I need foreign made Chrysler products sold under Lee Iacocca

I want only the ones made when Lee Iacocca was running the company.

Check out The Standard Catalog of Chrysler.

Or

Minivans were never made in Mexico, BTW; Canada and St. Louis.

...or was it Windsor and the United States of America? ;)

Looking for the vehicles made when many liked what they were building? It's so sad to see the very low prices on one year old off lease Chrysler products. It's also sad that none appeal to me, in fact less so the more I look at them. Killing depreciation someone is taking.

I belive that Chrysler Australia was still making cars when Iacocca became chairman, so you will probably want to include those too.

-KM

I really didn't like much that they made during Iacocca's tenure. K-cars and Minivans? No thanks (although I wouldn't necessarily throw a Spirit R/T or a Turbo LeBaron convertible out of the garage). The K-car may have saved the company, but it wasn't exactly the pinnacle of likability and it was kept about 5 years past the time it should have shuffled into the history books. The first thing I truly liked after the mid-70s (apart from the first 89 Cummins Ram) was the LH car, and that was post-Iacocca.

As I recall, the 1st gen K-cars did what they were supposed to do and get Chrysler Corp customers in to smaller vehicles. It's highly intersting to see how many of those cars are still around! Especially when compared to similar GM and Ford cars of that era!

2nd Gen K-cars (i.e., Plymouth Acclaim, Dodge Spirit and the similar Chryslers) were nicer cars and seem to have some of the stoutest bodies ever put in a small car (of ANY maker). Many of these can still turn up at estate sales or on tote-the-note lots.

The K-car Imperials had electronics and features that would rival any other luxury car of that era. Including electronic instrument clusters and self-leveling rear suspension. The 2nd Gen K-cars had many suspension isloation upgrades over the first ones. They were always improving the breed each year!

At least some of the later Dodge Caravans could be had with allow wheels, ground effects, and a sport suspension from the factory. Add some upgrades to the turbo motor (some of which might require drag slicks to use the additional power!) and you have anything BUT a "boring minivan".

And don't forget about the Chrysler Executive K-car limo (from the factory). OR the reintroduction of the convertible on the K-car platform (which put convertibles back on the "doable" body style list)!

Right now, a K-car would not be that bad of a car to have, fuel prices and such. Later ones would be better and have nicer trim. A LeBaron coupe with the 4cyl could be a good commuter car now, as it was when new. LOTS of performance upgrades for the engines and chassis, too. Or a fwd Daytona Carrol Shelby Edition!

Due to manufacturer's license fees, all Chrysler products sold in Europe had the "Chrysler" name on them . . . including the Viper. There was a joint venture to build Jeeps and Minivans in Germany, for the Euro market.

Chrysler Corp trucks built for the South American market, I believe, were named DeSoto? Even before "globalization" became in vogue, Chrysler had LOTS of international presences and models of existing vehicles for those markets. There were many vehicles built in Mexico for that market that we didn't see up here (or versions thereof).

Chrysler Australia had LOTS of interesting vehicles.

You can probably find a comprehensive list of some of the export nameplates and models at the Allpar.com website.

C-BODY

Their cornering was historical, like the 50s sloppy suspensions. The LeBaron GTS was better, the LH cars corner like a sports car.

You mis-spelled hysterical... :)

Bill Putney (To reply by e-mail, replace the last letter of the alphabet in my address with the letter 'x')

A sports car? Come on. They were too big and heavy to ever be mistaken for a sports car, and fwd?

Of course, these were called the A bodies. Only the LeBaron sedan/ wagon, Executive Sedan, Limousine, and Aries and Reliant were K bodies.

But their K-body ancestry made them too narrow for a real luxury car.

Drag slicks on a minivan. Well, I have seen one with flame decals.

I always wondered what executive would want to be seen in a K-car derived "limo."

To me, the Lancer/LeBaron GTS were the best looking and most practical of them all.

I believe it was Magna-Styr in Austria, wasn't it?

Yes, but their presence overseas was tiny, especially compared with GM and Ford. That's one reason Eaton felt compelled to merge. Chrysler sold off its overseas assets (Simca, Rootes) long ago.

I read Chrysler talked with BMW about a merger, but that fell through (BMW is mostly privately owned, and there were apparently tax problems), so they went with Daimler. Imagine if Chrysler had merged with BMW. Chrysler would have been the bigger (and presumably dominant) part then.

It was nice. I had a GTS from new to 10 years and have sometimes regretted I sold it. At the time it needed about $500 in normal wear and tear repairs. The buyer bought it 2 hrs after I put a sign in it's rear window.

The loaded 2.2L turbo 1987 LeBaron GTS that I owned for 9 years was a blast to drive and got great fuel economy too .. one of the nicest cars I've ever owned.

Bob

One of the things I didn't like about the K-platform Chryslers was their narrow width compared to GM's similar class vehicles. None were real 6 passenger cars, though, as they used to be, unless the middle passenger was 5 years old.

Then handling was not as firm or crisp as the earlier torsion bar/leaf spring cars . . . by any stretch of the imagination. But they weren't supposed to be corner-carvers as such. Still, by the end of their product run, the chassis calibrations did become a little firmer and more "fitting for a Chrysler product" (my words). I suspected that a different tire choice would have helped sporting intentions, though, as would stiffer strut calibrations and larger sway bars. If I'd been inclined to purchase one, that's what I would have done.

One thing Chrysler did, even in those "dark" fwd days, was NOT give up on performance orientations. Ford and GM built economy cars that were nothing more than that--period. The similar Chrysler products still had the genetics for performance in their designs. Even if the "decal performanc packages" might not have looked a little flaky and such, the little Turbo 2.2L 4 cyl was an easily-modified engine that would build enough power to get peoples' attention back then. Mopar Performance had the parts and Forward Motion carried on the Mopar FWD performance banner with all sorts of modified parts for that motor.

Drag slicks on the front of a Chrysler/Dodge/Plymouth minivan? Most certainly! Of course, with the turbo motor under the hood. And the modified Neons and such, running mid-high 12 second quarter miles times, do NOT sound like a pissed-off weedwhacker as many of the modified import 4 cylinders do. If you don't believe that, head over to National Trails Raceway and the Mopar Nationals the 2nd weekend in August. Watch the time trails and racing action in the fwd classes. It'll surprise you.

A few years ago, I got a cold drink from the Duchess Shop on the north end of the track. As I sipped the drink, I noticed that a high school guy was putting the slicks on the front of his modified Neon sedan, using a torque wrench, too. Watching was his father who was a Mopar owner and enthusiast. I could easily visualize a grandfather also watching, remembering how they used to drag race when HE was that age. The Mopar car hobby is a definite multi-generational and diverse group of enthusiasts! Oh, and in the car show area, there was a suicide-door Plymouth Acclaim sedan which some guys did in their auto shop, custom paint and interior and all (any one part of their "changes" would have been more than what the car was bought for, I suspect).

In order to understand the significance of the K-car platform and its many factory-based configurations, you have to remember that in that particular period of the automotive industry, there was little to get excited about in product or much else. The fact that Chrysler was doing something different from a single vehicle platform was unique. Every model year brought a new upgrade of some sort, whether in interior trim or chassis or engine. They were credible cars for that period of time and still had the Essence of Chrysler in their designs.

Sure, some of the trim items had the molded-in stitching in the castings, BUT if you looked closely, you could see the lint from the thread of the pattern they used to make the molds from. GM or Ford would not have gone to that much trouble, I suspect, to use such a high quality molding process from their original pattern piece.

The LeBaron Coupes and similar Dodge sedans were the best ones of the breed . . . and the last ones on that platform.

The first year I went to Mopar Nats, others of our Mopar club had gone a year or so before that. The "car of choice" for our guys was the LeBaron Convertible, so I called Thrifty and got one reserved. It was a Turbo 2.2 with 3-speed automatic. We got into Columbus on the late flight, so we got the car and headed for the motel. I could tell the converter was a little looser than I suspected.

The next day, after having been at the track all day, we had gotten to the off ramp and red light to get off the freeway and head to the motel. I was sitting there at the red light and decided to check out the stall rpm on the converter. I nailed the brake and started easing into the throttle. It didn't seem unusual when the tach got to 2000rpm, but when it kept going until it was "stalled" at 3000rpm, that got my attention as NO stock converter would stall that high, especially a 4cyl. That rpm was reserved for the likes of 440s and such.

About that time, the light turned green and our guys in front of us drove off. I had put the trans in "N" after the quick stall check, then put it in "D" and made a quick start to catch up. Well, the front tires squalled when I did that (not from a "neutral drop", as they did it after it had gotten back in gear in "D"). It was enough tire noise that it got the attention of our friends in front of us.

As for the Chrysler limo vehicles, it was certainly a more fuel efficient conveyance than the alternatives . . . of gas drinking Cadillacs and Lincolns . . . and still was what it was. They were fitted out pretty nicely inside, too. After all, Chrylser execs had to have something upscale to travel in that was current production "new". They were just enough counter-culture to be cool. But for those that used limos for "conspicuous consumption" or to look big shotty, only the larger Lincolns would do, with all due respect.

All in all, to judge the K-cars by what GM built in the same market segments and consider them to be boring or uninteresting by that measure is not completely justified. They might have appeared that way on the surface, but when you got to looking around at the way the cars were built and configured (even WITH a K-frame for the engine, just like Chrysler used on the B-body rwd cars!), and how the exhaust system on a Dodge Shadow Turbo was about 2.75" at the inlet to the catalytic converter, decreasing a little at each exhaust section (a little smaller on the converter out flow side than the inlet, a little smaller on the outlet side of the muffler than the inlet, etc.) was a good indication that all it would need to make more power was a cat-back exhaust system and some other upgrades for the motor. By comparison, if anybody thought about doing the same thing to a Chevy Cavalier, you might have grabbed the Yellow Pages and looked under "Mental Health" for anyone considering doing that to a Cavalier (complete waste of time as the architecture of the Chevy was NOT designed for such power increases nor would the chassis have supported such activities, either).

In the back of the second book on Chrysler Police Cars, there's a mention of some police package turbo cars. An account of something like the last gen fwd Dodge Charger turbo in the hands of a Deputy Sherriff. He was on normal patrol when he spotted a speeder coming toward him. He made the u-turn and nailed the throttle in pursuit. He happened to look down and see the certified speedometer reading of 130+mph and was surprised at several things. One was that it got that fast so quick. Second that it did it with the legendary high speed stability of prior Chrysler police cars. He was impressed and the speeder was surprised to see him so quickly, hehe.

Oh . . . and don't forget that the K-cars came with a HEMI! Even if it was a 2.6L Mitsu engine.

Enjoy!

C-BODY

There's no question WHATSOEVER that the K-cars were the best engineered cars of the 80s. But the majority of them were kinda like today's Camry or Accord- a soulless lump that you soon came to wish would die and it never would :-/

Not really. They didn't get great gas mileage for the power they had (nor did any 80s car) except for the manual-transmission turbo models. A normally-aspirated 2.5L automatic transmission K-car was an exercise in patience while trying to merge into traffic, and not many of them would break 30 MPG on the highway. The 1993 LH cars were a breath of fresh air- 30 MPG and 214 horsepower when needed- without a turbo.

Anyone who ever had to replace the crappy original K-member design when it cracked would disagree. The bizarre collection of hoses and wiring used to kluge together the various Bosch bits on TBI models was another inelegant and failure-prone area. And the windows in the rear doors liked to seize up.

(Seized windows were the easiest to deal with. I went to the junkyard, found a K-car with working rear windows [the tough part], made sure the door colour and pinstripe matched my car, and the interior was the same design and colour, and just swapped doors. The junkyard got my old door with non-working window. Swap took five minutes.)

Up here in Ontario, I see more Fieros on the road, day in and day out, than I do K-cars; considering that the Plymouth Reliant swapped best-selling car status with the Ford Tempo and Pontiac 6000 in the '80s, that's pretty sad.

There are plenty of '80s Chrysler minivans still around, but K-cars are gone.

That's about right.

Same could be said for early Ford Taurii, and even moreso for the GM X-cars. THOSE were horrific in every conceivable measure.

When was the last time you saw an operational Chevy Citation? Olds Omega? Or an 86 Escort? ANY Japanese car from the 80s (except a Toyota Land Cruiser- which had a Chevy-derived engine anyway). The 80s were the black pit of automotive engineering. Interestingly, the most common thing from the 80s that I see today are early 4-liter powered Jeep Cherokees (XJ chassis, not the FSJ Cherokee). An amazing product for a little company that was 2 years away from buyout when it came up with the design.

True, but every once in a while I do see an X car. My brother had a Citation that he loved. Drove it to the Yukon and sold it for more than he paid for it. Quite a roomy interior for a compact car. I have no comment about the mechanicals, though. And his Citation was back around 1994.

It would have been nice if the basic K-cars were a leeeeetle bit bigger. The GM FWD A-bodies were just a little too big in my opinion. On the other hand, K-wagons had excellent interior room given the external dimensions.

Remember that I'm writing from:

--Ontario (rust belt central)

--Canada (smaller cars were always more popular here than in the US)

The '80s Japanese cars I notice (note the choice of word) most frequently are hidden-headlight Prelueds and the occasional Accord. Then there is whatever "sport compact" a high-school boy can afford to put a crappy body kit on.

Hell, a couple of days ago I saw a 'Vette....Chevette that is....with reversed chrome Moon rims and fat tires go cruising by. Okay, I should lay off the midday beer, but still.

GM FWD A-bodies are still somewhat in evidence, although they were built through the early '90s. RWD A-bodies, not so much. The most common '80s RWD would be a clapped-out Crown Victoria.

Fieros. In Ontario and Ohio, I see Fieros. Apparently they have good fuel economy as well. And if they haven't caught fire already, they should be okay.

=2E...Ed

The last self-motivated Fiero I saw was a couple of years ago. Guy that worked here drove it every day- but of course it had an LT-1 V8 transplant, too. He even had a sticker made for it that said FierOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!

;-)