Chrysler was not fond of keeping nameplates for long periods. Names like Fury, Satellite, Coronet, and even Dart or Charger seldom stuck around for more than 20 years. One exception was the car that served as Chrysler’s flagship for over half a century.
1940-1942
The New Yorker name first appeared in 1938 as a trim level of the Imperial. It’s not hard to figure out where the name came from, why do you think it was called the Chrysler Building? It served as their divisional headquarters until the 1950s. In 1940, it was put on a standalone model without the Imperial suffix. In 1941, it became available with Chrysler’s semi-automatic Vacmatic transmission. This allowed automatic shifting between 1st and 2nd in “Low” mode and 3rd and 4th in “High” mode. Power came from Chrysler’s straight 8 engine. Production was halted due to the war in February 1942.
1946-1948
Production resumed for 1946. The most notable change was the full-width “harmonica” grille. Power continued to be from the 5.3 liter Inline-8. The New Yorker was truly a middle market car, costing twice as much as blue collar Fords, Chevies, and Plymouths and half as much as the Lincoln Continental, Cadillacs, and Chrysler’s own Imperial. This period was a prosperous time for Chrysler, they managed to overtake Ford to become America’s 2nd largest automaker.
1949-1954
The New Yorker was redesigned for 1949 with the new postwar “Pontoon” design. For 1951, the New Yorker finally got a V8 engine, the 5.4 liter firepower using Chrysler’s famous hemispherical combustion chambers (that’s where the name “Hemi” comes from). Also that year, power steering became optional and a very rare station wagon model was offered, only 251 were built. In 1953, the wheelbase shrunk from 131.5 inches to 125.5. In 1954, Chrysler finally offered a fully automatic transmission, known as Torqueflite.
The early 50s saw Chrysler’s postwar momentum vanish. First, Ford had come out with the incredibly successful 1949 model and leapt back into second place. Then Ford decided to cut prices in 1953 and GM responded in kind, hurting Chrysler’s sales. And while the Bigger 2 were religiously following the mantra of “Longer, Lower, Wider”, Chrysler refused, as their President K.T Teller put it “We build cars to sit in, not to pee over”. This left Chryslers looking tall and dowdy.
1955-1956
For 1955, Imperial was spun off as its own brand. This left the New Yorker as the division’s flagship. Head stylist Virgil Exner brought Chrysler’s styling into the atomic age with his “Forward Look”. The change in dimensions was extreme, length was up by 7 inches, width by 3 inches, and height was down by 2 inches. The result was a much more modern and attractive car. In 1956, pushbutton controls for the Torqueflite transmission was added and a Hi-Fi mounted underneath the dashboard became optional.
1957-1959
Exner was not content with merely catching up to the competition in styling, he wanted to leap past them. So, for 1957, Suddenly… it was 1960. The result was a massive success in design. Quad headlights were used in the states that permitted them and by the end of the year, the last laws requiring single headlights were repealed. They also made use of Chrysler’s new torsion bar suspension which meant improved ride and handling.
But those pretty new skins hid some big problems. Build quality was a Krakatoan disaster:
The 1957 cars started to rust within several months of being built — all models, Plymouth to Chrysler. They leaked water on both sides of the windshield posts. Torsion bars broke, leaving cars looking like fallen over Towers of Pisa. Upholstery split, seams tore, seat springs popped through, paint flaked off in huge chunks, hubcaps wouldn’t stay on, rear view mirrors vibrated, door handles broke with ease, locks froze easily, and interior appliances fell off.
1960-1964
Whoops, wrong photo
You can see why I got those photos confused. The 1960 New Yorker looked grumpy and miserable. Now that it actually was 1960, things were not good. Chrysler’s sales were at their low point and they were drowning in red ink. But enough about the bad stuff. For 1960, Chrysler switched to unibody construction, which reduced weight and prevented squeaks and rattles. This would eventually come to dominate passenger car construction but was extremely unique at the time, especially on something this big. But it was still hard to look past the styling, and no amount of plastic surgery could fix the problem.
1965-1968
In 1965, Chrysler finally got the styling right. Virgil Exner had been replaced by Elwood Engel, whose most famous creation had been the highly successful 1961 Lincoln Continental. Sales of the Chrysler division rose by 40% and for the New Yorker it was 62%. In 1966, the 6.8 liter V8 grew to 7.2.
1969-1973
For 1969, Chrysler finally became the styling leader once again with their “fuselage” look which had the doors tuck in at the rocker panel while puckering out in the middle. This made the roof look like it was designed to fit the car rather than being grafted on. It also included Chrysler’s famous loop bumpers. The engine remained the same.
1974-1978
For 1974, Chrysler redesigned its big cars. The fuselage look made way for something much more slabsided. Unfortunately, the new cars were unveiled just days before the 1973 oil crisis began. Sales were abysmal.
For 1976, the New Yorker was given an all-new look, sort of. Buyers had seen the look the year before, except it was sold as the Imperial. But Imperials weren’t selling, so that famous name was discontinued, and the car was stripped of some of its standard features and renamed as the New Yorker. In turn, the body that had been used for the New Yorker was given to the cheaper Newport. This led to a temporary boost in sales, as buyers liked the distinctive look.
1979-1981
By the end of the 70s, Chrysler was on the brink of bankruptcy. They were only saved by a $1.5 billion federal bailout. This meant Chrysler did not have the money to engineer entirely new downsized large cars like GM and Ford did. So, they went into the warehouse, pulled out the platforms from the disastrous 1962 Plymouth/Dodge downsizing and slapped on new bodies. The result was a disaster. They wound up with cars that were bigger and heavier than the downsized GM and Ford models, but no more spacious inside. They simply could not give away these R-bodies and Chrysler President Lee Iacocca opted to abandon the full sized market in 1981.
1982-1983
For 1982, the New Yorker name was slapped on the car that had been called the LeBaron since 1977. It was 15 inches shorter than before and offered a 6 cylinder engine for the first time ever. In 1983, the car was renamed as the New Yorker Fifth Avenue and finally became the Fifth Avenue in 1984.
1983-1988
For 1983, there were two cars with the New Yorker name, there was the aforementioned New Yorker Fifth Avenue and the plain old New Yorker. The latter was moved to Chrysler’s E body platform, a stretched version of the versatile K platform. It was 20 inches shorter and now was front wheel drive, powered by 4 cylinder engines. It included 80s gimmicks like voice reminders and digital gauges. Sales were consistently around 60,000. In 1988, the New Yorker became the New Yorker Turbo, equipped with, you guessed it, a turbocharged engine. This was because the name was being moved again and there was more overlap.
1988-1993
For 1988, the New Yorker name was put on a bigger car, sharing the C platform with the Dodge Dynasty. The New Yorker was clearly aimed at an older clientele, what with that formal roofline including a vertical rear window and a partial vinyl roof. Power was now solely from V6 engines, a Mitsubishi 3 liter and later a 3.3. Anti-lock brakes were optional. In 1990, the New Yorker lost its flagship status as a new Imperial was added back to the lineup. In 1989, sales reached their highest ever at 100,000.
1994-1997
For 1994, the New Yorker name was put back on a truly full sized car, a variant of Chrysler’s highly successful LH platform. Just like the Fuselage and the Forward Look, the LH platform was an attempt to leap ahead of the competition in styling and engineering. They utilized “cab forward” design, with the wheels pushed out to the corners and the passenger compartment moved forward with a long windshield and short hood. This provided more interior space. The New Yorker was introduced several months after the original LH cars: Chrysler Concorde, Dodge Intrepid, and Eagle Vision and was 5 inches longer than them. Alongside it was the LHS, which was essentially a New Yorker with 5 seats instead of 6 to make it more sporty. It was a good car, but Chrysler’s lineup was just too cluttered and sales were weak. The New Yorker name disappeared for good in 1997.
Chrysler is not a company that holds on to model names for long. They are simply willing to pick whatever names focus groups tell them sounds good. The New Yorker was able to avoid that fate until it didn’t.