1965 Chrysler 300 Four-Door Hardtop: The Perfect Ride For The Chrysler Man?

Is brand loyalty still a thing? If it’s not today, it certainly was in 1965, when a man walked into Poteet & Company, a Studebaker-Mercedes-Chrysler-Imperial dealer in Bristol, Tennessee, and drove out in this gorgeous Chrysler 300 four-door hardtop. He was without doubt a Chrysler man, and his choice, painted a deep, deep Sequoia Green Metallic, is now up for auction with no reserve on Hagerty Marketplace in Gastonia, North Carolina.

Fortunately for the Chrysler aficionado of today, the 300 is being sold with plenty of paperwork, including the original window sticker, Certicard, owner’s manual, and maintenance records. The 300 slotted below the New Yorker as the “sporty” Chrysler, but the buyer chose a well-optioned example with power almost-everything. The only conspicuously missing option is air conditioning.

While the New Yorker got the big 413 as standard equipment, the 300, which cost some $600 less, got by with the stalwart 383. At least the 315-horsepower four-barrel version was standard, a step up from the base Newport’s standard two-barrel. Of course, the 300 “Letter Series” was available for one last go-round, and it also had the 413, but declining interest in full-size specialty cars did in the 300L at the end of the model year.

The seller of this 300 hasn’t had it for long, but they’ve installed a new fuel pump and battery. It was “purchased from the original owner’s family,” who clearly took care of it and didn’t drive it much based on the cleanliness of the engine compartment (and the lack of discoloration on the exhaust manifolds).

It may seem out-of-place to find bucket seats in a four-door hardtop, but they were standard equipment on the 300, in keeping with the car’s history as the “racy” Chrysler. In this picture, you can see the controls for the power windows, power vent windows, and (barely) the power seat.

Underneath the massive luggage compartment on all 300s was a standard 3.23:1 gear for a little extra snap over Newports and New Yorkers with the TorqueFlite (they had 2.76s out back). You can see that the 300 will come with some spare goodies that include “tools and fluids.”

The 300 was not a bad seller in 1965, and 20,642 examples of the sporty four-door hardtop left the lots in that banner year. This one is not perfect, but it was apparently an AACA National First Prize winner back in 2002 when the paint job was only a few years old. That makes it just about perfect for driving around now; the freshness of the restoration has worn off, but the car still looks nice enough that everyone will envy you for it anyway. It’s the best of both worlds, especially for the Chrysler man.

Related Reading

Car Show Classics: 1965 Chrysler New Yorker (by me)

1965 Chrysler 300-L Convertible: Ultra-Rare 4-Speed Manual Transmission In The Last And Least Of The Letter Cars (by Aaron Severson)

Classic Dealer Filmstrip: Selling The 1965 Chrysler — All The Facts, Just A Little Mansplaining (by me)

1966 Chrysler 300 Convertible: Spectacular In Lilac (by me)

1963 Chrysler 300: North America’s Most Unlikely Rally Car? (by me)