1978 Chrysler Newport - What Was a Chrysler In the 1970's?

Chrysler's Chrysler division had a fairly muddled image in the late 1970's. Was it a Cadillac competitor? A Buick or Mercury? Didn't help that from 1955-1975 Chrysler Corporation had Imperial as a range topper and that when they pulled the plug on it all Imperial's became New Yorker's. Newports? Chrysler's (the division) best seller seemed to be all but forgotten. I found this big boy of a 1978 Chrysler Newport in Pittsburgh with an asking price of three grand. Tad rich but not outrageously so.  Get it for closer to two grand and you've done well. Despite some egregious flaws it's still pretty neat. I wish I had room for it.

Save for some styling details inside and out Newports of 1974-1978 vintage were all "New Yorker" underneath. Same chassis, same dash, same engines.

Chrysler first tagged a concept car "Newport" in 1940 and started using the name full time starting in 1961 when discontinued DeSoto's became Chrysler Newports.

On one hand it was a smart move making the most of a discontinued model line making an "entry level" Chrysler but in the long run it diluted much of any brand cache "Chrysler" had. Especially when Imperial dissolved. Up until then you could fathom that the Newport was a LeSabre to Buick's Electra. Hard to understand now just how muddled an image Chrysler had back then. What Was a Chrysler In the 1970's?

Newports of this vintage in particular were always clearly lesser "New Yorker's" that also looked the part. They were dressed down and with far less ostentatious '70's styling details and doo-dads. Crank windows on a luxury car? I mean, '70's LeSabres were pretty stripped too but Cadillac through the 1970's never offered crankers on any of their models. Again, what was a Chrysler supposed to be? 

Hanging on is what they were. Cars like this helped bring Chrysler Corp to the brink of extinction as the 1970's melted miserably into the early 1980's. 1978 was the end of the line for these boats, Chrysler replacing them with some of the worst cars of the malaise era and no, I'm not referring to K-cars. Still, taken in a vacuum, big old Chrysler's like this from the late 1970's were some of the coolest damn Yankee land yachts that there ever were.