1999 was a watershed year in my household. I was back from my first year from Ryerson University in Toronto, Ontario as a journalism major, and my one-year-older sister was also back from school. As well, my parents 1986 Plymouth Voyager minivan had expired the previous winter and my mom had gotten a stop-gap vehicle (1991 Pontiac Sunbird, a vehicle boring and crappy enough to not warrant its own COAL story). And both my older sister and I had jobs summer jobs at the same place.
After a couple of weeks of scamming rides off our parents and other people we knew, it became apparent that we needed a car of our own.
I remember actually having a difficult time finding a car that met our criteria; it had to be cheap (my sister, dad and I were each paying one-third of the purchase price) and I wanted it to have a least a little more visual flair than the Sunbird my mom had bought a few months earlier. After a couple visits to different used car lots around the Eastern Ontario towns of Prescott and Kemptville and finding nothing interesting (a smurf blue Geo Metro with badly touched up rust bubbles and a fading yellow Pontiac (Daewoo) LeMans), I bought a copy of Autotrader and went searching.
I remember the listing from a Kemptville used car place that has long since gone out of business – 1988 Chrysler LeBaron – 3 to choose – $1999, saftied and e-tested.
So the next week my sister and I went there to check them out. We immediately nixed the convertible (white, in overall bad shape with a leaky-looking top) and took out another white one (not a coupe but a five-door GTS, white over burgundy interior). While this one looked and drove ok, it had a digital dashboard that only displayed random numbers while you accelerated. So then we took the last one they had, a serviceable-looking coupe in dark midnight blue with light blue inside and the 2.5 litter engine with 3-speed torqueflite transmission. Not an exhilarating combination, but given that the only vehicle I was used to driving at that time was my moms Voyager with the 2.6 and a lot more weight (and usually people) to carry around, the LeBaron seemed pretty light on its feet.
Although not perfect, this one had no (visible) rust, had comfortable seats and a decent radio. I remember thinking the ride was pretty smooth although the interior was a lot smaller than the exterior dimensions would indicate.
Seats were comfortable, but not overly supportive
Trunk was pretty small
But most importantly to me at least, it looked at least a bit like a sports car. My parents had become fans of Chrysler after dealing with a couple GM “quality” nightmares in the mid-late 1970s, and they found their Dodge Aries and Plymouth Voyager better-quality vehicles than their Oldsmobile Cutlass or Oldsmobile Omega they had owned previously.
Overall pretty sporty looking. Mine didn’t have the factory wheels.
The LeBaron was not perfect but it got lots of use that summer. Besides being driven to and from work each week day, we used it on the weekends to see friends in the Greater Toronto Area closer to where we went to school. One weekend I drove it to Wasaga Beach, I was worried it was overheating but just pulled it off, topped off the coolant reservoir and went on my way. The radiator (and alternator) that summer did get replaced; neither job stands out as being particularly difficult at least with my dad helping me.
I do recall one time driving on the back gravel roads near where my parents lived when I overestimated the capabilities of the k-car derived suspension when I took a sharp corner at about 80 Kms. I didn’t put it in the ditch, but I did learn that, despite its shapely profile, the LeBaron was no sports car.
After that summer, my older sister got married and moved permanently away from home. However my younger sister got her licence and soon pressed the LeBaron into use. As well, things that Chrysler Corp didn’t probably mean to last for more than 10 years started to fail – the headlights stopped coming up, the headliner started to droop, and the car was looking a lot more worn by the time I went to use it the next summer.
I still used it regularly to get to and from work during the summers, and eventually it was passed down to my younger brother when he started to drive. In its last year of service, the master cylinder for the brakes failed and resulted in my younger brother rear-ending a friend of his; although this was fixed the amount of rot in the floor underneath meant that it wasn’t going to be safe to drive much longer.
The next spring i completed the ritual of moving all my stuff from the place I lived in Toronto back home one final time.
Any amount of melancholy I felt about this last journey was tempered by the overall sorry state of the LeBaron by this time. Its once dark blue paint that I waxed to a shiny finish not long after we bought it was now fading and chalky and its neat headlight covers had been in a permanently downward fixed state for some time. Someone had even stolen the pentastar from the trunk lid.
But worse than it looked was how it drove – the accelerator cable had become sticky and almost caused me to get into an accident while merging onto the Don Valley Parkway, and when I stopped outside Gananoque to grab something to eat, the car would not start after it was left sitting for a half hour. It turned out that it had developed another quirk while I was away at school; if there was less than a half-tank of gas in it, it wouldn’t start.
As I returned to the car from a gas station with fuel (in a new jerry-can, yet), I decided it was time to get a car that didn’t have so many things wrong with it. Thanks to my steady and high-paying (for the time) summer job, I actually had about 6 grand left in my education fund. It was time to get a new car, which you will read about in my next COAL.
Ah, Ryerson University. Great place, my alma mater.
Nice story. I know we don’t expect much from a $2k car, but were your parents still enamored with Chrysler after your experiences?
“1991 Pontiac Sunbird, a vehicle boring and crappy enough to not warrant its own COAL story”
So, not every car has a story?
As much as I love the Le Baron coupe (Google keeps going for LeBron fer pete sake) I wonder about the Pontiac.
If you think about how really similar this car was to the 82-86 Lebaron. It was night and day how much improvement the new body for 1987 was. With a balance shafted , fuel injected, Chrysler engine replacing the carbed Mitsu hemi 2.6 most of the 82-86 had, the driving experience was better as well. Sure the V6 was late to the party, but Chrysler didn’t have GM’s resources so had to wait for the Japanese to get around to it.
Wonder how many import buyers would have liked what they saw if their eyes were open?
John C.
You are 100% correct. I have and will always remember the 1987 LeBaron, as one of the most slickest aerodynamic sporty coupes of the 1980’s. I mean when you look at the coupes that were out at the time, the LeBaron stands out quickly as a great car (design wise).
It makes you wonder if quality control and build was more solid, a better match of the engine / transmission. Less squeaks and rattles as wear started to come into play. I feel this car was a missed opportunity to become a stellar classic. The same fate happened to the Pontiac Fiero, Cadillac Allante’, Early models (1980’s) of the Chevrolet Corvette etc.
It’s like with a little more quality control, better fit and finish, about 20% more performance geared power. All cars listed above would be in super high demand today in 2016. Just my take.
Welcome to the COAL club! I look forward to reading about your automotive adventures!
One question: With the headlight covers stuck in the closed position, how did you drive at night? Did you have to manually pry them open whenever you needed headlights?
I’ll always feel that it’s a crying shame the mechanicals and quirky electronics in these relegated most of them to beater status before they were a decade old. I’ve long been of the opinion that this generation of LeBaron was one of the most beautiful designs of the late 20th Century. When one considers Chrysler’s financial position around 1980 it’s really a feat that they pulled this off before the decade was over. Unfortunately its beauty was mainly skin deep.
Most beautiful design of the 20th Century?
Wow, such high praise for such a mediocre looking car.
But, what do I know…Some folks think those funky 70’s Subarus are eye candy. 😉
MTN’s praise may have been a little exuberant but I recall the LeBaron design really making an impression when it came out – very slick indeed.
I’ll see your Subaru call and raise you one…we could probably do this all day.
Kudos to you and your LeBaron! You chose well and it served 4 of you for, I gather, 2 years. My guess is that it would have done better yet if it had been under your care only. It seems a few well aimed squirts of WD-40 could have fixed a thing or two. Your younger siblings apparently had no skin (money) in it.
Lee Iacocca was astute enough to hire sufficient non-Brougham talent to transform the utilitarian Relaries (Ariliant?) K-cars into sleek, sporty looking two-doors like these LeBarons and the Dodge Daytona/Chrysler Laser. This body style holds together better than many all-new designs, both then and even now, and of course the convertible was a hot-selling cash cow for Chrysler.
Though still a K-car underneath, the styling made you at least think about wanting one. There is still a well-loved white convertible in my neighborhood, currently living under a car cover. It comes out late in spring after the rains have gone, and in summer and fall; and has done for years.
Your write up is spot on.
Interesting fact that no one really talks about about. Lee Iacocca helped launch the cellular phone movement back in 1983 or 1984 (called mobile phone then). He did a huge press conference when he unveiled a new K car (I think it was the New Yorker or Le Baron convertible) of the time.
At the press release a specialty model could be ordered with a mobile phone that had pretty good range. Of course the full technology for reliable phone service was not widely available back them (for car phones).
In addition, customers could not afford, or really wanted an ultra expensive mobile phone option in a car that was designed to appeal to the modest to poor working man. Heck the phone bill would have probably exceeded the monthly car and insurance combined.
So even though trying to manipulate customers into choosing the mobile phone option did no work. And only like perhaps 100 or so cars where ordered with this expensive option, mainly sales men that had their company paying for the bill.
The innovation did set the stage for other car companies to entertain the idea of mobile communication on daily commuters. Lee Iacocca needs more credit for this!
Or more vitriol depending on point of view. Ugh I say!
I can respect this, I also at times get pretty sad seeing how technology obsessed we as people have become.
As a previous owner of a 1989 GTC coupe, I agree that the design was one of the best of the 1980s. It’s too bad that my car ended up to be a money pit (I bought it used when it was 6 yrs. old & had to get the A/C working, among other things)
Hmm
I had a 1987 LeBaron coupe (the first year of the design). I paid about $500 back in 2000 for it. It had 260,945 miles on it by the time I got to it. It was plum colored. It was a good car for the year I owned it. The pick a pull junk yard was a god send. I remember upgrading the trip computer(with the MPG, Miles till Empty) to the upgraded one with all the buttons and time and date on it. That came from a Dodge Daytona(what a lot of folks don’t know is that the LeBaron and Daytona shared a lot of parts(especially dash parts)
What I liked about this car was the doors shut with a solid thunk like a Benz or Volvo. These were heavy doors but unlike GM, Ma Mopar put beefier hinges on the cars so there was no sag.
My J body LeBaron gave me my love of hidden headlights
I did have issues with the car. The waterpump wore out and replacing it on the 2.5l was a big pain in the back end. The trans leaked from the front. I suspected front pump seal but after I took the thing apart and replaced the seal it still leaked. I was not pulling the trans back out so I donated the car.
Interesting that someone who experienced the car even at a ripe old age complements the door fits and yet those above who judge merely by preconceived notions criticize them.
Oh, hell, it was long an American national pastime to go haw-haw-haw at the K-cars and their descendents. What are you, some kinda communist?!
The K Cars were not that good in the quality fit & finish field, and had poor operating standards (performance, fun factors etc).
However, the people I know that had them beat the cars up pretty bad-but the little K’s would still keep on pushing to the very end. Also they were super super easy to work on. the parts were very cheap and easy to locate.
For that the K cars do get some credit.
Certainly with the right engine but many with the crap 2.6 in the 1981-1985 model years didn’t fare so well. The 2.2 also had it’s fair share of issues starting with early cam failures, oil leaks and ending with piston pin knocks, head gasket failures and failed sensors. These were all very very common things to see go wrong on the K-cars and there re-bodied running makes as they spent much time gong through the as is red light special lane at the car auctions back in the day. We used to pick up 60-80K mile examples for a song because of this to sell at the dealership and it helped that parts were cheap at the time and we were selling these cars at a good friend’s auto repair shop with a huge Chrysler guy on board that was an expert on replacing Ultra-drives and usually did 2-3 a day.
Leon
You are correct, the build quality on these cars were never fantastic.
However, most people I knew that had Chrysler’s K cars back in the 80’s ran them into the ground (hardcore). Yet because the parts were generally cheap and easily available. These suckers ran forever, they were like the Terminator and would simply not die..lol.
ragged, tattered, rusted, beat up etc. Yet most of the K Cars kept pushing through in spite of all the abuse they suffered!
I knew a person that would repair his used $1,200 1985 Dodge Aries with homemade materials to hinge up certain loose parts etc. and it worked..lol.
A good high school friend had 3 Chryslers of this era in his family. One being a 1988 LeBaron like the one in this article. The second was 1985 LeBaron GTS and the third was a 1986 Caravan with the horrible 2.6.
The 1985 GTS was a brown 2.2 automatic that there son, my high school friend, got with 30K miles as a high school graduation present. We drove around in that car many times and like most Chryslers of that time era it was fine until it hit around 70K miles after which it sounded like a rattle trap with annoying hatch squeaks and rattles, inoperative hatch release, A/C ,leaky engine and loads of annoying issues. I’ll never forget when the lineage in his transmission froze up while we were at the mall. He was saying that the shifter was acting strange and hard to pull into gear. Well by then it wouldn’t shift into drive at all requiring a 2 hour wait for a tow truck. The funny thing was that the exterior held up pretty well considering our harsh Upstate, NY Winters and the 2.2 never blew up despite near 100K miles on the clock and numerous oil leaks. it was just all the other annoyances that turned him off to this Chrysler.
The mother’s 1988 coupe fared a little better but did have it’s fair share of issues including a bad piston pin knock, head gasket failure and Chrysler’s famous extra cost clear paint that was flaking off the hood and deck lid after 5 years.
The 1986 Caravan was by far the worst and the father actually had a spare 2.6 engine sitting in his garage because his van was already on it’s second engine with only 80K on the clock. And boy did this thing rust. The tail gate had actual holes in it. The bottoms of the doors were gone. It also had an appetite for axle shafts. When the transmission started slipping he gave up and drove it in first gear with the spare motor in the back to Don’s auto recyclers and junked it. And that was with less than 100K miles. They swore off Chrysler products ever since and in the driveway currently sit a 2013 Accord and Civic.
Beautiful cars. Really beautiful, and long underrated, probably because they were familiar for so long. I think 10 years from now, when the last beaters have gone, these will be seen as practical classics. The ragtops were more common but the coupe roofline was hard to beat.
Did the coupe have any more room in the back seat though? I’ve ridden in two of the convertibles, and the rear seat was laughably small, both in terms of legroom and width.