1990's

[68BabyBlue]

Chrysler had their heads in their asses from 1980 until the early 2000s.
Front wheel drive sucks ***. NO traditional enthusiast would choose it over a REAR wheel drive car. Four cylinder engines sound terrible too.
I thought that 1980 was the last you could get a 360 in a rear wheel drive car and the 318 was the only V8 for the 81-89 Diplomat/Gran Furys, the Police cars and the Fifth Avenues. They were not high performance cars.
Talk about misreading the market....
GM and Ford still made V8 cars.
The Dodge and Plymouth turbo FWD cars did perform okay but they absolutely lacked street cred.
I drove a number of the K car turbo cars. The LACK of a RWD burnout just killed my respect for them.
Imagine an updated Aspen or Volare with a better front suspension, sleeker bodywork and a 5.9 with EFI and a 5 speed. That could have been a decent car.

This was why, as a life long Mopar guy, I never owned one built in the 80s or 90s. During that period I drove old 60s and 70s stuff, until I bought a new Chrysler 300 in 2007.

 

[1967coronet]

This is a true story.
Our little body shop / used car lot was in business from 1972 till this past Oct.
In the early 90s we had a used k car stolen off the lot. One of our for sale cars, keys left in it over night.
We had the local cops down, made a report, called our insurance Co.
48hrs later who ever stole it brought it back.
Only a K car.

 

[YY1]

But we did get the V8 Dakota.

Respectable power for the day, especially with a Magnum engine, and didn't weigh very much in short cab version.

...and a LOT more dependable and easier to work on the the FWD stuff.

My R/T CC does pretty good for "only" 245 net HP and 4200 pounds, and has beaten lighter cars with more HP.

 

[YY1]

Show/concept cars styling rarely makes it to production.

Imagine the Venom toned down a bit and with the 5.2/5.9 as optional engines.

 

[Cranky]

Chrysler had their heads in their asses from 1980 until the early 2000s.
Front wheel drive sucks ***. NO traditional enthusiast would choose it over a REAR wheel drive car. Four cylinder engines sound terrible too.
I thought that 1980 was the last you could get a 360 in a rear wheel drive car and the 318 was the only V8 for the 81-89 Diplomat/Gran Furys, the Police cars and the Fifth Avenues. They were not high performance cars.
Talk about misreading the market....
GM and Ford still made V8 cars.
The Dodge and Plymouth turbo FWD cars did perform okay but they absolutely lacked street cred.
I drove a number of the K car turbo cars. The LACK of a RWD burnout just killed my respect for them.
Imagine an updated Aspen or Volare with a better front suspension, sleeker bodywork and a 5.9 with EFI and a 5 speed. That could have been a decent car.

Do you realize that POS K-car saved the company from bankruptcy???

 

[Cranky]

Like it or not, revisionist history or not, the k-cars (especially the invention of the mini-van) literally
saved the company. Y'all with short memories can do a quick refresher on wiki or wherever, but
Chrysler was dead in the water - and without Iacocca, government loans and tons of concessions
from labor and suppliers plus the unloading of the loser European operations, the company was going
to cease to exist in the late 70's/early 80's.

There simply wasn't any money to develop a new RWD platform in those days....
But by coming up with those FWD platforms and minivans, not only did Iacocca's bunch turn things
totally around but they managed to pay back all the loans six years early.

I owned a FWD "hotrod" bought new in those days - a GLH Turbo - in an effort to stay true to Ma
and although the little car could be fun, it more often than not was troublesome and dainty to own
and I eventually capitulated and bought an '89 5.0 myself (which turned out to be the more durable
vehicle I've ever owned, ironically) - but if the company hadn't gone the way it did back then, it would
not have survived to eventually bring us some pretty cool RWD stuff in years to come.

Gooberment 'backed' loans.....basically, same thing that us Vets got if we used it to buy a house with which I never did use. Wasn't that great of a deal imo when I looked into it. Did assume a VA loan though. And did ya know that the originator of a VA loan could be left holding the bag on an assumed loan? Yep.

 

[1STMP]

Do you realize that POS K-car saved the company from bankruptcy???

Bought a K-car for the wife.
Easy to drive and maintain.
All was well and good until
my teenage driver son
practiced what teenage
drivers do. That Mitsubishi
engine (note I didn't call it
a motor) blew up
spectacularly.

 

[YY1]

Lee also repaid those loans way before they were due.

 

[YY1]

First gen Mopar FWD was a bit better than first gen gm FWD (eldo/toronado excluded).

But gm just hammered that crap down their loyal customers throats until it was less trouble prone.

First gen fomoco FWD was actually better than either- taurus was a little shaky but sold well and did get fixed, tempo was almost bulletproof.

 

[Cranky]

But we did get the V8 Dakota.

Respectable power for the day, especially with a Magnum engine, and didn't weigh very much in short cab version.

...and a LOT more dependable and easier to work on the the FWD stuff.

My R/T CC does pretty good for "only" 245 net HP and 4200 pounds, and has beaten lighter cars with more HP.

I bought a new 92 Dakota with the 5.2 reg cab swb with 3.90 gears and limited slip. Fun little truck and got just as good mpg as any V6 pos Dakota I've ever had other than the 87. It was slowest of all of them but good enough for a get around truck. The 92 ran a 15.30 which was right up the Mustang GT's alley and is also when I quit street racing after pissing of a Mudstain owner after putting a fender on his butt and he ran a red light that I slowed down for and he didn't. All I could see was a crash about to happen and witnesses saying we were drag racing. The red light had been on for a good solid 4 or 5 seconds when the ahole blew through it at speed just because he didn't want me to pull up next to him again....

 

[RemCharger]

Like it or not, revisionist history or not, the k-cars (especially the invention of the mini-van) literally
saved the company. Y'all with short memories can do a quick refresher on wiki or wherever, but
Chrysler was dead in the water -

but if the company hadn't gone the way it did back then, it would
not have survived to eventually bring us some pretty cool RWD stuff in years to come.

Do you realize that POS K-car saved the company from bankruptcy???

Yes some very short memories.
I would rather have had the last 43 extra years of mopar, than a shortly defunct footnote , because some moron decided to bet the company on shitty v8 muscle cars

 

[Cranky]

Yes some very short memories.
I would rather have had the last 43 extra years of mopar, than a shortly defunct footnote , because some moron decided to bet the company on shitty v8 muscle cars

Yeah, I even had K-car but got it dirt cheap with 30k miles on it.....a 2dr Shadow in Poly Blue. If it had been a 4dr, it would have been no way. Some guy tried to commit suicide in it and wasn't successful and burned up the back end of the car and filled the interior up with soot. Fried the LR tire and the hatch and burned some paint off the LR quarter. Was a decent car until it hit 100k miles and the head gasket started leaking. If I had more sense when it first started swallowing water, probably could have got more miles out of it with some stop leak lol. My paint work was too dry on the quarter but it was my second time to do any but my first time came out really nice on a dash board in a truck. Live and learn.....

 

[440 4 speed]

Lee also repaid those loans way before they were due.

And GM and Ford didn’t IIRC pay off completely. Had a 4dr 4 spd K car for awhile liked it. Then got a 1988 2dr LeBaron from an elderly friend, 2.5 auto nice car, but to old for young people. Grandkids all have something much newer. So I might just find a deserving family and possibly sell it for a low $. Hope they can get use out of it. Car is not worth much on the market, but it is in very nice shape.

 

[Kern Dog]

Do you realize that POS K-car saved the company from bankruptcy???

I agree. They led to the Minivan craze too. The Caravan was based on the K car platform.
We may be in the minority here....guys more interested in performance than fuel economy.
I sold new cars in 1985 and worked at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership in Rancho Cordova CA. I drove plenty of them.

 

[Cranky]

I agree. They led to the Minivan craze too. The Caravan was based on the K car platform.
We may be in the minority here....guys more interested in performance than fuel economy.
I sold new cars in 1985 and worked at a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership in Rancho Cordova CA. I drove plenty of them.

I had a close friend that was a fleet department manager and he used to bring all the new stuff over including an Omni GLHS. That thing really surprised me and it was not exactly easy to keep it in the lane especially when power shifting second gear lol

 

[1 Wild R/T]

I had a close friend that was a fleet department manager and he used to bring all the new stuff over including an Omni GLHS. That thing really surprised me and it was not exactly easy to keep it in the lane especially when power shifting second gear lol

I was working at the local Dodge service dept when the GLHS cam out... The dealership got two, they both showed up around Wednesday or Thursday, Sales insisted that they be PDI'ed and on the front line for the weekend..... When I came in Monday both cars were wrecked... Torque Steer is a real and dangerous thing...

 

[Kern Dog]

Suzuki made the "Sprint" for Chevrolet, another tin can FWD car.
They had a limited run of Turbo Sprints in the late 80s. Those sure had some torque steer too!

 

[Joseph Musial]

I had to take my daughter in to work today. I gave her a ride in the 5 speed Dakota.


I left the driveway and we noticed my wife in the big window waving. So I stopped and we waved.
Then I left with a righteous 5800rpm burnout, which my daughter found amusing. (well, me too of course)

On the way home, I was just pondering to myself. "What if Chrysler had decided to make an actual pony car with the 5.2 and 5.9 Magnum engines?"
What would it look like? Did they have a platform to even use? How would Ferd have reacted, or Chebby?
Chrysler DID react to the ZR1 vette and made the Viper. Not exactly the same market LOL. You could buy a mid 90's 5.0 Ferd for about $16k. Sticker price on a chebby was like $18k, but dealers around here in chebby zealot country WI had added another 6-10k for profit on top, which was fine because idiots still paid that.

Anyway, I was a Ford guy in my youth, we had trucks on the farm that were brutes and my older brothers friend had a couple really decked out roll bar, lift kit F150's and a late 80's 5.0. So I was an impressionable young man, and owned a few myself. I became increasingly annoyed with Ford in the 90's, a decade had gone by and no 351 in a Mustang and then the OHC mod engine BS. Which is why I went to Chrysler(and a Chebby or 2)
So as I am coming home, I am picturing what my 94 Mustang 5 speed may have been like with some different sheet metal and a 5.2 Magnum and an actual 5 speed designed for a car.
Personally, I think Ferd would have never gotten the sales boost in the 90's they did, Chebby would have had to make the Camaro with some actual quality control, and both would have lost the 0-60's and stop light drag races. Ford's purposefully plugged up 5.0(and LOL 4.6 after, what a joke) and chebby's 305/350 I don't think would stand a chance against an actual 3200lb 5.2 Magnum powered 5 speed equipped purpose built pony car from Chrysler. I think the entire landscape would have changed.

Just some musings. Ol' Lee was rabid about K cars so it is no wonder they didn't spend a penny on the RWD platform they had with the Diplomat etc. The thing was even called a Coronet in other countries!
Imagine a 5.9 magnum/5 speed 3000lb 2 door 'Cuda for 1994. Ah well, at leat they snuck some Dakotas past Ol' Lee

Back in 1988 I had a 69 383 4 speed road runner. I put a 509 purple shaft cam in it. The 509/292 is one sweet cam. One day I go to get some gas for the lawn mower. I pump the gas, when I go to get in I look around for cops. I fire up the bird and it's on. I came flying out of the gas station, grabbed second then third gear, looked in my rearview mirror, 2 cops lit me up. Apparently I forgot to look for cops BEHIND THE GAS STATION. I knew Linda and she looks at me and says, you should know better than that, just take it to the dragstrip. I was humbled.

 

[Photon440]

Suzuki made the "Sprint" for Chevrolet, another tin can FWD car.
They had a limited run of Turbo Sprints in the late 80s. Those sure had some torque steer too!

Yeah, those Sprints (and the Pontiac Firefly) seemed to be popular for awhile. I know a couple of guys at work who had long commutes got them because they got over 50 mpg.

 

[Kern Dog]

The Sprint in regular form wasn't a bad car. It was peppy with the 5 speed and did get good mileage. I drove some of the 1985 models when I worked as a lot boy at a Chevy dealership in late 1984.