Here’s a nice time capsule to prove Dodge did sell vehicles other than loud, brash muscle cars in the ’60s.
While the most famous Monaco is a certain black and white 1974 model, the nameplate initially appeared in 1965 as a special top of the line two door hardtop with bucket seats, console and wicker door panel trim, meant to compete with the Pontiac Grand Prix.
But by 1967, it was a full range of luxurious models like cross town rivals Caprice and Galaxie 500/LTD. All full size Dodges were redesigned for ’67, riding a 122″ wheelbase. I find them pretty attractive, especially those trapezoidal taillights.
Polara and Monaco roughly mirrored Impala and Caprice, though there was a Polara 500 that came as a two door hardtop or convertible, and a coupe only Monaco 500. Polaras were a little more common than the upper crust Monaco, with 69,798 Polaras and 5,606 Polara 500s sold.
A total of 35,225 Monacos of all body types were built that year. There were an additional 5,237 even fancier Monaco 500 coupes. Standard V8 was a 270-horse 383. A 325-hp 383 was optional, as were 350- and 375-hp 440s. Our featured car is the four door hardtop, which listed for $3,275 and weighed in at 3,945 pounds. Also available were a pillared four door, a two door hardtop, and two- and three-seat station wagons.
I especially liked the color combo, with the burgundy paint, cheerful red interior and black vinyl roof, she cuts an impressive figure.
Very few seem to be around these days. I go to a lot of shows, and I’ve never seen one. Though I have seen a ’66 Polara convertible locally.
This is yet another cool car spotted on the FB group Finding Future Classic Cars. I was smitten. And immediately knew I had to do a post on it.
As the ad related: “For sale, 1967 Dodge Monoco 4 door hardtop. 383 V-8, automatic transmission 727 torque flite, 119 k on the odometer, power steering, power brakes.”
Car sat for almost 40 years in original owners garage after he passed. The car now has a new fuel tank, fuel pump, carburetor, fuel line, fuel filter and fuel sending unit in tank.”
“The car has new dual exhaust with 18 inch glass pack mufflers and chrome pencil tips out the back. The car has had transmission service done which consisted of dropping the pan and replacing the filter, new gasket refilled with quality transmission fluid, the car runs and drives pretty good.”
“New Hankook tires, new rear brakes, brake lines bled, rear diff fluid drained and refilled with Lucas gear oil, new spark plugs, plug wires, points, condenser and rotor cap, new distributor cap.”
“If post is up car is available, I will delete when sold. No cashier checks no emails, clean Colorado title in my name 6,500 or best offer.”
Car is on Colorado Springs Craigslist, with a $6500 ask. Not bad for a car not commonly seen today. And in such a nice color combination! Buy this car and watch all the people walk past the red 69 Camaros and check it out. Are you Dodge Material?
UPDATE: Between writing this post and publishing it, the ad disappeared. But two hours ago it went back up, with more pictures. So one could still join the Dodge Rebellion, if one is so inclined!
Interesting that such a formal, establishment car is marketed as a rebellion with the girl even tagging her slogans. Did the ad agency not understand how annoying that stuff was to the establishment? More likely the mere act of hiring the ad agency meant funding the rebellion, and not the Dodge one.
Yeah; also her very preppy hair and clothing are interesting. Not sure if they were just clueless, trying to soften the message to make it more palatable, or trying to “sell” rebellion to mainstream America or implying that even preppy-looking women are secretly working to overthrow Western Civ.
My guess is the oh-so-hip ad agency submitted a mockup with a hippie girl holding a sign (reminiscent of antiwar protests) reading “the Dodge rebellion wants you!”, and the Dodge higher-ups sent it back saying she can’t be a hippie and she can’t be holding a sign. Hence the somewhat odd final product.
This is exceptionally perceptive. A lot of bad magazine articles have a similar genesis.
Notice her poses are more a privileged daughter trying to give her father an ulcer than anything flirtatious aimed at the would be buyer of the Monaco. Maybe if he is worried enough he will economize and buy the lesser Dodge brand. Meanwhile the ad agency gets the always fun task of casting a pretty girl and thinks the establishment never has enough ulcers.
The ad work on 67s probably is from 66 before the big time rioting of 67-69, so perhaps the rebellion wasn’t taken so serious. I think you can can see though in the American cars aimed at the mature market designed in the aftermath how much the desire for individual cacooning while the world goes mad was taken into account. You also see it in the more formal furniture and house styles that were the end of mid century modern around 65.
The pic of her leaning over the driver’s seat with fixed eye contact is not accidental. Very crafty.
I’ll be in my bunk.
You never cease to amaze in showing what a humorless twat you are.
It’s a friggin’ 53-year-old ad campaign. I detest advertising people, mostly because they’re so lazy and uncreative, but their job was to make the car stand out from the pack, and they largely succeeded. Dodge moved a lot of metal in these years, mostly to the “establishment” that was intrigued by the cutesy theme – and turned on by the Dodge girl. No doubt the ’67 Detroit riots played a roll in the switch to the “Dodge Fever” campaign in ’68 with a fresh girl, but your insistence on viewing stuff from half a century ago through your current (warped) morality makes you no better than the SJW army yanking down statues and demanding everything be renamed.
I suppose the Rambler Rebel pisses you off, too.
The Rambler Rebel doesn’t have enough mindspace to tick me off. Perhaps you should reduce the mindspace my comments here seem to occupy in your brain or you know, lady parts. Happy trucking
Tom,
That is a very well preserved car. Shows what a dry climate and the use of sand instead of salt on the roads in the winter will do to prevent rust. Love the toggle switch dash board in these cars. As wells as under dash factory A/C, hard to believe that A/C was not designed into even the top of the line Dodge hardtops/coupes as late as 1967. The interior looks brand new and it does not appear to have any cancer under the vinyl top. The new owner as apparently addressed all the long term storage mechanical issues. Someone is going to get a nice weekend driver and you are correct, have not seen one of those at a cars and coffee or local show in years.
Good thing the original owner did not go for the optional 440 or someone would buy that well perserved car and yank the drive train and put it in a Charger or Coronet that originally had a 318 and scrap the rest. With the base 383 there is a good chance it will not get ripped apart for the drive train.
“While the most famous Monoco is a certain black and white 1974 model”
Tom, I think you were mistaken, they were 1976 model Monocos and they were blue and white. 🙂
See link below:
The funny thing about that is the Royal Monacos were only in the intro. Usually they drove 74-78 Furys or Colonnade Malibus in the actual episodes, at least in the early seasons. Furillo had a blue 80 Catalina in the first season, it switched to a Delta 88 the next season. Terrific show.
Tom,
You are correct, the opening credits were shot for the pilot in Chicago, but the episodes of the show were shot in California. I guess 1976 blue and white Royal Monocos were not the vehicle of choice in CA. The opening montage stayed the same and you can see where the spiced in new actors as the show when from season to season over the years. In fact the one I posted was from after the passing of the actor that played Sergeant Eserhaus. The building in Chicago used in the opening credits is actually the Univerisity of Illinois-Chicago Police HQ (they run off fans of the show because it really is a working police station). Trivia Trivia Trivia… be careful out there….
Esterhaus was great. I wish they had more seasons on DVD. I have the first two. I always assumed the unnamed city was Chicago, even though the episodes were filmed in LA.
You can borrow the 146 episodes I have on VHS tape if you can find a machine and I can dig the boxes there in out of the garage. 🙂 🙂 🙂
I always remember it trying be be like Chicago but looking suspiciously like California…..
Hill Street Blues? Wrong blues. The Blues Brothers’ Bluesmobile was a ’74 Monaco in glorious black and white.
It needed a new lighter.
Tom and Lynn,
Great article on a forgotten car! Lynn, I don’t think the A/C is factory, factory units had vents in the dash and a more complicated control. This looks like aftermarket.
Glenn,
It could be aftermarket. AC in the mid to late sixties was a unique time as to if a car would have AC or not. Some cars were offered with factory AC but some were not. In some cases it depended on the engine that was ordered with the car. I have seen 1967 Chargers with factory AC but they were all 383 cars. However the few Monoco/Polaras I have seen did not have indash AC. It is hard to believe that 40 years ago Climate Control/AC was really only offered on the top of the line models with the biggest engines. In fact it was not even standard on CDV/SDV model Cadillacs until 1975, it was standard on Fleetwoods before then. However, finding a 1974 CDV or SDV without Climate Control is a rare car, but there are a few still around, mainly in the NE or upper Midwest.
I owned one of the last model Carmaros that could only be optioned with underdash A/C from the factory. In 1969 if you ordered a base Camaro with a 250 with a Powerglide or 3-Speed, this model was only offered from the factory with a GM underdash AC unit, where as the 327, 350, 396 were offered with in dash factory AC.
Glenn you are most likely correct as to aftermarket, as it is hard to tell from the pictures. However, the factory underdash units were of that same narrow design. I guess we have a mission for Tom to go through his extensive archives to determine the right answer. However, the car appears to have been sold as the link no longer works. Someone got a nice car.
It looks like a dealer installed Mopar unit, the vents look like the other under dash Mopar units I’ve seen, before 75 only the Fleetwood limo had standard a/c, I’ve seen some cheap Calais model Cadillacs without a/c but the majority of non a/c cars were usually Commercial Chassis cars that were sold to be made into hearses, I’ve seen Cadillac hearses without a/c and without a radio either.
Nicely done. I’ve just recently bought a very nice original 1967 Monaco four door sedan with the grandpa spec slant six package with torqueflyte transmission. In 1967 the 225 Six was the standard engine with the 318 Poly as optional equipment in the Monaco here in Canada.