Well, this machine, spotted last week in the Woodlands, TX, certainly stands out in today’s sea of monochromatic, lozenge-shaped vehicles. I don’t have much to add to Perry Shoar’s fine short piece on the K-based Chrysler Town and Country wagons from back in 2014 (his featured vehicle is even the same color as the one shown here), so I will limit my comments to the following below.
a) Apparently the daily ride of an employee in one of the retail shops where I found it parked, this car fairly screams “I inherited this thing from Granddad when he passed on and if or when something major breaks, that’ll be the end of it”.
b) I’m a bit gobsmacked to realize that these were not all that common even back in the day – for only two years of their 1982-88 lifespan did T and C wagon production numbers exceed 10,000; most years, considerably fewer were sold.
c) Although not really my thing, the dash decorations add a certain je ne sais quoi. Plus, hey, it’s a turbo!
(P.S. Back in the day, my parents has an ’84 Lebaron Coupe with the non-turbo 2.2, in maroon over maroon over maroon, and with the hideous fake wire wheels thankfully absent from the featured car. I found the horrid thing impossibly tacky back then, but like so many other things I once disliked, I now kinda wish it was still around.)
Those cheap universal wheel covers ruin it. Get me some wire wheel discs!
+1. That was my first thought.
I think I’d add the “wood” trim to that list, personally.
But that’s just my taste, and we all have differing ideas on such things
Just being a ’80s K-Car ruins it for me.
Pop a note under the windshield wiper before it breaks and goes to scrap. That is one cool auto – with great provenance as they say in the antique trade (appropriate given the amount of ‘wood’ on display).
I just came across a nearly identical one on my local Craigslist the other day, except the interior is bordello red velour and I think it’s a non-turbo car. There’s a certain charm to these, and it really wouldn’t be at all impractical as a local commuter and grocery hauler. I pondered it for a few minutes, but at $3000 I couldn’t really give it consideration. The price is not really unreasonable, as it’s in good shape and only had 80k on it iirc, but I might have been tempted at $1500. I’m just not quite THAT charmed by it.
Guess I’ve been gone too long. Don’t recognize the shops.
Lived and worked in the Woodlands for years. Amazing the stuff you sometimes see through open garage doors on the weekends. Good find.
It’s in one of the old strip malls on Sawdust a little west of I-45. They were there in the days when you didn’t have to go much farther down Sawdust before you were back deep in the sticks.
I was at “Harvard on the Highway” (Spring High School) back when McCullough (now The Woodlands HS) used to kick our asses every year…in just about every sport. Good times!
Well spotted (the location).
Grew up in Spring in the ’70s/’80s. I can remember when the only grocery store in TW was Jamail’s off of Grogan’s Mill by the ice rink. I took my senior prom date to dinner at the old Glass Menagerie at The Woodlands Inn. July 4th was often spent sitting on the golf course beside the original small lake (there was no Lake Woodlands) watching the fireworks.
It may have been a “planned” community, but in those days TW really was a community. Today it’s just too damned big. I can only imagine how bad traffic on 45 is now that Exxon corporate is up there.
This made me laugh – great writing. I have no experience with driving or riding in a T&C, but my impression of them back then was that they were definitely upscale cars garaged in nicer suburbs. The wagon had the best proportions of the three K-car body styles. I agree with Brendan that the wheel covers could be improved.
Mrs. Bueller drove one and Mr. hubby drove an Audi that once followed a weaving Lincoln. Very posh indeed.
Personally, I’d rather see the k-car steelies than those fantastic plastics. OEM covers would dignify that passenger side dent a little too in an otherwise nice looking 80s automobile.
To think the K car saved Mopar!. So how bad was the Aspen/Volare?. Shitty cheap boxy cars that look like they were styled by a 5 year old. I cant get it into my head you Americans brought the dam things by the truck load. A Yugo would have been more fun!.
…and while I’m here…. *gasp* I take exception that boxy k’s are shitty. The k-cars were actually pretty nice. I once owned an 89 2.2 Reliant LE America (in Canada, no less) that lasted until 200k miles before selling it running well.
If an LE Reliant with a balance shaft 2.5 dropped in my lap with all the power goodies and the centre console with those comfortable velour Chrysler seats, I wouldn’t mind driving it at all — even in my snobby neighbourhood of Vancouver, B.C.. Of course my lap would need surgery, but that’s beside the point…
I don’t know what it’s like where you live, but in the U.S. it’s reported that better than 50% of new cars are sold to folks who never take them for a test drive. Add to that the mindset of most women (who control the overwhelming majority of new vehicle purchases) that “it has to be safe and it has to be reliable” above all else….looks RARELY fall into the decision anymore.
That comment about the test drive would have shocked me until late 2011, when I was buying a car for my wife (serious girlfriend at the time) to replace her borderline-unsafe Alero (which I ended up driving but that’s another story). She told me her requirements and I did the shopping, which was fine, but I actually had to convince her to take it for a test drive. I was rather dumbfounded–how would one buy a car without driving it? Even aside from things like performance and handling, you at least need to make sure it’s comfortable and it just “feels” right. And she’s not normally the type to let me make all the decisions, so I was doubly surprised.
They weren’t nearly as bad as you seem to think. And the Turbo versions were really quite fun.
The best examples of wood grain on the side of a wagon were done by Ford.
Especially a Country Squire of the mid 60’s driven by Betty Draper!! 😉
This Town & Country is something that Sally Draper may of driven.
Dell Grifith in Planes Trains and Automobiles should have rented the wagon like this for his trunk. The fake wood trim reminds me of the 2 door he rented.
There was nothing wrong with these cars that a better, smoother drivetrain could not have solved. They were compact, but very roomy, reasonably well-built, if not quite up to Japanese standards of the day, and quite comfy if you chose the higher end models. Dad’s 1984 Town & Country K-wagon was quite nice, with very comfy bucket seats and loads of cargo room. Unfortunately it also had the 2.6 Mitsu engine which had a stretched timing chain and vibrated wildly at idle (it seemed to run ok under steady speeds).
Back in the day one could have done much worse that one of these.
My aunt and uncle had a turbo T&C that was a sort of “banana Moonpie” color in and out. I seem to remember the interior was leather.
My uncle tried to interest me in driving his “baby”, his Model A. Even though I was known as the family “car nut”, I was not offered a drive in the T&C….and I wouldn’t have wanted one.
These strike me as “tarted up” econoboxes
I’m betting the owner works at the Cade’s Skateboard Shop in the background. The car’s got plenty of practicality AND hipster appeal, great for hauling home some lumber for a backyard ramp or roadtrips to Austin with a load of buds.
Sure they probably inherited it from a grandparent, but the new tires and wheel covers shows they care about it enough to keep it on the road. I think it’s got a good home.
I’m not a fan of the wire wheel covers but those PepZone wheel covers are way worse!
I’d rather see the stock steelies painted neon pink!
The best part about it being a K is that virtually any FWD Chrysler wheel will fit.
These aren’t bad.
This current example looks a bit overused… Any way this lil’ old K-wagon is such a treat…
I took some pictures of a wagon last year, but between the tight location and sun flare on the trim, the pictures weren’t suitable for a full article. But as you can see, the car was VERY clean, and I got a nice close-up of the factory wire style wheel covers.
Here’s a shot of the entire car.
Maybe the hardest thing to digest about this car is the realization that it was sold as an upscale ride back in its day.
I love these things, tacky Inside and out. I owned one, just for a hoot back in 2003. Mine was med brown metallic, non-turbo. With the proper wire wheel covers. Kept overheating. But it was a hoot. I saw one today on CL Vancouver just today.
Looks like it aged gracefuly, the tires are a indication someone cares. I like wire wheel covers and all but god the original ones look bad.
These things were pretty peppy with the turbo. Some turbo lag, though.
something about these that I really like never really looked at on other than some models I got but these looked cool to me