By all accounts, the mid-1960s were peak Chrysler Corporation. They were at the top of their game engineering-wise, and after some brief diversions in the early sixties, back on track stylistically with Elwood Engel firmly taking over the styling reins from Virgil Exner. You can clearly see Engel’s Continental influence at work in the featured 1966 New Yorker. Consumers responded as sales were steadily climbing year over year.
If the mid-’60s were peak Mopar, then the 1965-68 Chrysler branded models represent the pinnacle. (Forget about Imperial: For much of the 1960s this slow-selling brand was still riding on a platform that dated back to 1957).
1966, the year of our featured car, would be the apex of the Chrysler brand in terms of market share, reaching a level of penetration that the Chrysler would not achieve again until the mid-’70s.
Chrysler (the brand) offered a relatively full lineup of cars for 1966 (at least by the standards of the day). At the “entry” level you had the Newport (base price $3,052 – $24,000 in 2020), a name introduced in 1961 to take over the mid-market from DeSoto, which was then on its last gasp. The Newport represented the lion’s share of Chrysler brand sales and was available in a variety of body styles: Two-door, four-door (pillared, hardtop, and six-window), convertible and “Town & Country” wagon styles.
Next up the ladder in 1966 was the 300 ($3,583 – $28,000 in 2020), available in two- and four-door hardtops, plus a convertible. But with the letter series and glass-covered headlights from the previous year’s 300 now gone, it had little other than a 4-barrel version of the Newport’s 2-bbl. 383 V8 to distinguish itself (the new for 1966 440 V8 was available across the entire line as well). With the death of the letter series, the 300 would continue to suffer from poor differentiation, eventually being dropped in 1972.
At the top of the Chrysler lineup in 1966 was the New Yorker, available as (in order of increasing price) a 4-door six-window Town Sedan, 2-door hardtop, and the most expensive model, the featured 4-door hardtop ($4,233 – $35,000 in 2020). All New Yorkers were available only with the 440 V8.
The featured car appears to have most of the available options, including air conditioning ($510), power antenna, and the 40/20/40 vinyl bucket seats with a very awkward looking middle front seat. This likely pushed its sticker price over $5,000 (over $50,926.12 in 2026).
No trailer queen this car is. It wears just the right amount of patina and wears it well. The fact that it remains largely rust-free in a northern climate serves as a testament to how well these cars were built. For a brief period of time, Chrysler could go toe to toe with the best of GM and Ford, no asterisks required.
1966 must have been a welcome respite of calm for the Chrysler corporation, the eye of the hurricane if you will. The Exner styling excesses and the disastrous 1962 downsizing were behind it, and the full effect of Lynn Townsend’s cost-cutting and the Fuselage Deadly Sin was still to come. So for now we will let this New Yorker enjoy its time at the top of the heap.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
Related CC Reading:
Curbside Classic: 1966 Chrysler Newport – Camelot Comes To Highland Park
CC Outtake: 1966 Chrysler 300 Coupe – Faded Glory
Even at age 13, when that 4-dr. N. Yorker hard-top was produced …..
…… I thought the window-treatment profile was a copy of GM’s 98, Electra, and Sedan deVille …… ** of the previous generation (’62-’64) **
Own a 1965 Newyorker coupe 413 engine 86000 miles
We had a neighbor who bought a new ’66 New Yorker in pale yellow. Really handsome and it had black vinyl on C pillar. Unique. They traded it in on a ’68 Imperial in gold. Always preferred the New Yorker. They had a lean look to them.
This family was blue collar but had a neat little ranch house and always full size Mopars. I wonder if Chrysler appealed to more average people than a Buick or Olds.
My parents bought a New Yorker of a somewhat later vintage. With that 440, pushing the “resume” button on the cruise control was like flying a jet!
the 1966 models are stunners. Loved them when they were new and I have not changed my mind.
Yep ;
Now as then these were stunning cars and well made, good everything .
My self I’m more fond of the late 1930’s ~ mid 1940’s MoPars, they had (IMO) very good engineering and build quality .
-Nate
If you can (for the moment anyway) the quality control issues, IMHO Chrysler’s “peak” was 1957, and for obvious reasons. Performance, styling, and some head-turning colors! I’m talking just about Chryslers & DeSotos–forget Plymouths and Dodges. But hey–that’s just me.
Drove mine yesterday!
Ooo, jealous. Two door or for door hardtop? Either one would be the one for car #12 in my fleet.
Alway preferred the ’65, but the real problem was that Mopar was going rectilinear just as GM was embracing more flowing, and to my eye more sophisticated, styling. Even it’s best, the ’65 NYer, suffers imo when compared to a ’65 98 or Electra. That’s not to say the NYer isn’t excellent in many ways, but it lagged behind by staying with Engle’s adaptation of his ’61 Lincoln design concept, which was designed even several years before that.
Despite the over-reaction to Chrysler’s earlier styling missteps of ’60 to’ 62, Mopar’s excellent drivetrains helped to overcome iffy quality issues and me-too styling however, as they certainly were as good as anyone’s. And in some ways some of Mopar styling even improved: I’d cite the great looking and more popular B bodies of ’68-70: Satellite, Coronet, Charger. And in my own opinion the fuselage C-body had a sophistication and flowing elegance that was not found in the ’65-68 full-size squaremobiles.
Chrysler was late to the Lincoln look by four long years. By the time those goofy Exner designs were gone, and replaced with the Engel design, GM had moved on in a big way. So these cars never looked cutting edge.
Yet, in hindsight, they are awesome looking today. Yet, in 1966, GM had the big car look that sold millions.
Driving one is quite an experience. They seem absolutely enormous. That giant flat hood with the peaked fenders, that long horizontal instrument panel. The aircraft-carrier trunk deck? Wow. It’s not a little car.
Shame this wasn’t the 1961 New Yorker. Now mind you, I think Chrysler was spared from the most hideous of Exner’s acid tripping designs, unlike poor Imperial and Plymouth, but Chrysler Corporation would have been better off without the 1960-1964 era of alien space yuck.
These cars were like iron many times even well into the 80s I saw people driving these things .unfortunately many of them ended up at the wrong end of a demolition derby
As I get older I love these more and more. When I was younger I preferred the Fuselage years, but now I like my cars to have shoulders. I even like the vinyl C pillars, especially this color combination.
It’s good to know these were great cars in their day, with all that Chrysler goodness built in.
Yes, the fuselage look can make cars with trunks look phat-assed.
This model has an almost Studebaker-look to it – minus the fluorescent headlight, of course.
I see where Rover got the headlight/grille treatment for the 1070s facelift P6s!
When a Chrysler was a viable, if not often superior, alternative to an Oldsmobile or Mercury.
My 1965 New Yorker 4 door hardtop with a 300L grill installed.
Hated the concave sides at the time. I like it a little better now, but I would have taken a Bonneville, Grand Prix or maybe Wildcat in ’66.
My parents were good friends with a family that had a black 1966 New Yorker, much like the featured car, only without A/C. Their kids, two girls and twin boys, were a little older than me but we spent a lot of time together growing up. The younger girl would usually sit up front with her mom and dad, the other three in the back along with whatever other kids would cram in. When the older girl got married the parents gave her the New Yorker and they got a 1966 Imperial. She drove that New Yorker for several years more and hauled her own kids around in it. It finally rusted away.