1974 Low-Price Luxury: Dodge Monaco Brougham Drives Again After Sitting for 34 Years

The 1974 Dodge Monaco replaced the Polara as the brand's top full-size model. The third generation of the Monaco nameplate received a completely new design—some would argue it was the best-looking iteration of the model. At the same time, detractors would point to the similarities with the 1971 Buick Century.

Preferences aside, the big Monaco was a lot of Dodge, built in the good tradition of heavy-weight American full-size automobiles. At 221 inches long, with a 122-inch wheelbase, and 79 inches wide (5,613 x 3,098 x 2,006 mm), the nice car was a lot of transportation for six adults. It was also on the heavy side, at 4,460 pounds (2,086 kilograms) – around 500 pounds heavier than its predecessor.

To get that stylish hunk of metal rolling, Chrysler fitted the venerable 360-cubic-inch V8 (5.9-liter) as standard, with the option for three other V8s: the 318, the 400, and the 440. Customary to the habits of the day, the Monaco came in various styles—two-door and four-door hardtops, four-door post sedans, and station wagons—and trims (base, Custom, and Brougham).

Believe it or not, the high-end Brougham fared better in sales than the cheaper entry-level version in 1974: top-tier Monaco moved 18,226 units, while the low-key variant convinced just 14,031. Together, the two accounted for less than half of the Dodge Monaco sales for the model year – the Custom got the lion’s share, with 34,414 examples.

The four-door hardtop championed showroom traffic within the Brougham range, with 5,649 new cars finding buyers. Its two-door twin came second (4,863), and the four-door post sedan completed the podium with 3,954. The former would go on to become a movie star some six years after the model was launched in the Blues Brothers Hollywood production.

The Monaco of 1974 is not a common sight. Yet, it was the best-selling year of the generation due to several crucial factors that all came into play right when the new cars hit the market. On September 25, 1973, Dodge announced the new lineup.

Less than two weeks after, on October 6, Egypt and Syria attacked Israel in what went on to be known as the Yom Kippur War. On October 20, five days before the ceasefire agreement that ended the war, Arab countries within the Oil Producing and Exporting Countries organization imposed a total oil embargo on the United States.

The oil shortage sparked the first major oil crisis following World War II, with the federal government enforcing gasoline rationing and other fuel-saving measures. Notably, the price of crude oil went up nearly fourfold within three months during the embargo, from $2.90 a barrel in September ’73 to $11.65 a barrel in January 1974.

Faced with this grim reality, Chrysler’s big cars suddenly became a major put-off for customers who turned their attention to more practical (read ‘cheaper to operate’) transportation solutions, like small(er) vehicles – not necessarily from domestic producers. The Monaco fell out of fashion fast, and by the end of the generation, sales reached some 22,000 units in 1977.

After the shocking reality check of geopolitics, American car production shifted toward other paradigms, shelving the traditional ‘Bigger is Better’ creed. The Monaco was a dinosaur that experienced the mass extinction of its breed, and that’s how we get relics buried in barns for decades today.

Take the following video as an example – a 1974 Monaco Brougham four-door hardtop parked in the last year of the Bush Sr. administration (that's 1990) gets its first wash, first start, and first drive in three-and-a-half decades. Courtesy of the jolly rescuers from Budget Buildz, one amazingly sturdy survivor gets a new chance at life. The YouTube channel host Michael Wagner pulled the car from under its decade-long shelter in North Carolina and revived it.

I must whole-heartedly admit that, after seeing the car in its initial condition, covered in dirt and debris and dragging a locked right rear wheel, I didn’t give much chance to it getting back on the road without several transplants. However, the Dodge – and the vlogger – proved me wrong big time, and there they are, cruising along in a splendidly aged and classy Monaco.

Surprisingly, the engine doesn’t take much tickling to return to its eight-cylinder active service. The 400 cubic inches (6.6 liters) fed through a two-pot carburetor was standard equipment on the Brougham. The 2.76 gearing on the rear was destined for comfortable cruising (maybe with all four windows down for added coolness?), and the transmission was a three-speed automatic.

The Torqueflite was the only gearbox put in the Monaco, regardless of trim. The 400-cube V8 with the two-barrel could have been replaced by an identical twin with a four-barrel or by the grunty 440 big-inch (7.2-liter) Mopar legend, armed with a single quad-venturi carburetor. The example we see saved in the video below is the low-key Brougham, with a 400-4v V8 that was once credited with 185 hp and 310 lb-ft (188 PS, 421 Nm).