Chrysler Imperial concept a poor man's Phantom

I like the center-opening the doors, I think that Chrysler should put them on all their cars, especially the PT Cruiser. Always easier to enter/exit. Hey, it works well on my 1940 Royal

And I thought the 300C had set a standard for butt ugly...

Matt

What does that have to do with center opening doors? Have you ever had a car with the old-fashioned "suicide doors". If you have, you would make more rational comments on what I was saying. I was not commenting on the "looks" of the new car, I was just saying that Chrysler should return to the clamshell doors, especially on the PT Cruiser. BTW, I had a 2003 four-door and I really wished that it had had the old-fashioned doors. We now have a 2005 PT Cruiser convertible. I think that a convertible sedan in the PT line would be cool!

It's got nothing to do with the doors.

It's got everything to do with the fact that it looks like a Mac truck from the front.

I know how you feel about the looks of the front end, but what I was trying to say was that the concept of center opening doors is a good one that should be extended across the line.

It wasn't about the doors, I just didn't feel like enabling the "view all messages" option, going back and finding the preceding post, replying to it, and then enabling the "view only unread messages" option, when your post was right in front of me and easy to reply to! Satisfied?

Although, now that you mention it, suicide doors are stupid and are called suicide doors for a good reason.

Then again, on a car this ugly, the door configuration will be the least of its problems. I just hope they actually make the challenger look like the original so as to have ONE decent looking vehicle in their line-up. Now that the Excaliber is replacing the Neon, and with the redesigned Dakota, etc., the minivans are now Chryslers best looking vehicles. What a sad commentary...

Matt

Matt, Then why are so many four door trucks and other vehicles returning to the center opening doors. There are ways to make them not like the suicide doors of old, although on my 48 Plymouth and 40 Chrysler Royal, the doors never came open during driving.

Because the extended cab trucks don't have room for a full-size door and thus eliminating the center post is an advantage. Also, most that I have seen aren't really suicide doors as the back doors can't be opened independently of the front. Maybe the newer trucks are this way, but my brother-in-laws Chevy requires the front doors to be opened first.

Most of the club cab trucks I have seen that have the full size doors open the doors with a hinge at the front.

A car the size of the Imperial has no need to remove the center post and doing so not only gives you a door that opens the wrong way, it reduces the ability of the car to resist a side impact.

Matt

I was not under the impression that the center post was removed from the car, having not seen the specs. However, if the post were there and the rear doors were hinged at the rear, then they could latch onto the center post, just like they used to in my older Chryslers.

Some have been privately converted. My local dealer had 3 or 4 of them. This was before Chrysler made the 2 door model.

Those convertible sedans must have been beautiful! Here in West Palm Beach there is a dealer named Ragtops that had a 1936 Chrysler Airstream four-door convertible sedan. I wish that I had the $30K they were asking! "What do you mean there's no movie?"