1963 Chrysler Newport review from North America

Rear springs -- by 75,000 miles it is like driving a motor boat that is taking on water in the rear -- put coil helpers over the shocks, ended up later replacing the leaves as they cracked.

Aluminum keys wore paper thin and easily bent/broke off in the locks.

Pushbutton shift cable would stretch as they aged, and had to be readjusted every 100,000 or so, same with the parking lock cable.

Heck of a car -- extremely reliable, essentially did nothing but changed oil and filter and grease the front end at 2,000 miles like clockwork, adjust bands and change fluid at 20,000.

These were Chrysler's ugly ducklings, but, like bulldogs, they were so ugly they were cute.

Unbelievably comfortable to drive -- effortless power steering, almost excessively powerful power brakes -- extremely touchy -- a quarter of an inch took you from no braking action to full lock up.

I had two Newports, both 4 doors, a 63 and a 64 model at the same time, owned both for over 20 years, and had absolutely no motor or transmission trouble ever. The A/C on the 63 was incredible and I never recharged it -- it always blew cold.

The interiors stayed looking essentially new the entire time -- I always had the car pulled into the center of the drive through corn crib and the door shut when not in use.