The Dodge St. Regis
The Monaco nameplate disappeared at the end of the 1978 model year. Both the mid-sized Monaco and the full-sized Royal Monaco were replaced by the St. Regis for the 1979 model year.
Available in only a single bodystyle, a four-door pillared sedan with frameless door windows, the St. Regis was marketed and priced as a full-sized car. It was also considered to be a full-sized car by the United States Environmental Protection Agency based on its passenger compartment and trunk volumes. In size, it was comparable to, but typically larger than, the competing downsized full-sized models from GM and Ford.
Stylewise, from the side, the St. Regis looked nearly identical to the concurrent Chrysler Newport and Plymouth Gran Fury (which debuted for 1980). Only from the front and rear could one tell the three apart. The St. Regis, arguably, had the most stylish front end, with headlamps mounted behind swing-away plexiglas doors. It was nothing if not bold.
As if the new car needed any further handicaps against the competition, which rode on all-new platforms, the St. Regis (along with Chrysler's Newport and Plymouth Gran Fury) was built, by necessity, on basically the same unibody platform as the old B platform Monaco, although the new car was slightly longer in both wheelbase and overall length. This basic platform, which had been rechristened the R-body, dated to Virgil Exner's "plucked chicken" 1962 Dodges and Plymouths. To be fair, it had been updated several times and, despite its age, was still a very competent chassis.
While it never came close to matching the Monaco it replaced in sales to the general public, the St. Regis did relatively well as a police car. In fact, after its first year, the vast majority of St. Regis sales were to law enforcement agencies. However, even those sales couldn't save the car, which, along with its Chrysler and Plymouth siblings, was killed off halfway through the 1981 model year.
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