Ever since I did a post on the ’68 Chrysler Newport (here), something has been bugging me. Never quite able to place a finger on it, it suddenly hit me when I found this ’81 Chrysler Newport, a well loved example of the fabled Chrysler R-body.
image source: www.alexlod.com
The life and trajectory of the Newport at times resembles that of Forrest Gump. For those not familiar with Forrest Gump, it was a novel written by author Winston Groom in the mid-1980’s; in turn, it was made into a movie in 1993.
As an aside, the movie Forrest Gump is good but pales in comparison to the novel. As Winston Groom said about the movie, it is the character in the book with all the rough edges filed off. The movie does skip over several fun elements of the book, such as Forrest’s time as a professional wrestler, his affinity for marijuana, and a few of his dalliances.
To compare and contrast, the Chrysler Newport appeared in 1940; Forrest Gump was born in 1944. Both flourished in the 1960’s and had significant life changes throughout the 1970’s. The Newport was a de-contented Chrysler New Yorker; Forrest was a man whose IQ was 75 but whose basic wisdom knew no limits. The Newport name died after 1981; our time with Forrest ended about 1983.
While the history of the Newport series was captured previously, let’s examine the end of the Newport line through the prism of the movie Forrest Gump. After all, lots of things happened between 1968 and 1981, did they not?
“My mama always said life was like a box of chocolates. You never know what you’re gonna get.” – Forrest Gump
The 1970’s was a terrible decade for Detroit. From riding high in 1970, things sure didn’t look the same by 1979. Chrysler, a demonstrative leader in the long wheelbase, living room on wheels brigade until 1978, was one of the very last automakers to downsize. The 118.5″ wheelbase R-body was their answer.
While the genesis of the R-body has been covered previously (here and here), let’s just say the mixture of timing and quality control was less than optimum. Sales for the new 1979 Newport were 78,000 as compared to 39,000 in 1978. The bottom dropped out for 1980 and grew even more bleak for 1981. This ’81 Newport is one of only 3,622 made that year.
When building cars, it is the same crap-shoot as is a box of chocolates.
“My Mama always said you got to put the past behind you before you can move on.” – Forrest Gump
This example isn’t the best representative of what your author thinks is total R-body goodness. Yet, maybe it does provide an insight into the disappointment of the R-bodies; the overly thick vinyl roof was a throwback to the 1970’s and adds a distinct garish factor – one not generally found on the Newport’s Dodge St. Regis stablemate. Not that any of them sold particularly well, even by Chrysler Corporation standards.
The days of the 440 powered Chrysler’s were over at this point. This Newport has exterior styling that isn’t radically different than any other full-sized offering of the time, such as the Olds Delta 88. However, GM, in a true moment of cogency, put the past behind it with their downsized B-bodies. Chrysler appeared to be yearning for days gone by, especially with the New Yorkers, and much to its detriment at the time.
Oddly, Chrysler would have success throughout the 1980’s with the Aspen / Volare based Chrysler Fifth Avenue, a car whose attempts to live big in a smaller package were wildly successful, with sales in excess of 100,000 in both 1985 and 1986. This outcome makes the flash in the pan of the R-body that much more unusual.
“I am living off the government tit! Sucking it dry!” – Lieutenant Dan Taylor
As we all know, Chrysler latched onto that spigot in 1980. Perhaps it was at this time the Iacocca led Chrysler Corporation decided to truly put the past behind them. There was an unceremonious jettison of the R-body in an effort to focus on smaller, more fuel efficient vehicles (and to put the past behind them). This focus did bring success, as Chrysler sold what seemed like an endless supply of K-cars and their myriad derivatives.
image source: www.copcar.fotki.com
Following Lt. Dan’s philosophy, suckling from the government tit had been what had prompted most R-body production. With its introduction in 1979, Chrysler had an official police package for their Newport; the St. Regis was available as such for each of its three years of life. In Ed Sanow’s book, Dodge, Plymouth & Chrysler Police Cars 1979 to 1994, the R-body Dodge St. Regis (whose only differences from the Newport was a header panel, tail lights, and a name) was voted by police officers as the best Mopar police car of all time. The R-body did have a fan club even at that time.
Aging Hippie: Whoa! Man, you just ran through a big pile of dogshit!
Forrest Gump: It happens.
Aging Hippie: What, shit?
Forrest Gump: Sometimes.
The time period of 1980 and 1981 wasn’t exactly a stellar period for the United States automobile industry. Sales were down and the economy was bad with interest rates that made loan sharks envious. Long range forecasts had fuel prices in the stratosphere. Few people thought big cars would last beyond 1985.
Let’s indulge in some speculative thought based upon a few facts. Sales of the Buick LeSabre were in the 80,000 unit range in 1980 and 1981; by 1985 sales were up to roughly 150% of that amount. Sales of the 114″ wheelbase Mercury (Grand) Marquis were in the 50,000 to 60,000 range for 1980 and 1981; by 1985, they had nearly tripled to around 160,000.
Did Chrysler pull the R-body from the vine before it had ripened? Was the sales gauge used at a time when the gauge wasn’t at its peak calibration? Did Lee Iacocca just want to cut the cord to the R-body?
Likely, it is a yes to all three, as all were so closely intertwined any one could have greatly influenced the other two. Shit happens.
Earlier I stated I truly like the R-body’s. Perhaps due in part as being a child of the ’70’s, the R-body – to me – was one of the best looking Chrysler products of the ’70’s and ’80’s. They have always prompted me to stop and look closer, but with one exception.
I have never found excitement for this generation of New Yorker. It is trying desperately to be something it is not. It just doesn’t work. The fact this thing appears to be sitting way too low in the ass-end isn’t helping matters, either. I know why on the featured car, but a brand new one? Maybe quality control really was that bad.
However, the Newport’s – especially without vinyl roofs – are a true sight to behold. Are they a world class design? Hardly. However, in the context of full-sized American cars in 1981, the aesthetic quality of the Newport beats anything from Ford Motor Company and nearly everything from General Motors (except maybe the Olds Delta 88). One of these with an unblemished roof (ie, no vinyl) is quite refreshing to my eye. Granted, I have always liked the non-brougham full-sized Detroit offerings from every year. The R-body Newport just seems to capture the essence of its era with its crisp lines and general lack of cluttering attachments.
“It’s my time. It’s just my time. Oh, now, don’t you be afraid, sweetheart. Death is just a part of life. Something we’re all destined to do.” – Mrs. Gump, Forrest’s mother
Sadly, the R-body Newport was laid to rest early in the 1981 model year. That is a shame. While the Fifth Avenue wasn’t a horrible car in a mechanical and reliability sense – and would be a cash cow for Chrysler the rest of the decade – it was a car that was originally a compact Aspen / Volare, trying to compete with the true full-sized competition. The R-body Newport, euthanized before its time, was a true contender to the mantle of being a full-sized Chrysler, a car worthy of continuing the Newport name.
While the Newport could have been argued to debase the Chrysler aura in 1968, this Newport would have lifted the name of Chrysler from the wheezing heap of front-drive, four cylinder compacts that would be christened as Chrysler’s in the years ahead. Perhaps it was the destiny of this Newport, much like Forrest’s girl Jenny, to die young and have a good looking corpse. It leaves you contemplating what might have been.
“And that’s all I have to say about that.” – Forrest Gump
Note: A rerun of an older post.
It’s probably been 40 years since the RCMP sent the last one of these to auction, but even today on the rare occasion I see one (and it’s been awhile) my first reaction is “cop”. They weren’t a bad car, there was just no room for them in the market. The only advantage they offered was price, and the middle class/middle age market they were aimed at wasn’t worried about 100 bucks. Which they would have lost in multiples at trade in time….
It’s too bad really, but these were Chrysler’s biggest mis cue since the E bodys in 1970.
Miss cue indeed. I get queasy whenever I see photos of these brutes. Designed at a time when Chrysler was in a bad way. Good cop cars though. They were popular as RCMP Highway Patrol vehicles between Edmonton and Calgary.
Saskatchewan too. The RCMP museum in Regina AFAIR even still has one on display.
Count me as an R-body fan. It may have been a slightly updated 1962 B body underneath, but everything you see or touch, inside and out, looked new and at least as up to date as GM and Ford’s downsized big cars, and the interior felt roomier with its thin pillars, frameless glass, low cowl, and broad footwells unimpeded by a separate frame (the current <a href="Wikipedia entry" on the New Yorker shows the ’79-81 models having body-on-frame construction in the sidebar, which is wrong). My uncle in Montreal had a ’79 New Yorker that I rode in frequently and which was well-built and reliable, not always the case for these.
Cancelling these in 1981 was likely a mistake, but I can’t blame Iacocca for ditching them using the info available in 1980. Just about everyone thought even the downsized big cars of the late ’70s would have to shrink relative again due to expected soaring fuel prices, tight availability (two oil shortages in the last 6 years), and high CAFE requirements (which were relaxed by 1.5mpg by the Reagan administration). GM’s plan at the time was to replace the B/C bodies with the FWD C/H bodies in 1983, but they got delayed until 1985-87 and Chevrolet stuck with the older, bigger RWD version and Cadillac offered both. There was a reason Ford, Mercury, Lincoln, and Pontiac as well as Mopar moved their big-car names to smaller, mostly pre-existing cars in the early ’80s – they didn’t think the big versions would last much beyond 1982. When they did, big cars were left with awkward names like LTD Crown Victoria to distinguish them from just plain LTD which had been moved to a Fairmont derivative. Pretty much nobody expected large RWD V8 sedans to rebound and become cash cows for GM and especially Ford for decades to come.
The 1981 brochure surprises me by showing the Fifth Avenue as a separate model and not just a trim package on the New Yorker, which I thought it still was throughout the R-body reign.
Sadly, modern Hollywood is not like a box of chocolates and you always know what you will get: endless sequels, prequels, spin-offs, and reboots of any film or “media franchise” that’s ever been popular, and all too few really original ideas.
I saw by luck on the January 1977 issue of Popular Science on page 30, a mention where Jim Dunne once wrote an other path then Chrysler didn’t used was stretching the LeBaron/Diplomat platform(itself derived from the Aspen/Volare platform) to 116″, the same wheelbase as the B-body.
https://books.google.ca/books?id=FgEAAAAAMBAJ&pg=PA2&source=gbs_toc&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q&f=false
It could be interesting to imagine what if the R-body was a streched version of the M-body instead of a reskinned B-body?
And speaking of more “what if?”: what if the 1979-81 Newport/New Yorker/St.Regis/Gran Fury was also available as a coupe and station-wagon?
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/blog/what-if/what-if-chrysler-r-body-wagons-and-coupes/
The crazy thing about marketing the M bodies as replacements for the R bodies is that the much smaller M didn’t get any better fuel economy when both were equipped with the V8s.
Not slightly updated-the original B-body was gone after 1972. The 1973-81 B/R bodies were quite different…and unfortunately, many of the changes were not for the better. Anti-NVH efforts turned what had been a stiff, surprisingly light chassis into a heavy, flaccid design with anything resembling road feel muted by a multitude of rubber bushings. They weren’t all bad, but were a decided step down in weight and handling compared to 1972.
Oh here we go again. Everyone seems to be an armchair expert and has their opinion on these cars but very few have driven, much less owned one. I’ve had 4 R-bodies and while they had some minor issues, mostly fixed by ’80/81. They were basically a revision of the long proved Mopar B body dating to 1962, and much refined.
Solid drivetrains, minor problems like window sealing and flimsy window regulators, a bit too retro in styling to make them look bigger, but very pleasant cars as drivers, better than some other more popular makes.
We had a ’79 Newport 318, ’79 Newport 360, ’80 St Regis 360, and ’80 NYer 360. All were fine and dependable driver. All they really suffered from was bad timing, and if continued for a few more years as big cars became re-popular, their reputation may well have been very different.
One mod that needs to be made is to disable the TF lockup feature. Much improves drivability, shifting into lockup high at 20-25 is not good for responsiveness at low speeds,.
I saw one of these on the road the other day. I hadn’t seen one in years.
And ditch the Lean Burn Ignition System with the Carter Thermoquad and its plastic fuel bowl. A Rochester Quadrajet will interchange; the LB can be converted to straight Mopar electronic ignition. And yes, these cars did use plastic window regulators and flimsy window sealing; they were built somewhat cheap, but looked good, especially the Dodge with its transparent headlight covers.
My mom bought a ’79 Dodge St. Regis back in ’81 with the 318 that’s still in our family; it’s been off the road since 1990, however, it’s still remarkably solid. It’s going to be one of my “future “projects,” and will be quite a “unique ride” in our little town when it’s “back among the living.”
After it’s running, the first thing that’s got to go is the red and mostly shredded vinyl top … in my opinion, a red top on a white car is not a good color combination.
The TQ is a superb carbuerator, the best street 4bbl ever made.
Coming from a Mopar family I so wanted to like these when they came out. The bumper wraps were a climb-down from the elegant treatment on the last C-Bodies, and as with the FoMoCos, the combination of frameless windows with a blocky B-pillar just didn’t work.
Also, one of my neighbors got a 79 New Yorker as a company car, and it was a dog.
When new I thought these looked fine .
I was sourcing parts for the L.A.P.D.’s fleet in 1984 and these were wretched, they simply couldn’t handle the heat soak of being left to idle most of the day over pavement with the AC cranked up to MAX. .
-Nate
When I hear the Newport name, I believe that the 1961 model should have been a DeSoto Newport, then go right through the Dodge 880s to 1965, then maybe these 1981 DeSoto Newports could been the “end” of that make, giving it 20 more years of life, which it deserved!
I see an old St. Regis in my area. Faded paint green- blue , or silver to mate grey .
.Plastic covers on headlights which made them distinctive.
St Regis was a package on an upgraded New Yorker ; thec74 Coupes of which absolutely gorgeous, and impressive..
Chrysler had bad timing in the 70s .
They shouldn’t of wimp out on the R- Body.
Refining them in the 80s might pf kept the true New Yorker , and my personal beloved Imperial alive..
That car should of mot been given the bad fuel injection, or Cordoba chassis; or moved it to R Body.
Chrysler was decapitated with no luxury leader.
A,car crazy kid , rooting for Chrysler when these came out , on a Sunday night commercial, I enjoy seeing them hanging on today.
When Lido went to Chrysler he must have taken Ford’s best stylists with him. These look much better than early Panthers , which had those recessed side windows that looked like they were designed for storm windows. Also, take a look at a J-Body Cordoba-Mirada and then a 1980-82 Fox T-Bird-Cougar. Nuff said. Even the Imperial was nicer looking than a Mark VI. Furthermore, the silk purse from sow’s ear M-Body 5th Avenue outlived it’s arguable competition, the so-called aero-modern Fox LTD-Marquis , in the marketplace.
Artistry of words.
Recall seeing several (5-6 maybe) , in front of “Fair Oaks Dodge”, in “Farifax VA”. Think they were labeled as “St Regis”, then.
Always thought the “Cordovan”, color one was nice looking.
Don’t recall al lot of this one on the streets though.
My grandfather owned an R body New Yorker. Special ordered with the E58 4 bbl dual exhaust 360….Grandad wanted a 5th Ave both couldn’t justify the price….So he ordered a regular New Yorker in chocolate brown.He kept it a just few short years before the Imperial returned and traded the New Yorker in on a “82 Imperial.
In my first years of auto awareness I saw many B and M Bodies and other late 1970s/early 80s cars. I did not even know what these were until one time I saw a squareish huge sedan with Fifth Avenue wheels. They already were mainly off the road by the dawn of the 90s.
I don’t think these would have had the post-recession revival that GM and Ford got. This really was a warmed-over ancient big car vs the more modern offerings Ford/GM had. The M-Body was smaller but in 5th Avenue form it fit the times well.