It is weird to have such a clearly made picture of just how horribly wrong Detroit was looking at the automotive world than this promotion video for the 1977 Dodge Royal Monaco. They attack Ford for their LTD and open both barrels on Chevrolet for downsizing the 1977 Caprice while touting the virtues of driving a massive car that speaks to nothing but the potential hubris of the buyer. Watch this video and get what we are saying here. The only aspects of the car that they are touting as superior are its size. Literally. The windshield is bigger, the wheelbase is longer, the presence of the thing is more substantial. Oh, and it has torsion bar front suspension! Yikes.
We’re not hailing the 1977 Caprice as some sort of scion but it was at least an indication that someone had realized the movement for the porcine and underpowered cars that dominated the previous half decade of Detroit manufacturing had become unsightly and almost repulsive to the public in a world where imports which were small and cheap started to own the market.
If the video below had been made in the early half of the 1970s, the really early half we’d understand what the goal was but the fact remains that things changed so drastically during the middle part of that decade it made cars like the 1977 Dodge Royal Monaco a joke on wheels. Chevrolet made more than 660,000 Caprices in 1977, the Monaco sold in drastically smaller numbers.
These dudes missed the memo.
The market was really slipping through Chrysler’s numb fingers at that point. A buddy worked for a dealer, nobody under 50 years old walked into that place unless to buy a van.
sort of like the commercial by Lincoln a few years back touting how the Towncar was 2″ longer than the Cadillad
Better looking and stylish, more features, more room inside, bigger nicer trunk, more power, more comfortable, less cost. They got me hook line and sinker. I must one gullible sob!