Text by Patrick Bell.
Today we are going to look at some Chryslers; one of my favorite carmakers mainly because they were well engineered for the most part. Plus I lean towards the underdog. We have a nice selection so sit back and enjoy.
The Cordoba was advertised as ‘The New Small Chrysler’ when it was introduced for the ’75 model year and was their entry into the blossoming personal luxury car market. This new style carried on through ’77 with little change. It was a sales success in the first two years as they produced substantially more Cordoba’s than all other Chrysler’s combined. The featured car is equipped with the optional ‘Halo’ vinyl roof and road wheels, and is old enough to have different tires from front to back and may have had some damage repair on the door as it looks like the color is mismatched. It looks like at least two people on board and they are cruising right on by the bank.
It is a nice fall day for a country drive in a ’55 New Yorker De Luxe 4 door sedan with ’62 Virginia license plates. This was the most popular New Yorker but came in second overall to the Windsor sedan. From this angle it looks in good shape for a seven year old car.
The ’57 and ’58 300 series cars were nearly identical, especially from this angle. This one has the ’57 style wheel covers, so I am going with that, which would make it a 300C. It appears to be blue, but likely is black as blue was not offered in either year. They were available in coupe and convertible and were a rare and expensive beast. The coupe’s base price was $4929 and 1918 were produced, while the convertible rang up to $5359 with only 484 coming off the assembly line. The car in the image is out for a winter drive, and as dirty as it is perhaps it was a daily driver.
Let’s go look at a ’62 300 2 door hardtop in San Francisco heading uphill on a warm day with a Checker cab following. This was the first year the non letter 300’s were offered and it replaced ’61’s Windsor as a mid level trim line between the Newport and New Yorker. They came with the 383 V8 as standard and were offered in two 4 door models as well as the coupe and convertible. The 300 letter series would be around for a few more years as the high performance model.
Parked on the left is a ’59 Pontiac and a ’58 or ’59 GMC pickup. On the right side parked, I see a black over white ’59 Chevrolet Impala convertible, further downhill a yellow ’62 Impala Sport Coupe, and in the street with the brake lights on a ’65 Oldsmobile Cutlass.
Now let’s jump across the country and view a street scene in Hanover. The object of our immediate attention is a clean two tone ’62 Newport 4 door sedan, the least expensive and by far the most popular model of the year. It outproduced number two, the New Yorker sedan by over 4.5 times. In the street to the left is a ’63 Ford Falcon Deluxe 4 door sedan followed by a ’64 Buick Special Deluxe wagon. Parked on the other side of the Falcon is a ’65 or ’66 Imperial, and entering the photo on the right edge is a ’62 Buick Invicta. It is a busy day in the small town.
Here we have a group of ladies on an adventure in a ’66 Town & Country wagon with a Massachusetts vanity license plate. This was the first year the T & C was only offered with the Newport trim until ’69 when it became its own series. It was offered in both six and nine passenger versions with the six passenger the most popular by less than 500 units out of a total of 17,602 between the two.
It is off to the campground with a ’67 Town & Country from Illinois tow vehicle and a Pathfinder self contained camper. The car has towing mirrors and wheel covers that indicate disc brakes that were standard that year. The camper has leveling jacks and looks like it is hooked up to water, power and sewer. ’67 was the first year of a styling refresh but wagon sales were down from the prior year with a total of 14,703 produced with the nine passenger version ahead this year by less than 400 units.
This ’67 300 4 door hardtop with a vinyl roof was a handsome car, and out of the four 4 door hardtops offered it was last in popularity. It is parked in the driveway in a modern neighborhood of ranch style homes.
The Newport never grew above the entry level full size trim in its 21 year existence. This ’69 4 door hardtop was the first year of the fuselage styling, and of the four 4 door hardtops offered it ranked second in popularity after the New Yorker. I had a ’69 Newport 2 door hardtop back in the day. It was an unusual one with the only option being power steering. It had three on the tree and no radio. It was a very good car and was a road cruiser. To the right at the entrance of the Jamestown Festival Park in Virginia, is a ’69 or ’70 full size Chevrolet.
Now we are across the ocean where a ’71 New Yorker sedan is taking more than his share of the parking space in Amsterdam. There were four 4 door sedans offered and the New Yorker was the least popular. In the New Yorker line the 4 door hardtop sold twice as many, while the 2 door hardtop sold half as many. Behind it is a Renault 12 Estate, Alfa Romeo Spider, Fiat 124, and at the end facing to the right a Mini.
A clean ’76 or ’77 New Yorker Brougham with the St. Regis roof option and road wheels. These big coupes were a dying breed by this time. They were outsold by the 4 doors and only made up about ten percent of the amount of Cordobas produced. In the background is a ’79 or ’80 Ford Pinto or Mercury Bobcat.
Here we are driving through trees in a ’75 or ’76 Newport 4 door hardtop. These were the least popular of the three body styles offered in the Newport trim for both years.
The LeBaron was introduced in ’77 as a new full line (relatively) small car. This design was used through ’79, and while sales started slow, by ’78 it was the top selling line. The featured car is a ’79 2 door with a trim level I can’t determine, in a European city. It looks like a white Volkswagen Golf further back and a dark Volkswagen Type 2 heading the other way.
Thanks for joining us and have a great day!
Things you don’t notice, until decades later.
Virtually all of the first gen M-Body Chrysler LeBarons and Dodge Diplomats I have observed over the years, have featured distinctive two-tiered black bumper rub strips on their noses. It was a large part, of their easily-identifiable look. Likely because, the vast majority of sales for the first generation M-Body, were in the ’77½ and ’78 model years. The ’79 LeBaron in this post, doesn’t have them. Many do not, in a quick Google image search of the ’79’s. Assuming, the strips became optional. Prefer the earlier, more detailed grille, as well.
I found those two-tiered rub strips, a distinctive part of this car’s appearance. Without them, the nose looks significantly cheaper. More exposed bumper bolts than the Volare/Aspen, as well. Likened to the concurrent Chevrolet Nova. Chrysler clearly, was in rough shape by 1979.
I Left My Heart in San Francisco years ago. On one trip I had a rental 88 Town Car. Driving uphill, with that acres long hood, I felt like a jet taking flight! LOVE that St. Regis!
My ‘72 Dodge Polara Custom 2-door hardtop
I’d have loved to test drive your ’69 Newport .
-Nate
it was an interesting drive, Nate. I’m 5’11” and on the long legged side. With the seat all the way back I could not release the clutch pedal without hitting my shin on the lower edge of the dash. I learned to angle my leg over to the left to save my shin. Clearly it wasn’t built for a manual transmission. Otherwise it was a great driver for a couple of years.
In Canada, all Chryslers came standard with automatics, according to the brochures from here.
Every Chrysler ever made was a cheap piece of junk.
Than I must be very lucky. I’ve never been a Chrysler fan. I bought several only because they depreciated quickly and were more affordable than competitors of similar age/condition.
A bit to my surprise, the Chryslers I experienced were pretty durable cars. Yeah, they had a bit more road noise than competitive products. Interiors were often a bit spartan versus competition and they had quirky controls like the wipers that always had to make a final swipe after being turned off.
On the plus side, their suspensions aged better than most. The drive trains seemed nearly indestructible. Once past the late 1950s models, they didn’t seem quite as rust prone as some of their competition.
My ownership experience did not include every Chrysler ever made. The ones I did own (64, 66 & 67 + a 55 if you allow me to add the similar DeSoto) were pretty good experiences.
Anymore priceless gems of wisdom to share with us Greg?
In over 350 cars I’ve experienced the Chryslers/Mopars were some of the best.
Wow, could you share some of your knowledge?
The 225 slant six, junk?
The 318,340,360 family, junk?
The 383, 440, junk?
The 727 Torqueflite, junk?
I stand corected. Who knew?
Corrected. I fix eyes, cars, and ships. I am not a typist.
Whoa, you had a ’69 Newport with the three speed manual? Now that was a rare bird.
That picture of the ’71 New Yorker in Amsterdam reminds me of the black ’69 Polara sedan that parked down the street a bit from my grandmother’s apartment building in Innsbruck when we were there in the summer of ’69. Its size and aggressive fuselage styling really made it stand out in a sea of boxy little Fiats and such. Setting is such a significant factor; that car looked utterly amazing there.
I have actually seen two of them in my time. The first one was new on the showroom floor at Anchorage Chrysler Center. In was a 2 door, blue with a blue interior. I bought mine in ’75, and it was white with a blue interior. I first wondered if mine was the first one I saw and had a color change. I never did verify the color code, but I was all over that car and there was no sign of a color change.
I had a great uncle that had three New Yorker 4 door sedans. He had:
1966 New Yorker 6 window 4 door sedan
1971 New Yorker 4 door sedan
1973 New Yorker 4 door sedan
I never figured out why he traded the 1971 so quickly.
Future Projects:
’65 Newport; my parents bought it in ’66;
’70 Plymouth Sport Fury GT; I bought it in ’80;
’74 Airstream Land Yacht Overlander; my wife & I bought it in ’01;
Either one can pull the Airstream … and that’s the plan.
To whom it may concern:
Opinions are like…… there’s no need to finish it … it’s been said many times … always for good reasons.
I’m a bit puzzled by the license plate on the ’66 Town & Country photo with the group of ladies.
It sure looks like a Massachusetts plate to me, but those green-on-white plates weren’t issued until 1979. It’s possible the photo was taken at around that time (and the car’s quite a survivor), but it’s also surprising that there’s a front license plate, since Massachusetts didn’t issue plates in pairs until later. I wonder if vanity plates were actually issued in pairs (I believe that low-numbered reserved plates were issued in pairs). I’d love to hear from someone who knows the intricacies of Massachusetts plates about this.
That one puzzled me as well, Eric. A Google search shows the photo in a UMass Amherst collection and it is dated ‘circa 1988’. I sort of blew that off because although the plate matches the car does not look like a twenty year old. But, as you said, perhaps it is a survivor that was hardly ever driven and stored inside.
We all know Chrysler products offered more value in the 50s ,60s and 70s. They had the lead on engineering but, lacked quality. The 1956 Chrysler New Yorker 2 Dr. Hard top styling was one of the best styled American car ever made. It is close to the 1963 to 65 Buick Riviera. Close!
You can tell a 57-58 Chrysler difference. 58 had curved windshield at the top and shorter tail light lenses
Ricardo Monteban touting the “rich Cointhian leather “.
And the “engine that thinks, actually thinks”.
That`76 or `77 New Yorker coupe with the ‘St. Regis’ roof. I just LOVE it. Maybe some day,…………..
My first car was this 1966 Chrysler New Yorker that the father of a friend of mine sold to me for $1 in 1975 when I was a junior in high school. I had signed up for auto shop. My parents OK’d me buying the car provided that I pay all gas and maintenance expenses myself. They also said that I needed to save for college. I soon realized that I had to choose one or the other based on what I was making working part-time at a grocery store and mowing lawns in the neighborhood. I chose right and attended college. I sold the car for $450 in the summer of 1976 after graduating high school.
I have owned no less that 14 Moparf, I am 72, my first at 18 was a 56 DeSoto, I loved that car. I currently own a 2007 Dodge truck, a 2019Vhallenger RT, and my favorite another 56 DeSoto. It’s sad to see Chrysler in their present condition seeing how innovative they were in the past.
I’ve had a number of Chryslers over the year plus a couple of Plymouths. The 1975 Cordoba looked great and ran great. The trunk lid developed some rust and had to be replaced but that was the only problem. Great car. Sound system was an 8 track; much better sound than cassette tapes.
My best Chrysler was a 1958 Saratoga but it, too, developed rust problems.
Worst car was a 1979 Plymouth LeBaron wagon. It was gutless plus it was in at the dealer more than it was with me.
The “79, LB” looks alot like ours did. “Lipstick red, white halftop/interior. Build quality was “baad”!
The “lean burn”, engine, the “lock up converter” were a major pain.