I worked as a salesman around the time period that these were in production. We had the LHS, Concorde, and 300M on the lot at the same time, and when buyers came in to check them out, they were directly shopping them against the Acura 3.2TL, which was and still is a fantastic car. The buyers would ask why they should pick one of our cars vs the TL, and we never really came up with a good answer. We would tell them about the cab forward design and the power of the 3.5 v6 but it was a hard sell. That Acura was loaded at 32k and we weren’t exactly throwing the book at them on incentives at that point. Suffice to say, we didn’t sell a ton of them. In fact in the two years I was at the dealership I think we only sold like 2-3 LHSes lol
I had a 96 Intrepid and later a 2002 300m. The both were great driving and handling cars with generous interior room.. The seats on the 300m were the most comfortable I remember, even better than the 2010 300 that I later had.
I had a 1st gen Concorde lxi for years, gave it to my gf on her birthday. It was a Beautiful car. Leather. Loaded. It had a 3.5 liter and I got the car cheap because it has a huge coolant leak. Took the timing belt off, water pump and plate . New gaskets, timing belt, water pump. That car ran like a clock. Was fast too. I think it has about 185k on it when she totaled it during a snow storm.
300M was my fave at the time! My friend had a 99 concorde in the late 00s and it was such a comfortable cruiser! Just ate up the highway miles floating along.
Great doc! I had the Intrepid RT then upgraded to the 300M Special. The 300 made a little more power and sat lower. Great styling, handling and exhaust! The LH chassis was set up to be easily converted to RWD/AWD... if it wasn't for the Mercedes debacle! I saw a spy shot of one once. I miss the Special 😢
Nice. Ironically, I just saw a very nice 300M today on the road after posting this video. Don’t see too many nowadays. The blocky shape of the LX 300 was ok. But I really like the swoopy lines of the ‘99 300M. Would’ve been nice had they carefully evolved the shape of the 300M, made it rear-drive and kept the 300M line going.
@MotorMaster_Stunticon beyond the prototype and mercedes canceling it for their old architecture there was mechanic here that converted his and race it. I think he changed the irs to solid
Great review! I will say that out of all the LH cars, I think this one was arguably the most improved in styling from the first generation to the second generation. Well I preferred all the others to the Concorde, It was still a downright beautiful car. I prefer the stylings of all the LH vehicles to the LX vehicles as well (with the only possible exception being the Challenger but I consider that a different class of vehicle). The biggest crying shame to me was the fact that the second generation was such an improvement in quality concerning the interior, paint, transmission, styling (except for the intrepid which was the only one that was slightly downgraded but still good looking), air conditioners, steering, and minor things like the window and auto locks; the 2.7 V6 undercut all these massive improvements due to the extensive problems with oil sludging. If they would have stuck with the 3.3 they would have had a package not too far off in durability from a Buick LeSabre. But because they had to not only develop that terrible engine, and chose to stick with it after it was proven to be problematic instead of dropping it like they did with the 3.2, they destroyed the reputation and burned a lot of loyal customers. I drove a base model Concorde That belong to a friend once. I owned a second gen intrepid ES, my brother owned a 300M, and I still own a 2nd gen LHS. I also owned a first gen intrepid. Out of all the cars I've ever driven, The LH sedans are my favorite. I really wish the merger never would have happened and the LX cars would have been LH based.
Great comment as always. I’m sure other viewers will enjoy hearing about your experience with the LH cars. I really liked the 1999 300M. I just thought it looked so much better than it’s successor even if it was FWD.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon thank you very much! Yeah the 300M had such a finely sculpted look with such elegance and sophistication, yet aggressive and sporty. To my taste, the 300M was the peak Chrysler division styling hands down.
@@MotorMaster_Stunticon same here. Although the LX 300 was a nice car, the only real advantage it had over the 300M was the hemi and RWD/AWD. For the 300M you can tell they had a larger budget and were less restricted by management and weren't forced to use old Mercedes parts bin parts (which do not fit Chrysler's styling language) with not the best finishes or color palates (which I think pretty much applies to all pre-merger Chrysler vehicles to be fair). The interior was more sculptured with a wrap around dash, more generous with padding, and the shifter was smoother and refined with a leather boot. Pretty much all the surfaces were padded. I also appreciated that they didn't use really any Chrome on the 300M as the chrome on cars I've had always seems to glare in my eyes whenever I'm trying to drive during the daytime. They tended to use subtle green lighting through parts to brighten up the interior where it was needed. The buttons and switches were textured versus being flat allowed you to eventually catch on to what the button was for by its touch and placement. The climate control was digital which seemed higher tech and appropriate, The gauges mimics the styling of classic time pieces seaming both classic yet modern with the indiglo lighting at night. Not to mention, the 300M had more leg room and trunk space. The LX 300 was a lot of fun with the Hemi but The daily driver aspects were better fulfilled by the 300M. If they could have offered a Hemi edition on the 300M with rear wheel drive and all wheel drive, I think you'd have the best of both worlds. (No disrespect intended to the people who like the LX 300 of course as I know some really like that model's styling.)
Yeah the 2.7 had some problems. I think the water pump could leak internally and mix with engine oil? Makes for a sludgefest. Great vid! Never understood why Chrysler had the LHS,Concorde, and New Yorker at the same time!
Yeah that’s exactly what happened with my 2.7. Horrible, horrible engine-even with preventative maintenance. One of my 2.7s even had electric issues. As far as their lineup, it was nice to have a variety of large sedans to choose from a single company. Thanks for watching and looking forward to the next chatter.
Another excellent video. As you know LHS was the New Yorker. I was thinking why doesn't he do a video on the New Yorker. Thank you for mentioning the LHS and telling the story of the LHS. The Eagle Vision looked like an Oldsmobile. Thank you for telling the story about what happened to LHS to become Concorde Limited. The Concorde name came from AMC. Good video!
@@HH-ev9mm From the 1996 model year on the New Yorker was dropped in favor of a six-passenger option on the LHS. The first-generation LHS was sold in Europe by special order only during 1995-1999 model years. LHS was rebranded as New Yorker for the European market but retained the LHS name for the United Kingdom.
🤫 I ask, don’t reveal the little-known facts of the Eagle Vision and the 300M... We will be discussing each of those cars in detail in two different upcoming episodes so let’s not spoil it.
I personally dont understand why so many people love the design of these concordes. People hate on the late 90s camaro for being a catfish, but this takes it to the next level.
I had a 1998 Concord with the 3.5 it was nice, for long trips on the highway but became a nightmare went it got close to 100,000 every thing kept falling apart !!
…or the reliability of the 2.7 motor. A bunch of owners complain about that engine. I myself owned two products with the 2.7 and had numerous reliability issues.
