You may have missed it, but at the inaugural, "Charley Awards", a 1977 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham two-door won the award for coolest, mid-to-late-1970's, domestic, luxury two-door; I wouldn't call these "coupes", as they're really "two-door sedans". General Motors executives were miffed, crying afoul that their 1977 downsized Cadillac Coupe deVille and Buick Electra two-door models didn't win; between us, they weren't even finalists. Ford suits, with nothing more to offer than their oafish, Lincoln Continental Town Coupe, just sat there, stewed on the dollar-a-holler well-liquor. I'm using this 1977 New Yorker I found recently on Facebook Marketplace for illustrative purposes of our award winner.
Of course, there were no such awards handed out except in my mind, but it would be fun to do something on social media where people got to vote on the best and worst of vehicles categorized in ways never seen before. "Best Looking Station Wagon with Dye-Noc Wood Grain Trim", "Best Captive Import That You Would Be Caught Dead In", "Most Overrated Sports\Muscle or Pony Car that Isn't a third-generation Corvette"...and so on. The category list could be endless.
As far as these big New Yorker Brougham's go, well, what can I say. As the creator, curator and judging panel of the illustrious "Charley Awards", I'm a sucker for these unapologetically large, pre-downsized brutes. Corn-fed to believe that hunky monsters like this where the trappings of the wealthy (gangsters and mobsters too), although I know better now, any time I see a 1970's luxury land yacht, I'm transporter-beamed back to when I was growing in the somewhat leafy hamlet of Baldwin, Long Island, a stone's throw from, ahem, New York(er) City.
Cars like this is what rich people, or those wanting to appear as though they "had it" drove. They could drive, essentially, the same car for quite a bit less out of pocket, many times those "lesser" models better transportation conveyances too, but they didn't have the cache or snob appeal something like this had. No one would say, "damn, check out Charley's new Plymouth Fury. He must be killing it."
For my pre-pubescent money, the luxurious-est of all the domestic luxury barges of the late 1970's was the 1976-1978 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham; all Chrysler New Yorkers from 1972-1978 were "Brougham's". However, by the time my wretched wonder-years were hitting their hormonal peak, the "bigger is better" party was coming to a screeching halt. General Motors had "downsized" their big rigs and being underwhelmed if not heart broken by them, I found refuge, solace if you will, in the showroom of Conway Motors (above), a long gone Chrysler-Plymouth dealership on Sunrise Highway up the street from where I grew up.
It was the summer of 1977 and weary of my parents endless harassing haggling of their used car sales manager over a used 1970 Buick Electra they would end up buying, I wandered into the air-conditioned comfort of the new car showroom and snuck behind the wheel of a brand-new Brougham. Sliding around on the cushy and slippery leather thrones, I was in transfixed by the not only the sheer size of the thing, but what I perceived to be it's lap of hedonistic luxury. For certain, it wasn't my father's 1968 Ford Ranch Wagon. Knowing how diminutive the new "big" GM cars were, it was obvious I was stepping back in time to the way things used to be; those heady post-War years when the size of the car in your garage denoted your plight in life. These big-as-a-whale Chrysler's were totally out of step with what Americans needed at the time and I loved them for that in addition to thinking, for the lack of any better term, they were cooler than Fonzie.
Our award winning '77 here was part of Chrysler's new-for-1974 full-size line that also included new "Imperial" models. From 1955-1975, Imperial was the Chrysler's Corporation's range-topping make akin to GM's Cadillac although, similar to Ford's Lincoln division, it didn't have a dedicated dealership network and was sold and serviced along side Chrysler's and Plymouth's. Imagine plucking down Cadillac money and having to share the service area waiting room with some Duster owner.
1974 Imperial LeBaron
Visibly, the only tangible difference between a 1974 Imperial and Chrysler New York Brougham was the front and rear ends; the Imperial had enclosed headlights, a chrome, waterfall grill and a derivatively styled rear facia; it had more than its fair share of GM-ethos in it. The NYB shared the same front and back ends with the "entry-level" Newport and the Town and Country wagon. Just as well as Chrysler Corporation never intended their Chrysler division to go tire-to-tire with Cadillac anyway.
1974 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham
Through no fault of their own, Chrysler's timing to introduce new full size cars that were even bigger than what they replaced couldn't have been worse with the OPEC Oil Embargo taking effect all but at the literal start of the 1974 model year. These new hunky dreadnaughts replaced the dread-full 1970-1973 Chrysler "fuselage" models that sold like frozen turkeys the day after Thanksgiving. Only Chrysler could manage to roll out new models that would sell even worse. Things were so bad Chrysler shuttered their "Imperial" division after 1975.
So, with Imperial swimming with the fishes, Chrysler bolted the Imperial's front end onto the New Yorker and, voila, for 1976 through 1978, Chrysler had themselves an award winner. Liberace and Elvis were salivating. Obviously, the headlight doors on our '77, which are actuated by an electric motor behind the grill, aren't working.
Of course, in the face of General Motors shrink-rayed Cadillac, Buick and even Oldsmobile's, our big and beautiful New Yorker didn't stand a chance at the box office. Chrysler replaced it in 1979 with the decidedly non-award winning, "R-body" based sedan (above) that was, perhaps, the oddest 'down-sized' luxury car of the era.
Not surprisingly, they sold even worse than the 1976-1978 New Yorker's and Chrysler pulled the plug on them during the 1981 model year. With the "R-body" being an upsized "B-body", meaning it was an upsized intermediate, it means our award winning, 1976-1978 New Yorker Broughams was the Chrysler Corporation's last rear-wheel-drive, traditionally full-size luxury cars.
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