Retro Stories by David Burrell
Remember the Valiant VIP? It was Chrysler Australia’s luxury car from 1967 to 1971 and designed to compete with Ford’s highly successful Fairlane and, later, Holden’s long-booted Brougham.
The first VIP appeared with the VE Valiant range in October 1967. Try as they might, Chrysler Australia could not hide the fact that the VIP was really a Valiant Regal sedan with all the trimmings. It came in sedan and wagon formats and was draped in the regular Valiant’s sheet metal. Even the grille was unchanged.
To entice buyers, a V8 was standard along with power disc brakes, radio, heater, power steering, bucket seats, a vinyl roof, three chrome strips on the rear fender and a flowery VIP badge.
The VE VIP did not address one of the basic problems with the VE range, and that was its lack of rear leg room. A 108 inch/2743mm wheelbase left rear seat occupants with at least three inches less leg room than the cheapest 1966 XR Falcon and 1968 HK Holden.
The AMHF’s Peter Robinson was one of the few motoring scribes to put the VE VIP through its paces. In the February 1968 edition of Australian Motor Sports and Automobiles, for which he was then working, Peter pinpointed the VIP’s basic problem:
“The next VIP will need many more inches between the wheels.”
The public agreed. Sales were not brisk, but the VIP accounted for 6% of total VE model output which was a nice little earner for Chrysler, and most likely stopped diehard Chrysler customers negotiating with a Ford dealer for a Fairlane.
For the 1969 VF and 1970 VG models, Chrysler Australia got serious. They created an all-Australian VIP by stretching the Valiant sedan wheelbase to 112 inches/2845mm. The roof and rear doors were lengthened to match the new wheelbase. A smaller limo-style rear window added to the aura of “exclusivity”.
These changes were much more than Holden were willing to do for the long-booted Brougham, and shows just how agile Chrysler Australia could be when it tried, and had money to invest in product development.
Writing in The Australian on 19th May, 1969 Mike Kable said of the VF VIP that:
“It all adds up to some inspired thinking around the Chrysler board room table.”
The entry level VF VIP boasted the 160 HP six-cylinder engine as standard, with drum brakes and a bench front seat. If you ordered the V8 you were blessed with front discs and front bucket seats. Four headlights lit the road ahead. A vinyl roof was standard no matter what engine. It was needed to hide the weld seams of the extended roof and the smaller rear window. The dashboard was shared with the Valiant to cut costs.
The VIP’s brochure made much of its longer wheelbase adding to rear legroom, though in reality it was minimal gain over a basic Falcon or Holden, both of which had 111 inch/2819mm wheelbases.
I found no motoring magazine that published a three-way comparison test of the VIP, Fairlane and Brougham when researching this story. How strange is that? In the July 1969 edition of Australian Motor Sports and Automobiles magazine, Peter Robinson tested the Regal 770 and the VIP, and concluded:
‘I would say the VIP has more leg room in the back than the Fairlane or the Brougham. It is very much a car for the rear seat passenger… The 770 appeals to the younger executive on his way to the top… The VIP is for the man at the top.”
Trouble was, the extended wheelbase of the VIP made the narrow Valiant look even narrower. A bit too dachshund like. And from the side the VIP still looked like a Valiant. That was its biggest drawback.
On the upside, the 1970 VG VIP, which now had the 265 cubic inch six as the base engine, was the first local car to have air-conditioning as standard. The Chrysler Australia board must have been proud of the VG VIP, because a photo of them was included in the brochure.
But even the aging faces of the Chrysler’s decision-makers could not stop luxury car buyers walking into a Ford dealership and driving out in a longer and wider Fairlane.
Gavin Farmer’s Valiant: Finest of the Three, a copy of which resides in the AMHF’s library, records that the VIP went to 10,050 buyers during its tenure, outselling the HK/HT/HG Brougham, which is estimated (Holden was very coy when it came to admitting to Brougham sales) at around 9,800 units.
It was one of the few times Chrysler beat Holden.
