Dodge St. Regis

The Dodge St. Regis was Dodge's short-lived full-size 6-passenger car that was produced from 1979-1981, and turned out to be Dodge's last true full-sized car as well. The St. Regis replaced the discontinued Monaco for 1979, but rode the same chassis dimensions as the Monaco, despite being an all-new R-body (the Monaco was a B-body). The St. Regis was introduced with Chrysler's all-new downsized Newport/New Yorker in 1979, and later in 1980 shared a body with Plymouth's re-introduced (in name only) Gran Fury, which was a Chrysler Newport with a Plymouth nameplate on it.

1979 was the most popular year of the "Saint Reej", but sales paled in comparison to GM's full-size cars (Chevy Impala/Caprice, etc), and also had to do battle with the all new downsized Ford LTD and Mercury Marquis this year... the St. Regis was no match for any of those cars in sales, equipment offering or build quality (which was pretty awful in those years). These cars saw most of their sales as fleet models, such as police cars and taxi cabs, and was fairly popular on TV police shows (T.J. Hooker being the most common). The cars were available with either the 318 or 360 V8s.

1980 saw virtually no change other than to make the 225 cid Slant-6 the standard engine (mostly for fuel economy reasons). In 1981, the 360 option was discontinued (surely much to the disappointment of police divisions). R-body sales never even came close to GM's or Ford's full-size offerings, and Chrysler themselves realized they were fighting a losing battle and mercifully threw in the towel in mid-1981 (actually a year after Chrysler planned to - they were originally supposed to die after 1980). The smaller M-body Diplomat became Dodge's biggest rear-drive sedan after 1981 - one could say it was a "spiritual" replacement for the departed Saint Reej.