1967 Chrysler Newport Custom from North America - Comments

Many routine maintenance repairs... tune ups and stuff.

Many age related problems too... leaky seals (not too bad though surprisingly), some metal fatigue.

Amp meter's wiring too light for the "newer" alternator style introduced by Chrysler in the 60s. Replaced with voltmeter.

Not designed with radiator shroud, therefore might overheat on a hot day while idling still.

Master cylinder and vacuum booster replaced.

Can't beat the comfort in the ride. It just glides along on the highway or in the city.

The 383 gives plenty of power in the mountains and holds solid on the interstates.

I have driven this car for almost 5 years now as my everyday car. It has made about 14 trips between New Jersey and Tennessee, and will run 75-80 mph like the rest of em.

It is a beautiful car inside and out. It is surprising how well the paint has held up. The interior is still its combination of pretty blues and hardly no sign of age.

I trust this car. I'll admit that there are a few things that I would like to get done (if I had the money). Other than that it is VERY easy to maintain and work on! PLENTY of room under the hood.

The Newport is the best car ever built. I have driven a Newport for 3 years and would never want another. Although my cars don't last longer than 3 days as I don't believe insurance will cover Demo Derbys. Thanks Chrysler for an under rated classic.

Hi, My first car was a 1968 Chrysler Newport. I bought it from my grandfather for one U.S. dollar. I was a poor farm kid at the age of seventeen and I beat the living hell out of that car! I could not afford tires so I would buy used mis-matched ones. It was a two door with the 383 motor, it had the fender skirts and hubcaps and I thought it looked like an "old guy" car, so I found some deep dish chrome wheels for the back and they were much to high and wide to fit inside the fender well and behind the skirt so I customized it with a sledge hammer and cold chisel to make the wheels fit. I then found some coil springs out of an old 3/4 ton pickup and welded them between the axle and the frame rail, to do this I had to remove one of the bolts from each shock and jack the rear of the car off of the ground to make the springs fit. when I went to lower the jack... I was surprised that as soon as the tires made contact with the ground, the jack was free, leaving the back bumper about 3 1/2 feet from the ground. I was rather pleased with the job, I cut the exhaust off with a stick welder and clamped an old burnt out glass pack to the pipe and that was the extent of my exhaust system.

I would take this car out many a Friday and Saturday evening to frolic with other friends with the same style of autos and we would entertain ourselves by painting the road black with our tires. We would also steer our vehicles off of the road into a hayfield (because our brains were evidently not fully developed yet) throw our heads back and laugh boisterously, while running over hay bales at relatively high speeds 50-60 mph (high speeds for the terrain). This car ruined me on cars, because it was my first car and I expected too much from the other cars I owned. I did not know that the old Chrysler Imperials were as bullet proof as "Army Tanks" when I got mine from grampa, I just thought they were big gutless old guy cars, but I learned a heap different. Now I am older and mature and I drive a very practical 94' Lincoln Continental, and I feel it is a small car or mid-size "whatever that means." I suppose the retail on that Newport was around $1500 new and if you were to buy a 2006 Newport that would not even get your down payment. And you could put the 2006 in the trunk of the 1968.

Hi, my father owned a 1968 Chrysler Newport it was a four door sedan and it was gold. It had black interior with black jacquard upholstery. Looking back it was quite lightly optioned even for its day, because this particular model did not have any arm rests, power windows, air conditioning, and it only had an AM radio. Also the light in the car did not work so when you opened the door, the light did not come on.

Anyway it was a beautiful car and I have fond memories of it. My father bought the car in 1971 from a work colleague for $1500 dollars and had it until 1979,when he sold it to a work colleague for $800. It was still running very well when he sold it, but my father said the car guzzled too much gasoline and wanted to sell it due to wanting something more economical. He bought a 1974 Buick Century which was only slightly more economical, but did not have the character of the Newport. The work colleague whom my father sold it too, surprisingly still has our Chrysler and has kept it in a garage since 1988 when it stopped working. It has been sitting in the garage ever since and he has plans to restore the thirty eight year old golden beast. Just for some trivial information, 61,436 Newport sedans and that is just sedans, (not including two door coupes, hardtops, station wagons or convertibles) were made in 1968. I am sure that there is still plenty of 1968 Newport sedans still remaining today. In fact I saw two sitting out in a field about a month ago in Sayreville, N.J.

When I read how much the Chrysler Newport weighed I was surprised, according to official reports, the sedan weighed 3,850 pounds, just 150 pounds under two tons, yet by looking at it, it looks like it weighs much more such as two and a half tons. The 383 is an adequate sized engine for such a large car, but I think a car as large as this deserves at least a 400 cubic inch if not more perhaps the 440 that they saved exclusively for the New Yorker models.

The 1968 Chrysler Newport seems to be a survivor in comparison to its contemporaries such as the 1968 Oldsmobile Delta 88,1968 Pontiac Catalina or the 1968 Buick Le Sabre. I have keyed in these models on the Internet and I have only found one of each on the Internet. whereas I have found at least eight 1968 Chrysler Newport's on the Internet. From this I can only conclude that more 1968 Oldsmobile Delta 88s, 1968 Pontiac Catalina's and 1968 Buick Le Sabres have been sent to the crusher than 1968 Chrysler Newport's.

Our family had a white '67 Newport sedan for many years. My father bought it in 1970 and finally sold it in 1984. We took several cross-country trips in that car. For some reason, even though I was just a youngster, I really loved that car. Even though I couldn't drive it, I would spend hours washing and detailing it. I was kind of a weird kid I guess. But that really was a sharp looking car.

My father told me that the car did not have the A/C option, so he had an aftermarket unit put in--a ThermoKing under-dash unit. That sucker sure kicked out ice-cold air. I think he also added an aftermarket cruise control.

Over the years I have often thought of looking for my own Newport. A '67 would be best, but any of the '66 - '68 are all great. But it probably will never happen. Lack of funds, nowhere to work on it, and gas is too expensive now.