“The patron saint of automotive lost causes.” That title was bestowed upon me by Lohnes years ago and looking at my track record of vehicles plus the ones I’d love to build, I can’t really argue. I’ve had a wide array of strange, questionable and downright odd cars come and go and I’ve looked at even more. But do you remember someone in your life reminding you that there would always be someone richer, stronger, faster, smarter, sexier and better liked than you, and that there was nothing you could do about it, so you just needed to move on with life?
Yeah…except we just found “crazier”.
Outside of Dodge Daytonas, Chrysler Lazers, the Spirit R/T and anything with the word “Shelby” on it, not many people are in a serious rush to save a Chrysler K-Car. Yes, they were important to saving Chrysler’s ass in the early 1980s…between the successes of the K-platform cars and the minivans that were spawned off of them, Chrysler went from near death to doing just fine in a few short years. But unless you are into the funky Town and Country convertibles or are planning a rear-drive conversion of a LeBaron Coupe, would you go out of your way to save a decrepit one? Here’s the ad, word for word:
“Folks, the sun has done its damage, but this is a very inexpensive classic car project. It deserves a good Mopar enthusiast that will restore her to her former glory, and use this car as a daily driver and put this classic luxury economy car into car shows. Here we have a 1985 Chrysler LeBaron TWO tone talking EVA turbocharged Chrysler 2.2 4 cylinder FOUR door sedan. When was the last time you saw a four door sedan early 80s K-Car anywhere? This car seats five, and has bucket seats in front and bench in back. It just needs the dented fender fixed, a new vinyl roof, new tires, and it will be a reliable driver once again. It also needs a little front axle work. The biggest thing about this car is the smooth running turbo motor with ONLY 61,000 MILES! It gets 28 miles per gallon and is easy to drive and park. It has a lot of pep. Buy this car now and help out the owner. We saved this car from an overzealous apartment manager who wanted to impound the car, and some ghetto gangs of North Hollywood. It is now safe in Ontario. Buy this car today and join the Chrysler K-Car Club at www.chryslerkcar.com. We will help you restore it. We also have the smog shop. Car is on current non-op status. All fees have been paid.”
I want to point something out: “Buy the car now and help out the owner.” Is the writer of the ad not the owner? If not, why are you posting a for sale ad? If I buy the car now, I AM THE OWNER. If I buy the car now, I DON’T HAVE TO JOIN THE K-CAR CLUB. If I buy the car, I do whatever the living hell I want to do with it, whether I nut-and-bolt restore it, clean it up and use it as car to run around town with, or paint neon orange flames on it and run it at the closest spectator drags I can find. Once the money and title are traded, it’s the buyer’s car and the seller has exactly zero say on what happens next.
Want to save this 1985 LeBaron Sedan and relive the 1980s as they were? Here’s your chance.
I’m not a fan of Fiat, oops, I mean Chrysler but the K Car really wasn’t a bad car for the time. I never owned one and I doubt its long term reliability was anything to brag about but 3.5 million were sold. In early 82 I rented one for a week and it wasn’t a bad driver. It had adequate performance for an economy car and relatively comfortable.
There are a lot of cars that get bad press. The 70s Dodge Aspen/ Plymouth Volare was a platform that was also ragged on. But those were decent cars as well. I rented one of those for 2 weeks and other than being a gutless wonder, 1976 you know, it was a nice car with attractive styling.
Another car is the Pinto. Despite what everybody has heard there rate of accident caused fires in them was no higher than other cars. But the prosecutors wanted to make names for themselves and media wanted to sell papers. In 1976, The National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration listed total number of deaths up to the time of publication, regardless of accident at 27 total over the 5 years Pinto’s were manufactured. So with over 2.4 million Pinto’s on the road at the time, the actual numbers are comparable to other compact cars of its day like the Chevy Vega, in fact, it’s rating was safer than that of the Gremlin, the Pacer and all the Japanese imports of its day like the Datsun B210. All of which had greater deaths related to fiery crashes as well as deaths per million sold.
Bottom line is forget the media and naysayers. If you like a certain car that’s your business and nobody else’s.
Right Tim, all these cars sold in the millions. They look like turds compared to what we can have today but they did the job and kept the car makers from bankruptcy. I drove a Pinto, four speed and a Gremlin, three on the floor! More fun than my minivan with automatic that I drive now…
There’s a whole subculture of guys who hot rod the 2.2 turbo minivans. Many run in the low 12’s, fake wood, luggage racks and all. These should go faster, I’m assuming they are lighter and more aero.
Fuckin crush that junk already…
I just hope and pray that this pie of beige shit is on its way to the crusher….
A shop employee took 2 of these & literally made them into one car. One was an almost new (at the time) low miler that was rear ended & the other was crashed in the front. For shits and giggles he cut them in half and welded them back together. It turned out nice enough that he drove it for a few years as a work car! It was great advertising for our shop as a lot of pictures were taken during the ‘build’
Even a Mopar nut like me has to wonder why anyone would see it worth the time to restore this one when you could restore something from the muscle car era – or even a more interesting K-car – for the same amount of work and probably the same amount of money.
Now, leaving it completely as-is on the outside, yanking the motor out of a turbo PT Cruiser, and boosting it to the moon, and humiliating unsuspecting WRXs? That I could get behind.
I will say this: As plain and “vanilla” as this thing is, it was a type of car that a lot of people had or at least had a relative or something that had one. My dad has a 1956 Ford Country Sedan station wagon. It is a car that was at one time quite plentiful, a lot of people (or their parents) had them, but few exist today. It’s because for decades no one thought to save a 1956 Ford that wasn’t a Crown Victoria. At a car show that car will get just as much attention, sometimes more, than his 1957 Thunderbird because it is a common everyday car that a lot of people have some sort of connection with compared to something more rare. I’m not a K-car enthusiast by any stretch but it is cars like this (that no one thinks to save) wil be the kind that will strike up more questions and conversations simply at the gas pump than you might think.