During most of its time as a C-body, the Dodge Monaco was considered too luxurious for use as a squad; before , the big Dodge squads were almost always Polaras. The Monaco could have been special ordered as a squad, but I have never seen one so equipped. The model year had no Polara in the lineup; in essence, Dodge dropped the Monaco into its slot, lowering the trim accordingly, and replaced the "true" Monaco with the Monaco Brougham later to become the Royal Monaco.
I owned a civilian Monaco Brougham in the early s, and have always been grateful that it had not been my first Chrysler product, as had it been it would probably also have been my last. It is hard to believe that my stone-solid Polara was built in the same plant, or that my Dodge Coronet, which was as reliable as the sun coming up, was built by the same manufacturer in the same year.
It has the High Performance Magnum engine — U code, with all police specifications. The only option was power windows to make it easier for Troopers to speak to roadside people.
It was State Police sourced with the Northern climate order, with radio and air conditioning delete. This particular car has authentic graphics, colors, light bar, radio, and license; unique police trim parts were difficult to find during the restoration. While far brighter, it is indeed the same model and year as the famous Bluesmobile. Cars the size of the C-body would have sold poorly in oil-embargo year , no matter what their virtues.
The Monaco, and to a lesser extent the Fury models, had an additional handicap in that they bore an exceptionally strong resemblance to the fullsize Buicks Another disappointing change for was the deletion of the temperature gauge as standard equipment on Plymouth and Dodge C-bodies: they now had a fuel gauge and ammeter, plus idiot lights for oil pressure and temperature. In a reversal of recent tradition, the Chrysler Newport and New Yorker got the temp gauges the Plymouths and Dodges lost, after an absence of nine years, while the Imperials, which shared the instrument cluster with lesser Chryslers for the first time since , lost their oil pressure gauges.
