If one thing was certain in 1989, besides the rock-firm stability of the U.S.S.R. or the everlasting popularity of Milli Vanilli, it was the clamor of car buyers for a two-seat, Italian-made, Chrysler K-Car costing almost twice as much as a similar-looking LeBaron convertible. It simply had to be made to satisfy the demand for an exclusive automobile of this nature. If there was any doubt on this point, it would be countered by pointing to the runaway success of the 1987+ Cadillac Allante.
Obviously, the preceding was sarcasm of the highest order. The clamor was more like indifference. Neither the Allante or the TC came anywhere close to their respective makers’ hopes for sales, making both rare sights on the road thirty plus years after their run. The TC deserves a healthy portion of snark, but this article isn’t about the poor value for buyers or the ridiculous business case for Chrysler. All that is in the distant pass. This is a story about a happy survivor far removed from the angst and eye rolls it generated when new.
I couldn’t tell you the last time I saw a running TC in active use. I saw a TC in a junkyard in 2021. More on that car in a minute. The TC has been written about numerous times here on CC, quite naturally, it being such an odd duck of a car. Most of those have been non-running cars, and of the few in use, two were found by Joseph Dennis. He seems to attract these for some reason!
I felt I had to present this one because it is a true daily driver curbside classic. The car has aged some (who hasn’t?) but it is currently registered, runs well, and living a beautiful life. I know this because I got to chat with its enthusiastic owner.
He is about 30 years old, so not even born at the time of the affair between Chrysler and Maserati that produced this love child. Perhaps that’s why he’s unaffected by the negativity and cynicism typical of car guys old enough to remember them new. He was happy to stop and talk about his car, as is typical of enthusiast owners.
The car reminded me a little of the wonderful 1997 movie Life Is Beautiful (La Vita è Bella), an Italian film released widely in the U.S. The story is about a Jewish Italian man during WWII who maintains an irrepressible optimism despite the existential negativity around him and the horrible things happening to him and his family.
34k miles currently
The owner bought the car about 4 years ago, not looking for a TC at all but it was a good deal for a convertible with only 22k miles on it. He had heard of the TC, but had never seen one on the road before. He couldn’t resist it, and has since come to really love it. He’s gotten to know others in the TC niche who have helped with mechanical issues and parts. He has a couple of other cars as well, but still drives the TC regularly, with the hardtop off as much as possible thank you very much.
I don’t believe I’ve ever seen a rougher interior with such low miles. The leather-wrapped dash and door panels have held up well. The same can’t be said for the steering wheel and, quite conspicuously, the [formerly] glorious TC seats.
The center armrest, styled to look like a skin graft taken from the Michelin Man, is looking particularly hide-bare. The small shifter console is where the interior most reveals its K-car roots.
Offset center stack is another K-car tell.
Those Italians really know how to work some leather! The young body worker looks like he wants to seduce the car. The dour older female inspector is maybe thinking she wishes her skin were as soft as the seats. I’m not sure what the bespeckled gentleman is doing with the leather, but you can bet it will be craftsman like.
1989 TCs came with a 160hp 2.2L Chrysler turbo 4-cylinder, justifying the “TC” abbreviation for Turbo Convertible. 1990 versions like this one (as well as 1991) came with a SOHC 141 hp Mitsubishi NON-turbo V6. Should they have changed the name to just “C”? The V6 brought a loss of 19hp, but it was a smoother engine probably more befitting a relaxed luxury cruiser like this. Fortunately, there was no torque loss with 172 lb⋅ft (233 N⋅m) of torque at 3600 rpm vs. 171 lb-ft at the same rpm for the 2.2. There was also an optional Maserati-massaged 200-hp, DOHC 16-valve turbocharged 2.2-liter four-cylinder mated to a Getrag five-speed manual. Only 500 of the 7,300 TCs made had this drivetrain.
The owner started the engine for me and it is indeed quiet and smooth-idling.
As I mentioned earlier, this is the second TC I’ve run into in the last four years. The first was a much sadder specimen unexpectedly found at LKQ Pick-A-Part nestled among rows of newer and common domestic fare. I wrote a short article on it.
This TC was battered on the outside, but actually better inside. Buzzards Buyers had taken the steering column and armrest, but the seats were still there. With 50k miles (16k more than our subject car), the seats were exponentially better. Expected minimal wear on the driver’s, and virtually no wear on the passenger’s.
Can you guess the vehicle each came from?
I had parts to find and limited time on that junkyard trip, but after I went home, I got to thinking that I might be able to make use of such a sweet seat. Years ago, I made chairs out of old car seats for a friend’s house for his networked computer gaming stations. I made one for myself, which I still use. These are much more comfortable than a typical desk chair. So, how much more comfy would a Chrysler TC seat be?? I had reservations about how I could make the motor-driven recline function work, but decided to go back and get the seat anyway. Two days later I went to buy it and found that the TC was gone, its date with the executioner just passed.
In a perfect world, those TC seats and certain other interior bits could have made their way into our subject car, rectifying its most obvious flaws. Alas, it soldiers on with an appreciative owner who seems not to mind it being a little rough around the middle. Perhaps someday there will be another donor car to help it regain more of its original Lido glory.
In the meantime, it has more than enough glory to get by and have a measure of class lacking in the boring boxes surrounding it in modern parking lots. The TC life is still beautiful.
Photographed in Houston, TX on 3/31/24
related reading:
Curbside Classic: 1989 Chrysler’s TC By Maserati – The (Deadly) Sin Of Pretentious Overreaching by Paul Niedermeyer
Curbside Recycling: 1989 Chrysler’s TC By Maserati – Did TC Stand For Total Crap Or ‘Talian Chrysler? by Jim Klein
Classic Comparo: Chrysler TC by Maserati vs Cadillac Allanté – interesting non-CC article with lots of excellent professional photos.
Looks like green cat6 cabling running along the driver side rocker panel. One goes into the door, that goes to a wifi AP. Probably a router or switch stack in the trunk.
That rocker panel looks shot.
Good eye. Looks like the Junkyard car also had a good rocker panel it could have donated.
It is indeed beautiful, and kudos to the owner for finding joy a la Fallout in the ruins of a great civilization
It’s always a pleasure to see a car like this that’s beaten the odds and stayed on the road. Kudos to the owner.
And extending your theme of finding optimism even amidst the existential negativity surrounding us, I’ll say something complimentary about the TC. This car has one of the best color combinations I can think of. That creamy yellow with the suntan-colored supple leather interior really hit the spot – in my opinion, the TC looks much better in this color than any other.
“… a skin graft taken from the Michelin Man.”
You win the Internet today with that one.
I like your swivel chairs. When I was a kid my family used the second-row seat from our ’84 Plymouth Voyager as a seat in our basement. It was comfy and had great upholstery. Too bad you couldn’t get that TC seat.
“You win the Internet today with that one”
Maybe. Google hasn’t notified me yet…
Wasn’t this during the time when Chrysler was on a spending spree based on all that K car derivative revenue?
Lido wanted to spruce up the image of Chrysler with Maserati and Gulfsteam corporate jets. When the sales leveled off, Lido backed off and got back to the core curriculum.
Jon, great find and article! I love that the owner has found and is enjoying this classic from before he was born, and almost like he happened into it, just looking for a convertible.
I also like the Milli Vanilli reference. Was this the lip-syncer of bespoke two-seaters? I wouldn’t rescind the TC’s “Grammy”, because as you mentioned, I do genuinely like these.
About my happening upon them with relative frequency, maybe it’s not all that more than others spot them. Maybe everybody else just thinks other examples are LeBarons.
This is my favorite color for them.
Oh, and thanks also for putting that movie on my radar.
Thank you!
“Was this the lip-syncer of bespoke two-seaters?”
You might be onto something there. It was kind of a fake exotic car. Yet, it didn’t lose its Grammy because: 1. Nobody ever even considered nominating it for anything except maybe the automotive version of the Dundies. 2. It never tried to deceive anyone about what it was. The name Chrysler is right there on the tail and after almost a decade of K everything, people should have known what a Chrysler was, even with the Maserati badges.
You’re welcome. I put the movie back on my radar as well. I haven’t seen it since it was new and now I’d like to watch it again. It actually did win Oscars, and they weren’t recinded.
In my 35 year engineering career in the Bay Area, I had full-time jobs with just four companies. One of those was a small startup whose CEO had a TC. Another was a multi-billion dollar public company whose CEO drove an Allante, at least for a few years. Until reading the first paragraph of this post, I never saw the connection. Thanks for a morning chuckle.
Thanks! Check out the article link at the bottom of the related reading, if you haven’t.
With an interior that disintegrated I’d assume the car had its top down in rain a time or two…
Looks more like sun damage to me. In order to make that leather pucker and have all those folds, it has to be very thin. I did not like that look then for that reason, and time has rather confirmed that reality.
Funny to see the pictures of the actual seats in this old girl and then see the picture of the seats in the photo of a brand new one. The brand new one’s seat look so soft and comfy. The old girl’s not so much.
Oh the memories and a Texas car. Think it was about 1978, and it was at the early stages of my interior design career in Houston Texas. I was the corporate interior designer for an upscale fashion department store chain, so received invitations to gallery events almost weekly. Went to the opening of a gallery showcasing antique Asian furniture. Fell in love with an early 18th large cabinet. I bought the cabinet and at the time I only had one chair and a bed. Goes to show I buy with my heart and not my brain. I still have the cabinet which I have moved state-to-state, and country-to-country. That was the night I met Fred.
Fred, was a bit of an odd duck. Fred was an excellent Architect and Interior Designer.
Older then me, not attractive, but we had happy times going to gallery openings, ballet, opera. I ended up moving in with Fred for about 14 months. Nothing more than a friendship. He had the most beautiful Houston high-rise condo, featured in a major Interior Design publication. Time passed, I fell in love, moved.
More than 25 years later I am in Dallas, now an Interior Design professor. Fred and I had stayed in contact. Short story I knew Fred was an alcoholic, since he had retired, and his controlling Mom died, he was spirling.down. So about 1998, Fred had told me he had bought a very large historic home in Galveston. I had not seen Fred for decades, drove from Dallas to Houston planning for a week together, and hopefully talk him to go to rehab. What I found was his once beautiful condo was a wreck, dirty.
Now to the TC. Fred insisted we drive his TC to Galveston. He was already drunk at 9-Am so I drove. I was not impressed with this car. At the time I was driving a 1996 Sebring LXI, and my Sebring was a better driving car then Fred’s TC. I think Fred bought the Maserati only for its name. His alcohol addiction resulted in some poor decisions. The historic home in Galveston was a wreck, but he installed three Russian chandeliers, worth more money then the property.
A thoughtful reminiscence of your friend and colleague, Fred. It’s great that you’re able to think about the positive memories – cool stuff you did and common interests you had, in addition to the tie-in with the acquisition of your treasured cabinet. Ultimately, and even after having “the conversation” with a friend who’s struggling in some way, with substances or whatever, they ultimately have choices to make. That said, I was so glad to have had an amazing visit last month with a friend who had such a talk with me, now years ago.
It’s telling that the driving dynamics between your ’96 Sebring and this K-based TC were so different. It adds to the bittersweet sentiments you recounted here.
Forgot to mention, shortly after trip to Galveston driving his TC, Fred died. His building door man found him dead.,
Thanks for the story. Quite a tale of the tragedies of substance abuse. Fred sounds like the sort of colorful character I would have pictured buying a TC. Did he buy it new?
There are quite a few large old homes in Galveston, as I’m sure you know. Many beautifully restored. It was probably more common to find an unrestored one back then than now.
Iaccoca could’ve saved a ton of money by building the Maserati Biturbo under license, with all the bugs worked out of course. Or , how about a Chrysler Stag , with the Mitsubishi V6 ?. Or perhaps the AC/Shelby 3000 ? One of those was built with the 2.2 turbo.
I seem to see a TC every five years or so, though it may be more like ten years this time. It seems about 2/3 of them are this color combination (the rest mostly cordovan or white). Almost none that I’ve seen have the top removed though; I get the sense that many of these spent their entire lives with their hard tops in place, much like the rarely removed tops that ’80s-vintage 2 door full size SUVs (Bronco, Blazer, Ramcharger) used to have. The 2.2T/5-speed powertrain was offered in 1989 only; all 90-91 cars (with one exception apparently) had the Mitsubishi 3.0 V6 with Chrysler’s Ultradrive 4-speed automatic, a drivetrain right out of their minivans, Plymouth Acclaims, and numerous other models. These cars also got an airbag steering wheels again from the Mopar parts bin. Most of the interior switchgear, gauges, HVAC and audio controls, and other small parts were likewise standard parts used in other K-car derivatives. The wheels look like the ones fitted to half a million minivans but apparently were unique to the TC, as were the ABS components which are so impossible to find that many of these have been retrofitted with non-antilock brakes. Anyway, I’ve always kind of liked these and could see myself driving one if I got it at a low price, though there was something kit car-ish about the interior, as if you started with a standard LeBaron convertible and stuck on a bunch of leather pieces to cover up the dash and door panels, but with holes cut out for dials/buttons/knobs/levers that needed to remain accessible. The TC, especially those with the Mitsubishi V6, will never look, feel, or drive like a Maserati though.
The leather seats in this car are not appealing. The seats in the ad already look worn out. Keeping seats clean in a convertible is a task at best. To have them already rumpled/ creased/ loose and ready to collect dirt, etc., just doesn’t make sense. The leather seats in cars I’ve owned all had smooth leather and were easy to maintain.
I’d agree on the rumpled seats, though I have to say that the ones I’ve seen in person and online are much smoother than in the promotional material.
Fred was an exceptional Architect and Interior Designer. Fred came from old Texas money. He was a mommies boy and his mom hated me. This was the the 1970s and a 40+ year old guy should not be living with a 20+ year old guy. We had nothing but a friendship At that time I had a 1974 Buick convertible. His mom thought me and my car was trash. I moved out and moved foreword..
Like the sound of that LeSabre convertible! I used to have a 75.
> This was the the 1970s and a 40+ year old guy should not be living with a 20+ year old guy
Nothing wrong with that at all. For about two decades I sublet a room or two in my home to help get by, often to college students, which meant I routinely lived with 19 to 25 year olds (of either gender) into my 50s. I know several others who do the same thing, as it’s too expensive around here for many of us to live as a single or couple on our own. Some years the income from those rentals almost paid for my own housing costs (also, it’s really easy to get a loan – “household income” is often high even if we all work menial part-time jobs). My roommates were given access to the whole place save other people’s bedrooms, so it also offered an opportunity to meet people from all walks of life up close. It helps that I live near a college town which makes roomies or boarders easy to find, but I highly recommend doing this if you have room in your home for an extra person or two.
I know a woman who rents a house for $2,200/month; she lives in the basement and sublets the four rooms on the 2nd floor for $600 to $650/mo. each, with everyone sharing the main floor in between which has the kitchen and living room. You’re doing the maths correctly – she’s effectively being paid $300/month to live in her own home.
This sounds a lot like my living arrangement in college and a few years after. A friend who had recently graduated bought a house a couple miles from campus. He could only afford it if he had roommates to fill most or all of the 4 bedrooms besides his own. The house had a good amount of common space and a pool. He did this for years, well past the point that he was significantly older than his roomers. There were a few ground rules. Males roommates only. Girlfriends welcome, but they couldn’t spend the night. Everyone had to pitch in on cleaning (rotating cleanup duty schedule). One month notice if it wasn’t working out, and there were a few that got booted.(This is the friend I made the car chairs for)
I’d find it a bit draconian not to let boy/girlfriends (or other friends/relatives) stay over occasionally, but I did have one roommate whose girlfriend was over so often she essentially lived here for free, annoying the other roommate who (understandably) found it unfair. The girlfriend agreed to pay full rent the next year and wanted her own bedroom anyway since it doubled as private workspace. We never had any formal cleaning schedules or the like, instead just agreeing to clean up after ourselves, but one of the things that made this arrangement interesting is how different people are in how they live together. Some, despite the shared living quarters, lived separate lives – think neighbors who get along well but don’t really talk much unless they happen to see each other. Others though become part of your life – they’ll call when they’re at the grocery store asking if I need anything; they’ll cook meals for all of us, include each other in social plans. I find roommate relationships fascinating because of all the major relationships we have throughout our lives (with kids, parents, teachers, colleagues, spouses, neighbors etc.) roommates are by far the least scripted – there’s no consensus on how to relate or how much a part of each others’ lives you should be.
Any idea why your friend insisted on male roommates only?
That’s a good observation. The roommate dynamic is different from most situations in life. I’ve had roommates I became good friends with and some that were just there. I think the girlfriend rule was good. It was a hard boundary that kept things on the up and up and prevented finding ourselves with an extra roommate.
We originally had a clean up after yourself expectation. Not surprisingly with a house full of guys, that didn’t always work well. The more structured rotating responsibility worked a lot better.
As to all male, I think it’s mainly a traditional sort of thing. Like colleges, military, etc traditionally have male and female dorms.
People always snark at these as being a tarted-up LeBaron, or wonder why anyone would buy one when they could have a LeBaron convertible for half the price; however, despite the superficially similar styling and K-car-derived running gear under the skin, the TC and LeBaron didn’t actually share a single body panel in common.
Lido’s original plan was for the TC to launch well before the LeBaron, then when the LeBaron launched a couple-few years later, it would inherit some cachet from the similarly-styled but tonier and more exclusive TC. Instead, development and production issues with the TC delayed its launch until well after the LeBaron, so the whole scheme wound up panning out to the TC’s detriment rather than the LeBaron’s favor.
As for the Maserati connection, really the only thing “Maserati” about these was the 16v DOHC head on only 500 of the first-year TCs equipped with a Getrag 5-speed manual (autos got a regular Turbo II 2.2L mill, then both were replaced with the Mitsubishi 3.0L V6 for ’90-91). Even those heads were only finished and assembled at Maserati, but cast at Cosworth in England, with cams designed by Crane in Florida. The TC bodies were actually stamped and assembled at Innocenti, which Alejandro De Tomaso also happened to own, tho’ to be fair even Maserati was using Innocenti to stamp and assemble their own Biturbo/derivative models at the time.
IIRC, Iaccoca shipped a bunch of Dodge Daytona chassis to Italy for TC conversion, but De Tomaso ran into labor problems and fell way behind schedule. That’s where the plan fell apart.
Iacocca was now between a rock and a hard place. He could pay to have the unfinished Daytona platforms shipped back to the states, or he could just wait it out and hope for the best. He chose the latter and, as stated, the TC languished on dealer lots when it finally arrived after the similar but much cheaper Lebaron convertible.
It’s been said that the TC fiasco led directly to Iacocca’s involuntary retirement from Chrysler.
If this car would have come out on schedule – a year or more before the restyled Chrysler LeBaron – it would have been a stunner. Of course, the original plan was its own kind of cynical marketing, with the volume model that stole the styling of the expensive halo car coming out right on its heels, and destroying whatever resale value the expensive TC might have enjoyed at first.
These have a fan or two in my area, or at least I assume so because I have seen some of them from time to time. It’s a shame about that sun-destroyed interior.
One could imagine the TC being somewhat more successful if it had come out on schedule. It not only would have not had the restyled LeBaron to compete with, but it generally would have looked a lot sleeker against the 1986 market than the 1989 market. Coming out near or before the Allante would have helped, too.
I still don’t think it would have been a smash hit, though. Only a limited number of people still would have been up for paying the price for a car with un-enhanced K-car mechanicals and two seat capacity.
This car would have benefitted from a retractable hardtop (something no car offered at the time). It was too difficult to remove and replace the top to do it often, and many buyers probably had no good place to store it when removed. Some left it off permanently (which made it look like a LeBaron convertible, or several others like GM’s Cavalier/Sunbird droptops), while leaving it on made it needlessly rattley and creaky.
I have a friend that has a TC very original very nice shape he’s always trying to get me to buy it but I too have a ’97 Sebring and while the TC is fun to drive I like to be able to get in the Sebring and push the button and the top goes down and away I go I don’t need a home for the hard top and the Sebring does drive better!