Chrysler's Financial Woes & The R-Body Platform (1979-81 Newport/New Yorker, St. Regis, & Gran Fury) 

The R car was a failure, it was the last model built at the Lynch Road Assembly plant in 1981. I used to work there from 1976 to 1979. Luckily they still had fleet sales including the Blue Michigan State police cars with the classic red bubble center light on the roof in either Newport or St. Regis sedans. Governor Milliken tried to start and drive the first 1979 Chrysler Fifth Avenue off the line at Lynch Road and the car had a dead battery, workers had to jump start the car, what a public relations nightmare.

As the owner of a 1980 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue Special Edition, Thank you for covering this platform!

As the owner of a 1980 Plymouth Gran Fury police package, thank you for covering these forgotten Mopars. They do not get the love that they deserve and many nice cars can be had for pennies.

I had a black 1980 New Yorker 5th Ave. Edition. I was in need of a car and bought it off a coworker's grandfather in 1994 for practically nothing. It had been sitting for a year. I threw a battery in it and drove it home, and proceeded to put another 120K miles on it. Its options were the 360 V8, stainless steel roof and "special handling" package. It was a great driving car, very luxurious and comfy, and one of the most trouble-free cars I ever owned. It had amazingly far less squeaks and rattles than even some cars these days. It was one of my favorite cars I ever owned and was the one that never failed to start and drive well, regardless of the weather, despite being carbureted. I finally got rid of it around 2000 as rust had eaten it up, transmission was leaking, and the A/C had too many leaks to be practical to fix. Very underrated cars and I only ever saw a handful of them on the road, so kind of special.

My aunt got the top of the line then soon (months) died. I had use of it for a year and it was considered ugly/tacky at the time. My large BMW sat in the garage because the New Yorker or Fifth Avenue was more comfortable and more reliable. It was a fantastic car. Now I am ashamed it was not saved.

I have a 1979 New Yorker. 50,000 original miles. 360, lean burn, custom dual Flowmaster exhaust. I've had this car for 14 years. Most reliable car I've ever had. Handles and rides great.

I really like the styling on the St Regis and Grand Fury’s on these R Bodies. The Dodge Magnum was another great looking car with the same clear retractable headlight covers.

I remember the Auto Show when these debuted, especially the New Yorker. The floating C pillar padded roof was strange but the cars looked opulent compared to GM & Ford. I don't think it was just the fuel embargo of '79 that doomed the R bodies, it was the lack of engineering, quality and lackluster performance aside from handling. Thank you for bringing these very interesting vehicles back from 4 decades of obsolescence.

In August of 1979, my dad bought a Chrysler Newport off the lot from the lone Mopar dealer here in Raleigh, NC. I was 17 and entering my senior year in high school, so I got to drive it brand new. It was a very handsome and highly-optioned car, in an elegant color combination of Nightwatch Blue (as Chrysler called it), with a white vinyl roof and the optional upgraded button-tufted navy blue corduroy interior with navy carpet. The body color was the same as JFK's fateful '61 Lincoln (later painted black by LBJ). Really stood out among the earthy greens, browns, and golds of the era. And overall held it's own in terms of styling with the "sheer look" GMs of the day. I was proud to drive it. Full power assists including driver's seat, climate control, good am/fm stereo, tilt, cruise, intermittent wipers, dual remote mirrors, trunk release, ect. I think the only options missing were rare ones, cornering lights and sunroof. Also had the standard dish type hub caps, but the center emblem matched the standing hood ornament, and were more elegant and understated than the flashy wire wheels. The car handled and rode beautifully. Was quiet, comfortable, and got decent mileage for a big car of that era. Granted dad had it only 3 years, but not one minute of trouble. He traded it for a new 1982 Buick Century in a hideous lime green with green vinyl top and pea-green plush interior. Looked like the Jolly Green Giant threw up 😄. Hated that car; FWD, downsized, and under-powered. Only thing I did not like about the Newport was the deep receding pitch of the dash. Made the gauges difficult to read for tall people. However the gauges were beautifully back-lit at night, as I remember, with a soft green glow. Side note. When we went to the Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth dealer to look at the Newport, the salesman really pushed a Dodge St. Regis on us which had been a demonstrator. It was hideous. Fire-engine red with a white vinyl "opera" roof with white leather interior and bright red carpet, wire wheels. Looked like a clown car. Dealer was willing to let it go for same price as the much more elegant Newport, but I told my father "No"!

GM and Chrysler had attractive wire wheel covers. Ford's version had an unusual spoke pattern.

A great profile on the often overlooked and unloved R-bodies. They were handsome vehicles in their time but were a victim of bad timing and Chrysler's financial woes. I do remember the build quality on these R-bodes was not great. I often wondered what would have happened if Lee Iacocca had kept them in the line-up through the 1980's as they did the M-bodies. I think they would have done well when full-size cars began selling well again in 1983. Keep up these great profiles.

The Minnesota Highway Patrol kept a 1979 Dodge St. Regis Patrol Car in the fleet. They use it for events like the annual MN State Fair and auto shows to show the progression of law enforcement technology over the years. The car has no partition and tan brocade upholstery. It's decently equipped with power windows and air conditioning. The car is dressed in the MN maroon and white which is a color combination they still use. Kind of nice they keep it around for heritage purposes. I knew a couple of families that had R bodies...like the St. Regis and New Yorker...it seemed the door pulls would come detached from the inside of the car and when they got some age on them, lots of interior rattles and squeaks. Though I do recall the seat belt an door chimes still worked.

Have you seen the WTVJ Channel 4 review of the New Yorker from 1979? Check it out. The lack of quality was beyond words. And worse, in a car that was presented to the press lol ... yet I loved that car so much.

I was a Rural Mail Carrier and used one of these with a 318 V-8. It was a splendid car for that purpose, roomy, reliable with a perfectly flat bench seat which we carriers needed because we drove seated closer to the passenger door than the driver's side door. I wish these had been built for many years as they were well-designed. Three years is too heartbreakingly short a time.

I always liked the styling on the '79-81 New Yorker. I liked it more than the '82 revision, which was run into the ground... running until '91, IRRC.

❤ Exciting video… one of my favorite body styles! I drove one of these some time ago but didn’t buy it because it had a disintegrating vinyl top and rattled and felt like a carnival ride. They are hard to find in presentable condition but do appear from time to time. I would love to have an 81 Fifth Avenue S.E. with the Wayne Cady (?) 79 Biarritz knock off stainless roof. Great video!

Thank you for this episode Adam. I bought a white, '79 New Yorker from a small, local used car lot in Cedar Rapids, IA in 1989 as a "snow car". I loved the look of this model. I had a black, '87 Olds 442 with the traction-loc rear end, at the same time that was not able to stay on the road in the snow. I paid extra for a garage at my apartment to store the 442 during that winter. I was 25 years old. I loved the hidden headlights on the NY'er, the huge expanse of red, button-tufted leather seating, especially in the back seat (Majesty!). I was surprised at the corroding/flaking chromed, aluminum bumpers. I got stuck in traffic when the throttle linkage fell off the 318's carb. I remember the clank of the lock-up torque converter. The car was great in the snow like my '79 Caprice Classic had been. I sold the car the following July to a guy at work who had totaled his '87, Cougar XR-7 in the company parking lot! Love your channel. Tom

Thank you for a remarkably positive look at the R-bodies. I have a 1979 Dodge St. Regis I've driven for the last 28 years which has about 280,000 miles on it. Bought the car from my dad who bought it from the original owner. It is a very fun car to drive and the 318/A999 combo makes for reliable motoring. The A999 replaced the original A904. If I had any say over any part of its design, I would have made sure it got window frames on the doors, better door seals and stronger manual window regulators as they are notorious for stripping teeth just before the window reaches the top. The Lean Burn had been removed by the original owner and my dad replaced the points ignition he found with a standard Chrysler electronic ignition, the carburetor is a Holley 2280 2 barrel that I liked so much I rebuilt one for my '68 Fury VIP. Comparing the two cars, my 318 powered Fury is not as floaty as one might expect for a C-body and the handling remarkably similar even though the Fury does not yet have a rear sway bar. I did add a factory front sway bar a couple of years ago. Both cars put a smile on my face.

I thought the Chrysler 1974 were nice designs, better than the 1974 GM or Ford offerings. I thought the R Platforms looked dated by the 1977 GM Full Size but I like their interior designs.

FINALLY some coverage on the R Body, I'm a proud owner of a 1979 New Yorker in Hunter Green Pearl

As a car conscious teen when these came out, this was the first time I knew, bones deep, that Chrysler could not ultimately survive as a full member of the big 3. I give them the wizardry of the endless permutations of the K car, the derivative, innovative and astonishly successful minivan, and the (for a while anyway) saving grace of picking up Jeep, but their long term survival as an independent stand alone entity seemed seriously quesitonable for the first time in 1980. The corporation would have a mid-2000s surge, but now what. Felt sorry for them then, it was the first whiff death. Now it's just decay. As for the cars themselves, they were not unattractive, just not interesting. And they suffered horribly - so dated - with any serious comparison with GM/Ford counterparts. Once again, you almost hated to see the hapless 5th Avenue go up against Cad and the (80) Lincoln in Motor Trend's 'King of the Hill'. All that said, I will say I had a ride in a St Regis with the 360 and what I was told was the 'Open Road' option - essentially heavy duty suspension / that wasn't bad. Drove some F41 Caprices, but not near enough in time to compare....

I bought a '79 Newport and an '81 Fifth Ave in a package deal back around '97ish. They were both decent cars. I drove the Newport to work and used the Fifth Ave for everything else. At the time, it seemed to me that they were trying to copy GM cars more than anything else. The Newport looked like a cross between the Impala and Buick LeSabre, but the Fifth Ave did kinda have more of its own "look", except for the side profile that looked like a Caprice to me (especially the roofline and door windows). Good luck finding one of these R bodies today. I haven't seen one either on the road or advertised for sale anywhere in at least the last 15 years or so. I'm guessing the Cash 4 Clunkers program swallowed up whatever was left of them.

K-cars were very roomy and comfortable. The K-Van started a revolution. Everybody knew these were good cars at popular prices. Surprising to see such vanguard products from a company facing Chapter whatever.

I adored the look of the R-bodies and admired the fact that Chrysler used retractable headlight doors on the St Regis, as well. Why on earth they switched to that name from Monaco, I will never understand. But that’s a different matter. With the Panther Mercury and Lincoln, they moved away from retractable headlight doors (except for the Mark VI) and came up with a design that I thought looked a lot cheaper and less rich than their predecessors. Not so with the R-bodies. The R’s also used stationary rear door quarter windows, which were a unique touch not seen since the hardtop sedans of the mid/late ‘50s. I think Chrysler refrained from doing coupe versions because in 1979, they were still selling B-body coupes with the Cordoba and Magnum XE using essentially the same platform, and didn’t want them competing internally. The lack of wagon versions is, to me, the greater curiosity. From everything I’ve read, what did these cars in, in addition to the onset of Energy Crisis II, was a rapidly deteriorating quality reputation. Far too many of these cars went out the door with serious defects, on a much more widespread basis than GM and Ford were doing. So between the Energy Crisis II, ensuing economic downturn, constant headlines about Chrysler’s worsening financials, and the cars’ poor quality reputations, the R-bodies didn’t have much hope of succeeding after the initial 1979 run. I’ve always wondered, though, if Chrysler had stuck with them a little longer, if sales would have rebounded once the bugs got worked out, once Chrysler’s finances turned the corner, and once the economy recovered and fuel prices eased. Chrysler probably only needed to wait another 18 months or so before sales would have likely improved again. But then again, Chrysler was fighting for its life at the time.

110th

Another great video. Now please segway into one on the 1981 to 1983 Imperial. One of the prettiest cars ever imho despite the problematic fuel injection

Another marvelous video. I learned much from this video. I unfortunately never drove an R body. I’m curious now and hope to have the opportunity soon. Thanks Adam for this content.

The “R” body cars were not inherently bad vehicles but a big issue with them was poor quality control. I worked in a quad Chrysler store at the time. The Newport New Yorker and St Regis Gran Fury were actually styled fairly nice. And the financial woes the company was going thru had depleted them of cash reserves. If not for Lee Iacocca the corporation would have ceased to exist.

I was 18 in the fall of 1978 when these came out -- it was Chrysler essentially saying we're lost at sea. Dazed and Confused, like the Led Zeppelin song. Barely managing just one body style -- the 4-door. I really wanted to like them -- having spent my early teens utterly enraptured by the Chrysler fuselage designs. Even somewhat liking the disappointing GM-copy 1974-1978 restyle. The R-bodies at least had frameless door glass, and some hidden headlights -- unlike Ford and GM's new cluttered, boxy downsized fullsize models. But overall bland styling -- no more fender skirts, and an unattractive shovel-nose slanted front on all models, giving a sort of groveling look. Rather appropriate, as these styling decisions were apparently a mindless echo of GM's downsized fullsize cars -- the Buick's shovel-nose and banishment of fender skirts. Largely forgotten -- and no loss. The only bright spot that year was the new 1979 Mustang. Everything else in US cars was in slow motion decline. GM had decided starting with 1977's full sizes, that graceful, clean, sweeping elegance was out, and boxy, upright, rectangles upon more rectangles and frames were in. And neither Ford nor Chrysler had the vision to realize they didn't have to follow GM's movement backwards. Things might have been different in 1979 if Chrysler had pulled a 1957 and reintroduced hardtops, fender skirts, hidden headlights and curves -- actual beautiful, exciting, trend setting cars that would have exposed GM/Ford's look as stodgy and backward.

In 1983, my dad bought a 1980 Dodge St. Regis police car. It had the E58 360-4bbl V8 with 185 hp. Sounded fantastic when the secondaries opened and really felt fast for the day. The heavy duty suspension gave it a BRUTAL ride, and the seven-blade fan sounded like a hair dryer. I always thought it was a cool car, but my dad never loved it. He replaced it a year later with a '78 Lincoln Continental Town Car.

The OPEC embargo was the fall of 1973. The 1979 oil rise, Was due to the October 1979 Iranian Revolution

I remember reading about how Chrysler scrapped hundreds of unfinished R-body cars that languished in a holding lot during their economic struggles in the early 80's.

Absolutely abysmal build quality. The R bodies shed trim pieces and the Chrysler lean burn carburetor was a nightmare. The GM full sizes were much better in every way

I owned a 1979 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue in the Cream over Beige two tone exterior. It was such wonderful car. I loved the hidden headlights and it's very blocky exterior design. Being the more upscale Fifth Avenue trim really set the car off from other R bodies and it would turn heads everywhere i went. I need to add some additional material that was omitted from the video. In 1980, Chrysler even added another super rare limited edition model that was called the 1980 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue Special Edition. It was the flagship model from 1980 and 1981 only. The Special Edition came with elecroluminence opera lights in place of the standard bulb designed units on the regular Fifth Avenues and also had a special limosine type frenched in quarter top in the rear. It also gave you a matching padded vinyl trunk section as in the Cougar XR7 Midnight Chamois editions for even more added class. Adam even pictured one thumbnail(unknown to him) of a Special Edition that was owned by a friend of mine but is hard to distingish in the video as it was only shown from the front end. The rear end had all the special treatments so unless you see it from the side or back, you won't know it's a Special Edition. Super rare cars today if you can even find one. Just as a side note, I have some NOS parts for my 1979 Chyrsler New Yorker Fifth Avenue if anyone in the comments is a collector of these cars. I reluntantly sold my car off due to space limitations but have kept a lot of those NOS parts for safekeeping. The most rare part of all, the 1979 year ONLY Lucite pentastar crystal hood ornament is the most saught after and desired as most broke off due to a weak mounting design. In 1980 and 1981, Chrysler used the more traditional metal open pentastar design which was not as unique. Also the trunk lock cover was special on the New Yorker Fifth Avenue of all years. The R Bodies are often made fun of and picked on like the Cadillac Cimarron as being a sales blunder. But in my eyes they are one of the most handsome cars that Chrysler made in it's history. Beauty is a strange thing and to me it's clearly seen in the R Body Chryslers.

Watching these videos, I usually feel a sense of nostalgia for GM and Ford cars I might have dismissed back in the day. But looking at these, I only see ugly ducklings. You showed a video of a gorgeous '67 Imperial convertible in gold a few weeks ago. That was a rolling work of art. It must have been especially demoralizing for Chrysler employees to see their product line devolve into blandness, and their company into insolvency, in the space of 12 years.

I wonder how much of the 1980 and 1981 steep sales decline was driven by market forces and how much was due to Chrysler de-emphasizing these models. The story I read was that the federal government made the discontinuation of the R-bodies a condition for the bailout. It's too bad, since their reliability was said to be much improved over Chrysler's 1970s mid-size offerings, which had been promoted as police cruisers before 1979. When oil prices collapsed in the mid 1980s, these cars would almost certainly have been very profitable and with K-cars dominating the rest of Chrysler's offerings, they could easily have met CAFE standards even with a rejuvenation of R-body sales.

I think these are some of the neatest looking Malaise era cars from Chrysler, along with the Dodge Magnum of 78-79. While not to the same build quality as the earlier full size cars, mechanically they've got very solid bones. What stands out to me is how the back door glass is technically frameless, so when you roll the back window down and open the back door, you still have the big quarter window and vinyl trim around it sticking up. Similar to the bustle back Seville, actually.

I had a '79 Newport, engine refused to die but the transmission bit the bullet after about 1.5 months. To be fair it was extremely used by the time I bought it. The good ol days when you could buy a car with working AC for $200 😅

My impression is that GM got it right, whether it was by luck or sound engineering, with downsizing and weight savings on the Impala, while still delivering a car with nearly as much room as the dinosaur that preceded it. Chrysler’s attempt- as you mentioned with the peeling bumper chrome and plastic wheel cylinders, coupled with the teething problems with the lean burn, gave the customer the strong impression of poor quality. Sensors and vacuum hose connections had to be perfect, or else it ran like a piece of junk. This image problem was the last thing they needed, but did Chrysler really learn from their past mistakes when they rushed half baked products to market? The 1957 quality disasters and the ultra drive transmissions that they were so slow to improve- these permanently damaged their reputation. It’s unfortunate.

Slowest police car I was ever issued was a 1981 Gran Fury with a 318. Very comfortable but slow as heck and it would stall in the middle of hard left turns. Was very happy to get rid of it when I was issued a 83 LTD with a 351.

In 1984 I bought a 1973 Thunderbird that spent it's life in Beverly Hills with a lady owner. The car was not running well and I bought some Gumout and premium gas and went to the 405 freeway around 3 AM and opened the Thunderbird up. A California Highway Patrol unit was parked someplace and radioed about me because the officer was in a Dodge St. Regis. A few miles ahead, 3 vehicles had the freeway blocked and their guns out. I stopped and fully cooperated and 1 of the officers knew me from my work. The officers were all nice and the officer that had first seen me said if this hadn't been on the radio, I would not give you a ticket. When I looked at the ticket it had me at 85+. I asked about that. The officer explained that he didn't have radar and the St. Regis only went about 85 and if he had put the speed that he thought that I was going which was 130, if I fought the ticket, I would win. The 85+ that I was ticketed for, the officer could say he had his speedometer pegged at 85 and I was pulling away from him. Most of The C. H. P. didn't have radar at that time. Since it was 30+ over, it was a mandatory court appearance. I could not take traffic school for it either. I was just going to plead guilty with no excuses, but the Judge asked me why I was speeding and I told him and he fined me $40. But California tacks on fees and it totalled $69. The Gumout and speed worked. The C. H. P. got rid of there fleet of St. Regis's before they were do to be replaced because of their low speed.

To my eyes, the K cars and especially the 1990 Fifth Avenue and Imperial looked like mini R bodies.

One of the biggest reasons that new Mopars of the mid to late 70s werent selling was the widespread use of high pressure sales tactics at Dodge and Chrysler/Plymouth dealerships. While the practice of course existed at Ford and GM dealerships, Chrysler dealers took it to new levels (likely out of desperation) and people simply wouldnt go in their dealerships.

I had an E-58 360 HP powered 1979 Newport from the Florida Highway Patrol in 1981 and was rather impressed with this car considering the era it was produced in. Had the handling and brake goodies and would hit a little over 120 MPH just the way it came to me.

DOOR CHIMES: I was with my dad in 1980 when he looked at and later bought a 1980 Chrysler Newport. It was exactly as your video describes. It was a larger, (but not huge) and comfortable 4door sedan that was big enough that my dad wouldn't hit his head getting in. Came with a 225 slant six which was a little under powered but still maintained freeway speed ok. However, the thing I remember most is the DOOR CHIMES sounded just like John Lennon's new hit single playing on the radio. I took the car over to my friend's house. I picked her up, put in the key, and can never forget her singing "Our life, together, is so precious, together. We have grown, we have grown..." True story! Then shortly after he was assassinated. So, whoever still has one of these cars, compare the first few lines of that song to your door chimes!

Hi Adam, I was just watching your video about the Chrysler full size cars from 79-81, I don't know if you read Collectible Automobile magazine, but they did an article about those cars & apparently they weren't too terrific, the build quality,.stuff coming apart, I know that the auto industry itself was a changing time, the oil embargo, downsizing the cars, fuel economy standards, depending on what you were interested in buying at the dealership, either something caught your eye or you looked elsewhere, still, cars of the late seventies to early eighties had an appeal, it's a pity that we no longer have a need for a full size car, I say the car manufacturers need something else besides SUV'S, everyone has them, & if you build something reasonable, you just might recapture what we used to drive!!

K cars were underrated. I had one. It was a 83 Plymouth reliant and it drove and handled like a full sized car. More comfortable than Ford tempo/topaz or chevy cavalier. The front had full size bench, giving the feeling of a much bigger car. The only thing that I didn't like was the lack of power. The 2.2 4l was absolutely anaemic and it took the car forever to accelerate. But the interior was more pleasant than it's competitors (my taste)

The main reason why Chrysler dropped this line of vehicles was that they were so poorly constructed, plain and simple. These cars had constant mechanical, electrical, cooling issues and all other sorts of other problems, so much so that by the mid-80s when their lack of dependability was well known owners were practically giving them away. These cars ended up as police, government and cab company favorites not because of their quality but because Chrysler made sweetheart fleet vehicle deals with these entities just to get rid of these clunkers. Chrysler vehicles in the late 70s and early 80s were extremely poorly made overall. I had a neighbor who owned a 1962 Pontiac Bonneville (a bulletproof vehicle), and traded it in on a new 1979 Dodge Monaco (Olds Cutlass clone). After three solid months of this Monaco breaking down and going back to the dealer he finally asked if his old Pontiac was still on their lot so he could buy it back and dump the Monaco he had just bought three months earlier.

My grandma had a 1980 Dodge St. Regis exactly like the one shown at 4:18 except she had different dodge rims. She bought the car brand new in 1980 and kept it until 1992 when she bought a Lincoln Town Car. But I remember as a small kid during the 80's riding around in that St Regis. She got regular check ups done so she never had any real problems with it.

These were some of the Cheapest made cars compared to it’s competitors. They fell apart quickly. Thank You for bringing these back up. No one ever does. Lol

Full size GM cars of the era could out-handle any Ford or Chrysler equivalent product, and with a 11.3 sec 0-60 time, were 2 seconds faster than either.

I owned a 1981 Dodge St Regis and had problems with that stupid spark control device. I eventually traded for a 84 Fifth Ave that I loved. The large 80’s New Yorker, St Regis and eventually the Fifth Ave’s were used at the White House for staff. These were used during Iacocca tenure. They were all Navy blue in color with blue leather interiors and gold pin stripes.The vehicles were driven by Army personnel and were nicknamed carpet drivers.

@ 2:40 A Cadillac with black walls? Who in their right mind would do such a thing?

Thanks for this. I had noticed that these cars haven't gotten much attention. I remembered them as not selling well compared to their FoMoCo and GM equivalents, so I was surprised to hear you note that the 1979 sales figures for them had been so high. Though downsized from their predecessors and boxy in the fashion of the time, they were actually quite a bit longer than the downsized GM and Ford models. At the time, I wondered if that was Chrysler hedging their bets in case customers didn't respond well to too radical of a downsizing. Also, my grandmother had one of those ill-fated 1974-78 C-bodies, a beautiful 1976 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham sedan, dark brown with tufted brown leather upholstery, a beautiful car, really just a rebadged 1975 Imperial Lebaron.

We had a 79 New Yorker when I was a kid. All I remember is it having electrical issues. We kept it 5 years and by then it was done. Traded it in on an 85 Voyager. The dealer probably sent it straight to the crusher.

Old Mopar Man. At least they weren't owned by FIAT.

I remember Motor Trend doing a comparison road test back then between the Cadillac, Lincoln and R-body New Yorker and the New Yorker winning fairly easily. I wish I could find it online...

What an improvement to your YT channel in a few months! This video is a good example of this improvement because it is clear to a non-US viewer, whereas it seemed to me that your early videos were only aimed at a strictly US audience. You deserve way more subscribers! Keep up the good work

The police car shown at 6:48 is a museum piece. It’s part of the collection at the RCMP museum in Regina, Saskatchewan. I’ve seen it in person. Very cool.

These are one of my favorite body styles. After having a couple 79s and an 80 Newport. They fixed a bunch of the issues in the 80 models. I currently have a 79 New Yorker but I think I will eventually look for another Newport.

Good video, but not much mention of the horrible quality on the R bodied cars, beautiful as they were ( New Yorkers) We had 3 as house cars in a casino where I worked. Literally falling apart before your eyes.

I had two but my favorite of all I've ever driven was a 79' Newport with a 225. Beautiful blue with velour interior, nice dash and unique instrument cluster, huge trunk. Not optioned as it was a fleet car but it was roomy and large. Thanks for the upload. Brought back memories of past years.

Thanks for the info. I always had an appreciation for the R Bodies. Especially the New Yorker Firth Avenue. I liked the look and stylings. Hope own one one day.

I love them because you can open the door and get in the car with ease. New cars all look like someone stepped on the roof

Thank you for the video. My first car was an R-body (old police car), and she was a tank. It's been about 30 years since I got rid of her, and I still miss her.

In my memory ... I can see a pristine triple white 1981 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue with its amber lights on and front wheels turned 45° from a 3/4 front view. Height of summer with a red tinged sunset just beginning ... roughly circa 1986. It took my breath away and stands in memory as perhaps the most beautiful car I have ever seen.

The 1978 New Yorker was 232 inches long and the 1973 Imperial was 235 inches long. Also the 1970 Chrysler Newport Custom was 224 inches long and the 1978 Chrysler Newport was 226 inches long. So not all earlier C-bodies where longer. The 1973 Imperial was 235 due to bumper guards front and rear the 1972 Imperial was shorter by 5 inches.

My parents bought a '79 Newport when they came out. I was 15 at the time, so it was one of two vehicles in which I learned to drive. The car was a mid-trim level, with a nicely finished interior with a corduroy-like seating fabric, but no a/c or power options. It did have a vinyl top, beige paint and surprisingly, a nice set of aluminum road wheels (I think that the dealer threw those in to get the sale). It struck me as a car built with some decent materials, but plagued by haphazard assembly quality. The plated aluminum bumpers did start to flake and pit after a couple of years, and the body panels seemed to be a slightly thinner sheet metal gauge and tended to dent easily, but appeared to be galvanized so was fairly rust resistant. A lot of the interior noise could be attributed to the frameless door glass that tended to get sucked outward, away from the seals, at highway speed. The "Lean-Burn" 318 tended to buck and stall in wet weather. Nevertheless, it proved to be a comfortable family car with reasonable fuel economy on the highway. My dad eventually bought a Taurus when they came out in the mid-80's, but the Newport stayed on for a few more years as a car for my siblings to use to go to college. Thanks for the great presentation and trip down memory lane.

I would love to have one of these, maybe an A38 St. Regis, Newport or Fury in good shape, in a solid color, unbadged, I'd put 408 or 426ci stroker 360 in it with aluminum heads, headers, mean cam, big carb, single plane, built A727, performance converter, 2.76 or 2.94 rear and have a sleeper muscle car with enough top end to be a mean highway pull machine and surprise some guys who think their 60s era big block muscle cars are invincible.

It’s really a shame of what they call their selves building today. My dad and myself had to go vote in the primary this past September, the person that came and picked us up had a Buick Lucerne. That car was a definite complete awful horror show besides heart breaker. I don’t ever want to be picked up in that car ever,ever, ever, ever & i mean ever again ever again. The car was terrible, the comfort was terrible and so was getting in the back seat of seat 💺 of that car. These new cars that they build & manufacture today are a travesty. This is why I made up in my mind i am staying & sticking with the Luxury Land Cruisers, Luxury Land Liners & Luxury Land Yachts of the 40’s, 50’s, 60’s,70’s,and some 80’s & 90’s Luxury Land Cruisers, Luxury Land Liners & Luxury Land Yachts. Largely Fully Loaded, Fully Powered Full Sized that is, the same goes for the Beach Wagon Station Wagon. Which will always be & remain All Cool 😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎😎 in the Gang In my Book Speaking as your not so average Typical African American Male that I am. Who happens to adore, appreciate & love Antique,Classic & Vintage Rides & the same goes for Antique, Classic, & Vintage Victorian Style Homes, Estates and Mansions as well. Yours truly Ivan I J

Those head lamps on the Dodge St Regis touring edition looks very familiar to the 78-79 Dodge Magnum XE and GT vehicles. Although the Magnum clear headlamps retracted if I recall correctly. As always Adam thank you.

As mentioned, the cars were popular with police agencies. However, there is a tale from California about their performance. In 1980, the California Air Resources Board refused to grant the California Highway Patrol an exception to the pollution control rules. As a result, the CHP purchased the 1980 St. Regis with the 318 engine because the 360 didn't conform to the rules. Keep in mind that the 360 itself was a step down from the 440-powered Monacos that the CHP had purchased in 1977 and 1978. The acceleration and top speed of the 318-powered R-body cars was considered inadequate for chasing down speeders and criminals. The lackluster performance of large sedans with pollution control requirements led the CHP and other highway patrol agencies to purchase some Mustangs and Camaros in the 1980s.

We owned a ‘79 New Yorker 5th. Ave. It was a great looking and features rich car. It rode well and IMO handled better than a Ford or GM (except F41/9C1 Caprice) full-size car. It was plagued with the “Lean Burn’ computer control garage, however when it was running right, it was a really nice car and there were never many to be seen.

I loved big cars and particularly disliked the GM full size cars when they came out in 1977. They seemed awkward looking to me. I feel Chrysler did a much better job downsizing their full-sized cars.

The R-body was based on the '62 B body, but the B chassis was re-engineered in '73 to have rubber isolated front and rear suspension, and the cowl structure was strengthened. The '79 chassis wasnt bad. GM models were just better overall and the R body had ongoing quality problems that went past the first year. The small block v8 lacked the oomph that the police fleets demanded. Lee Iococca did not seem to want to give them a chance. Chrysler needed big car profits, but the company had to use its limited funds to develop the K cars. This era also saw larger pickup trucks dropped due to lack of a big block, which eventually lead to the diesel engine deal with Cummins.

I thought they looked pretty good. A friend has a 360 St Regis police car that drives really well and navy blue new Yorker 5th Ave

I feel like this was the darkest hour for Chrysler engineering.

Quite simply, Chrysler Corp. didn't have the foresight and wasn't open minded enough to start having a small car available and done at the time like the Vega and Pinto so they could start being focused on making smaller sized cars and remain competitive in the big three. Chrysler Corp. just couldn't resist going bye-bye like American Motors....duhh.

Seems like Chrysler, along with rebates, may have invented one of the first true badge engineered car, the 1980 Plymouth Fury. Seems like a Newport.

my paternal grandfather had a Chrysler Newport Convertible when dad and his sisters were young in the 1960s dad's older sister's first car was a used 1970 Pontiac firebird with the boss 302 V8 dad's first car he bought himself was a 1979 Toyota Corolla station wagon he had until 1986

It's surprising that these cars were deemed "too big" when the B-body GMs of the time are comparable in size. I had a 90 Caprice Classic LS Brougham and it was similar in size to my 81 New Yorker.

4:12 I had one of those. That was a beautiful color, after waxing it looked like the paint was an inch deep. Unbelievably comfy seats and ride. Better than a Town Car. Achilles heel was the timing chain and Lean Burn system. Once the chain stretched eve a little the cam timing was so retarded it always hesitated at medium speeds. Found that out knowing that some of those cars had a plastic cam sprocket so when waterpump time came I did the chain too. Used a double roller. Wonder of wonders, car ran beautifully. Also a slight redrilling of the carb main jets. 15 city and mean city, 21 highway. AC that could let you make ice cream. And I ran Alpine speakers, MTX amp and kept the 8 track in, Chicago never sounded better than listening on 8 track. Kept a suitcase in the trunk of them.....

They were still using the slant 6! They should have used the hemi 6 245 and 265 from Chrysler Australia, a much better motor. It was even available with triple two barrel side draft Webber carbies for over 300hp.

I’m a shameless fan of these cars, as they offer a fascinating snapshot of a struggling company in the midst of swift transition - trying to keep one foot in the past, while betting almost all their chips in on the K cars. While ’79 was admittedly a rough year for these in terms of quality control, I love them - particularly the New Yorker. Would love to own a dark blue R Body 5th Ave one day!

Not bad looking cars, The Dodge/Plymouth variants aren't too radically different from the Ford and Chevy offerings of the time.

Besides all the usual Chrysler woes something seemed to happen with Chrysler styling in that era. None of the R bodies had the overall coherence and dynamism of most past Chrysler designs but were more of an accumulation of cues and shapes. Same thing with the smaller Volare/Aspens (which also suffered from some early engineering shortcomings). I remember that Consumer Reports rated them lower than the competition overall, probably based mainly on ride and noise, although when introduced many years earlier the B body cars were relatively good for unit body cars at the time. (This rating is separate from CR's probably also lowest Chrysler historic reliability scores.)

Looks like that New Yorker should’ve been the IMPERIAL (had it remained in production)

I think if Chrysler could have fixed some of the quality issues of these cars that sales would have recovered somewhat. The M body 5th avenue became a big seller by the mid 80's as the price of gas dropped again. The same way that the fuselage and the 74-78 cars sold best towards the end of their runs.

I think that most of the R bodies got destroyed in the Blues Brothers movie and on the Dukes of Hazzard TV show along with a ton of 69 Chargers.

The front end on the Dodge bears more than a passing resemblance to the '77 -'79 full-size Buicks. They must have been trying to emulate them.

As to being short lived, how about the last version of the Chrysler 200 I believe Sergio marchioni pulled the plug after only 3 years + the last Dodge dart 4 model years

Douglas B: engineering quality indeed! e.g. '79 owners reported side window seals opening up at highway speeds. Rain & wind entering the cabin - of a CHRYSLER!?

Always loves the electronic chime as a kid. I thought it was so cool and unique. Very very comfortable cars and I always loved the plush feel of the Newport most of all. The R body is just a misunderstood and underappreciated group of cars. The 1981 Newport is still my favourite of all.

No fuel pumps were harmed during the making of this documentary....

By the late 1980s, when you saw an R-body Chrysler on the highway, it looked just as good as a late 1980s Town Car or Sedan Deville.

Beautiful biggies. Such a shame. I wish Chrysler could have had the finances to continue making the our bodies and refine them adding fuel injection and such.

"Pillared hardtop" but with fixed rear door sail windows, standing solo when the rear door opened with window open. I always thought those looked like they might be easy to break off in some freak garage accident. The 1980-85 Seville ("bustleback") had them as well. I'm trying to think of any other cars that had these before the "4 door coupes" decades later (Mercedes CLS, VW CC, BMW 6-series 'gran coupe'). Odd design, but more desirable than the GM G-bodies with the fixed main window and swinging vent/sail window...

How about a 79 dodge diplomat playboy edition with factory bunny embroidery seats.

i like that dodge st regis and Chrysler new yorker that generation but 1969-1977 was bigger. i did like k car Chrysler new yorker lol.

Nice coverage but. You ment to say the brake metal pistons were replaced with phenolic resin puck's.