Chrysler advertised its posh 1963–1964 New Yorker Salon as “the world’s most completely equipped automobile,” with upscale interior trim and a lengthy array of standard features — from air conditioning to cruise control — that made it more expensive than a Cadillac De Ville or most versions of Chrysler’s own Imperial. Although the Salon was ahead of its time in a number of ways, it failed to attract an audience, disappearing after less than two years and just 2,214 sales.
In the 1960s, most domestic cars were still theoretically sold on an à la carte basis. At the top end of the price ladder — luxury makes like Cadillac, Lincoln, and Imperial, or the senior Buicks and Oldsmobiles — the base price typically included automatic transmission, power steering, power brakes, sometimes power windows, and various minor accessories like backup lights and courtesy lamps. However, even in that realm, you paid extra for a lot of features we take for granted today. Until the ’70s, the standard equipment lists of high-end cars expanded only slowly.
In that sense, the 1963–1964 Chrysler New Yorker Salon represented something new. As the above ad explains:
This is Chrysler’s finest. The world’s most completely equipped automobile. Begin with the usual power assists: automatic transmission, power brakes, power steering. Then add a six-way power seat, power windows, even power door locks. Air conditioning. An all-transistor AM/FM radio. Rear-seat speaker. Auto-Pilot. A reclining front seat. Adjustable headrests. Rear-seat reading lamps. Sofa-size seats lavishly cushioned in foam rubber, upholstered in genuine leathers and fitted needlepoint brocade. A distinctive canopied roof. Thirty other luxury and engineering features. The Chrysler Salon carries a 5-year/50,000-mile engine and drive train warranty, America’s longest.† See it today. At your nearby Chrysler dealer’s.
Chrysler introduced the Salon at the 1963 Chicago Auto Show, and the new model went on sale in February, a mid-year introduction. It was a specially trimmed New Yorker four-door hardtop, available only in selected colors, with a vinyl top and almost but not quite every piece of equipment optional on other Chrysler models. It had a suggested retail price of $5,860, a relative worth of about $76,500 in 2025 dollars. This was a daring and unusual marketing approach, since it not only made the Salon a whopping $1,742 more than a regular New Yorker four-door hardtop, but also more expensive than any 1963 Imperial save the flagship LeBaron.
The Salon returned for 1964, its first and, as things turned out, only full season. It got a modest facelift, the same equipment list and fancy interior, and the same startling $5,860 list price. Even this didn’t include absolutely everything — there remained a number of minor options and four major ones, which together would raise the final sticker price by almost $400.
At $5,860, the 1964 Salon was $227 more than a Cadillac Sedan de Ville and $300 more than an Imperial Crown four-door hardtop, although those cars would still cost more if you tried to match the Salon’s equipment list. Ordering most of the features standard on the Salon would add around $1,000 to the sticker price of the De Ville, and the list price of the 1964 Imperial Crown didn’t even include a heater (which cost an extra $136.30 by itself or $590.20 combined with air conditioning).
This isn’t to say a lot of people were buying luxury cars stripped — few did, and if you bought a car off the lot rather than ordering one, it was likely to have an accessory group with various pricey “basic” options. However, automakers and dealers generally preferred to start low and go high, and the retail markup on optional equipment allowed a lot of bargaining room while still ensuring a profitable sale. Making all that equipment standard meant the only way to go on price was down, and it still risked scaring away a prospect who was open to paying for some but not all of the standard features.
Despite its high price, the Salon differed little from the standard New Yorker on the outside. Although it was 215.3 inches long on a 122-inch wheelbase, the 1963–1964 styling tended to make it look smaller than it actually was. All the standard equipment raised the base curb weight of the Salon to a hefty 4,555 lb.
All New Yorkers had a chrome-plated die-cast grille, textured aluminum headlight surrounds, and stainless wheel arch and lower body-side moldings to help distinguish them from the much cheaper Newport.
The Salon shared the New Yorker rear-end treatment, with its die-cast lower panel, “Chrysler New Yorker” script, and standard backup lights. However, the Salon deleted the chrome side spears featured on the New Yorker in favor of full-length paint stripes.
Other than the stripes and front fender badges, the main point of recognition for the Salon was the black vinyl “canopy” roof, a standard feature not available on other 1964 Chrysler models.
Whitewall tires and wheel covers were standard on the Salon, which also got wider 9.00-14 tires, otherwise offered only on wagons.
This exterior color, Embassy Gold, was a Salon exclusive. Because the Salon interior was available in only two colors (blue and gold), only six other standard Chrysler colors were offered: Formal Black, Persian White, Sequoia Green, and three shades of blue (Wedgewood, Chrysler Blue, and Monarch Blue).
In addition to its standard power windows, the Salon had walnut veneers on the door panels.
This was the last year for the oddball squared-off Chrysler steering wheel and for the pushbutton controls for the TorqueFlite transmission, which was standard on both the New Yorker and Salon. An adjustable steering wheel was a $46.65 option.
Chrysler still supplied gauges for both coolant temperature and alternator in 1964, although oil pressure was signaled by a warning light. The pushbutton heater/air conditioning controls were symmetrical with the TorqueFlite buttons.
The dials next to the ignition key are for Auto-Pilot (Chrysler cruise control, an $86.10 option on other models), floor-level ventilation, the rear speaker/reverberator (a $53.15 option except on the Salon), and power door locks (a $56.00 option on other models).
You could get most of the same equipment on a New Yorker, a 300, or even a Newport, but the Salon seats and trim were unique. The 6-way power front seat was a notchback bench with a folding center armrest and adjustable dual headrests, which were normally optional only with bucket seats. The center armrest incorporated a lockable storage box, a feature more commonly found on contemporary cars with buckets and a center console.
The notchback seat’s separate backrests were designed to accommodate the standard passenger-side recliner, a feature Chrysler otherwise offered only with bucket seats. Front seat belts were also standard on the Salon; these became standard across the board in January 1964, by industry agreement, but until then, they were $18.75 on other Chrysler models.
Standard Salon upholstery used patterned matelassé nylon fabric bolstered in leather — comparable to the standard trim of a Cadillac De Ville, albeit with fewer color choices. (As on the De Ville, I think the cushion faces were vinyl.) For an extra $71.80, you could replace the fabric inserts with leather to match the bolsters.
Rear seat passengers got seat-back map pockets. The folding rear center armrest was a New Yorker standard feature (except on Town & Country wagons).
The Salon used the same 340 hp 413 cid V-8 as the New Yorker. It had adequate power for a luxury car — Motor Trend clocked a 1964 Salon at 9.7 seconds 0 to 60, with an actual top speed of 115 mph — but the mandatory 2.76 axle ratio made it rather sleepy off the line. (The Salon couldn’t be ordered with the 3.23 axle available on the standard New Yorker, although you could have Sure-Grip for $51.70.) Even with the tall axle ratio, it was thirsty; Motor Trend averaged 11.3 mpg in mixed driving.
This was a nicely trimmed car, and from a modern perspective, its abundant equipment mostly just seems normal. (None of the cars I’ve ever owned have been half as fancy as this Chrysler, but they’ve had most of the same equipment, with power seats the main omission.)
I could do without the vinyl roof, and I’m not a big fan of the exterior styling, but its quirky character is growing on me. However, all the standard equipment and trim upgrades didn’t change the fact that the Salon cost almost twice as much as a very similar-looking Newport four-door hardtop. The Chrysler badge had a decent amount of cachet in the ’60s, but not that much — judging by the sales, people able to spend $6,000 for a new car in this period mostly preferred to do so elsewhere. Salon production totaled only 593 for 1963 and 1,621 for 1964.
I had a look at my 1966 Kelly Blue Book and found that the trade-in value of two-year-old Salon was only $100 more than a regular New Yorker four-door hardtop with air conditioning, power windows, and an AM radio, which cost about $1,000 less upfront. The Salon would also be worth about $550 less than even a modestly equipped 1964 Cadillac Series 62 (Cadillac’s base model, below the De Ville) with no air conditioning. Those figures indicate a truly brutal depreciation rate, suggesting that neither buyers nor dealers were persuaded that the Salon’s long equipment list and plusher interior elevated it to a loftier class.
In retrospect, Chrysler might have done better to limit the Salon package to the fancier trim, leaving more of the equipment on the options list to keep the price palatable. Rival marques like Buick and Oldsmobile did that with considerable success: Many American car buyers of this era could be persuaded to spend $100 to $300 extra for an upgraded interior, and if they traded in regularly, they could count on getting most of that money back. If Chrysler had gone that direction, they might have been able to ride the wave all the way into the ’70s, but as it was, the Salon was just a curious 1½-year wonder.
Related Reading
Vintage MT Road Test: 1964 Chrysler New Yorker Salon – Less Is More, But More Expensive Than An Imperial (by Paul N)
1964 Chrysler New Yorker – Hardtop Heaven (by J P Cavanaugh)
Curbside Classic: 1963 Chrysler New Yorker – Virgil Exner Comes Full Circle (with some help?) (by J P Cavanaugh)
I had forgotten that there was a 1963 model of the Salon. It is that old problem – people don’t often want to spend money on a car in ways that the neighbors will fail to notice. And Chrysler fell into this trap more frequently than most.
This is another car in which the 4 door hardtop is the only body style that looks really right.
Vacuum powered door locks that gurgled and made sucking sounds in the rain…
Push button transmission.
Loved that car!
We’ve noted “model name debasement” here, when a formerly high-end model name becomes the mid-level model, then the low-end model. Here we have trim-level debasement – by the early ’90s, “Salon” indicated the base New Yorker. “Salon” was also used as a trim level indicator on several Plymouths in the ’70s and ’80s.
I’m not surprised the ’63-64 NYer Salon didn’t sell. In an era when you could pick and choose from a long list of options, why not take advantage of that, get the car equipped as you really want, and spend less money while doing it? The New Yorker Salon was like buying a top-trim car today, where you have to buy lots of bric-a-brac you don’t want, or worse would rather not have, just to get the handful of items you find indispensable. (For me, the “don’t want” list includes leather, sunroof, huge wheels and rubber-band tires with almost no sidewall that kill the ride and fuel economy/range and are easily damaged). Also, I’ve always found the styling of the ’63-64 New Yorker to be a bit frumpy, certainly compared to a Lincoln or Cadillac from those years.
The ’64 New Yorker (and other period Mopars) proved way ahead of their time with the squared-off steering wheel though, which is all over various cars from the last five years. I didn’t understand the benefits then and I don’t now.
An aunt and uncle had this exact car, from brand-new. Later, I had a rarer version, dark blue with light blue all leather interior, instead of the Jaquard fabric and leather. Much nicer in a dark color. Reliable, comfortable. Very, very few options offered. Either you like the ‘64 (and ‘63) versions, or you do not is the norm. Me, I’ve always liked it. And I’d like to find another. I sold my rare(r) Salon years ago, and still miss it.
Nice color!
I rather like it, but I wonder what Chrysler executives had in mind. They had a respected brand, but Cadillac was still The Standard of the Word, and at the higher levels of the market, prestige cannot be compensated by extra equipment; something Highland park should have know, considering Imperial was not exactly “full optional”.
I struggle to see who the target customer was here
Like I said in the text, I think the missed opportunity was not just packaging the fancy trim and special notchback front seat as a Salon trim option for the New Yorker, with a more attainable price — say, $200 or $250 on a closed-body New Yorker. That would have hit the emerging Zeitgeist in this segment, which Oldsmobile had just gotten into with its Ninety-Eight Luxury Sedan, and which Buick later joined with its Limited trim package. Tying the interior trim to all the other equipment just meant that most of the people who might have been interested couldn’t afford it.
14 years later, they did just that. The Salon name returned with some trim upgrades , but this time they didn’t ladle on the extras.
One thing I notice missing right off is a remote control driver’s side exterior and passenger side mirror.
With that said, Chrysler would repeat the 1963-64 New Yorker Salon experiment with the final 1975 Imperial, but in reverse. It was loaded with nearly every option but found few buyers. The virtually identical (but cheaper due to decontenting) 1976-78 New Yorker Brougham sold 3x as many, even though to get the same level of equipment as the 1975 Imperial would cost more.
So, yeah, it was the old ‘Frank Sinatra Syndrome’ (my phrase) where buyers (especially in this price category) wanted it ‘their way’, no matter if it meant less equipment or cost them more to get it all.
The final Imperials weren’t as loaded as you let on. The main deletion on the 1976 New Yorker was standard AC. There was still a good deal of extra cost options on the Imperial.
Touché. I’m surprised they didn’t even include a radio. That’s a real stunner.
I think the biggest change on the New Yorker Brougham was the deletion of four-wheel disc brakes. IIRC, that wasn’t even moved to the option list.
This is late ’50s-early ’60s Space Age morphing into late ’60s-’70s Brougham. It’s also an example of what I call a “Jewel Box Beauty” car–luxurious, somewhat smaller in size, exclusive; sumptuously trimmed with a lot of finely-made details, like the “Victorian” upholstery and real walnut veneers.
It’s also “stealth luxury”–except for the driver/owner, most people won’t know how expensive, luxurious, and exclusive this car is. Kind of like a Volkswagen Phaeton. Sometimes you want high luxury and quality without being showy, like driving a Cadillac or Imperial would be.
I’m sure this New Yorker Salon drives beautifully (more taut than competitors) and delivers a high degree of comfort. But not much more than a much lower-priced Newport. And therein lies the problem. I think for the price there should have been more visual differentiation from the base New Yorker, but I’m not sure what that would be.
The janitor…today he would be called a “maintenance engineer”… in our 1960s San Francisco apartment building bought a 1963 Chrysler New Yorker Salon brand new, in the illustrated gold color. Bernie was actually a well-off retiree who chose to keep working on a limited basis. He kept his Chrysler as meticulously as he kept the building. I was familiar with the Salon through Chrysler advertising but did not realize that his car was one of only a few hundred.
He pointed out when showing us his car that it was better equipped than Dad’s 1963 Cadillac.
I wonder how many ’64 Crown Imperials were shipped without a heater?
Quite possibly none. The last year for which I have a figure is 1962, when Automotive Industries reported that 0.2 percent of Imperials lacked a heater. Because GM and Ford standardized heaters for 1962, the trades stopped tracking heater installations in 1963 and later.
Aaron, you have done it again! You have introduced a car to me about which I knew nothing. It is easy to see why the Salon was a flop. Chrysler had some cachet, but not nearly as much as Cadillac. My take on Chrysler is that it was kind of between an Oldsmobile and a Buick. A price tag like the featured car is going to mean few sales.
As J.P. said: “…people don’t often want to spend money on a car in ways that the neighbors will fail to notice.”
Which partly explains the current obsession with giant wheels.
As la673 mentioned:
“…huge wheels and rubber-band tires with almost no sidewall that kill the ride and fuel economy/range and are easily damaged”. Who wants their neighbors to see them driving a vehicle with mouse-sized wheels?
Better to live with the drawbacks of giant wheels (there are no advantages) and maintain your image.
Personally, I could care less what my neighbor, or anyone else for that matter, thinks of my wheels. I happily rock 15″ steelies with factory plastic wheel covers.
This is wonderful!
One of my favorite Mopars of all time – I love the athletic feel of it with those open rear wheel arches – so modern for the times! That rear end is great!
I’ve always liked it. Only later did we find out it was inspired by an Imperial in the aborted 1962 lineup
A brougham before we called them broughams. I have a fondness for these, but much prefer the styling of the ’63. Elwood Engel did a good job on the ’64 B-body refreshes, but both the front end and the finlets added to the rear quarters feel as tacked on as they were. Same thing with the ’66 Dodge Dart front clip. There’s only so much de-Exnerizing you can do.
And this came out the same year as the 98 Luxury Sedan. I’d love to see the development records for both and what prompted both brands to make this move at that time.
It probably isn’t a coincidence that the Salon was introduced promptly after Chrysler closed the Warren Avenue Imperial factory.
Great article on a rare luxury car! One correction: front seat belts did not become ‘standard’ by industry agreement until January 1965. We had a ’65 Buick Special that came with zero seat belts. It must have been built prior to January of ’65.
My dad bought a ‘64 Newport sedan new, pretty much a stripper, and we drove that for about 11 years before trading it in on a used ‘73 Newport. Thus, having grown up with it, I never thought it looked odd, even as I was aware it was very different than other cars on the road. As a young lawyer I even opted to buy a ‘64 Chrysler 300K (from Richard Carpenter, no less).
I sure admire the NYSalon interior. The real wood plus that fancy fabric. My dad’s car was white with a taupe interior trimmed in burgundy vinyl. The fabric was a horizontal mish-mash of threads in different shades of mostly taupe and a little bit of burgundy.
The New Yorker Salon had a couple of “firsts” in the industry. The New Yorker Salon was the first car under $10K to have Air Conditioning as standard equipment, not AMC with the Ambassador in 1968, despite their claims. As well, the 1963-1/2 Salon beat Studebaker by six months with the 2/3 vinyl top which was offered on the 1964 G.T. Hawk.
I think I’d give this ‘first’ to AMC. IIRC, every 1968 Ambassador came with A/C standard (it could be deleted for credit).
That’s not the same as the Salon, a loaded, slow-selling sub-model of the New Yorker line, including A/C as standard equipment.
I will observe that the Honda Accord was a milestone in the disappearance of ala carte options. The first generation originally had one trim and one factory option the Hondamatic transmission, everything else, AC, tape players, bumper guards etc. were dealer installed accessories. They also only came in three colors and one body style. This made manufacturing, much simpler and even dealer ordering was simple.