It’s amazing how car luxuriousness has reverse over the years. One of my managers owned this exact car in 1993 in burgundy. You mentioned the carpet which is plush and thick. Modern American cars no longer have deep carpet. Also, the seats are thick, soft, and the leather is exceptionally soft to the touch. Now seats are thin, flat, and sadistically firm. Lastly, this vehicle was smooth and floated over bumps with almost zero road noise. Now, you feel every bump; harsh imperfections and shot through the suspension filled with noise and the low profile tires ensure that the occupants hear and feel every jar and bump. Sad state for modern sedans.
In 1979, I bought the wife a new left-over 1978 Cadillac Seville (so said the saleman). It was really a dealer demo with 2,800 miles. Never the less, the medium brown saddle leather interior with the plush Cadillac carpet was as comfortable as it was stunning just to look at. The exterior was a real head turner, Blackwatch Poly Green Metallic (looked black at nite) with a thick clear coat, Cadillac stainless steel wire wheel covers and no vinyl top, all paint like the Elegante, and a smooth as silk rear wheel drive Fuel Injected 350 ci motor. Hands down, the most beautiful, comfortable car we ever owned. I don't need to go into deatail about the modern Toyota with the rock hard leather interior we now drive. You described it perfectly. Cheers!
The car mag critics ding any attempt to bring back these types of cars. A smooth & soft ride to them is now "sloppy" and "poor handling". No, I don't drive 60 MPG on 45 degree sharp curves. The road sign says to drive 25 MPH so that's what I do. Nor do I zig zag between red cones on the daily drive. Some body roll is OK. It's become negative points on the car's scorecard. Basically the American cars and critics have been taken over by European roads. European roads don't exist in the US ... except maybe old downtown Boston, LOL! Tell the car mag critics they need to move to Europe and let us be.
Beautiful. I have always appreciated Imperials, even if I never owned one. This one is in such pristine condition that it would be a joy to own. Thanks Mark.
What an incredible time capsule! Never seen one in this impeccable condition since they came out new! Thanks for sharing and making this video. I recall many wealthy, older farmers drove these back in the day.
Visiting a Chrysler dealer in 1993 really was a transitional year with the LH cars being introduced and sold along side these. Two very different approaches to design and engineering.
I’ve seen quite a lot of Imperial and New Yorker when I was a kid, mostly driven by wealthy pensioners unsurprisingly. I always thought these were one of the most uncool looking car, something that I’ll never want to own in a million years. But now I think this is just so cool, simply because there aren’t cars like this anymore. There isn’t a modern car that remotely resembles something like this, and I think it made full circle and now I want it, really bad.
Boy, does that bring back the memories! We had one exactly like it but in Burgundy. One of the best riding cars I've ever owned. Not to mention one of the easiest to maintain. Really just an all around great automobile.
My Dad had a black Mark Cross Edition Imperial, it was a nice car, but the turning radius on the stretched platform was terrible, no such thing as a three point turn in one of those cars more like a five point turn. The other annoying issue with the Imperial was when the platform was stretched all the extra room was in the rear seating compartment and the front seats would not go back far enough to comfortably seat someone over 6 feet. It was always frustrating to be scrunched up in the front and see miles of space behind the drivers seat. It was a good reliable car that my Dad kept for a very long time.
Iacocca wasn't as great as everyone thinks. If he had been he would have ordered a new, larger chassis to replace the Fifth Avenue/Diplomat rather than just stretching the "K"
It's narrow for a full-sized car, but without the center hump for the driveshaft and differential, the seats were better contoured for 3 across than those on a number of bigger cars, especially GM cars. And the legroom is amazing for a car this size. Not bad for a K car, not bad at all.
Its a cool car absolutely beautiful in front that waterfall grille that continues under the bumper is knockout slick! Its styling stands up until about 1987 so for a 1993 its super dated. I could stare at the front all day long and would love to sit in the lazyboy seats.
Had a 1990 almost like this, except for not having the electronic dash.Was a good car, I had it until 2015, 90,000 miles then. Never used every day. Wife loved it, I thought it a bit sluggish, preferred my 2001 300M Thanks for the memory!
This car color is amazing to me. In my family, Mum had a 1968 Dodge Dart, I had a 2001 Jeep Wrangler, after a 2001 Chrysler 300M, and later a 2007 PT Cruiser convertible. _Greetings from 🇨🇱 Santiago, Chile._
Beautifully maintained, well done. That is the cleanest engine ive seen in a car that age. You know, in all honesty, American car manufacturers should go back to building these type luxury cars, with the modern safety upgrades of course.
They had made it a front drive. All the WWII seniors wanted big rear Drive. In 93 those well to do seniors bought Lincoln Towncars or Caddy Fleetwoods. They wouldn't buy Lexus for personal reasons.
My Dad was WW2 combat wounded vet, on his way to Japan when the war ended. I had test drove a Renault Alliance. He told me I could buy a German car or Japanese car, but please don't buy a French car! I asked "weren't the French our allies?" he said no! I wished I would have had him explain this better.
Oh yes, my father was a WWII veteran - on the ground in Europe, and he constantly complained about the conversion to front wheel drive in the 80's. I purchased a Chrysler Laser coupe in 84 and he chewed me out. I asked him what was wrong with front wheel drive, an his response was "which ever way you point them... that's where they go!" I still don't know why that's bad, but bless his and every other WWII vet that helped defeat Hitler.
They don't know just by making cars front wheel drive they suffer less wheel horsepower loss through moving components. Rear wheel drive also has it's limits on power, awd is superior.
My parents drove Chryslers all the time. From the 60's to the late 70's, they knew what they were doing. You could sleep in the back seat of a Chrysler Newport Custom from 1969
@@joelombardi7283 They could have come up with a better looking steering wheel for their top of the line car instead of using one that looked like it came out of a Plymouth Acclaim. It ruins the interior of the car for me.
The dying breed fake malaise pseudo k car base engineering and make it seem like it was a competitor for large Cadillacs and Lincoln's this was definitely not the imperial models of yesteryear. This car was scratched and lengthened prom basically a front wheel drive k car Chrysler New Yorker given a Mitsubishi V6 engine a 3 liter v6 with 141 horsepower and enough fake chrome and interior but velour padding to kill off a herd of cattle iacocca really tried to take his taco Bell menu and jazz it up to really make it seem more than what it really actually was. I will say one thing that the cars and incredibly excellent shape almost new working and find one of these with just 15,000 miles on it with as good a shape that it's in his just truly amazing I will give this card that at least.
@@rodferguson3515 A"velour" interior, which is non existent on this car Im confident didnt come from one cow let alone a herd of them. The chrome is real but other than that im with you.
My parents bought one of those new and it was the only car they ever owned that left them stranded on the side of the road. The automatic air would heat up or cool down the cabin, then just shut off. There was no barrier between the front door hinges and the front wheel wells causing lots of wind noise.
The 80s Chryslers were peak faux luxury; and not bad looking either... different and distinctive from anything in the American auto market. You could get so much bang for your buck with the Le Barons and Fifth Avenues. RIP Iacocca. By this time... well... it was clear that Iacocca had retired, and however Chrysler was changing... it just seemed that these 90s cars lacked... innovation. Nice find however!
Thanks for your thoughts on my car. Certainly Chrysler had some issues, but I loved the way these last Imperials looked and drove. That said, this one had incredibly low miles so it still acted as new.
So that is the Mark Cross Edition with air suspension.... beautiful! I would love to have that because these newcars suck. They all ride like crap I bet that thing rides like it's on a cloud just floating down the road.
@Martin Wagner - re: "Where do you find a car like this?" Whatever the answer is, what difference would the answer make? Obviously, the owner kept the car in a garage, with limited driving.
This is the era when they had those loud fuel pumps! I remember walking behind just about any Chrysler product and hearing the fuel pump. Beautiful car inside and out, though! Love it!
@@markeversonclassiccars Cool. Yeah. They used those fuel pumps in everything from Caravans, to New Yorkers. I feel like the smaller cars back then had a different pump, though.
They really did the nameplate justice with this beauty, that is the highest quality everything of the era, I dont know if even old Cadillac was as nice, at the time I was a young punk and this wasnt my thing, now I understand.....
A lot of us hated cars like that. I actually had a soft spot for cars like that. But a lot of us went from preferring compact cars to HUGE SUVS when we got older and had more money, especially those with families.
I use good ole WD-40 on my power antenna, please fix it! It’s too nice of a car to leave it looking like that. I’d love to have one like it, beautiful car.
Nice car!!! If it were me with this car I'd take it to Chrysler dealerships all over to blow their minds, yeah it'll put miles on it but it would be so worth it to see the reactions on people's faces
These were nice when they were new my dad had one for a few years in the '90s but this generation of imperial isn't half as stately as the the mid 70s models were... when these imperials came out the cadillac fleetwood brougham was top dog and second was Lincoln Town car full frame cars and V8 power were still in high demand at this time and thats the biggest reason these didn't sell well
What a gorgeous car !!!!!!! I always loved this car and the color is great too. I look at this and think' how can a Company that made this wonderful car not build wonderful examples like this any longer???? SAD.
Parents had a used 89 Acclaim that was a great basic but roomy and comfortable car. Traded for a used 94 LHS.. which is the car that replaced this. OMG what a huge difference. The LHS was sexy and fast and handled very well for a large front wheel drive car. This was... well it has leather.
@@whammond511 The LHS was a beautiful car that drove great but was unfortunately built by apparently drunk workers with low quality parts. One time the LHS had an electrical gremlin that locked all the door, windows would not roll down, and turned the heat to max in summer. This was with well under 100k miles. Let's just say that soured my dad on the experience. Lol.
@@BReal-10EC Didn't think Brampton was that low on quality control. It was among the most highly rated assembly plants in the industry, to the point it was one of the reasons Chrysler acquired control of AMC (the newest and most modern plant). Later building the LX RWD platform, and still recognized for quality.
I'm a Mopar FWD guy. I'd love this. I like the odd cars. They only made these for what...3 or 4 years. And if it has the big 3.8l. It runs 15.7s or 15.8s in the 1/4 mile. Isn't a lot of mods for the 3.3l/3.8l that were offered in the cars. The 3.8l tho, you can put the 3.3l cams and help with acceleration. Make a CAI. But wait...this isn't for that. Nice car man.
Bob Lutz said it best, the day this car came out it was 10 years old. If Iacocca hadn't bought Jeep Chrysler would've died again around this time. Lutz should have been the next CEO.
