1971 Dodge Coronet – The Wannabe Bee

Land yachts ahoy! More ‘70s goodness (or bloatedness, really, though I doubt that’s an actual word) this week as we examine what Tokyo has to offer from Detroit, starting with the loop-bumper-wonder that is the Dodge Coronet. One might have hoped for a stock example, but this ’71 sedan has delusions of insectitude. Again, not a real word. But then, Super Bees were not a thing for Coronets that year.

But they were for MY 1970, so it’s not that big of a stretch to extend the appellation to this Fuselage four-door. In ’71, only the Charger got the Super Bee package. So this is a super-sized Bee. Would that make it a Wasp or a Hornet? Not on AMC’s watch.

Well, decals and detailing aside, it’s still a 1971 Coronet in all its massive and loopy glory. And there aren’t too many of those around in their country of origin, so finding one here is a minor miracle.

It’s an attractive design, in its own way. Certainly more balanced than anything Ford or AMC were manufacturing at the time. GM mid-sizers for 1971 were gargantuan as well, of course. They did a little bit better than Mopars in terms of detailing, in my opinion. Take this profile view, for instance: the misalignment of the rear door shut line and the window frame always bugged me.

Same with the loop bumpers in the back. They’re fine in the front end, but on this extremity, the effect is a little anonymous. Telling 1971 Mopar cars apart from the back is challenging to me – they’re all pretty much like this. OK, the Imperials did have a touch more chrome, but intermediates and full-sized Plymouths, Dodges and Chryslers all look very similar from behind. At least GM marques tried different designs (including something very analogous to this one).

Where Chrysler designers did a lot better than their Detroit rivals was inside. Obviously, this poor Dodge has had a number of unfortunate aftermarket mods (that mess of wires is very un-Japanese, by the way), but the overall impression is still one of relative tidiness. Certainly much cleaner than anything GM produced at the time.

Does that make it boring? Maybe, a little. But perhaps safe and slightly boring is preferable to “inventive” for its own sake. No need to reinvent the wheel. Nor to stick that cream-coloured chrome-spoked aberration on a dark dashboard.

Despite having little first-hand knowledge about trim levels in these cars, I suspect that the fact that all four windows being crank-operated, coupled with the generous plastiwood inserts, would make this a mid-range Custom model, as opposed to a ritzy Brougham or the miserly Deluxe, as can be ascertained by the brochure below.

If this is a wrong assumption, the record will be set straight in the comments section, I’m sure. Either way, this is just the way I like my classics – the fewer sources of electrical gremlins, the better. If it is a Custom, the owner deleted the flank trim seen in the brochure, one of the few mods I would 100% agree with.

Where things get a lot dicier is what that half-acre of pressed steel they call a hood is hiding. Fortunately, the owner opened it up so we could take a peek.

Am I any of the wiser? Nope. I mean, it’s a Mopar V8, that much is clear. But which one? Above my pay grade. Again, though, if you can ID this sucker, don’t hesitate to drop a line in the comments.

I suppose one could turn a 1971 Coronet into a four-door Super Bee; I’m guessing it’s been done. There are just a few more mods besides that decal and those rims to go if the that is the goal. I assume the Charger’s front clip and hood would be easy to put on the Coronet – they’re the same car from the cowl forward. What seems pretty clear is that Super Bee Chargers got access to the spicier V8s (obviously), but also came with a floor shifter. That’s more challenging.

Putting a Charger front end on this superbly restored Coronet would be a crying shame, though. Not that the owner, who I did briefly talk to, seemed to have any such intention.

They say that Chrysler’s famous torsion bar suspension was the best in Detroit at the time. But that had been used since the ‘50s, so that was baked in from the start. The ’71 Coronet (and its corporate twins, the Plymouth Fury and Satellite) was an all-new design body-wise, though. It was only an inch narrower than full-sizers, making it supremely ill-suited to Japanese streets. True to the “Longer, lower, wider” dictum for the last time – the 1973 Oil Shock would see to that.

Dodge built a commendable 73k units of the Coronet sedan and wagon in 1971, after which sales were on a near-continual slide. After a mild restyle, the Coronet was retired after 1976, replaced by the Monaco. The nameplate had graced Dodge’s range since the late ‘40s, but there were few who appeared to lament its passing or remember it nowadays. In contrast, the Super Bee had a much shorter career (1968-71), but a far more illustrious one, so it was allowed to reappear on occasion, most recently in 2023. That’s the problem with charisma: those who have it just can’t be trusted to beehive.

 

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Curbside Finds: 1971 Dodge Coronet and 1968 Pontiac GTO – Stuck In The Early ’70s, by Rich Baron

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1974 Dodge Coronet In Baby Blue And Frosty Green – A Tall Glass Of Water, by Jason Shafer

CC Capsule: 1975 (or 1976) Dodge Coronet – Missed Opportunities, by Jason Shafer

COAL: 1972 Dodge Coronet – 170 Slant Six Powered; Seriously, by Marc