1966 Chrysler New Yorker brings back family memories
Back in the 1960s, Ray and Dot Montgomery did what many other parents had done. They bought a station wagon.
The wagon of choice was a 1966 Chrysler that the dealer sold for $3,000. The car soon became a valued member of the family.
“We sat behind that dash for 202,000 miles,” Montgomery said. “All three daughters learned to drive in that car.” But Montgomery offered it for sale to an airline pilot who paid the asking price and snatched it away. Then seller’s remorse set in.
Years later, Montgomery and his wife traveled to an antique-automobile gathering in Carlisle, Pennsylvania. She was the one who spotted a 1966 Chrysler New Yorker four-door hardtop sedan on the field.
“It has the same dashboard as our old Chrysler,” she told him.
Sure enough, she had found a sedan version of their beloved Chrysler wagon. A quick inspection revealed the mostly original Chrysler to be in remarkably good condition. The green car became the property of the Montgomerys that day.
Among goodies, it is equipped with Autopilot, AM/FM radio, power brakes, rear speakers, power antenna, power steering, power windows, air conditioning and Safeguard sentinel lights. The 2-ton Chrysler comfortably rolls on a 124-inch wheelbase. “It’s a big boat,” Montgomery said.
The interior upholstery is all black, from the headliner to the carpeting. The front bucket seats are also black, as is the fold-down armrest between the seats.
The Chrysler has a feature that seems to be lost on many modern vehicles — wing vent windows. In addition it is equipped with right and left exterior mirrors, rear fender skirts, and an antenna on the right rear fender. Atop each front fender, incorporated into the chrome trim, is a light that flashes in unison with the signal indicator.
Standard equipment under the hood in 1966 was a 440-cubic-inch V-8 engine that develops 350 horsepower. This mighty engine has never failed Montgomery, even on trips to Mopar events as far away as Rochester, New York; Tallahassee, Florida; and Long Island, New York.
That trip to a car show on Long Island is etched into Montgomery’s memory. It was summertime when he slipped behind the three-spoke steering wheel and, with his wife at his side, steered the Chrysler north on I-95 toward New York. Before long the rains came and the electric windshield wipers stopped working after a while. The two garages to which he appealed for help said it would be hours before they could tend to his car’s malady. Taking matters into his own hands, Montgomery went to a store that sold clothesline. He tied one end of the rope to the left wiper and the other to the right, running the line around the ends of the windshield and through the vent windows, framed in stainless steel, and on across the dashboard. With his wife at the helm and him tugging on the clothesline — first left, then right — he kept the wipers moving until they arrived, on time, at the Long Island show.
“It’s been fun,” Montgomery said of the years he has owned the Chrysler. Unlike owners of frail antique vehicles, he said, “I don’t mind getting out on the highway in this car.”