Let’s pay a few minutes of attention to this elusive fuselage model, which has never properly appeared at CC. A ’72-’73 Dodge Monaco Sport Wagon, with a face that boldly closed Elwood Engel’s fuselage era in that division.
That’s right, as far as I can make out, none of these hidden-headlight models has shown up on our pages. A glaring and odd omission, considering the many Mopar fans among our curbside hunters. Then again, is not like a car pops up by the curbside whenever we wish it to.
So, with no other resources, let’s work with these Craiglist-borrowed images to give this model its few minutes of CC fame, even if briefly. (The Monaco’s entry-level sibling, the Polara, has been covered before. Links below.)
Mopar fans know that these ’72-’73 models were basically restyled fuselage C-bodies, which dated to 1969. As known, all Pentastar offerings gradually adopted that distinct look after the fuselage era dawned that fateful year. The results of the effort were a mixed bag, aesthetically and sales-wise, with the daring fuselage period providing much talk throughout the years here at CC.
And while the story has been told before, a brief recap may be necessary for the ’72 Monaco.
It is well known that the fuselages were conceived under the helm of Chrysler’s VP of Design Elwood Engel. All while borrowing many ideas, even the fuselage concept itself, from the man he had replaced at Chrysler; Virgil Exner. From the seamless transition of the greenhouse into the lower body. to the loop bumpers, all concepts previously explored by Exner in the late ’50s and early ’60s. Ideas that first reached the public, covered in fuzzy detailing, in the 1960 Valiant and downsized Plymouth/Dodge of ’62.
Before all that, one of Exner’s most significant fuselage explorations was the 1958 Imperial D’elegance concept car. Here, the fuselage language can be seen in the C-pillar blending into the car’s lower body with no breaks. A rear end adopted quite faithfully –sans fins and with toilet seat added– onto the 1960 Valiant.
Engel was to leave his post in 1974, but not before delving once more into Exner’s previous work. Or so it appears to my eye, with the D’elegance’s front seeming to be the inspiration of the ’72 Monaco. The look also nicely coincided with a brief Detroit fad with hidden headlights.
(Now, don’t take it from me as saying that Engel cribbing from Exner was a negative. After all, designers have a talent to borrow from each other, and Exner was not exempt from the practice himself.)
1962 Valiant (top) and 1970 Dodge Polara (bottom)
Exner’s take on the fuselage concept was controversial when it first appeared, all thanks to the fuzzy detailing. Then again, Exner was probably trying to deal with a drawback of the fuselage that found their way into the ’69 models. Mainly, while bold and innovative, a propensity to look slabsided and blunt. Something not easy to hide in a US full-size vehicle. Particularly as they grew in size during the ensuing years.
Those issues were clearly being addressed by Engel’s team as the fuselage era advanced. And the ’72-’73 Monaco has quite a bit of sculpting on its flanks to break up the theme’s originally unadorned side panels.
The neat hidden headlight fascia was exclusive to the Monaco, Dodge’s priciest full-size offering. Still, we’re talking Dodge here, and the brochure referred to the Monaco as an “honest, no-nonsense medium-priced car. A car with a conservative, clean look all its own.”
That said, the more accessible Polara sold in far better numbers. Understandably, the reason why that model has appeared more often on our pages.
Our neat green Craigslist 1972 Dodge Monaco Sport Wagon was one of 5,145 nine-passenger units sold that year. This one is in Vancouver and, according to the ad, went through a refinishing 20 years ago.
The interior saw more recent work; reupholstered with Factory Green Elk and Green Coachman Vynil from SMS auto fabric and upholstery. All instrumentation looks rather flawless.
This Monaco’s driveline is “original and unmolested”, as per the ad, and has 106K accumulated miles. A 360CID V-8 is under the hood, with shifting provided by the 727 TorqueFlite Transmission. Other original factory options include power disc brakes, power steering, and power rear window. And the factory AM radio “still works.”
If that ’72 is not original enough for you, a ’73 model in Orange County carries non-original Dodge hub caps and a peculiar fake-wood paint treatment Monaco wagons got at the factory.
The ’73’s face is sadly marred by the added-on bumper extensions. Then again, most US models were suffering from similar pains during the 1970s.
Under the hood, the ’73 carries a 440CID V-8. Also, this one has a claimed lower mileage of 68K.
Another neat option on the ’73; Dodge’s dual A/C system.
No mention of any interior refurbishing on the ’73, with the wagon still carrying the upper trim that made the Monaco a bonafide “medium-priced” offering.
Once again, it’s a nine-passenger 3-seat model. One of 5,579 sold in ’73.
With this last shot, let’s bid adieu to this bold fuselage face. Engel would leave his Chrysler post in ’74, and coincidentally, the neoclassical language of the ’70s would start appearing across Chrysler’s lineup that same year. An era with even more upheavals for the Pentastar, but that’s a chapter beyond this post and well covered elsewhere at CC.
Should you care to check these wagons out, here are the links for the Vancouver one, and the Orange County one.
Related CC reading:
CC Capsule: 1969 Dodge Polar and Monaco – Double Your Pleasure, Double Your Fun
Road Trip Journal: 1972 Dodge Polara – Grand Canyon And Pumice-Crete Revisited
I grew up with one. A light yellow 1973 Dodge Royal Monaco wagon with a 440 V8. My father replaced his 1970 Chrysler New Yorker hardtop sedan with it, hoping to get the extra room for us and for our cross-country vacations around the US. My first turn behind the Fuselage wheel was in the New Yorker, which was an undependable car. The 440 V8 in it constantly overheated during long trips. It was a pretty disappointing car. So, I was surprised that Dad got the 1973 Dodge Royal Monaco wagon.
He babied that thing. Always garaged. He oiled the DiNoc applique. The car was pretty damn good looking for something so damn large. By 1976, it had rusted through the lower door skins, the rocker panel and the tail gate. The light yellow color with the rusty holes made the car look like a giant piece of cheese.
Driving it was like being a riverboat captain of a paddlewheeler. I never felt smaller in any car in my life. They were a nightmare in any parking lot. Too damn long and wide. I actually had to unbuckle my seat belt, slide over across the neat looking front seat, reach fully, to unlock the passenger door. Looking through the rear mirror was a shock – that back window looked like it was in Iowa. I used to joke that I thought I was being tailgated in traffic, but then discovered it was the wagon’s back window.
Cavernous. That Dodge swallowed anything you shoved in it. you could ride 9-10 people in it, if the three in the rearward facing seat were kids. The front seat had that bucket back on it, so you couldn’t have anyone in the middle in the front, but there was enough room to have done that if it had a straight back seat. All around you was a sea of tan vinyl, plastic and wood applique. The instrument panel was a speedometer, but the most important gauge on that car was the was the fuel gauge. This beast got 7 miles per gallon around Chicagoland. It drank gasoline like I drank Diet Pepsi. No – faster than I could drink Diet Pepsi. In Colorado, it seemed as though we had to stop for gas every other hour.
Dad would pull a 20′ travel trailer with it. The 440 had no problem doing that. Stopping all that weight was another thing, especially doing down the western slope of I-70 out of Eisenhower Tunnel. It was a beast uphill, and it was a beast trying to make a controlled stop. Dad had the Trailer Towing Package and Brakes on it, and it really needed every bit of help it could get.
It was the last Chrysler product he owned. By 1977, Dad had had enough with Fuselage Chryslers. We coveted his uncle’s magnificent 1961 Newport, but these Fuselage Chryslers weren’t those cars. They seemed like flimsy giant cars with thin sheet metal bolted haphazardously onto their frames. Quality? Not these. Neither his New Yorker or Dodge Royal Monaco wagon possessed it.
So – in closing – I think these are magnificent thirsty beasts with cheap interiors on badly fitted glass hooves. Learning to drive in these cars made me hate big cars until I had a big family and ended up in a thoroughly modern 2003 Crown Vic Sport. I swore back when I was 16 that I would never again be a river boat pilot for those kinds of cars. They aren’t fun to drive.
The weird thing is the pre-Fuselage 1965-1968 full-size Chryslers, including the wagon, handled quite well for their size, and (with a 383 at least) were reasonably economical, again for their size.
Even though I kinda like the hidden headlamps treatment on this car, the entire Fuselage era is one that I can kinda admire from afar in small doses, but which I would not want to live with, the automotive equivalent of Brutalist architecture.
In some sense, Elwood Engel saved Chrysler from Exner with his early-mid 1960’s designs, and then killed it with the Fuselage cars. Somewhat similar in that way to Dick Teague, who worked miracles with AMC and then killed it with the Pacer and Matador Coupe.
The interior is so “classy looking”, compared to the interior of our “73 Fury”. Was a long running, nice riding car though.
Lousy in snow too..
I believe that the front end of those ’73s are one of the most disconnected designs of that year. With the headlights exposed, it chops up the front end to look like it’s made out of blocks. The bumper going across and in front of the grille disconnected the top header panel from the bottom showing grille.
Dodge got poor reviews for that bumper treatment also that same year on the Challenger.
The rear tailgate looks like an attempt to mimic the look of the rear wagon door on the GM models.
This must truly be a rare find, not many of these Monacos left the dealers’ lots.
Inside, I do like the font used for the numbering on the speedometer, but it is so remindful of what you would see in a taxicab.
Like it or not, I enjoyed this post on a somewhat uncommon Mopar.
The Monaco was a very poor seller ever since it was introduced in 1965. For that matter, the Polara was too, compared to the competition. Dodge never got its full-size sales mojo back after the 1960 Dart.
So, yes, these very very rare sights back in the day. I suspect the dog dishes on the second one were likely added later, as it’s really hard to imagine a Monaco wagon with many options like the 440 and the rear seat a/c unite but without full wheel covers. But dog dishes are very in these days.
Deluxe wheel covers were standard equipment on Monaco.
Thanks for that detail. The text is amended now.
Love the look of the carefully restored green Monaco with the sport wheels, but never would have wanted something so big. I feel the mid-sized Coronet/Satellite B-body wagons were plenty big enough and the big C-bodies offered little more than additional bulk. It was awfully hard to beat Ford for wagons in the late Sixties and early Seventies, even as bloated, wallowing and rust prone as they were.
Nice, that’s a very confident looking green wagon there. Hard to remember how gigantic these things are.
My college roommate had a 72 Polara wagon for awhile around 1981 or 82. The front was completely different, with an equally unattractive treatment that put the headlights down low in the bumper. I was put off then by the cheap interior and the paint the color of Butterscotch pudding. It had the 360 and got poor fuel mileage, and Dan soon tired of it.
But I sure like this green one now.
That green one has been for sale for quite some time, for a mere $25k
Yes, it has. As the link says the car had a hard time getting 12K just over a year ago. This is one on the change hands merry-go-round.
02/2024
http://www.forcbodiesonly.com/mopar-forum/threads/1972-dodge-monaco-sport-wagon-29-500.82911/
8/2023
http://www.forcbodiesonly.com/mopar-forum/threads/reduced-1972-dodge-monaco-station-wagon-15-000.79189/#post-1177865
8/2022.
http://www.forcbodiesonly.com/mopar-forum/threads/1972-monaco-wagon-30k-canadian.72888/#post-1108324
We always had a crush on the Dodge Fever girl Joan Parker.
One minor point: It’s not “Torque Flight” but rather “TorqueFlite” (one word, capital “F”).
Something a bit odd: The wagons didn’t rate any mention in the regular Polara/Monaco brochure in 1972 or 1973, but were lumped into a separate “Dodge Wagons” brochure with the Coronet wagon and the Sportsman vans.
Thanks for the notice. The text has been fixed.
The fuselage design to me seemed more exaggerated with the ’71 to ’76 GM full size cars. And later with the GM midsize cars from ’73 to ’77. If you notice the interior door panels on the Mopars were straight up and down. GM even had concave interior door panels. Of course with the tucked in lower body panels and wide track, the GM cars rusted badly in the midwest US.
My grandfather’s last car was a triple-dark green Monaco 4 door hardtop. Always loved that front clip.
Robert Reed, playing an ambitious adman, drives a red ’73 wagon in the truly insane 1974 TV movie “Pray for the Wildcats” about a murderous client and Baja biker played by Andy Griffith.