Minneapolis Street Sighting: Dodge Diplomat

The Malaise-era brought about its share of rather mediocre cars from all of the big-three. If anything, Chrysler was worse off; it was stuck with big engines with not much power (but tons of tuning potential), horrible rustproofing strategies, and vehicles that often got shoddy reputations for build quality. Somehow the Dodge Diplomat and Chrysler Fifth Avenue (and New Yorker) survived the Malaise-era and lived until the end of the 1980s. While everyone knows of the Dodge Diplomat that starred in numerous 1980s police movies, many people often overlook the vehicle that started it all.

The first-generation Diplomat was produced from 1977 to 1979, and was a basically an extensively facelifted Dodge Aspen. Because the Aspen (and Volare) had horrendous rust problems, a name change was decided on, not only to move the car upscale in appearance, but also in hopes that many unloyal Aspen customers would come back to Dodge for a replacement car. It didn't work, so in 1980, the model got the new sheetmetal that would carry it into the rest of the 1980s. That second-generation car was more popular with regular customers, as well as with taxi fleets, police agencies, and was a popular vehicle for use in many a motion-picture.









Because of the aforementioned rust problem, not many Chrysler M-Body cars have survived. This Diplomat is easily the nicest example I've seen--ever. The paint is unexpectedly pristine, showing no wear, no scratches (but a relatively small scrape/gouge on the driver's door), and the best part? The original "Unleaded Gasoline Only" sticker still resides above the gas door. How's that for originality?
The only real "issue" I see here is the Buick Century hubcap to replace the long-lost Diplomat unit. I normally don't bitch about small things like that, but I imagine the Buick hubcaps aren't very easy to find either.
Aside from that, this Malaise-era luxury car seems to have held-up well. I haven't seen one this clean for quite a while. With its color-keyed landau roof, and minimal chrome (except for the front fascia), this Diplomat looks like what I luxury car should be. Modest price, extraordinary features for a mainstream car, but not necessarily fast. Fitting that criteria, it marks its place as a respectable car in the Malaise-era luxury car market. Now, Dodge is doing the same thing today, with its Charger sedan. But that car doesn't really seem like a "luxury car" so much as the Diplomat did. At least the name Diplomat seems pretentious enough to warrant Dodge's attempt to lure Buick buyers away from showrooms with Electras and Regals and into showrooms with Diplomats and Magnums.