Dodge St. Regis

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Dodge
Dodge St Regis-1.jpg
St. Regis
Production period: 1979-1981
Class : upper middle class
Body versions : limousine
Engines:
Petrol engines : 3.7-5.9 liters
(63-146 kW)
Length:
Width: 1958 mm
Height: 1384 mm
Wheelbase :
Empty weight : 1601-1653 kg
Previous model Dodge Royal Monaco
successor Dodge diplomat
Dodge St. Regis

The Dodge St. Regis was a sedan in the full-size category offered by the US automobile manufacturer Dodge from 1978 to 1981 . The St. Regis was presented for the 1979 model year as the successor to the Dodge Royal Monaco, which was discontinued in 1977 . In order to document the independence of the model, the new Dodge did not take over the model name of its predecessor, but used an apparently new name. In fact, however, the name St. Regis had been used by the Chrysler Group in various contexts since the 1950s. In 1955, for example, a special model of the Chrysler New Yorker was named St. Regis; later the name was used by the corporate brand DeSoto .

The vehicle development

Technically, the St. Regis could only be viewed as a new development to a limited extent. It was based on the so-called R platform of the Chrysler Corporation, which in turn was a modification of the "B-Body" introduced in 1970. It was related to the previous intermediate models of the Chrysler Group, which included the Dodge Coronet , the Chrysler Cordoba and the Dodge Magnum XE . The use of this well-known platform meant that the brand's top model was significantly smaller than its predecessor. This so-called downsizing, which competing brands had already implemented a few years earlier with the Chevrolet Caprice or the Ford LTD , was able to quickly implement the Chrysler Corporation, which was in a deep structural and financial crisis in the 1970s, thanks to the platform strategy without major development effort .

The body of the St. Regis was redesigned. The passenger compartment, the glass units, the doors and the fenders were identical in construction to the Chrysler Newport and the Chrysler New Yorker presented at the same time ; The Plymouth Gran Fury , presented a year later, also used these structures. The individual models differ, apart from the different equipment packages, solely in the design of the front and rear. The Chrysler Newport and the Plymouth Gran Fury were largely identical; the Dodge St. Regis, however, had its own front section. A special feature of the Dodge were the retractable Plexiglas covers in front of the headlights. Dodge had already implemented this concept in 1978 with the Magnum XE; it was supposed to give the impression that the car had sporty-looking broadband headlights that were actually not registered in the USA. Therefore, the cover folded down when the rectangular headlights positioned behind were activated. The folding mechanism was also used on the brand's top model, the Chrysler New Yorker; There, however, the cover was not transparent, but painted in the color of the car.

The St. Regis, which was only available as a four-door sedan, was powered by different engines. A 3.7-liter straight-six with 110 hp served as the base engine. A V8 engine with 5.2 liter displacement and 135 hp was available on request; In the first two years of production, a 5.9 liter eight-cylinder engine with 150 hp (double carburetor) or 195 hp (quadruple carburetor) could also be ordered. A three-speed TorqueFlite automatic was part of the standard equipment in every engine level.

The sales price of the St. Regis was slightly lower than that of the largely identical Chrysler Newport. The base price of the St. Regis was $ 6,532 in 1979, $ 7,100 in 1980, and $ 7,737 in 1981. The Plymouth Gran Fury, presented with a delay, was around $ 400 cheaper with significantly reduced equipment.

Production and distribution

The Dodge St. Regis, like the other models of the R-Body on the market, was unsuccessful. It is true that Dodge achieved downsizing with him; compared to the also scaled-down top models of the competing brands, however, it came two years too late. When it was finally introduced, it was already too big again. Since the presentation of the relatively large and thirsty St. Regis coincided with the so-called Second Oil Crisis of 1979, its sales were limited. After the first model year, it was almost exclusively bought by authorities and other fleet customers. For this reason, the St. Regis was taken off the market in the spring of 1981.

In two and a half years, Dodge sold a total of just over 53,000 copies of the St. Regis. Its successor was the even smaller Dodge Diplomat based on the outdated M platform .

gallery

  • Front of the Dodge St. Regis: The plexiglass cover of the headlights could be folded down.

  • 1979 Dodge St. Regis, side view.

swell

  • James M. Flammang, Ron Kowalke: Standard Catalog of American Cars 1976-1999. Krause Publications, Iola 1999, ISBN 0-87341-755-0 .
  • Richard M. Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930-1980 . Beekman House, New York 1984, ISBN 0-517-42462-2 .

Web links

Commons : Dodge St. Regis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Information from Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars 1930–1980. 1984, p. 287, and auto catalog No. 25 (1981/82), p. 149.
  2. ^ Langworth: Encyclopedia of American Cars. 1984, p. 267.