1968 Chrysler Newport from North America - Comments

I think the only big deal is that 12:57 and 07:54 felt the need to make unnecessarily snide comments about the car, which 11:08 called them on. There seems to be a component of old-car-haters on this site who like to pillory any review in which the owner dares to say that he likes his old car. After that, it looks like 12:57 felt compelled to try to save face by cloaking himself in the guise of public safety by harping on street racing, which actually has nothing whatsoever to do with the original review. Basically, it's just some guy who either hates old cars, hates Chryslers, or hates everything in general and got mad when somebody dared to challenge his remarks. Hopefully he has, as suggested by others, moved on. Best for all if those off-topic comments were deleted.

Anyway, I also owned a 4-door Chrysler Newport with the 383 2-barrel, and it really did have massive torque. It would spin the tires pretty effortlessly the few times I tried it. The foot pedal had fallen off, so there was only the metal rod with a rubber wheel on it, and unless you were really gentle on that thing, you could really take off!

I let my room mate drive it once, and he was scared to death because it was like piloting a battleship through the Suez Canal!

I don't know what year Chargers or Camaros the guy was talking about in the original review, but I could sure see how somebody in an 80s Camaro would be surprised by how fast a huge Newport would get moving! Mine had only hydraulic drum brakes and manual steering, so it was definitely the policy to maintain a safe following distance to other cars and leave plenty of room for stopping, and it was a bear to parallel park. However, it drove smoothly on the highway and the large diameter steering wheel was easy enough to turn when the car was rolling. I never tried to top it out, and never went much over 55 mph because the 383 would suck gas and I was a poor college kid at the time.

I can confirm the cloud like ride and minimization of the feeling of pot holes, bumps, and expansion joints.

I used to get about 15 mpg doing 55 mph, which I would think was about the best these ever got.

There were some neat little features that I really liked about the car --- the map light toggle switch that said "Map" on it, the dash mounted key, the little green "cold" light up on the dashboard -- just fun little touches for that era. It was a pretty good work car, and started easily, but with shot leaf springs and a leaking gas tank, I didn't make an effort to hang onto it when I no longer needed a second-hand work car.