1970 Plymouth Fury Suburban sticker

So, in 1958, Senator Elmer Monroney sponsored an act which mandated the price stickers that

we get on our cars, which tell you how much it's supposed to cost and what you get for

the price. So, the price stickers are still called Monroney's after him, and they're still required

Those who don't live through olden times might not recognize everything on a vintage Monroney

such as this one provided by Paul H. McGee from a 1970 Plymouth Suburban

And the Suburban was just basically a wagon. And to save money, the wagon actually shared with the Dodge and the Chrysler wagons

So first, let's look at these standard features that we get. Some of them are obviously required by federal law, like side lights and seat belts

And others are neat features like the dual master cylinder, which provides two brake

fluid circuits so that if there's a brake leak, the driver still has partial braking

These became standard at Chrysler Corporation with the 1967 cars. And it has a torsion bar suspension, which was still an advantage over the coil spring

front suspensions at GM and Ford, although that was definitely in its waning days

The combined emissions reduction tools, or called the cleaner air system, Chrysler itself

defined the cleaner air system as including cleaner combustion chambers, modified carburetors

slightly altered distributors. Now every Chrysler did have an electronic voltage regulator

They started out with some 1969 cars and were standard in all the 1970s with a new connector

And it was used with a new isolated field alternator. The quote anti-theft lock just meant that you had to turn the ignition switch, which

required a key, in order to remove the steering wheel or get out of park

The lane change feature activated the turn signals before you locked them into place

so you could use them just for a few blinks. And that was also new for Chrysler for 1970

And they also had standard hazard flashers. You pulled something up from the steering column, which operated even when the brakes

were being used. So when the brake lights were on, you still got hazard flashers

Now the top line of this sticker shows the assembly plant, which was Belvedere, Illinois

That was also a new plant, opening in 1965. It also shows the VIN number, the vehicle ID number

So VIN number is the VIN number number. And we've blanked out part of that for privacy

And an order number. The colors had two character codes. This one was F8

And a trim code for the interior color and materials. Car to sales code with two letters and two numbers

L is the low price class. So the price class started with economy, then low, medium, and high

And other codes showed you if we had a police car, a taxi, a super stock, race car, or so on

The next part of the code, four is the number of doors. And then the body code six is for a three seat wagon

And each bench seat stretched across the width of the car, so it counted as one row of seats

So when they say three seat, they actually mean capacity of six to nine people

A code of PL21 would be a Fury II coupe. PL41 would be a Fury II sedan

You can also decode the middle part of the VIN to find the engine

The letter G stands for 318 cubic inch V8. That was their economy V8

Very nice engine, very durable, very unappreciated generally. Always had a two barrel in those years

Model year, zero is 1970. That's the last number in 1970. And assembly plant, D for Belvedere

And the rest of the VIN was just a serial number. Vinyl bench seats were standard on the wagon

As the description of the car itself indicates, the 318 V8 was standard on the Fury 9 passenger

wagon, so it too has no price listed. Now the Fury 6 and Fury V8 were considered to be different trims by Plymouth too, so

a Fury 1 V8 would still have a standard V8. The other lines are for options including the prices

Trailer towing was a bargain because in addition to trailer wiring and hitch, it had durability

upgrades such as heavy duty suspension, large radiator, fan shroud, better brakes, bigger

wheels, in many cases, and a transmission fluid cooler, which is quite nice for longevity

And some of these parts were shared with police or taxi packages. So the 70 Fury used the same brakes for towing, taxi, and police duty

All Furies, as a higher end big car, had 15 inch wheels

The Fury wagon's standard wheels were wider than any other Fury including the 440 powered

coupe to deal with more weight. Suburban standard wheels were size J78

J size wheels weren't even optional on other Furies. Buyers could even option out wider L size wheels and tires

Fusions also had longer leaf springs at 62 inches versus 52 on other Fury models, 10

more inches, with 6.5 inches, again, even more than a 440 with a heavy duty suspension

The transmission is listed as heavy duty, that's an A727 Torque Flight

The base transmission for the Fury was a 3 speed, 3 on the tree, new process gear manual

The automatic for the 318 was normally an A904 which was a good light automatic, but

the A727 could handle a lot more torque which was handy for towing and for heavy loads

The problem was, of course, that the 727 cost more and weighed more

The axle ratio would normally be 2.71 to 1 on an automatic Fury 318, but the towing package

brought it to 3.23 to 1 and wagon buyers could even get a 3.55 to 1 if they didn't get the tow package

Air conditioning often came with tinted glass in later years, but here you can see that

the tinted glass was extra. The AM radio was quite expensive in today's money, costing about $490 today with a single

dashboard speaker. A rear speaker was optional, a single rear speaker, along with an AM FM radio and an 8-track

The 8-track AM combination cost $196 then, that's over $1500 today. Power steering was also quite expensive, that would be about $830 today

The radial tires with fiberglass belts were a comparative bargain. Destination charge would today be $740 or so compared with Chrysler's current charges

of $1600 to $2000. So Plymouth used the Suburban name for wagons for many years regardless of the car's actual names

The 1970 Suburban had the same body as the 1970 Dodge and Chrysler wagons with the same

122-inch wheelbase. The equivalent sedans had three different wheelbases with Plymouth being small, Dodge

being medium and Chrysler being large, each one was 2 inches from the other

The Suburban was 220 inches long, 80 inches wide and 58 inches tall with a cargo area

that went 119 inches from the back of the front seat to the end of the open tailgate

And again, this particular car was the entry-level wagon. It still had a rear roof-mounted wind deflector, which had come out the previous year, a power

tailgate window and larger tires than Fury sedans. Chrysler wagons all had a dual-action tailgate, which could be a regular door or pickup-type tailgate

So buyers had a choice of interior colors with five choices for the Fury II wagon alone

In current dollars, this car cost over $35,000 despite the single-speaker AM radio and other

very basic fittings. It was far more expensive than Fury sedans, which cost around $24,000 in today's money

That's for a Fury II V8. And they cost more because they had very low volumes, which is why they only had one wheelbase

shared with Chrysler and Dodge. They also used more materials. A Fury II V8 weighed around 3675 pounds, but the Suburban with three rows was over 4200 pounds

So that's around 500 pounds more material. These are shipping weights, by the way

Curb weights would be at least 80 pounds more. That's why the big Plymouth wagon was shared with Dodge and Chrysler, though each of them

had enough sheet metal and trim differences to stay on-brand. But you can see the appeal of minivans when they arrived

They had a price premium like the old-style wagons, but with far more interior space

far more convenience, far better gas mileage, but admittedly, very little acceleration

Still, the minivan was not even starting development at Chrysler in 1970

The first sketches would start out in 1972. And for that, read my minivan book

Alright, that's it for now. Thank you for listening