In the late 1970s, Chrysler Corp. was in trouble. While its main competition had already begun to downsize its cars for better fuel economy, Chrysler was still selling land yachts. They somewhat joined the bandwagon in 1979 with the R-body New Yorkers, Newports, and a couple from Dodge and Plymouth, but they weren’t overly improved from the B and C-bodies before them. The seller has a 1979 Chrysler New Yorker that’s said to be in original and mint condition in Cocoa, Florida, and it’s available here on craigslist for $7,950.
Since the 1979-1981 New Yorker was a bit smaller (but looked just as large), smaller engines were used to move the cars around. A 318 cubic inch V8 was standard with an optional 360, which is what resides in the seller’s 62,000-mile example. The cars were now under 4,000 pounds, but not by much, and even a 360 V8 that was detuned didn’t exactly break land speed records. In the New Yorker, only a pillared hardtop was offered. The 1979 New Yorker sold reasonably well at nearly 55,000 units, but as Chrysler’s fortunes declined, so did these big car sales. By 1981, only 6,500 copies were ordered before that platform was dropped in favor of the smaller M-body.
This ’79 New Yorker looks well-preserved and should be considered a survivor, as most everything here seems original. There is no rust; the body and paint look fine, and the interior is still quite plush, though the leather upholstery looks like a 62k-mile car. Besides the 360 V8, it also has a TorqueFlite automatic transmission (of course) and all sorts of working power accessories, and a new air conditioning compressor. The headliner has been replaced.
We’re told this big Chrysler has been given a tune-up, and sports new brakes, tires, and new hydraulic struts for the trunk lid. If you still have 8-track and cassette tapes, the stereo here can accommodate them. While the ad looks and reads like it was placed by a dealer, the seller confirms this is a private sale. Do these Chrysler R-bodies rock your soul? Another tip from Barn Finder “Zen”.
The rear doors are very busy on this New Yorker, inside and out- I like them! Nice find, Zen, and great post, Russ!
Still on a quest for a nice beater, although this hardly qualifies as one. I think cars in general, went downhill from here. A great find, clearly from the condo of Auntie Pearl, who got it from Uncle Chuck upon his demise. You won’t find these any other way. Why? They are hidden away in garages, only to be seen on rare occasions. Not sure about an “8 track cassette”, usually it was one or the other, very few players played both. I have a paranoia about a cheapie car that will need a $4000 transmission, but those worries go away with this. Why, that Torqueflite will outlast most of us. These won’t come out of the woodwork forever, don’t dawdle on this one.
50 year old lean burn system could be sketchy, and the supply of sensors and other LB components for a V8 is probably pretty dried up by now if something failed. Beyond that, this is a fine, very comfortable car.
Plenty of options available to replace the Lean Burn system with an aftermarket intake manifold and carburetor, as most owners have done.
An upgraded manifold and a Sniper would be absolutely trouble free, and might actually be more efficient than the LB. Of course, that could be a $1600-$1800 upgrade all in.
Melton, even a new carb and intake will cost around $900, plus incidentals gaskets, bolts, thermostat or housing. This car then becomes a $9,000 car assuming it doesn’t need anything else. That makes it much less appealing to the average person who just wants an old car to drive around.
I have a 78 New Yorker with the forsaken lean burn but have yet to have an issue with it.
It’s got a Lincoln Town Car vibe going on in the lead shot.
I don’t mind the looks of the car and Chrysler did really nice seating in the 70s and 80s, but one thing that has always bugged me about these cars is the outside rearview mirrors…they seem awfully small.
Owned an identical low mileage one, twenty years ago. Very cool car, but it was an electrical nightmare.
Nice looking but a bitch to keep clean. My Dad had this color combo and the paint would get dirty quickly wash it many times and interior on this New Yorker need a good scrub. Did anyone notice two things missing under the hood? ….. The complete wiper assembly and the AC belt missing. AC not working? How come the seller didnt mention this in his write up? The Lean burn is easy to replace. You get a complete electronic distributor kit. Bye bye lean burn. Yes this car rides beautiful but the black walls gotta go. 😂 After looking at these photos I would offer $5,000.00. Who knows whats going to pop up on a test drive. The 360 is a very good engine. The Themo Quad carburetor had issues. Hopefully this one is good. I wish there was a better photo of the dash showing the radio and heater/ac controls and the guages. Side note.. back in 79 the same car in Dodge was a St. Regis and New York State Police had them for 2 years problems with the rear suspension many were pulled off the road…Good luck to the next owner. 🇺🇸🐻
These cars were pretty much direct carry-overs from the ’71-’78 B-body cars and, almost literally, the chassis and underpinnings were identical. You can bolt a rear end out of a 1971 Road Runner in an R-body with almost no other changes save for maybe the brackets that changed slightly. A Chrysler big-block will bolt right in an R-body, as well.
I have never heard of any rear suspension issues with these cars. They were, actually, pretty durable police cars and the ’79-’80 E58 360 cars were fast for the era. They suffered from poor fit and finish because they were an afterthought and a fill-in that were designed quickly to fill a gap. I have owned tons of these police package Gran Furys, St. Regis, and Newports and they are great cars if you can get past their quirks. Drivetrain reliability was never an issue. The 360 and even the 1981 318 4bbl (while underpowered) were bulletproof.
Thanks Michael.. that is what I was told from a State Troopers back then. They told me they were chasing a suspect on the Palisades Parkway and rear leaf spring pin or clamp broke causing the rear to go little sideways. They found a few more cars that will have that problem and pull them out of service till it was fixed. Maybe it was a bad batch of cars back then. Like you said poor fit and finish. Yes the 360-4 was fast. 😄
The 318 police pkg had 360 heads on them and they ran much better than a standard 318, but the E58 interceptor cars were real corky for the size but I always thought it was a dumb design welding the rear spring shackles to the outer trunk floor pan because once they got rusty the springs would blow into the trunk.
Hmmm. I’ve seen this car around
town here in Melbourne. I saw it
while out door dashing with my SIL about a year ago or so. We were on our way back from Cocoa Beach when I glanced over
and saw it. From what I saw of it,
the car was in excellent shape and looked to be well cared for. But I had my doubts after almost
seeing this car nearly get T boned
by some dumbass in a Subaru who was driving on his phone and NOT DRIVING HIS CAR! I
wasn’t even the car and it scared the 💩 out of me so I can almost
imagine what the seller must’ve
felt as he hit his brakes and blared his horn at that fool who
nearly hit him. And while it is a really nice car, I can’t think of anyone in their right mind would buy this car and the boat load of
grief that comes with it. Things
like early rust out, Lean Burn engines that never worked, 904
Torque Flights that ate torque converters for breakfast, and a whole host of electrical gremlins
that came along for the ride. According to an NBC white paper
investigation from that time, 8 of
every 10 workers building these cars were drunk and building them under the influence of alcohol. And with a track record
like that, it’s no small wonder that
the buying public flocked to cars
like Toyota and Datsun whose cars offered dead pan reliability at half the price. Final thoughts:
Nice looking lemon that needs a
set of WSW tires to at least look
luxurious. And our seller really needs to brush up on his people
skills too. You can’t sell anything
with an attitude like that. To say
it simply, he’s gonna be stuck with this piece of 💩 for a good long while.
Oh yeah, I almost forgot about the electronic ignition that would
always cut out if someone keyed
the mike on either a CB or business band radio either. My folks had a ’72 Fury 1 wagon that
did that– once on a set of train tracks! Thankfully, no train was
coming. Seems like Chrysler always had quality control troubles in the ’70s.
Everything was made out of plastic on these and it got brittle QUICKLY, like the window switches for instance. Still like the looks of these though and might buy it if they’re willing to work on the price. I had a 79 300 with a 360-4bbl that ran quite strong from a roll and you could hear that Thermoquad growling a mile away lol.
Perfect timing. Turner Classic Movie’s star of the month is Ricardo Montalban and his ‘fine Corinthian leather’.
Mechanicals aside (saw the lack of AC belts), these were better looking than Town Cars with the hidden headlights. Cosmetics alone are worth the price of admission. NOTE: Seems the seller has a chip on his shoulder. There’s usually a reason for that and not a good one.
The hood ornament for the 1979 Chrysler 5th Avenue, was a Crystal pentastar. The square c hood ornament you see here was used on the base New Yorker and the Newport.
Very nice looking 47yr old New Yorker. Chrysler made it look like a limousine by putting a opera windows in the back doors. I always thought it was a nice touch. I’ve always liked the look of opera windows on cars in the ’70s. I think it made them look more upscale.
The early 1970’s were electrical nightmares. I had a 1973 Dodge Monaco Luxury Yacht Wagon, with hidden headlights, power everything, leather seating for 9 and front and Aback /C, but if I came out in the morning and the headlight lids were open, I knew that the car wasn’t going to start and that I’d be walking to work, stopping at the service station and giving them my keys so they could pick it up. By the late 1970’s Lee Iacocca had stepped into to SAVE Chrysler and they cars had improved greatly. I had a friend who had this exact model New Yorker, but a 1980 and it was a great car and drove like a dream. The leather interior was fabulous and the car was done in burgundy and was just stunning. I had a 1979 Lincoln Mark V and the Chrysler’s front end does look very much like the Lincoln
One of the first things Lee Iacocca did was to hire away the plant manager from Ford’s wixom plant to run the Lynch Road plant and quality improved greatly. Unfortunately, the recovery that Chrysler was hoping to have in a year 1980 never happened and instead had higher inflation and sky high interest rates. That helped the Doom the R Body. If Chrysler could have stuck with this car for another year, they probably would have been minting them because in 1982 the price of gasoline fell, and people wanted the large cars again
Color for a luxury car should be black, white, any shade of blue. This one does not work for me. Also, I do not remember a factory radio from anyone that played both 8-tracks AND cassettes. You picked one or the other. I have had both of those in cars (plus CDs and now zip) but never a combo. Okay, I do remember some CD/cass decks now I think about it, but 8-track/cass? Nahh. . I very may well be wrong about that. Wish the actual ad had a close up picture of the dash, though the ad description clearly says it has both. Am I wrong or is the seller a young doofus?
The 5th character in the VIN is the engine code with this car having the K = 360-2 barrel NOT the L code that = a 360-4 barrel. If this car has a 4 barrel carb it was added later on and it also means it’s not the E58 police engine which was the only 360 engine that had a 4 barrel from the factory in 1979. There were a lot of internal parts that were different like the cam, double roller chain, cylinder heads, windage tray etc that were in the E58 that weren’t in the standard 360. Even though the standard engine was a proven engine and run forever it’s still not a High Performance built police E58 engine, so I just lost interest.