The
Dodge St. Regis is a full-size
DodgeDodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, sport utility vehicles, and pickup trucks, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
built from 1979 to 1981. The St. Regis was based on Chrysler's rear wheel drive R-body platform, itself based on a modified version of the circa 1971 B-body design that provided the underpinnings for such cars as the
Dodge ChargerThe Dodge Charger was a model of car produced by Dodge. The 1966 to 1974 Chargers were sporty models based on the Chrysler B platform that could be ordered with high-performance options. The 1975 to 1978 Chargers were based on the Chrysler Cordoba...
and the
Chrysler CordobaThe Chrysler Cordoba was an intermediate personal luxury coupe sold by Chrysler Corporation in North America from 1975 to 1983. It was the company's first model produced specifically for the personal luxury market and the first Chrysler-branded vehicle that was less than full-size.-History:In the...
. Engines available included the 225 in³ (3.7 L)
straight-6The straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft...
as well as the 318 and 360 in³ (5.2 and 5.9 L) V8s.
The
Dodge St. Regis is a full-size
DodgeDodge is a United States-based brand of automobiles, minivans, sport utility vehicles, and pickup trucks, manufactured and marketed by Chrysler Group LLC in more than 60 different countries and territories worldwide....
automobileAn automobile, motor car or car is a wheeled motor vehicle used for transporting passengers, which also carries its own engine or motor...
built from 1979 to 1981. The St. Regis was based on Chrysler's rear wheel drive R-body platform, itself based on a modified version of the circa 1971 B-body design that provided the underpinnings for such cars as the
Dodge ChargerThe Dodge Charger was a model of car produced by Dodge. The 1966 to 1974 Chargers were sporty models based on the Chrysler B platform that could be ordered with high-performance options. The 1975 to 1978 Chargers were based on the Chrysler Cordoba...
and the
Chrysler CordobaThe Chrysler Cordoba was an intermediate personal luxury coupe sold by Chrysler Corporation in North America from 1975 to 1983. It was the company's first model produced specifically for the personal luxury market and the first Chrysler-branded vehicle that was less than full-size.-History:In the...
. Engines available included the 225 in³ (3.7 L)
straight-6The straight-six engine or inline-six engine is a six cylinder internal combustion engine with all six cylinders mounted in a straight line along the crankcase. The single bank of cylinders may be oriented in either a vertical or an inclined plane with all the pistons driving a common crankshaft...
as well as the 318 and 360 in³ (5.2 and 5.9 L) V8s. The St. Regis name had originally been used on an uplevel trim package on the 1956 Chrysler New Yorker hardtop coupe, and again on the 1974-78 Chrysler New Yorker Brougham coupe.
Offered only as a four-door sedan, the St. Regis was differentiated from its sister models, the
Plymouth Gran FuryThe Plymouth Gran Fury is an automobile manufactured by the Chrysler Corporation from 1975 to 1977, and again from 1980 to 1989.Before 1975, the top line models in Plymouth's Fury series were known as the "Fury Gran Coupe" and "Fury Gran Sedan". The Fury Gran Coupe model was introduced in 1970 as...
,
Chrysler NewportThe Newport was a name used by the Chrysler division of the Chrysler Corporation used as both a hardtop body designation and also for its entry level model between 1961 and 1981...
, and
Chrysler New YorkerThe Chrysler New Yorker was a premium automobile built by the Chrysler Corporation from 1939 to 1996, serving for several years as the brand's flagship model. A model named the "New York Special" first appeared in the 1930s...
by retractable, transparent plastic headlight covers (introduced a year earlier on the 1978
Dodge MagnumThe Dodge Magnum name has been used on a number of different automobiles. The most recent is a large rear-wheel drive station wagon introduced in 2004 for the 2005 model year. This new Magnum is Dodge's first car to use the new Chrysler LX platform, shared with the Chrysler 300 and the Dodge...
).
Unfortunately for Chrysler, the new cars (like their 1974-78 predecessors) arrived at precisely the wrong time. A second gas crisis hit the U.S. in 1979, and despite the fact that the St. Regis was somewhat smaller than its predecessor, the
Dodge MonacoThe Dodge Monaco was a full-size automobile built and sold by the Dodge division of the Chrysler Corporation between 1965 to 1978 and 1990 to 1992.-A Grand Prix competitor:...
, it was not much more fuel efficient. Also, under the sheet metal, the St. Regis was by and large the same old B-Body that dated back to 1962, and could not compete with the completely new GM B-Bodies and Ford's Panther platform vehicles. At the same time, higher
interest rateAn interest rate is the price a borrower pays for the use of money they do not own, for instance a small company might borrow from a bank to kick start their business, and the return a lender receives for deferring the use of funds, by lending it to the borrower...
s and Chrysler's ongoing corporate and financial problems all combined to keep buyers out of the showrooms. The St. Regis and the other R-body models were dropped midway through the 1981 model year, leaving the
Dodge DiplomatThe Dodge Diplomat was a mid-size car and it was manufactured from 1977 to 1989 by the Chrysler Corporation's Dodge brand and practically identical to the Chrysler LeBaron of 1977, the Plymouth Caravelle sold in Canada, and the Plymouth Gran Fury from 1982...
, (a
mid-size carA mid-size car is the North American/Australian standard for an automobile with a size equal to or greater than that of a compact...
), to soldier on as the marque's sole "full-sized" model until the introduction of the
Dodge MonacoThe Dodge Monaco was a full-size automobile built and sold by the Dodge division of the Chrysler Corporation between 1965 to 1978 and 1990 to 1992.-A Grand Prix competitor:...
in 1990.
After 1979, the bulk of St. Regis sales were for fleet use. The St. Regis, along with the Gran Fury and even the Chrysler Newport, did find a small following as a
police carA police car is the description for a vehicle used by police, to assist with their duties in patrolling and responding to incidents. Typical uses of a police car include transportation for officers to reach the scene of an incident quickly, to transport criminal suspects, or to patrol an area,...
during the early 1980s, although it is generally accepted that the cars were not as good - or as fast - as previous Chrysler Corporation "cop cars". A green police-spec St. Regis was featured in the 1980s cop-drama parody Sledge Hammer. The car was also on the police drama T.J. Hooker on an ongoing basis.
Although the St. Regis does not hold much collector interest today, fans of
ChryslerChrysler Group, LLC is an American automobile manufacturer headquartered in the Detroit suburb of Auburn Hills, Michigan. Chrysler was first organized as the Chrysler Corporation in 1925. From 1998 to 2007, Chrysler and its subsidiaries were part of the German based DaimlerChrysler AG...
products sometimes search junkyards for the cars' disc brakes as an upgrade for earlier cars such as the
Dodge DartThe Dodge Dart is an automobile built by the Dodge division of the Chrysler Corporation from 1960 to 1976 in North America, with production extended to later years in various other markets. The Dart was introduced as a lower-priced, shorter wheelbase, full-size Dodge in 1960 and 1961, became a...
and
Plymouth BarracudaThe Plymouth Barracuda is a 2-door car that was manufactured by the Plymouth division of the Chrysler Corporation from 1964 through 1974.The first-generation Barracuda, a fastback A-body coupé based on the Plymouth Valiant, had a distinctive wraparound back glass and was available from 1964 to...
.