One of the advantages of writing about old cars is that, at least for domestic ones, it’s almost always possible to figure out the model year. Between oldcarbrochures.com, or some other sources, like Allpar for Chryselr brands, there’s almost inevitably a tell-tall. But this Plymouth Sport Suburban? Beats me. No wonder Actually Mike said “looks like a 1975 or a 1976 to me”. Yup.
I thought for sure that there would be some minor differences in the front grille, given how easy it is to change the die for a plastic casting. But it appears to be the same. Allpar says: The Fury entered 1976 virtually unchanged. True that. The exception being on the Fury coupes, which had some changes on its vinyl/opera roof. That doesn’t do us much good with this wagon.
Why no changes? Maybe it was a lack of inspiration; this body had already been around since 1971, and it would still be through 1978. Ever since GM’s Colonnades came out in 1973, these mid-sized Mopars looked dated. And even the mid-sized Fords looked more contemporary. The fuselage style was all wrong for the heart of the Brougham Epoch. No wonder they couldn’t be bothered.
Maybe an “unleaded fuel only” sticker somewhere? Mopar managed to avoid the catcon in 1975, but joined the crowd in 76.
I see what looks like the remains of a sticker under the fuel filler, so I am going with 1976.
Some ’75s had them. There’s no difference between the 2 years, so you’d need to see the VIN.
Good call – my memory remembered that Chrysler used no converters in 75, but you have cleared this up. It appears that Chrysler used more converters in 1975 than I had understood.
So as of now, I have no friggin idea what year this thing is. Funny thing though, as much as I hated these (even as a Mopar fanatic) it is kind of attractive to me now. Except for that awful color that was a Mopar staple in the 70s. My college roommate’s 72 Polara wagon was this same horrible color.
A 3-speed-manual on the column? And possibly available with a V8? I imagine that would have been an unwieldy and wonderfully weird beast to pilot around town.
The unleaded fuel only warning would be visible on the fuel gauge (and of course, opening up the fuel filler flap). All ’76’s would’ve burned unleaded in all states; rest assured ALL the California cars did (and had cats) . . .
Forget the year… I’m always more interested in what’s under the hood.
We’re the Chrysler wagons 8 or 9 passenger?
I just got to wondering whether a Cordoba front clip would bolt on to this, or better yet, the Magnum front. Done up properly with the right wheels and some interior parts swapping, it could be kind of cool.
Maybe if someone test the water to photoshop some Fury sedan and wagon with a Cordoba or Magnum front. 😉
Maybe, but why not just get an old Cordoba.
To me, your preference for the Ford front fenders/grille or the Plymouth’s is most likely why some/most folks picked 1 over the other. From the windshield back these wagons are bordering on interchangeable.
A few months ago I ran across a Pontiac wagon of this vintage on the Orlando Craigslist for about 5-6 thousand dollars. THAT car looked near showroom….very sweet.
When these Plymouths (and Dodges) got 5 MPH front bumpers they got ugly/plain to the point they are off my radar.
I always thought that Chrysler handled the 5-mph bumpers better than GM or Ford did in 1975-76. Ford, in particular, basically hung a chromed railroad tie on each end of its cars during those years (except for the Mustang II, which received a body-colored railroad tie).
My dad’s office kept a couple of wagons on hand for transporting equipment and occasionally he’d have to take one home. One of them was a Fury woody just like this one, the others were ’73 Pontiac Safaris (full-size). My mom drove the Fury once and it reminded her of our significantly larger ’70 Buick wagon. I, unfortunately, was too young to drive any of them, but I do remember our beige Plymouth having a 360 under the hood.
We were hardcore GM people, so we didn’t pay much attention to the Mopar offering, but my dad currently drives a Chrysler 300M, so he got hooked eventually.
That nose is better-looking than the goat-eyed stacked quads that followed, and the wagons have nicer lines than the sedans, IMO.
Stand up hood ornament? Interior fabrics? A Carter sticker replacing one that says “Whip Inflation Now”?
The was Ford (the President, that is) that had the “WIN” buttons . . .
Yup, I was trying to find some cultural doodad that would say ’75 vs. ’76.
One thing that car is…. Cool as hell. It’s hip to be square.
Yep, that’s for sure. My favorite thing about this car is the way the simulated woodgrain on the tailgate blends in with the paint, with no ragged edge in between.
I had learned somewhere that you could find out the year of any American made car by looking at the tail lights – the year was always marked. No???
If the tail lights changed. Otherwise, I’ve seen them marked to reflect the first year they were used. My parents ’83 Reliant was stamped “81”, their ’85 Crown Vic had an “82” or “83”, etc.
That’s just what I’ve experienced; I won’t pretend this is universal.
When makers stopped changing tail lenses, the first year appears in the mark. So, that isn’t an absolute anymore, not for ages.
Only true way to tell is the VIN.
There really was a lack of inspiration in these cars. When the Plymouth / Dodge midsize cars were new for ’71, they wore quite a bit of unique sheetmetal. The Plymougth sedan and wagon had square wheel cut outs and unique sculpting.
I think for 1975, they merged the Plymouth to the Dodge sheetmetal. That was also the year that the mid-size cars began sharing names with the full-size cars. Lack of inspiration was the name of the game for Mopar mid-sizers during these years.
About that only thing unique about 1975 was the basic mid-size coupe got new broughamier sheetmetal. It was actually a fairly decent looking car, but the Dodge and Plymouth were coupes were now identical, and were variously moving toward sharing the full-size names.
Those grills may still have been metal. Chrysler made a big deal of some of their metal grills in their full-size cars.
Nope. This was plastic.
Beginning of the end for Plymouth?
You’re right about the merge – they did similar things with Valiants and Darts in the same period, and Old Pete is right, it was the beginning of the end. GM, who wrote the book on body-sharing, knew that customers would begrudge a common greenhouse, but not quarter panels or front fenders – something they would soon forget themselves.
I’ve said it before, but I wonder if Chrysler’s biggest missed opportunity in this era wasn’t its failure to fully restyle all the B-Bodies in 1975. The new 2-door roof line would have worked quite well on a four door sedan, and a new wagon could have followed the precedent set by the ’74 C-bodies.
Considering the Dart/Valiant were still selling reasonably well, they could have delayed the Volare/Aspen launch (and maybe worked out some of those kinks) and put their efforts here – especially given the heat in the intermediate segment, as the new Cordoba would soon demonstrate.
But, there was no money, and limited leadership. Sic transit gloria
That baffled me at the time, too. Between the minimal changes on the sedan and wagon, and no differentiation between the Dodge and Plymouth versions, it seemed as though Chrysler was trying to get by with the least amount of effort in the intermediate segment.
Your thoughts make a lot of sense. Chrysler’s indifference to much of its mid-size segment didn’t do it any favors. Fully refreshed and decently differentiated mid-size cars in 1975 would have put it ahead of Ford through 1976 and GM through 1977. They might have been the ’77 GM “B” before GM got there, especially if the public saw enough promise in them like they did with the Volare/Aspen. If they had a successful roll out, (always a big IF with Chrysler) ’70s Mopar history might have been much different.
I suppose though that 1975 would have been a pretty tough target year coming on the heels of new full-size cars for 1974 (which I believe were technically delayed 1973 designs). It makes you wonder what was on the design table for mid-sizers before OPEC I knocked Chrysler on its butt. It’s hard to believe that when the new mid-size cars went into production in the summer of 1970 (1970!) that the only future plan was to dumb down the line for 1975. Perhaps the ’75 coupe design was meant to be spread to the sedans and wagons, but the money ran out. If you look at early ’70s full and mid-size Plymouths, the ’75 coupe has a lot of Plymouth in it.
Reminds me of a 1976 Fury wagon our small town radio station owned
Nice car, we needed the room to haul a ton of cargo up to another radio station one summer weekend. Great on the highway, comfortable, some what powerful (no idea then what lived under the hood). 800 miles there and back with no issues. A pleasure to drive in a straight line and on gentle curves.
I’m on my phone, but when I have access to my computer I’ll try to do some research.
Funny thing is, I cannot remember a time when these were common, or even occasionally seen. I grew up in the 80’s so one would think there would still have been 70’s wagons about, and I definitely remember 70’s country squires, and impala wagons, and torino wagons, and colonnades, and even vegas and pintos. But Chrysler wagons of the 70’s didn’t ever seem to exist on the streets. I don’t know if the quality was so bad that they had all disappeared already? (Come to think of it I don’t remember a huge number of 70’s Chryslers of any stripe…) Either that or there just weren’t many competitive mopar dealerships in my town.
So it’s good to see one represented here, and in a strange way, it’s almost exotic.
The Chrysler Corporation intermediate wagons were rare when new, particularly after 1973.
By 1976, it seemed as though Chrysler buyers who wanted a wagon went for the palatial Chrysler Town & Country, or the Aspen/Volare wagon. The Dodge and Plymouth wagons in the full-size and intermediate lines were forgotten.
Have to agree. Even though the original fuselage B-Bodies sold better than these, I only remember one other family growing up that had a plain side Satellite Suburban besides my mom’s ’72 Coronet Crestwood. Sport Suburbans and especially T&Cs were a bit more common. Only remember one Monaco with the weird upper half wood grain “panels”, though.
Auntie and Uncle in Missouri at the time (actually, 1978), traded their ’74 Ford Country Squire on one of these . . . . fully loaded; 360 four-pot. Drove OK, but build quality was horribly shoddy. Pieces were falling off within a week of ordinary driving and HVAC shit-the-bed. They tried to see within 72 hours if they could get their old car back, but it had been sold within 24 hours of trading in the Ford for the Plymouth. Eventually, the dealer fixed all of the maladies and they kept it until 1985. I drove it once while visiting them in 1982. The car would wander on a straight line interstate and the Novocain Mopar p/s felt even lighter than I’d been accustomed to on this car. On the bright side, the 360 4-bbl had some decent kick to it.
I remember the doors and windows would rattle over bumps/railroad tracks. Body had a real tinny feel to it and the panel gaps were horrid.
It’s a 1975; you can tell by the headrests (unless they were switched). The ’75 headrests did not cover the whole top of the seat but the ’76 headrests were widened and covered the full width of the seat back.
Which makes this a ’75, or a ’76 with ’75 headrests?
I’m glad Paul didn’t do a CC Clue with this….
Thanks Jeff!
This brings back memories – my cousin had a black ´76 Suburban back in the ´80s. It had the 400 big block and was impossibly fast for such a large car.
This is exactly what I wanted to buy last fall when we bought our family wagon. My wife was concerned with safety. We bought a 2002 V70 instead. She is the one who drives it anyhow.
The Volvo has really grown on me. It probably gets twice the MPG.
A 77 Fury was my second car. I know all the little tricks and issues. With the emissions deleted 360 it was very fast. Unfortunately it ate transmissions for breakfast. I had that 904 out three times in 4 years. Only one actual rebuild. One front bearing, one torque converter (exploded during a 2 foot take off.)
Well worth the busted knuckles.
At 45 below C it would thaw the windshield in 5 minutes. Without plugging in.
My uncle and aunt had exact same car, color was called ‘fawn’.
Anyway, the Fury name kind of tricked them, since they had a full size ’70 Fury C body wagon and uncle was a ‘Mopar or no car’ fan. They got a used ’75 B body wagon and didn’t question the size until they had it awhile, and realized it wasn’t as roomy.
But, at the same time, they couldn’t afford a same age full size, dealer had a ‘gently’ used ’76 Gran Fury, but was out of budget.
When the ’75 wore out, they went to a full size ’80 Dodge van.
The “big” Mopars in Plymouth/Dodge guise from ’75-’78 got a “Gran” or “Royal” moniker in front of Fury/Monaco.
It’s been a really long time since I’ve seen a B-body Chrysler wagon, for some reason seeing that car on Curbside Classic reminded me of the scene from Police Academy where Fackler was driving the car to the police academy with his wife on the hood of the car, I’m surprised the 440 V8 wasn’t available on the B-body Chrysler’s during this period considering you could get a 454 for Chevy immediate in ’75, 455 for the other GM immediates in ’75 and a 460 in a Ford/Mercury immediate for both ’75 and ’76
Damn. A woman who lived down the street from my grandparents had one. In its latter years, it became so decrepit you could see through the rust holes in the floor.
She got into a big row with a mechanic and police had to be called when it would not pass inspection. I think she spat on him.
According to that Fury catalog link, 3 speed manuals were standard on the slant six and 318 V-8’s but not available with power steering and not available on wagons….Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character drove a brown Plymouth Satellite.in a couple of Dirty Harry films. .He drove one through a store window in one movie to stop a robbery….and another brown Satellite got trashed in the Sudden Impact movie when some punks smashed the windows and set it on fire while chasing Callahan.
This is something I’ve been thinking about lately. As a kid I made a point of learning all the minor model year changes on various cars, but when designs started carrying over for multiple years it was frustrating for someone like me who liked being able to identify the specific year of a car.
Funny you mention this. In the late 60’s and early 70’s, I could tell you the make, model, & year just by looking at the wheel covers and tail lamps (including VWs)
Today, the cars look the same. I have difficulty distinguishing between Honda & Hyundai SUVs. Took the fun out of it.
Rather than trying to figure out the year, I’m more interested in knowing what was the final year for the ‘Sport Suburban’ model.
There’s yet another one to add to the list of car names that need to be brought back.
Wow, there’s a car I never thought I’d see again. My dad bought one of these used in 1982 as a replacement for a green ’72 Monaco wagon. The car was identical to one pictured here, except it was a 1977 model. By that point, the car already was having rust issues and a few years later the lower portions of the doors had gotten so bad he pop riveted some sheet metal over it, painted the area below the wood grain between the wheels primer red, and then…left it that way. By the time he sold it in 1987, the floor had rotted enough in spots to the point you could look down and see the road moving under your feet. Mechanically, though, there were never any major problems. The same could not be said for the ’82 6000 that replaced it. Our mailman bought the Fury and the car was still on the road until around 1994, which was the last time I saw it. To this day, my dad thinks of it as a “good” car.
I once had a ’75 with the 318 and Torqueflite. One of the absolute worst vehicles I ever owned.
Whatever the year , its a handsome wagon
In that side on shot its a dead ringer for our Aussie Valiant wagons of the 70s
I loved the annual model changes and still miss them. You could always tell the year on virtually all domestics (except this one) and it was fun to see what little tweaks would be made to grilles, tail lights, etc. But I know the imports shunned the annual model change, and it seemed to vanish by the end of the 1980s on all makes. Chrysler was simply ahead of the trend on this one…
Come to NZ. Every car has a rego in the window that tells you exactly what year, make and model it is. Real handy.