(first posted 1/7/2014) While Eagle is surely one of the most American brand names, it was ironically applied to a motley collection of badge engineered and imported vehicles. Our featured car, the Premier, was derived from a French sedan, styled by an Italian and, to top it off, built by Canadians in Bramalea, Ontario. The Eagle brand was aimed squarely at consumers who’d normally not consider buying an American sedan but would have instead sought out a Volvo or an Audi.
At the time of its initial development, Renault had a stake in and later wholly owned AMC. By the late Seventies, AMC’s car lineup was rather dated and sold mostly on the novelty of four wheel drive. With a view to offering a full line up of vehicles, AMC sought to develop a modern, front wheel drive, flagship. Project X58 was thus born, and Renault already had a suitable donor car in the recently developed 25 that could be modified to suit the directive. That car’s chassis was stretched, and Renault Medallion (Americanized Renault 21) suspension components were donated to create a unique floor pan. A pair of companion models consisting of a two door sedan as well as a station wagon were also planned but never made it to production.
Perhaps in an attempt to mask the car’s French origins, AMC chose not to go with the stock Renault styling but instead considered a number of internal proposals as well as one from ItalDesign. Famed designer Giorgetto Giugiaro lead the ItalDesign team and their bid was ultimately selected. In viewing the car’s profile, especially around the wheel wells, the C-pillar and long rear doors, it seems likely that the Renault’s hard points were retained. As a side note, while the Premier looked Volvo-boxy, its drag coefficient of 0.31 was actually lower than that of the more aerodynamic looking 1986 Ford Taurus.
While the exterior had crisp, if boxy, European styling, the interior was an all American design, courtesy of AMC’s internal teams. It was a solid effort, definitely in keeping with times and the seats in particular received praise for their superior comfort. There were some rumbles about the quality of materials when new, but our junkyard examples seem to have held up amazingly well. This higher trim ES model sports optional leather with a center console, but lower trim versions could be equipped for six passengers.
Rocker switches for the ventilation system mounted on pods that flanked the steering column were probably the only big ergonomic misstep.
The interior space and trunk size were among the highest in class and probably the Premier’s best feature.
Providing motivation for the 3000 or so lbs of Premier is the infamous “Douvrin” 90° V6 engine. Produced by PRV, which was an alliance between Peugeot, Renault and Volvo, it is perhaps most known for its installation in the DeLorean. Or perhaps for its role in making the Volvo 260 a less reliable version of the tank-like 240. On paper the V6 engines slightly bettered the Mitsubishi V6 engines already in use at Chrysler with 150 hp @ 5,000 rpm and 171lb-ft @ 3,600 rpm. The car’s Renault roots are evident in the longitudinal placement of the engine and in theory, this allowed for rear or all wheel drive variants to be produced with relative ease. A ZF four speed automatic with overdrive was clear step up from the three speeds used elsewhere at Chrysler and gave the Premier reasonable performance with 0-60mph coming in 10 seconds flat. Unfortunately, neither the engine nor the gearbox had a stellar service record. An AMC 2.5L four cylinder engine teamed with a Renault four speed automatic was specified for the base cars. It developed 111 hp and 142 lb-ft of torque and offered 4 mpg fuel mileage advantage over the more commonly fitted V6.
Suspension on the Premier was all independent with the front receiving MacPherson struts and the rear, a four trailing arm system with transverse torsion bars. To control body roll stabilizer bars were standard front and rear. Steering was a powered rack and pinion system. Initially, brakes were discs up front and drums in the rear but was later changed to a four wheel disc configuration. The rear disc brakes were later re-used on the Viper.
The new car was initially dubbed the Renault Premier and 172 were even sold as such before Chrysler purchased AMC from Renault and rebranded their cars. The crown jewel of the transaction was the Jeep brand but a rather nice bonus was the new and modern Bramalea factory built for the newly-developed Premier, which also came with the deal, along with the well-established AMC dealer network. Chrysler found itself in a quandary over how to market the other car designs acquired in the takeover and their solution to establish an entirely new brand, Eagle. Intended to be an import fighting brand along the lines of Ford’s equally star-crossed Merkur, history proved Eagle to more of an odd mixture of badge engineered and orphaned cars that could be sold alongside the more profitable Jeeps at Jeep-Eagle dealers.
First year sales showed some promise with 50k units moved but this rapidly dropped off soon after. It could have been a lack of marketing, brand confusion or the stench of failure from previous French cars, but while the Premier had good driving dynamics and a spacious interior, it never really found its place in the market. For 1989, the sportier looking ES Limited with a monochromatic color scheme and well integrated body kit was introduced. Unfortunately it offered no performance advantage or manual gearbox option, although the suspension was mildly tuned for better handling.
Photo from http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Monaco
Chrysler had a contractual obligation to take a specified number of Renault V6 engines and for 1990, dropped the four cylinder and introduced a badge engineered Dodge Monaco variant in hopes of shifting a few more units. Differing only in a few optional paint colors and a different grill, the Monaco sold just as poorly. In an attempt to address quality complaints, Chrysler made a host of improvements for 1991, including the substitution of Chrysler parts for Renault ones, and tweaked transmissions to smooth out shifting as well as improve cooling. If you must have a Premier/Monaco, a later 1991 or 1992 example is the one to have. The later examples tend to be very well equipped, which is a nice bonus.
While the Premier itself can be considered a failure in the marketplace, it certainly wasn’t an engineering dead end. Plans to develop a new line of large cars based on yet another up-sized, K-based platform were mercifully abandoned for a design based on the decidedly more advanced Premier. These became the LH series cars, which featured the same longitudinal engine placement and front suspension design. Tellingly, Premiers even served as development mules during the LH’s design phase.
By the time these cars were put into production in the Premier’s old factory, various new Chryslers were being created using a development process brought to the company by AMC engineers. In a rather favorable twist of fate, the people behind the Premier were unsuccessful in saving AMC, but achieved something even bigger in transforming an indifferent Detroit company.
These have intrigued me for a long time.
In mid-1990, my parents were car-shopping as the ’85 Crown Victoria was having problems with all its pollution controls. My parents looked at a new Grand Marquis, a Dodge Dynasty, one of these, and a Monaco. My vote was for a Monaco or Grand Marquis – as if that had any influence.
They purchased the Dynasty. However, it lasted them for 135,000 miles with only one sensor failure at about 90,000 miles in which the car would start normally, run for three seconds, and then die.
Thanks for writing this up. These were rare in some areas twenty years ago.
Thanks for this,a car I’ve never seen even at the specialist American shows.
Interesting history but mediocre and suspect cars that carried no brand loyalty or meaning to most Americans under the several brands and models they were sold as. Motley orphans as you put it.
But, when properly sorted out as LH cars they really were quite good. I finally decided in 1995 to get something modern and age appropriate for myself and my LH Chrysler Concorde (which shared all of the Eagle Vision’s sheet metal except the hood) was enjoyable and lasted me a solid 10 years. With the decent Chrysler 3.5 under the hood it was a hoot to drive for the times and the gas mileage was excellent considering I had come out of a V-8. The only problem area was the AC and Chrysler made very good on it by extending the warranty on the AC by a couple of years and eventually replacing the entire system, after which it was very reliable.
The whole Eagle tactic was strange. If this car was a Chrysler/Dodge in ’88, they could have somewhat legitimately claimed to have a Taurus-fighting sedan on the market, a couple years before GM. Instead, you got a Dynasty or a LeBaron GTS. Meanwhile, the modern not-K car collected dust next to Cherokees that were flying out the door.
(The above puts aside the quality of the cars, in 20/20 hindsight.)
Not much of an AMC this was part of Chrysler at the time,
It was developed under AMC/Renault. Sold by Chrysler though.
Surprisingly, there were a few of these around my hometown of Flin Flon back in the day. I always kinda liked the looks.
Haven’t seen on for years, but I remember them from highschool. Another great dry prairie find DS.
I’d always figured that they looked quite contemporary when they first came out, but once the Taurus became a runaway hit and the jellybean look was in, then it was all over for boxy sedans like the Premier.
I seem to recall that like the Renault Alliance, parts were hard to find and expensive, which contributed to their disappearance from our roads.
I remember the advertising introducing the Eagle line… it went something like “Thirty years ago a new car line was introduced. It also began with an E and had five letters. We plan on sticking around longer”. LOL.
+1 lol
Well, they DID last longer than Edsel…
What kind of a shithead would ever OK the mention of a failure as colossul as the Edsel in a new car ad? Just beyond belief.
A handsome car, I’d almost forgotten it. I had no idea it was offered as a Monaco, was that only in the USA?
Yes – the Monaco wasn’t offered in Canada.
I find it strange then they didn’t sold the Monaco version in Canada and come to think of it, why a Dodge version and not a Plymouth version?
I saw link about the Premier http://home.earthlink.net/~drdorroh/id1.html
Another missed opportunity was the X59 project for a 2-door version who was to be known as Eagle Allure, I saw some pictures of earlier mock-ups/prototypes on this French site at http://www.planeterenault.com/forum/renault-tous-les-codes-projets-vehicules-t6022-216.html at the bottom of the page.
And there also some interior pics on this archived PDF document on page 80. https://web.archive.org/web/20080913082236/http://www.dbf-tech.com/losange/images/nr1Frvoorsite.pdf
In Canada a lot of the Dodges were sold as Chryslers and the Eagle had a few more choices in the line up than the US.
That Premier-based coupe looks like a cross between a Hyundai Scoupe, a late ’80s Mazda 626 coupe and a first-gen Ford Probe.
I thought I knew every car that has been offered for sale in the US since at least 1985 or so, but not the Dodge version of this car. I remember the Eagle well even though is was rare, but I swear I don’t think I ever saw the Monico version.
Yes, US only. Only about 7,000 or so were made.
I test drove an ’88 or ’89 Premier around 1995 as a potential used car purchase. Took it on the highway…very impressed with the acceleration. The interior was extremely well equipped and comfortable. Then things went horribly wrong…somehow the brakes stopped working so I had to shift into neutral and coast on the shoulder. Then the brakes began working again but the engine overheated! Needless to say I did not buy the car.
Yeah I test drove one and was very impressed with the acceleration , but like you, things got nasty quick.q overheating, no brakes. Every light on the dash came on. Needless to say I passed up. About a year later I went to a yard sale and the old couple were moving they had a 89 model ,I got it for $100.00. I drove it for 7 years!! Not 1 issue.
I still have my 1991 Eagle Premier ES Limited, but will be selling it since I need the garage space. I had it since new, got it when I worked for Chrysler, as a company car. We all loved the Eagle Premier to drive as employee lease car. But it did not sell well in the market. It handled well, rode well, was comfortable, huge trunk, and looked great.
I’d like to buy your Premier
I have one Im selling. Please contact me of interested. Mary
Hi Mary is your premier still for sale, please let me know. Thank you in advance for you time.
I had one of these during my senior year in high school (1995/1996). Other than having blue leather, it was exactly like this one. I absolutely loved the car. I would have it serviced at the locale Jeep/Eagle in Toledo, Oh. The guys in the service department would laugh, saying that I had the only one that was still on the road. I never had a problem with it and put over 200,000 miles on it. It was comfortable, decent on gas mileage (not that that mattered in the mid to late 90s) and was one of the best “Mopars” that I owned. Looking for a new-used car a couple of years ago, I was saddened to see that these have all long been sent to the crusher. After my Premier, I purchased an Eagle Talon. That was a good car too. I personally think when Chrysler purchased AMC, this car should have a Plymouth Fury badge on it and went straight at the heart of the Ford Taurus
There were aspects of this car’s external design that reminded me of a bad Soviet copy of the Audi 5000. The overhang ahead of the nose was huge and matched the space behind the rear wheels. In some regards the car was nice looking, but awkwardly proportioned.
I don’t remember much about these cars, I don’t think I ever encountered one when I was selling back in the early 90’s. I remember seeing them on the lots, but not really being interested. I think I was still way more impressed with my H body turbo than these things.
When the Monaco was released Bob Lutz was caught admonishing the press to pronounce the name mon-ahh-co, like the Europeans, not monn-a-co like the American pronunciation. No matter how you said it, it still spelled mediocre…
At least the follow up to these were good!
I think the biggest problem with these cars would have been solved by an early introduction of the 3+ ltr V6 that Chrysler stuck in the LH cars.
The overhangs do look pretty clumsy by 2014 standards, however in 1991 when I saw one of these in the flesh at the overseas military sales (this would be back in Guam at the time) in Monaco trim, it was a pretty attractive car. I knew back then that it was a PRV powered car (mediocre, at best) and that even in late ’91, it seemed, at least for Mopar a real “fish out of water.”
Even rarer in America was the Renault Medallion. I’ve seen exactly TWO. One, when new, at a Jeep/Eagle dealer on display and another in Kodiak, Alaska, quietly rotting away (not running) ca. 2006. Both were a royal blue that looked like a hasty Maaco respray (albeit the former one was blistered, peeling with surface rust on top, cancer rust on the door edges on the bottom).
I understand on the Medallions, Chrysler ordered as many (or as few) as the AMC/Renault agreement called for and sold them as loss-leaders until the obligated stock was dispensed/rid of.
Even rarer in America was the Renault Medallion
Tied with the Premier. The owner of a local Subway franchise had a Medallion somewhere between 87, when I moved into the neighborhood, and the early 90s. I think his had the Renault badge on it, rather than Eagle.
correction: I recall seeing an Alliance, running, in 96 or 97.
The last Fuego I saw was in Columbus, OH in 89, and it was pretty ratty.
None of these cars were all that rare in the 80s. The fleet used for filming Magnum PI included an Alliance convertable and a Fuego.
My dad had a Medallion wagon, a Renault-badged one. Managed to get about 120k out of it until the various and sundry electrical gremlins won.
Believe it or not, I saw a Fuego outside the Boeing Museum in Seattle around 2009, I took a picture of it, let me see if I can find it.
A lady that worked for my dad had a new Renault Medallion, in gunmetal gray with light gray interior. When we went to the Indy 500 in 1989 or 1990, I rode in the Renault between Danville and Speedway. It is the only one I’ve ever seen.
Before the Medallion she had a red Alliance convertible. Her family used to buy Studebakers exclusively, then went to Rambler after Stude went out of production.
Here’s a follow up to my earlier comment. I tried to find a pix of the 2nd gen Audi 5000 vs. the Eagle Premier in the same angle, but a quick Google search didn’t yield anything close enough. This will have to do.
I think that Audi was better at disguising the short dash-to-axle ratio and the fairly long overhang ahead of the front wheels than the Renault (or Giugaro) design. The relatively flat nose, not slightly arched like the Audi doesn’t help the situation.
Another car that did the long overhang well was the Subaru Loyale, albeit on a slightly smaller scale. Of course, they weren’t dealing with a V6 motor, either but similar chassis layout, longitudinal front engine with front drive. Some of the plastic rub strips and bumper fairings help to disguise the “nose” of the car.
Newer cars have pretty long over hangs these days, too. But the leading edges, the grilles and tailights are faired back toward the leading edge of the front wheel, so that camouflages the length. Look at a Pontiac G6 or a Kia Optima and see how long the distance is from the centerline of the front wheel to the leading edge of the bumper…
As I scrolled quickly through this post, the pictures of the Eagle bear some similarity to the TM-TP Magna. As much as the car itself was relatively agricultural, I always thought Mitsubishi did a good job on the styling of this FWD car, esp. the wagon.
Mild grille restyle and its a JDM Sigma the Magna was a badge in the Galant range and not a good one
Never owned one because of the horror stories. Used to work on the Mitsi advertising account at Y&R Adelaide towards the end of the manufacturing era, so I had access to old timers who worked during the Chrysler years. All that history and knowledge is fast disappearing; I could never confirm the rumour that all the Chrysler literature was used as landfill in Tonsley Park when Mitsi took over. But the wagon was tantalisingly pretty for an in-betweener.
BTW Bryce, can you point me to the HQ/Camaro literature you’ve mentioned in the past. I’ve search engined and can’t find anything. Cheers
And yet, we managed 230,000km in one. A base-trim ’89 with the injected 2.6 (injection was a new option) and manual box (thus avoiding the troublesome automatic). The dealership we ordered it from said it was the first injected manual they’d had. Gear linkage broke at about 100,000, but aside from that we had eleven trouble-free years. A great and vastly under-rated car.
The Audi 5000 and the Eagle Premier were both designed by Giugiaro, the Audi 5000 was first, followed by the Eagle Premier.
I’ve always liked these. I’d love to find an ES (black over gray) with 50K miles on it.
CJS
look at this one that just came up in the STL area.
http://stlouis.craigslist.org/cto/4233707555.html
Clearly, this bad boy has been in storage for a while. I suspect that’s how our subject car came to be, it was Gramma’s car and nobody wanted to fix it…
I suspect you are correct. I neglected to check the mileage but I’d wager it was pretty low.
If it weren’t for their junkiness, these would’ve been remarkable cars–possibly the perfect American sedans. Hear me out…
-Spacious interior
-Comfortable seats
-Huge trunk
-Balanced handling (that is, sport vs. comfort, not front-rear balance)
-Good fuel economy
-Front-wheel drive traction
-Powerful (enough) engine
-4 speed automatic
-Clean, conservative design that would appeal to both traditional American buyers and import buyers
I wouldn’t call them “underappreciated,” because they were junk and therefore deserved to fail. (I considered adding one to our stable a few years ago, but a little internet research revealed that they’re almost impossible to keep running, regardless of your budget.) But certainly this was an excellent design for its era. If they had been assembled and marketed like the LH cars, they could’ve been a major hit.
FWIW, I strongly prefer the interior of the Premier/Monaco to the LH cars. The Premier/Monaco looks like a near-luxury car (with a bit of French weirdness), while the LH cars were too Neon-like for my taste.
You basically described a FWD H or C-body GM car, which provides all of that, several years earlier, without any of that “an Eagle what?” look when you try to buy parts for it….
… without any of that “an Eagle what?” look when you try to buy parts for it….
The clean interior of the subject car makes me think it’s a reasonably low mile example that was junked due to unavailable or exorbitantly priced parts, or inability to find anyone willing to work on it.
I have heard others comment at the AMC meets that none of the Renault based cars ever show up. There is always a thundering herd of models from the 60s and 70s. A 54 Hudson showed up a couple years ago. But never an Alliance or Encore, let alone a Premier.
I have seen one Premier on the road, owned by a neighbor in the early 90s. I don’t recall seeing an Alliance or Encore since the early 90s either.
When the Alliance was new, I was transferred from Hawaii to Virginia and it seemed once in Virginia (and elsewhere in the east/mid-west at the time), Renault Alliances were EVERYWHERE. Fast forward to the late 80’s . . . . I was in Fairfield/Suisun City, California where, down the road was a pull-your-part junkyard. Mind you this is ca. 1988/89 and in this one junkyard alone, was about two dozen Alliances up on blocks. All styles, all colors. Now, there are no more. Can’t remember the last time I’ve seen one of these running. Certainly not in this decade; might have seen a few in the previous decade on the road (and not necessarily running but simply “parked”).
Sadly, these days, if one were to see a Premier/Alliance, it would be sunk into the dirt with four flat tires, pitted aluminum wheels, blistered paint with surface rust and knee-high weeds surrounding them. The perfect home for rodents and spiders. Most likely stuffed inside with scrap wood, old newspapers, broken garden tools.
I have actually seen a white Encore (Alliance hatchback) four-door in town. Both times it was on the road. I hope to catch up with it one of these days. It was in remarkably nice shape.
Alliance/Encores were BHPH fodder in late 80’s, as “newest cheap used car”. But by 92-93 most were junked.
Don’t know why some think “if only” as if the Premier was some high quality car.
Well, speaking as someone who actually owned an Eagle Premier ES Ltd. They were fantastic cars. There has never been anything like then on the road since. Renault designed the air conditioning so that was junk. They used bulbs for the HVAC control which today one would use LED.
https://youtu.be/JQfJ-JvV8hs
Be sure to forward to about 4:30 into that video where they talk about the V6 engine. In 1988 a giant 4-door sedan like that was EPA rated at 27 on the highway. I routinely got 26MPG.
I’ve owned several Buicks and the Eagle Premier rode better than any Buick I’ve ever owned. It rode better than the Toyota Avalon I have now.
Well, I’ve never driven a fwd C-body, though my impression is that the Park Ave and 98 were “squishier” than the Premier. (We’ll leave out the Caddies, of course.) Plus, their styling was a bit outdated in the age of the Taurus and Audi 5000. Same with the H-body cars. I’m definitely not saying that the GM products are inferior… lord knows they’re MUCH more durable than the Premier/Monaco.
Carmine, you probably know this better than I would, but from a pure product perspective (leaving aside the marketing issue), I feel like a well-built Premier/Monaco would’ve gotten more conquests than the more traditional C/H body cars.
True that in their more traditional roles and H or a C could be a soft ride, but there was a suspension upgrade for almost all of those cars, be it a Touring Sedan or FE3 equipped Olds, a T-type or Gran Touring equipped Buick or an SSE Bonneville.
I feel that the Premiere/Monaco were kinda doomed from the start, even if they would have been better built. if it would have launched as an AMC, before the Chrysler purchase, it would have had the stench of death that most AMC products had, as an Eagle it had that “what is it?” stigma, even with the more recognizable Dodge nameplate it was DOA, though they never cared much to really market it well, maybe as a Chrysler badged model with proper marketing.
I still have the 1992 Dodge Sedans brochure from Key Dodge, when my parents ordered their white ’92 Grand Caravan ES. I remember the Monaco shown in the catalog, and do not recall seeing one on the lot. Maybe they had one at the back of the lot, covered in dust?
I do remember that there was a Caravan with the seats that folded into a bed and a Ram Wagon in the showroom, though.
The Eagle Premier was not a junky car. It was a great car, had its problems–but I would say, 70% was the dealer and 30% the car. I had an 89, 90, and 91. When I worked for Chrysler, we had the choice of cars we wanted to lease. At that time, slim pickings, if not want a minivan or Jeep. Could get a Chrysler, Dodge or Eagle. The moment I drove the Eagle Premier I knew it was the one I wanted–an European handling car. The 1990 one I totaled in an 80 mph accident. I’ve raced BMW’s, Mustangs and others with it–supreme handling confidence–bit under-powered–could not take a Mustang 5.0. But drives like a sports car.
You are absolutely right Chien – I too worked for Chrysler at a zone office and shortly after the AMC buyout one could look out over the zone parking lot, which was filled with mgt and executive- driven company cars; fully 2/3 of the vehicles were AMC derived, either Cherokees or Premiers. Those were the “cool” cars that Chrysler was selling in ’88. Although minivans and k- car derivatives were the sellers, when offered a choice, the staff would go to the AMC Jeep side
Sure, if able to obtain new company cars every few months/weeks/days, then one doesn’t see the long term quality issues, of course seem ‘cool’ and “great”.
They didn’t last on the road long after company leases ended. 😉
I don’t recall ever seeing a Monaco and wasn’t aware they existed. Premiers were fairly common. I remember them being pretty poorly built.
See my earlier post. I’ve seen exactly ONE Monaco in the flesh. The one in Guam. Light metallic tan with the lower polyurethane body cladding in a slightly darker brown color. Admittedly, a very attractive car, especially at a 3/4 view. From the side though, it’s overhangs made it look slapdash clumsy.
We had a Monaco back in the day. I loved it. The interior comfort and quality reminded me of the Audi 5000 it replaced. The Audi, however, was junk. The Monaco was pretty reliable until 180k or so when the reverse went out. Given to a relative who then drove it for some time. Pretty good car for the times.
I haven’t seen one of these in at least a decade. The styling reminds me of a mashup of the Audi 5000 and the ’85-’88 Nissan Maxima – at best generic and not an attractive combination to my eyes. I honestly would not have guessed it to be a Giugiaro design – after some beautiful designs in the ’60s and ’70s, it seems like his firm had jumped the shark by this point. (Needless to say, they did come up with some beautiful designs later, like the Alfa 159.)
I remember Autoweek had a cover story when these were about to come out: “Is this the car that can save AMC?”
After reading the article and seeing a few in person, my response was “NO.”
It was just such a bland design with awkward proportions, as if it had been inflated in strange directions. Plus the interior was sort of weird and cheap. In contrast, I thought the Eagle Vision, built from the bones of this thing, was the best looking of the LH cars. The Premier may have had an early death, but it was an organ donor for better products!
Back about 1989, the future Mrs. JPC had an 88 Accord that got caught in a hailstorm. She wasn’t sure she wanted to keep it, so I accompanied her all around to look at new cars. She test drove one of these and loved it. I do recall it being smooth, comfortable, and decently assembled.
However, I knew what a mongrel the thing was and how big of a flop it had been. I begged her to walk away from the stupid thing and buy something that a) had a decent durability record and b) could get parts and repairs somewhere other than at the Jeep/Eagle dealer.
The car certainly had its appeal. I actually have seen one of these still on the road around here, but have never been able to catch it standing still.
The essentially orphaned Premier is a sad story. I really feel that had it been sold under a more established and reputable brand (really anything from Ford to Toyota), it had the potential to be a huge success story, much like the original Taurus.
Its design was sleek, modern, and sports sedan-looking. The interior was equally a breath of fresh air from most American cars at the time. I’ve always loved this car! Great find and thanks for sharing!
I should add that the bucket seat/column shifter combo on this one is odd, especially for the ES Limited model. Eventually they “shifted” to a console shifter:
Also, I feel that it would have been more successful if it had come out 3-4 years earlier. The Premier would have at least poached a few GM C/H-body buyers if the Taurus hadn’t yet stolen the show styling-wise.
You know, I don’t know the exact differences between Peugeot’s Douvrin V6
vis-a-vis the Volvo and Renault versions, but I do know that each company was allowed company-specific distinctions, less so in the 70’s when the plant went online, but by the 90’s I know Peugeot had made fairly large changes to their engine. There was never a reliability issue with this engine at Peugeot and it was used in US-bound 505s during the latter half of the 1980’s. In Europe, this engine has always been well respected and praised, 90 degree angle and all.
So it is mystifying to me as to what specific reliability issues you are referring to in your article. There seems to be a hobby-horse Americans love to constantly ride; the tired and almost always groundless put downs about French quality (as if American cars were paragons themselves). Minor electrical issues aside (and which were suffered in equal measure by the Germans and the British I might add), there just never is any substance to criticisms like the ones you make about this engine.
So it is mystifying to me as to what specific reliability issues you are referring to in your article.
I still have my 1996 Consumer Reports annual auto issue, with the used car reliability tables. The Premier for 88-91 scored the follwing:
half black circles, denoting worse than average reliability for engine, fuel system, ignition, auto trans, suspension, paint/trim and body integrity
full black circles, denoting much worse than average reliability, for engine cooling, electrical, A/C. brakes and body hardware.
The only “better than average” score was resistance to rust.
This record of futility about matches the same years for the Chevy Celebrity, Ford Taurus and Tempo, and the Hyundai Excel.
I wondered this myself, but then it occurred to me that Americans generally run their cars harder and are a bit more neglectful in the maintenance department. As a result, simpler and more tolerant American motor designs (GM’s 3800 V6 and 350 V8, AMC 4.0L I6, Slant Sixes, etc) rule the roost while a number of European engines are tossed on the proverbial junk heap.
Just yesterday my wife and I were out shopping and we saw a Renault Alliance in incredible condition! It was in front of us in traffic. My wife said, “What is that? Is it a Dodge Omni?!?” As we got closer to it I could then tell it was an Alliance. It was in fantastic shape, a weird tan/flesh color but nonetheless very well taken care of. A woman in her 40’s was driving it. I wonder if she knew what she had? I haven’t seen one of them in at least 15 years!
I think I saw a white Alliance GTA convertible around my hometown of Seekonk, MA, a summer or two ago. Alas, it was driving by, so I couldn’t get a picture of it.
While we’re on this subject, I regularly see a baby blue Citation driving around – even in the winter! I also saw an ’86-’87 Tempo coupe, also baby blue, in decent condition this past weekend.
Lead photo looks a lot like the one I took back in October… http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-crvQzCiuEQI/Uo5F3GVKx2I/AAAAAAAADTo/wqsuqigrFg4/s1600/20131020+October+Junkyard+Visit+CS+0064.jpg
A neighbor of mine had the Dodge version for a few years…for all I know they may still have it, I saw it running around the neighborhood last summer.
A black version the this car was parked across from me in my parking garage for many years. It was driven regularly by an older couple, despite the overwhelming odor of unburned hydrocarbons evident whenever it ran. I was kind of surprised a couple of years ago to see that it had been replaced by a new black Toyota Avalon.
I did not really appreciate these cars when new, or even a few years old. My dad expressed some interest in the Monaco. To me it was way too bland and conservative, and not sporty enough. In a side profile, it is rather similar in looks to an Audi 5000. Being older and a bit more mature, I actually like the looks of these cars now. Can’t remember the last time I saw any of the versions of this car. Were I to find a very clean, well-cared for model that had everything fixed to be in satisfactory running condition, it might be tempting.
I’ll add that I always find it sad that a non-wrecked old car like this ends up in the junkyard. Seems like with enough money invested in labor and parts – who knows how much – it could be running again.
Also, was fond of the Dodge Daytona from the time they came out until they quit making them. I did own two different 1986 Chrysler Lasers, though. Nevertheless, seeing an old Daytona like the one parked next to the Eagle still kinda thrills and excites me. When perusing Craigslist, I am still tempted to hunt down a pick up a late ’80’s or early ’90’s Daytona that I’ve always wanted.
speaking of RENAULTS,my next door just bought a 4 door RENAULT5 here in PORTLAND.i was so surprised when I opened the door &saw that last Monday.i will post pictures as soon as he gets back home.it is sky blue&he got it in VANCOUVER BC.so cool.
I had a 92 Monaco as a used in 2000. Worst Car I have ever had. The 6 months I had it cost 4k in repairs. I could never get the dash lighting to work at all. So at night I had no gauge lighting. I had to get the heater core replaced and it still didn’t resolve the overheating issues. The Alternator went south. The speed sensor went kaput. The door lock cylinder backing piece to the rod assembly broke. The hazard flasher switch collapsed into its mounting on the headliner near the rearview mirror. What did it for me was the oh so wonderful ZF 4HP18 FL started to slip badly. Great Design on paper. Horrible durability and No reliability what so ever. The control layout was very goofy with left pod mount paddle type blinker switch almost like the 90-93 Dodge Daytona set up or J body Lebaron set up. Sad part is the the Car was ready to be junked at less than 55K. To this day I have sworn not to buy Another
Mopar product. Or any newer Nissan Product since its married to Renault.
Man, this is a gruesome looking car. I can almost hear it yawning… Bland ‘styling’, dull interior, I can imaging how it drove.
Don Andreina
Posted January 7, 2014 at 5:51 PM
As I scrolled quickly through this post, the pictures of the Eagle bear some similarity to the TM-TP Magna. As much as the car itself was relatively agricultural, I always thought Mitsubishi did a good job on the styling of this FWD car, esp. the wagon.
And yes, Don, very similar to the much hated Magna… slab sided poc.
KJ
My small Wisconsin town’s high school had two cars when I took drivers ed: a yellow ’87 Plymouth Reliant and the brand new car, a blue 1991 Dodge Monaco. That car drew a lot of attention around town, because it was so different than the other cars on our rural Wisconsin roads. Everyone in my class wanted to have the Monaco when they went out on the road with our high school football coach/drivers ed instructor, and I was one of the lucky ones. I remembered how strange the dash was with the rocker switches on the pods attached to the steering wheel. Don’t remember much about driving it, except I almost wrecked when I failed to yield to a dump truck at a green light. Luckily Coach also had a gas pedal on his side, because like an idiot kid, I had my foot on the brake pedal.
I always kind of liked the Eagle Premier, despite looking awkward and French from certain angles. I found it weird that they cloned it as the Dodge Monaco for 1990 since Dodge already had the Dynasty. It seemed perfectly logical that it would have been more at home at Plymouth taking up the name Gran Fury (or just Fury) and filling the spot vacated by the old rwd Gran Fury that year. I always wondered why ’88-’89 models had a column shifter whether fitted with the bench seat or buckets, but it disappeared completely for 1990-1992 in both the Premier and then new Monaco with no bench seat option offered in either, and at a time when it was still very much a thing in larger sedans. Interestingly, my parents got a 1990 Monaco as a rental when our Pontiac 6000 was in the shop (after being stolen and recovered wrecked). I *HATED* the automatic seatbelts, and it was also the first time my ten year old self had been in a car with an automatic that wasn’t mounted on the column, which confused me. I came to the conclusion that it was dumb, and I stick to that to this day.
Also, the Eagle Vision was the only first gen LH car that wasn’t offered with a column shift/bench seat. Even the LHS could be equipped with one after the New Yorker was discontinued.
The Chrysler 300M started life as the second generation Vision before Chrysler pulled the plug on the division. I always wondered what it would have looked like as an Eagle. How closely would have the front end resembles the Jazz concept car? With Chrysler already having the Concorde and LHS, it seemed like another perfectly logical time to give the car to Plymouth as a Gran Fury.
You’d never know the Premier was such a failure in the marketplace if you judged them solely by how many were around my area. Seemed like they were everywhere! I knew people who owned them and liked them but they were the types who traded cars constantly, so they didn’t keep them long enough for problems to crop up. Today, you never see one on the road. I still have my ’96 Concorde that I bought new, and it’s still running just fine. First new car I ever bought and, by far, the best one I’ve ever owned.
I purchased a 1989 Eagle Premier ES brand new in Augusta, ME and it served me faithfully until 1995 when I traded it in ( for almost nothing) in Appleton, WI. Seeing all the above comments bring back mixed memories about a car that I still feel was technologically ahead of the curve in 1989. The 3.0L six was fast, fuel efficient and smooth. It was spacious, comfortable, wore tires incredibly evenly and long ( how many people wish that was the case these days ??) and it had the coolest sounding electronic turn signal indicators you could imagine. However at about 70K miles, the transmission failed catastrophically and attempts to have it repaired turned into a nightmare forcing me to get rid of it. I think it had great lines. Sad that I can’t seem to find any around, and haven’t seen one in at least 10 years.
…and haven’t seen one in at least 10 years.
I had not seen a Premier since the early 90s, until last summer. I didn’t take any pix of it, but there is was, at a repair shop next to a Wendy’s where I was grabbing lunch. As I recall, it had a license plate on it, so someone was driving it, or trying to drive it.
I remember taking one of these for a test drive when I was looking for my first new car. I think the dealer had one of the few Renault badged vehicles. We took it for a test drive and the transmission LURCHED into second gear; and I mean LURCHED. The salesman tried to brush it off but I wasn’t that naïve. The dealership seemed really desperate to get it off their lot. I ended up buying a Camry which I kept for 165k miles.
Voted the worst car of all time in Dec.2014 by The Street.
1989 Eagle Premier
In 1994 I was on a contract assignment where my supervisor drove a Premier. I never really asked her about it, but she seemed to like it. At the time I was driving a ’78 Peugeot 504. I had no plans to trade it any time soon, but given that Peugeot had left the U.S. market, I occasionally gave some thought to what my next car might be. I liked the idea of a refined, good-looking sedan with some French DNA. At some point in the next few years I did some Internet research on the Premier, and it was clear that it was a can of worms, so that was that.
I had an AMC – Renault Encore hatchback 1.4 liter 4 speed stick and liked it very much. Good acceleration, relatively, probably due more to being light, good handling, stable up to an indicated 93 mph. They were much maligned, but that was more because the automatics.
hellO! were is that junkyard???
Well I have an Eagle Premier I came across with 60000 miles on it and has the V6 looking for a good home hate to send it to junk yard many many good parts and motor runs well. I am in Colorado and if you know of anyone wanting it make me an offer.
I would be interested in your car can you send me picture.
My neighbor has a 1988 American Motors Eagle Premier for sale it only has 77,000 actual miles, the only two issues it has that I am aware of is it needs a fuel pump and the headliner is starting to drop other than that it is in outstanding condition. Please let me know if you are interested, thank you
Thanks for this info filling in all the gaps of my memories: I always liked the succinct tidy crisp lines of the Renault 25/ Eagle Premier not to mention artful lines of any Giorgetto Giugiaro designed car ever since I bought my new 1974 Alfa Romeo GTV 2000 in 1975. It is funny now with 3 Alfa classics, a new turbo AWD Guilia along mitt the GTV 2000, a MERC CLS and a asphalt ripping AWD Hemi Charger, I happened upon a fond model from the past, an Eagle Premier for sale. Like many Alfa owner, you just relax and go thru the process e fix every odd peculiarity that isn’t quite right or more often, is leaking, until the whole car health is stabilized and functional. I have to get a Premier and have it restored better than new, do it in Argento silver gray with tan leather interior. OMG what fun.
My friend in college had one of these in the mid 2000s. 70,000 miles, 1200 bucks, what could go wrong? Many, many things can and did go wrong. I got to be good friends with junkyards all across the eastern US. You have no idea how hard it is to find a SMEC module. It’s even more fun when the car just spits out random codes like a roulette wheel. The ZF transmission was another delight. The fluid is red and there’s no clutch material in the fluid. Could be a simple valve body problem right? Maybe it is, maybe it isn’t. No one knows to to troubleshoot it, rebulid it, or get parts for it. It’s like we brought in a warp engjne from the Enterprise.
I had a 89 eagle premier es.I was a piece of crap but my favorite car of all time.paid 1800.00 for it as a result of my dad taking my mustang away for going through to my sets of tires,I was 17.the eagle would randomly not start.took it to a few dealerships with no help.then one day i got pissed and started shaking the car and it started.so i figured out there was a loose connection in the wiring harness ,tied a piece of wire around it and if she wouldnt start id give a little tug and away we went.I got the car with 80000 on it drove it for 5 years sold it with 150000 miles.great car for me,replaced a wheel bearing ,and windshield motor.Plus it was the best damn car in the snow.Id pay a fortune to have another on preferably 92 limited.
I have a 1990 Monaco LX version. It’s had its share of issues.
Engine oil leaks were solved by throwing the poorly-designed gaskets on the top of the engine and using goop (form-a-gasket).
A persistent battery drain was found one night when I accidentally left my battery connected (I had installed a switch after no one could figure out why the battery would drain in two days), and I happened to walk by and saw the glove box light was on even though the glove box was closed (heat damage).
Accessories (locks, windows, mirrors, etc) not working were traced to the wiring harness going from the body to the door from years of opening and shutting and thereby bending the wire harness back and forth, eventually breaking the wires in it.
Most of the issues have fairly simple solutions, but they don’t become “obvious” unless you have some patience and have time to run down the diagnostic tree.
There is an online club for the Premier/Monaco:
https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/eaglepremier/info
We have in the files area a scan of the factory parts catalog, and the service manuals pop up on ebay. The club, as well as the parts and service manuals, are pretty much essential if you own one of these and want to keep it running.
Professional mechanics are absolutely clueless about them.
I would sell mine if the right offer ($1200 or thereabouts) came along. It’s at 120,000 now and is running strong and shifting well, so I’m in no hurry to sell. I can continue driving it with little trouble.
Have not seen one of these in a long time and even back in the day they were thin on the ground. The 4-speed ZF automatic transmission was also used in the Saab 9000, and from what I’ve read the early 9000s also tended to have reliability problems with them. (Later models are supposed to be better.) It’s probably a challenge to keep a Premier on the road these days due to (lack of) parts availability and you’d better be able to work on it yourself.
While I always considered the styling of the Premier as bland, I took a test drive and one and recall it was certainly quiet and comfortable with adequate performance. There were a few of them on the roads around here back then. And a few months ago I saw a rather well preserved specimen on the road.
I wasn’t aware these could be had with a column shifter for the “This isn’t our in-house fragile 4-speed ProbleMatic; it’s a completely different fragile 4-speed ProbleMatic we bought from ZF” transmisssion.
…Yawn, the Italian cookie cutter. Surely there must be at least one Giugiaro-designed mass-market car that doesn’t look like every other Giugiaro-designed car, but I can’t bring it to mind, and even if such a one (or two, or five, or ten) were shown to me, it wouldn’t be long before I’d revert to the impression that they all look alike.
As to this particular Giugiaro car: it isn’t particularly ugly, but neither is it any kind of a knockout stunner, even for such a staunch 3-box 4-door fan as myself. From the rear it looks like the result of an incestuous tryst between a Plymouth Acclaim and an ’85-’89 Dodge Lancer. Overall it makes a statement: “The consensus of the committee is that I cost-effectively meet the design brief”.
It has some engineering features worth talking about; the headlamps were the first in the American market to use complex-shape reflectors defined by a computer rather than simple parabolas. This made the lamps very much more efficient and performant; it was a fine innovation from the tail end of France’s dominant leadership in headlamp technology. Unfortunately this innovation didn’t filter down to any of the other Chrysler offerings of that time, which instead got primitive junk for headlamps. The complex-shape reflector technology was then perversely bastardized for the ’93 LH, ’95 Cloud, and ’96 minivan lamps; some dillweed went “Hey, since this technique makes headlamps so much more efficient, we can make the lamps way smaller and cheaper and still have legally adequate performance!”. We all know how that (didn’t) work out; there’s a giant gap between what’s considered legally adequate and what’s needed to actually see at night.
Let’s see, what else? Well, the Premier/Monaco had a unique (i.e., nobody and nothing else used it) Renix engine management system (Renault + Bendix) that took a French approach to its job: “Bof, we arre Franch, non? Now we weel seet awownd dreenking owair waahn, smucking owair ceegarettes, sometahms seex or sevan at a tahm, eataing owair snails, wearaing owair berets, and shrooging owair shooldairs een a deezaffected mannair!”.
The Renix system was also briefly applied to the 4.0 six in the Cherokee and Comanche (but not the Wrangler).
Back in the day, a buddy of mine loved his Comanche, but ultimately gave it up because he felt the Renix system was a ticking time bomb.
Believe it or not – through the odd “good old boy” way that small towns buy police cruisers – my younger brother had an Eagle Premier as his patrol car. The local AMC dealer ended up as part of the Dodge dealership that had provided patrol cars for the little town he worked for. Since the police were pretty much restricted to the village limits just about any mid to large four door sedan from Mother Mopar could end up in service with the 8 man PD. He liked driving the Premier much more than the LH that replaced the Premier after the transmission self destructed. You can’t blame that on abuse, my brother is a meticulous driver – even in his squads. The Premier/Monaco just wasn’t built very well and not well-suited to the US market. Just was a clean design though and he said it handled well.
These were introduced as the Renault Medallion at the Quebec Auto Show in March 1987,. This was the car intended to save AMC, but Renault’s decision shortly afterwards to dump it’s AMC shares and retreat back to France but an end to that plan. So it was quickly rebadged with Chrysler names and as part of a failed Eagle brand. IMO these cars were butt-ugly and had ungainly proportions. They made the old K-cars look beautiful! Their only use was as a platform for the LH sedans.
I rented one in Philadelphia (actually the office was in run-down decrepit Chester, PA). At the time, Thrifty Rent-A-Car was owned by Chrysler, and a surplus of Eagles apparently had to go somewhere. By this time the sales failure of the Eagle was well known.
It was a taut, smooth and quiet sedan. The V6 was spirited, and handling…indeed the whole experience…was more contemporary than in the Dodge Dynasty which Thrifty also offered in the same size class. However, most of their Dynasties were four-cylinder underpowered; the Mitsubishi V6 was far better.
The Eagle’s interior was spacious and airy. Controls, however, were odd. The turn signal control was particularly strange.
So there existed 172 Renault Premier? Wow! I must look out for some pictures online.