How good were the Chrysler R-body cars? (German, best, MPG)

[Mopac1980]

How good were the Chrysler R-body cars? They were only made from 1979 to halfway through the 1981 model year, the cars they've made were the Dodge St. Regis, Plymouth Gran Fury (introduced in 1980), Chrysler Newport and the Chrysler New Yorker.

[truemuck]

I think the mechanicals were relatively solid, but most of them rusted away years ago.

[M3 Mitch]

According to Wikipedia and WikiCars, not too great. They were not terribly advanced in the drivetrain dept. and were typical "malaise era" wheezy guzzlers. They were not as good as the GM and Ford offerings of the time, which were also slow, but not quite as thirsty. New technology engines were not around, Detroit was still sticking with carburators, the only way to get any kind of MPG as gas went past $1/gallon for the first time, was to shrink the body, to try to shed some weight. The R body was short-lived because it was just wrong for it's time, after '79 most went to fleet sales (sez Wikipedia, I was there but was not paying much attention to large domestic 4-doors)

I was just getting out of college in '79. Basically all the new domestic cars that year, to be blunt, sucked. At the time, far better to grab something from the 1960's and rebuild/upgrade/restore.

The Germans were building some good cars, if I were transported back to '79 I'd probably find myself a good first-gen Scirocco or Golf GTI. I failed to appreciate these cars when they were new, but now see the error of my former ways. But I'm rambling off topic...

[Omaha Rocks]

Originally Posted by M3 Mitch

I was just getting out of college in '79. Basically all the new domestic cars that year, to be blunt, sucked. At the time, far better to grab something from the 1960's and rebuild/upgrade/restore.

Absolutely!

Few - if any - eras were more pathetic for American-made cars than the late 70's to mid 80's cars.

There were a few cars that were solid, but even those were butt ugly.

[Mopac1980]

Originally Posted by M3 Mitch

According to Wikipedia and WikiCars, not too great. They were not terribly advanced in the drivetrain dept. and were typical "malaise era" wheezy guzzlers. They were not as good as the GM and Ford offerings of the time, which were also slow, but not quite as thirsty. New technology engines were not around, Detroit was still sticking with carburators, the only way to get any kind of MPG as gas went past $1/gallon for the first time, was to shrink the body, to try to shed some weight. The R body was short-lived because it was just wrong for it's time, after '79 most went to fleet sales (sez Wikipedia, I was there but was not paying much attention to large domestic 4-doors)

I was just getting out of college in '79. Basically all the new domestic cars that year, to be blunt, sucked. At the time, far better to grab something from the 1960's and rebuild/upgrade/restore.

The Germans were building some good cars, if I were transported back to '79 I'd probably find myself a good first-gen Scirocco or Golf GTI. I failed to appreciate these cars when they were new, but now see the error of my former ways. But I'm rambling off topic...

I didn't really care much for the vehicles from the late 1970s/early 1980s at all either and I thought the R-body cars were too big and I can see why they didn't sell very well, I think if they were released in 1977 I think it would've been more successful in sales, one thing what I absolutely don't understand is why was the 225 slant six standard on those cars.

The only cars from the late 1970s/early 1980s I really liked was the Pontiac Trans Am's, the Datsun 280ZX's and the pre-1980 full size Cadillacs.

[M3 Mitch]

Actually the slant six is one of the best inline 6-bangers from the 60's and 70's, IMHO. By the late 70's with low compression and other power-robbing emissions changes it was anemic, but for example my aunt had a '62 Impala with 3-on-the-tree and a 235 (I think 235, maybe 230) inline 6, it was no 409, but not bad either.

But in general back in the '60's the base model, which I think they made at least one of every year so they could not be accused of lying about the price of the base model, was a stripped car with 3-on-the-tree and a 6-pot, power nothing. Because they could spec it out for an almost unrealistically low price.

I'm not saying this made any sense, any more than rating horsepower with an engine with no accessories on a dyno, and a "best parts" engine at that, with no muffler...I'm just saying, that's how they did it back then.

If I had to drive one of these, maybe I would want the slant-6 - they were all slug-slow, so might as well go for MPG, since MPH ain't on the menu...

[Reno Dweller]

Originally Posted by Mopac1980

How good were the Chrysler R-body cars? They were only made from 1979 to halfway through the 1981 model year, the cars they've made were the Dodge St. Regis, Plymouth Gran Fury (introduced in 1980), Chrysler Newport and the Chrysler New Yorker.

I agree with the others here regarding the cars that were made in the late 1970's, including Chrysler's R-body cars, they were garbage. If they were good, you'd see a lot more of them on the road these days, but we don't.