthusiast cars, so there were no anguished valedictories from the buff books, and Chrysler’s being the last brand standing in the four-door hardtop field hadn’t inspired any get-’em-before-they’re-gone last-minute sales rushes. Chrysler sold only 26,873 New Yorker Brougham and 24,089 Newport four-door hardtops for 1978. Most used car buyers weren’t crazy about cars like these either; the creaks, rattles, clanks, and wind leaks of a well-worn four-door hardtop made this body style most attractive to buyers who traded in often. It wasn’t until they had largely disappeared that they were really missed, and they still don’t have the following of two-door hardtops and convertibles.
Still, looking at these cars with modern eyes, I find the New Yorker Brougham four-door hardtop the most attractive of the 1978 size-XXL luxury league from an exterior styling standpoint, and its pillarless roof was definitely part of that.
By comparison, I find the contemporary Lincoln Town Car way too starchy, and while the Cadillac Sedan de Ville was probably the superior car, it didn’t look as good.
This New Yorker was not a brilliant or particularly original design in its own right — like a lot of Chrysler products of this era, it was a little Fordish here and a little GMish there, with a nose that was pure Lincoln Continental — but its hodgepodge styling was like a nostalgic montage to close out the series finale of a long-running TV show, a capstone to an era of largely unbridled automotive excess. When these Chryslers were gone, domestic luxury cars wouldn’t be the same anymore, for better and for worse.
Related Reading
COAL: 1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham – Chapter 7, The Beautiful (But Troubled) New Yorker (by J P Cavanaugh)
Curbside Classic: 1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham – A Most Imperial Chrysler (by Tom Klockau)
Curbside Classic: 1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham – Ready For The Times To Get Better (by Eric703)
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 1: The 1950s (by Paul N)
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 2: 1960–1964 (by Paul N)
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Part 3: 1965-1969 – Now Available In Sizes S, M, L & XL (by Paul N)
All Those Glamorous Four-Door Hardtops, Appendix (by me)
I don’t believe that the car buying public lost interest in pillarless hardtops after the mid 1970s. In my opinion it came down cost saving on the manufacturers part. Loosing the ‘B’ is expensive in the end.
Certainly with few (perhaps two) exceptions, four door pillarless hardtops were only offered in the United States. Japan had a couple at the end the 1970s and Mercedes Benz offered the 300D four door hardtop until about 1962.
Probably the ugliest part of a car, any car is its ‘B’ pillar. Most car designers will try to hide the ‘B’ pillar by painting it flat black or try to blend it into the cars styling.
GM-Holden in Australia did assemble 4 door pillarless Chevrolets & Pontiacs as its premium luxury cars from 1965 to 1970, but no Holden was ever offered with a 4 door pillarless hardtop body. I don’t believe any British car featured a 4 door pillarless body. So this body style in uniquely American even more so than the common 2 door hardtops.
On another note the 1979-85 Cadillac Eldorado looks like a 2 door pillarless hardtop and I think was intended to be a pillarless hardtop. However a fixed quarter window means its not.
Japan had a booming market for four-door hardtops that lasted through about 1992. Some were pillared hardtops, but there were quite a few pillarless models as well.
Four door pillarless hardtops are an absolute favourite of mine. Car designers the world over have always tried to hide ‘B’ pillars when the car is not pillarless. These attempts to hide the B pillar included painting flat black or adding bright trim to direct your attention away from the centre pillar.
Australia former General Motors Holden (GMH) built some exceptional cars, but no Holden was ever offered in a 4 door pillarless body. Equally, the British never built a 4 door pillarless car.
With perhaps only two exceptions, the 4 door pillarless hardtop is uniquely American, perhaps more so than the common 2 door hardtops.
It’s shame the body style is not offer today. Great article!!!!
I always liked that version of Newport but the New Yorker is just way too much excess for me. I never drove a Newport but I rode in the backseat in the 80’s. Loved being a passenger in those cars. So, much space. Sure, the downsized GM B body was nice, but it was never as comfortable for when you have three or four teenagers in the backseat.
Regarding the statement about 4 door hardtops having reduced rear seat leg room: I attached a JPG which shows excerpts from both the 1976 Chrysler and Buick sales brochures. The 1976 Chrysler has the same rear seat leg room for the 2 door, 4 door hardtop, and 4 door sedan. The 1976 Buick LeSabre also has identical rear seat leg room measurements for the 4 door hardtop and the 4 door sedan.
As I said in the text, the impact on rear seat room was directly dependent on the shape of the roof (which determines where the rear seat needs to sit to keep occupants’ heads off the rear glass) and the wheelbase (which determines how much leeway there is in that, further modified by how the wheelbase is arranged within the body).
So, yes, Chrysler quoted the same dimensions for these cars regardless of body style, but some models in some years suffered a significant loss in hardtop form. To choose an arbitrary example, in a 1967 Buick Electra 225, the four-door hardtop sacrificed 3.2 inches of rear legroom and half an inch of rear headroom compared to the four-door sedan.
Same here about experience with these. I’ve never been in one of the sedans, pillared or otherwise, but I had plenty of seat time in my aunt’s ’76 Town & Country between when she bought it off her boss circa 1980 and replaced it with a new Ford Escort wagon in ’83 (the owner of the gas station she always used told her he had to let a guy go because she was buying so much less gas). It was gone years before my driver’s license though.
I was not crazy about the 1979 versions and onwards, but the 1978s were great looking cars. I would have been quite happy with a Newport of that year.
The only glitch with them for me would have been the dashboards that looked too similar to those used in Plymouths. Chrysler should have differentiated the styles of the two.
’61 Continental had a thin B-pillar, never a true hardtop and it still looked great. My dad’s ’64 never had the rattles, air and rain leaks that hardtops sometimes had as they aged.
A contributor to the decline in hardtop sales may have been the cost effective expansion of air conditioning. Comfort with windows rolled up put an emphasis on refinement, and the tighter seals of framed doors helped this.
You mention that GM exited hardtop sedans with the 1973 Colonnades – they were “pillared” hardtops, with frameless glass. I had a ’73 LeMans sedan whose windows rattled noisily at highway speeds. The disadvantages of a hardtop with none of the benefits.
For the 1978 generation A bodies the four-doors and wagons got fully-framed door glass, with the infamous fixed rear windows which took it a step too far, while the 2-doors (including the El Camino) kept frameless glass.
I don’t really buy that because four-door hardtops had always been most popular in bigger, pricier models where air conditioning was quite common. Cadillac and Buick buyers (inter alia) were buying four-door hardtops for looks, not for better ventilation because they couldn’t afford air conditioning.
By the same token, the four-door hardtop style really didn’t make strong inroads into smaller, cheaper model lines that were more price-sensitive. (Four-door hardtops weren’t that common in intermediates, and only the Japanese offered four-door hardtop versions of what we would consider compacts.)
Very good point Aaron, thanks for pointing that out. Those C-body Chryslers certainly had AC in most cases.
It’s hard for me to imagine this rolling anachronism of a car sharing the showroom floor with the new-for-1978, and thoroughly modern (for the era) Plymouth Horizon at my local Chrysler-Plymouth dealer. What a strange time that was.
I will testify from experience that these Chrysler C body 4 door hardtops did not suffer from the creaks and groans common among the competition. Chrysler’s stiff Unibody did wonders for structural integrity on these cars. My 77 New Yorker at 8 years old felt as taut as the 77 Newport 4 door hardtop a friend’s family bought new. My New Yorker had its faults, but the feel of the body wasn’t one of them.
I don’t find these derivative of Ford or GM designs. Fords were more squared off, while GM designs featured more bling. I saw an update on the fuselage design language, with the fast C pillar and the lower horizontal line that dips down ahead of the rear wheel. Then there are the taillights that are reminiscent of the 56 Chrysler and DeSoto. I thought it in 1974 when this was an Imperial and I think so now – these cars as 4 door hardtops were the best looking big American cars of the 70s.
I had never thought about it, but Chrysler offered this body style longer than anyone. They were a year behind GM at the start but outlasted GM by 2 years.
These hardtops looked good with the windows down. With the windows up, the difference between a hardtop & a sedan seemed hardly worth mentioning. Another downside to a 4dr hardtop was that the car truly needed power windows to easily enjoy the benefit of pillarless motoring. The speed range for that type of driving was fairly limited though. At highway speeds, an open hardtop was never very comfortable regardless of car size. Once AC became more affordable, I never saw much point to a hardtop. With windows up, a sedan seemed the better choice. I did have a few 4 door hardtops in my time. As I recall, they were quick to develop rattles and wind noise. Going through an automated car wash in one was an exercise in plugging leaks. Nice look I’ll admit missing – but not worth the compromises in my opinion.
One summer while in university I dated a lady who owned a well worn 1977 New Yorker Brougham. It was totally loaded, lacking only sunroof. Like stated in the article, the loose pillow leather was not comfortable for anything more than an hour, and it caught all manner of dirt. While it was fun having the 440 on tap, it got like 9 MPG with a light foot.
We took it on a road trip to Alberta, where its huge size was a benefit. Even on the highway, the beast would get 12 MPG downhill in a tailwind. Plenty of posters claim they can get 20 MPG out of a big block but I have never managed anywhere near that.
My parents had a ’76 Ford Elite with a 460 that could do 20-21 MPG Imperial at legal speeds with the AC on.
This was using the cruise control and avoiding kickdowns.
It was built for Canada with true dual exhaust and no cats.
The 2.75 gears may have helped.
Now, city mileage, that was another story.
Not to pick nits, but I just wanted to mention that the first time I saw the term “pillared hardtop” was with the 1971 Ford full-sized car lineup which included 4-door sedans, 4-door pillared hardtops and 4-door (pillarless) hardtops. The pillared hardtop had a center B pillar, but the doors lacked a window frame. Over time the term “pillared hardtop” became less and less common and was replaced by “sedan.”
It says that in the text.
In general I dislike hard top four doors but that red ’78 Chrysler Newport ! just wow what a stunner .
-Nate
I really like that black New Yorker. I’m sure I’ve never spotted such a New Yorker or Newport here on the road or at a classic car show, too bad! ‘Our’ dominating US big sledge from that era is the Lincoln Continental Mark V, by a wide margin.
The Newport is striking, I don’t think I’ve ever looked at one before. Seems like a well-integrated design compared with most of what was being churned out in the late 70s. The only one of its kind ever sold on BaT, interesting features including a Holley Sniper FI retrofit. https://bringatrailer.com/listing/1978-chrysler-newport-2/
Magnificent cars, it was good Chrysler kept the Imperial front going for the New Yorker, one of the best looking cars of the 70s.
Regarding the part about these as used cars, in 1982 I was looking for a large car. At the time I was driving between the east and west coast of Florida, driving on Alligator Alley. I had sold my 65 Thunderbird and wanted a highway car.
One dealer dad and I visited had 3 1977 and 1978 New Yorker Broughams and 2 Newports.
They were asking such low prices (between $1800 and $2300) that my dad thought seriously about getting me one. But, he knew that the quality of these cars was very iffy at best. We left that dealer and he told me that if something better didn’t come along, we’d go back for one of those. We found a 75 Caprice that was $2600 but he felt it was a better car.
I’d still like to own a NYB someday