In 1977, Chrysler found itself in a rather precarious situation. They were losing money at a rapid rate, their newest model the 1976 Volaré and Aspen, had serious quality issues and rust problems, their midsize Coronet and Fury were popular only with little old men, taxi operators and law enforcement, and there would be no relief in the form of a new product—the FWD Omni and Horizon–until MY 1978. And then there were the full-sizers.
The redesigned full-size Dodge, Plymouth and Chrysler never really got a chance. Production was still in its early stages when the “oil shortage” caused by events overseas caused the sale of Big Three biggies to plummet rapidly. GM and Ford did not get hurt as bad as Chrysler due to their overall better shape and subcompacts like the Vega and Pinto. Stop laughing, they sold! If not for the A-body Slant Six Dart and Valiant, Ma Mopar may not have lived to fight another day. But at any rate, the C-body Mopars never regained the popularity they had had in the 1965-73 period.
The one-two punch of the gas crisis and subsequent 1975 recession hurt all car sales, but in 1976 things were picking up and most Americans were eager to ditch their little penalty boxes for some full-size comfort. Everything from LTDs to Caprice Classics and Lincoln Continentals and Caddys got a healthy sales uptick–even the Chrysler New Yorker and Newport. But for whatever reason, the Dodge and Plymouth C-bodies never got much of a boost, and were discontinued after 1977. But the Chryslers sold!
Maybe it was because folks ponying up for a big Mopar wanted the prestige of the Chrysler name for not a whole lot more money. Maybe it was due to the fact that they did not want drive the same unit as many local police officers and fire chiefs.
Or maybe because the Chrysler was arguably the best looking–though I must confess a soft spot for the hidden-headlighted Royal Monaco–especially as a coupe with the rarely-seen Diplomat landau roof! But today’s post is about the Chryslers, isn’t it?
While the New Yorker Brougham (née 1974-75 Imperial LeBaron) had a lot to do with the Chrysler sales boost, with its elegant roofline, fender skirts, waterfall grille and hidden headlights, the Newport was nothing to sneeze at, either.
Especially one in the right colors and options, such as this lovely ’77 example in Burnished Copper Metallic with beige vinyl roof, beige interior, whitewall tires and Premier wheel covers. Pretty!
If you wanted a pillared full-size Chrysler in 1977, this was your only option, as the New Yorker Brougham came as a two-door coupe (with opera window) or four-door hardtop only. All Newports came standard with a 400 CID V8, the excellent TorqueFlite automatic transmission, 15 x 5.5 steel wheels with HR78 x 15 BSW tires (whitewalls optional), torsion bar front suspension, and asymmetrical rear leaf springs.
These cars were full-size and proud of it, with a 124-inch wheelbase (same as the flossier NYB), 226.6″ overall length, 79.7″ width and room for six real people–not four adults and one kid, as is the case with many cars today.
That’s right, you had a bench seat. No center console was available, even as an option. You want stretch-out room? You got it! As was the case in most every full-size car up to about 1985. And unlike the Ford LTD, Caprice, and Marquis, you actually got more than a gas gauge and a speedometer: All Chryslers (and Royal Monacos, and Gran Furys) received alternator and temperature gauges too.
As the 1977 Chrysler brochure stated, “A look inside Newport reveals the richness of deep, body-conforming foam cushioning…bench seating with folding center armrest in beautiful cloth and vinyl…and finely detailed door panels.”
But despite the ladling on of praise in the brochure, the 1977 Newport still had to have several option boxes checked to make it really nice: air conditioning, tilt/telescope steering column, power windows, power locks, rear window defroster and stereo radio were all optional. Even an AM-only radio was optional!
Another interesting difference in cars of the ’70s vs. today is that smoking was more important than drinking. Indeed, ashtrays were the ’70s version of cupholders when it came to cars. Even rear passengers got a place to park their butts! On luxury models like Cadillac and Lincoln, they were lighted–and even had their own lighter. It was a different time…
So, anyway, I lurk on eBay on a regular basis, checking out the cars available. One of the richest veins for high quality Curbside Classics on the “Bay of E” is classicsllc, which is where I spotted this burnt orange (okay, okay, copper) ’77 last year. I was very impressed with it, primarily due to the fact that it was a Newport (New Yorker Broughams seem to have survived in far greater numbers), and that it was in a really appealing color combination.
It’s flashy and all with its fancy wheelcovers, cool paint, snazzy vinyl roof and even A/C, but look! No radio! Maybe the original owner just liked to whistle as he drove? Or maybe he had four kids and appreciated the silence on the way to work.
I’ve always liked the chrome emblems on the dashes of old cars. Some regard them as silly (Well, Bob forgot what car he was driving, so he looked over and remembered it was a Chrysler! Yuk yuk yuk!) but I think they’re pretty neat, and just a part of the attention given to style over plain old function. I think this is more attractive than many of the melted-candybar dashes found on many 2014 models.
So, no radio, no power windows, guess the original owner was a little old-fashioned. I can dig it; I for one appreciate the fact that both of my cars have knobs and buttons on the radio, with no silly touch screens in sight. Guess I’m the new generation of automotive throwback!
And underneath the proud hood? Why a nice big V8–all the better to tow your Airstream or new speedboat. And was a towing package available? Well of course! The 440 V8 was also optionally available if the 400 didn’t have enough oomph for your taste.
I have no idea what this car sold for, but whoever the new owner is, I imagine the contrast from going from a 2014 Fusion or Accord to something like this, with no infotainment system, no GPS and–gasp!–no center console will find it strange and unusual. And hopefully, pleasantly refreshing!
I remember when these full size Chrysler products were so cheap, a James Bond film wadded up about a 100 of them in an extended chase scene in a parking lot… while a little Dodge Colt imported roller skate was priced about twice as high as a full size… for MPG reasons…
I have the same 15″ Factory Wheel Covers on my 1978 Plymouth PB200 Voyager Sport van.
Good to see they arrived on other corporate Iron as well.
I could make an argument that Chrysler – the brand, not the corporation – was a dead brand walking somewhere around the moment the 1973 Oil Embargo hit.
Cadillac, and arguably Lincoln, were luxury cars in that they were better built than the more plebeian models from their respective manufacturers. A Chrysler was a Plymouth with more gingerbread. By the mid-1970s, Cadillac and Lincoln offered smaller luxury sedans, while Chrysler didn’t until the M-body, 5+ years later. And mostly, everything until the mid-1990s was just fancied-up Plymouths and Dodges.
In 2025, the only Chrysler vehicle is a minivan that could easily be a Dodge.
The Cordoba did give the Chrysler brand a boost in ’75-77, but yeah the full-size models were insufficiently distinguished. The Imperial and New Yorker Brougham had the same dash and steering wheel as the Plymouth Gran Fury. Nobody would confuse a Cadillac with a Chevy from behind the wheel.
The existence of the Cordoba is why I used the specific phrase “luxury sedan” 🙂
No power Windows?
Items like rear-seat ashtrays and brand/model chrome badges on the dash are amongst the little things that slowly disappeared without me noticing, can’t remember which decade they were finally gone (though animated brand callouts on the touchscreen upon startup have essentially replaced the latter, which makes me feel more like I’m booting up a computer than going for a drive). What really floors me is seeing ashtrays for the rear-facing third row seats in station wagons, just in case the 8-year-olds back there were smokers.
Not all rear seat station wagon riders were 8 year-olds.
For our wedding banquet in San Francisco, her relatives from Philadelphia, where we were actually married a month prior, flew out (for some, their first flight, First Class on an American Airlines DC-10…an impressive way to start). I rented a Ford Crown Victoria station wagon with those tiny facing rear seats.
With a capacity of eight occupants (I won’t say real PEOPLE), this meant the two couples from Philadelphia got the penalty box seats.
Add to that…they thought all roads not in the flatlands must have guard rails. So when we went to the Marin Headlands above the Golden Gate Bridge, with the scenic roads on the edge of a steep drop to the water’s edge, they were TERRIFIED!!!
NO GUARD RAILS!!!!!
My best friends father bought a 77 Newport brand new, with an interior in this same color and fabric. Outside, his was even better looking – a 4 door hardtop painted a beautiful rich metallic dark brown (Coffee Sunfire Metallic) with fender skirts but no vinyl roof. It may have been the prettiest Newport of this generation I ever saw. And it was an excellent car for him.
I admittedly had automotive prejudices, when I was less than ten years old.
My parents retired outside a small town, that for decades, had near the oldest per capita population in Canada. It held this distinction for decades. It was essentially a retirement community.
Three cars that seemed more popular than average in this town, were this era Chrysler Newport. And similar vintage 1971 and 1977 era Buick LeSabres and Olds Eighty-Eights.
I always considered these Newports, almost exclusively as old guy’s cars.
Never a more classic Chrysler color than this. Unless it was “brown” or “tan”.
Just before you got to the part where you showed the radio blanking plate, I was thinking to myself that I bet there was never one of these cars sold/ordered without the radio. Well, I guess I was wrong. It’s just hilarious to me that someone would wind up with a car like this, with its cushy-dash pad and then have a black piece of plastic covering up where the radio would go. I love it.
Jeff Sun wrote:
“Never a more classic Chrysler color than this. Unless it was “brown” or “tan”…”
This “Burnished Copper Metallic” reminds me a bit of the “Turbine Bronze Metallic” that IIRC was offered on some mid – 60’s Mopars, in reference to the snazzy 1963 Chrysler Turbine Car… this is among the color selections for the 1967 Imperial:
https://oldcarbrochures.com/static/NA/Chrysler_and_Imperial/1967_Chrysler/1967_Imperial_Brochure/1967%20Imperial-25.html
And 1967 Plymouth Fury:
https://www.oldcarbrochures.com/new/171110/1967%20Plymouth%20Fury/1967%20Plymouth%20Fury-12-13.html
GM
As for why the sales of the full-size Dodge and Plymouth didn’t recovered, the design of the 4-door sedan looked borrowed from a 1971-72 full-size Buick while the Newport and New Yorker 4-door sedan and 4-door hardtop looked like an evolution of the 1965-68 Chrysler design.
Yeah, by this time the full – size Mopars looked *really* bland and generic… like copies of warmed – over GM models with styling cues from a few years earlier…
GM
After 1957, Chrysler just couldn’t catch a break with their big cars. After the disastrous 1962 downsizing to the new B-body, Lynn Townsend and Engel went all conservative, essentially just copying last model cycle GM and Mercury cars which went model-to-model with Ford and GM in 1965. It worked well enough until…
They ventured out with the different 1969-73 fuselage cars. Sales tanked, so in 1974 they went back to copying GM styling and sales…tanked, yet, again.
The potential bright spot might have been an uptick in 1977-78 when it would be GM doing the big-car downsizing and a few buyers still wanted traditional big cars. The only problem was Ford was still offering them for those two years, too.
So then came the downsized 1979 R-body which, ironically, went back to using that same 1962 B-body platform. By then, Chrysler was known as dead company walking so the R-body bombed, too. It was only by Iacocca’s marketing skills that they were able to survive.
The 1975 Cordoba was a big seller and many dealers had few models to show (some had no stock) and weren’t pressed to negotiate. The one I bought was beautiful and, as a new model, had many extras to help the sale. My brother-in-law bought the ’76 model the following year and it seemed quite plain by comparison.
I seem to recall reading that the Chrysler Cordoba and Plymouth Duster saved Chrysler’s bacon. There were plenty of both on the road, all right
The ’75 Cordoba was the first car I owned with bucket seats. Not only did it look cool but you couldn’t speculate whether or not your wife was mad at you on the drive home (let alone why.) With a bench seat, you didn’t need a thermometer to gauge the temperature.
You had me at cornering lights.
and the tilt and telescoping steering wheel! I had a similar 77 Newport. Mine was yellow with buckskin interior and vinyl top. Vinyl twin bench seat which had been the pre imperial New Yorker interior. It had fender skirts, premier wheel covers, PW, PS, tilt & Telescoping wheel, am/fm 8 track. Liked the car except for lean burn. Got decent mpg on highway but hard to keep running in traffic.
I notice different front and rear license plates on this fine example.
I don’t really see why Chrysler bothered with the R Bodies compared to these when resources were limited. They were on probably on borrowed time but they probably could have sold to some ultra traditionalists just as well in 79-81 as the R Bodies.
With the Hemi reemerging and Tavares plans being scuttles now is probably a time to discuss Chrysler division’s future. A brand with one product makes little sense even in combined dealers. Is there a market for a new 300? Not sure another “me too” crossover will really bring in any new sales.
My father had a similarly colored ’73 Dodge Maxivan. I called it copper, too. An excellent color for a fine ride. Thank you for the pics and post!
In general I seriously dislike copper colored vehicles but this one is indeed really pretty .
I see it has “AIRTEMP II” ~ a wonderful system when it works, your worst nightmare when it doesn’t .
Amazingly it even out freezes The General .
I spent six months fixing every broken link in that damn HVAC’s ‘Daisy Chain’ .
I also see it’s saddled with the ‘Lean Burn’ system that was very heat sensitive .
The L.A.P.D. had that in it’s Metro Division cars and everyone hated it .
-Nate