(first posted 1/20/2013) Somebody needs to draw the K-car family tree (Update: it’s right here). It sure can be confusing trying to figure out all the cars begat by the original Aries and Reliant K-car twins. At least in the early years, the family resemblance was strong. Over the years, Chrysler got better at the art of disguise, and by the time the K platform had run its course in the mid-’90s, you couldn’t always tell a Chrysler’s K-car roots just by looking. Nevertheless, there’s no mistaking this Plymouth Caravelle–it’s all-K.
Or, rather, it’s all-E: In 1983 Chrysler, wanting to make a mid-size car out of the compact K, added three inches to its wheelbase to create the E platform. E-cars were six inches longer than their K counterparts and boasted an elevated trunk lid for more carry space. The E compared well in size to the mid-size offerings from Ford (Taurus/Sable) and GM (the A-body horde). It rode on a marginally shorter wheelbase, and was only a couple inches smaller in every dimension than the competition’s offerings. To me, these cars always seemed a lot smaller than the competition, but that’s probably because they look so much like the original K cars from the B-pillar forward: They were small by association.
At first, Chrysler fielded two E models and Dodge one, while Plymouth went without. The E-based New Yorker (CC here) was liberally doused in the trappings of high society: padded roofs, poofy seats, faux woodgrain on the dash and the Electronic Voice Alert, which was always eager to tell you that your door was, in fact, a jar. Chrysler’s far less-padded and less-poofy E-Class shared the Dodge 600’s six-window roof.
Buyers fell for the New Yorker’s trim subterfuge–it outsold the less-expensive E-Class two to one. For 1985, Chrysler sent the E-Class downmarket by de-trimming it a little and slapping on a Dodge 600-based front clip and a Plymouth Caravelle badge. It didn’t work: The Caravelle sold no better than the E-Class. Chrysler had to regret the move; for the cost of a little trim, the higher-priced E-Class was certainly more profitable than the Caravelle.
The Caravelle name was not without precedent, by the way. Dodge Diplomat-based Caravelles went on sale in Canada in 1978. In 1983, the bigger Caravalle became the Caravelle Salon so that Canadian Plymouth dealers could sell E-based Caravelles. The name comes from caravel, a quick, nimble Portuguese sailing ship of the 15th century.
Plymouth sold only about 42,000 Caravelles in 1987–its best sales year–so it’s kind of remarkable that this one survives, especially out here in the rust belt. This one’s an ’86–it wears the softer, rounder front and back ends of a 1986 facelift, but this was the last year for the style of steering wheel you see. After that, Chrysler left the car alone through its 1988 swan song.
The Caravelle was offered in two trim levels: base and SE, although only the SE was offered for 1985. The SE was a nicely equipped car, with cloth seats, an AM/FM stereo, power windows and locks, cruise control and more. This car has either the 2.2- or 2.5-liter Chrysler four under the hood.
I came upon this Caravelle at my favorite northwest-Indianapolis Chinese restaurant. I always thought the six-window Es wore the original K square styling best.
Never seen one Chrysler ran from these markets in the early 80s and left us with Mitsubishi
Hm, might you have gotten the better end of the deal? 🙂
I spotted these pictures of clay models from the February 2003 issue of Collectible Automobile. Pictures 7 and 8 showed the CM-41 Valiant and Mitsubishi had once studied the possibility to continue the Valiant in Australia after they acquired Chrysler Australia.
Rotten sods cancelled the Aussie Valiant and left the Sigma to replace it. Me I liked those Hemi6s bloody good cars on a long trip they just lope along no matter whats on the towbar
#4 looks remarkably like a Jaguar XJ40
We’ve been watching “Wanted,” an Aussie TV series, and I was surprised to see a RHD Chrysler 300 “supporting actor.” Funny that it’s called a “luxury car.”
A decent show, but it drove me nuts that the ladies took down a gunman but failed to take his gun away.
My dad had an 87 Caravelle in the same color as the 600 pictured above. Those SE seats were really comfy and it had that mid-80’s Chrysler “Quartz Lok” radio with the pre-set buttons labelled “One Two Three etc” which always struck me as strange.
This one is not an 87 but an 86–the A-frame steering wheel was replaced after ’86.
Thanks for keeping me honest – I fixed the text.
We could wonder what if Chrysler had updated these “EEK” cars a couple of additionnals years with the V6 Mitsubishi and the 3.3l V6 Chrysler instead of bringing the Spirit/Acclain? On the other hand, there also another K-car derivated but more aerodynamic Chrysler LeBaron GTS and Dodge Lancer.
Nar you didnt want a Mitsu V6 not great engines and the trannys dont last well, I see a lot of Chrysler Voyagers lately maybe that was a good powertrain?
They kinda did update them with V6s. Called Dodge Dynasty and Chrysler New Yorker/Imperial. Still Ks.
Exactly, i was about to post the same thing, these kinda did become the Dynasty and New Yorkers.
The original “beigemobile”, albeit in royal blue.
The Dodge Daytona did a REALLY great job of hiding it’s K-Car roots.
The later models incorporated pop-up headlights, then later flush-fitting non-retractable headlights that served to provide even greater distance from its “lowly” reliant roots (at least visually). Handling-wise, they were pretty impressive cars, though — had a friend who had a Turbo Z like the one pictured, and it was definitely respectable, performance-wise.
Buddy of mine had one of these back when, in black, and within three years the paint was peeling off. He drove it that way until the wheels fell off. That will always be my image of the Daytona.
I had a ’94, 4 cylinder, 5 speed. Really loved the car, but if ever there was a car that was cursed. Three wrecks in fourteen months (none of them my fault): Hit a deer, then hit while parked in a parking lot, finally taken out by a drunk driver at an intersection. Nice ride, very good handling, good gas mileage. Biggest complaint was the cable shifter. It functioned, but wasn’t very performance oriented.
This was the first and only FWD Pony-car of the potential FWD ponycar onslaught that was going to arrive by the mid to late 80’s, the FWD Mustand, nee Probe was next and then the GM-80 FWD/AWD Camaro/Firebird. It seems strange now and it bring outs many “what were they thinking?” responses from people, but FWD ponycars were almost a reality.
Given the Probe’s Mazda 626 hard points, once the decision was made to continue the Fox Mustang it would’ve been easy to punch an extra couple of doors into the Probe and that’s what they should’ve done – there was a gap in the line for a sedan smaller than the Taurus, more sophisticated than the Tempo and sportier than both.
I like it! You just described the niche Ford eventually filled with the Mondeo-derived ’95 Contour/Mystique. It certainly would have been interesting to see Ford bring something like that to market 5-6 years sooner, unsaddled with the baggage of having to play to price-conscious Tempo/Topaz buyers.
We inherited a New Yorker, which the daughter didn’t want to drive. Sympathetic to her wishes, I test-drove a Daytona and couldn’t tell that I wasn’t still in the New Yorker. She ended up with the 1984 RX7 that we still have.
Back in ’85 I was asked by the Hertz agent at LaGuardia if I wanted a free upgrade to a sports car – they could give me a Daytona. With brief visions of a Ferrari 365 popping into my head, I said sure. Well, “sports car” was half-right: a rental trim Dodge Daytona was indeed a car. But nothing sporty about it.
I got my British Columbia licence in a Laser XT, I never got one though, But Pacific Chrysler/Plymouth/Mitsubishi in Vancouver had a couple when they still had a dealership downtown, but alas, a Rural Reporter’s salary couldn’t cover it.—Darn you Liberals!
Mid 80’s Chryslers, one of my old playgrounds… I used to commute with a guy who had a Caravelle, it was the replacement for his early 80’s Reliant, and served the exact same role. Just an average car, no more, no less. Those were great cars in that role.
I have always considered this the best looking of all of the K-based sedans. The original K car was too scrunched and boxy, and the New Yorker version was too fat and bloated looking (quite a trick on so small of a car). This one had the best proportions, and I always liked them.
The biggest problem these cars had, in my view, was that you were restricted to the 4 cylinder engines. By the time these cars were out, both GM and Ford were liberally supplying V6s in their midsized offerings, which offered the kind of off-the-line torque that Americans were used to. The lack of a V6 may not have been crippling in 1981, but it certainly was by 1984-85.
Nice find. As for the lack of rust, I have always found K-cars of this era to be quite rust-resistant. Chrysler used a lot of galvanized steel in the lower bodies of these. It was the cars of this era that tricked us into thinking that the rust-monster had been tamed, just as the bean counters (all across the U. S. auto industry) were un-doing all of this good anti-corrosion work.
I’m totally with you – these are the best looking K cars. If this car had had a for-sale sign in the window, I would have inquired, and if the price were in the hundreds I may well have bought it just for fun.
I’m with you both. The New Yorker looked like it was trying too hard, with its landau top. The E-Class, 600 and Caravelle were very nice looking. Mrs. Bertram, the secretary at my middle school, had a Caravelle like this one, white with a dark red interior.
Just as the Japanese and Europeans began galvanising their cars, wow that was clever must have saved huge$, shame about killing an industry though, Galvanising saved the Japanese car industry here we have 6 monthly inspections and no rust permitted and Japanese cars though reliable still fell apart with rust now that fault is gone all they need to do is master chassis tuning and decent diesel engines and they may stand a chance in Europe even
They didn’t use as much galvanized steel….at least here in the rust belt. Door bottoms and sills were the first to go, followed by the lower lip of the trunk lid and floor pans. Any survivor Acclaims and minivans from the mid 90s all have door and sill cancer big time. GM used even less.
“The lack of a V6 may not have been crippling in 1981, but it certainly was by 1984-85.”
Car & Driver praised Chrysler for not having V6’s in K cars at first. As with most of the media, they were predictng high gas prices to continue. i.e. “$5 a gallon by 1984.” Seems low now, but was about 10-20 bucks in today’s money.
I wonder if they planned to install the Mitsubishi V6 but the minivans absorbed all the units they could get.
These were once as common as dirt out here on the prairies.
Our 1984 Chrysler E-Class was the nicest car we had ever owned at that time. I read a review of a Caravelle in our newspaper once, and the writer trashed it pretty thoroughly – unfairly, I might add. “Ho-hum” was a good sum-up. Truth was, the K platform was slowly being out-classed by Ford and GM and even the Japanese imports by that time, so perhaps the opinion of the writer was warranted.
Our E-Class was just that: Classy. The Caravelles and 600s were strippers by comparisons.
Still, overall, they had a few things going for them. My biggest issue with the K-cars and the EEKs was that the rear ends tended to sag and the car looked like the rear springs were weak. That wasn’t a good look.
Our 1984 had the 2.2L. We bought ours in March, 1986 and sold it 8 years later.
Strange though, a Hong Kong-registered Caravelle was in the Monte Carlo Rally, it placed third in its place. Folks in Europe loved the 400/600/Caravelle a lot, and there’s a “cult” group in Japan for the “E’s” that increased when the K convertibles hit Tokyo. There also was a Chrysler tuner, Footwork that ran a Mopar four “Super Vee” series too, the Chrysler Japan Series.
I’ve seen one of these E-bodies running around with the front sheetmetal from a Reliant. Judging from the different colour of the Reliant bits, it was an accident repair.
Jim, as Zackman says, the E-Class was a Chrysler, not a Dodge as it reads in your text.
These cars seemed like stopgaps that should have been replaced, with a lot of fanfare, by the ’85 Lebaron GTS/Lancer. Those at least looked like they were keeping up with the general trend of the industry. Keeping a bunch of near-identical sedans around only served to hold down the volumes of any of them.
Whoops. I knew it was a Chrysler, but apparently had Dodge on the brain as I typed that sentence. Fixed.
Why so many windows, Lido?
The New Yorker had 3 windows per side, while the lesser versions had 4! Can’t remember any other brands offering so much. Kind of a strange look if you ask me.
Agreed that these looked better and more substantial than the original Ks. But-they still looked (and sounded) like the wimpy little boxes they were. It was always kind of funny to see Chrysler try to field these cars against the more substantial offerings from the competition. They did stack up in interior room and always had the best fuel economy; but who wanted a thrashy, underpowered 2.2L 4 for motivation? Plus, although they were reasonably reliable, they just seemed so cheap and plasticky.
PS: that being said, I do freely admit to a fondness for the New Yorkers padded top, wire wheels and Corinthian leather!
Perhaps for better visibility or a bigger styling difference with the Aries/Reliant. They even studied the possibility to do a K-car 4-door sedan with six-windows from what I see on this clay model at
http://autosofinterest.com/2012/06/14/design-notes-1981-chrysler-k-cars/ before it became the 600/E-Class/Caravelle.
The thing that makes it odd to me is the non functional vent window in the rear door with the C pillar window
I assume that window is a concession to the door-handle hardware, which probably intrudes too far for a window to roll down past it.
All too familiar to me; all Volvo 700 and 900 Series had the four-window look. And in the Volvos at least, that non-functional quarter window was due to wheelwell intrusion for the window hardware.
Volvo did it better tho. So did Lincoln and probably others..
The ’80s were the era of too many windows. Painting the dividers black did not fix the problem. It’s all a matter of where the greenhouse is. If placed too far back, the movable windows will either intrude on the wheelhouse, or become narrower, with a spacer bar to a fixed quarter windows. Very painful.
That and the wheelwell.
I liked the original Dodge and Plymouth K cars from afar. Rented one when my company decided to explore Houston in 83 or 84. Drove all over the place and my mileage estimate was go high I won’t repeat it (over 30). I think it was a great exercise in getting the max out of what you have. Had to chose between a K car or my first Honda when I started teaching and made a mistake in taking the Honda.
They spell simplicity and durability to me and I like that.
To bad they didn’t turbo these babies, that would have made them a bit more compeditive.
The 2.2 turbo most definitely was available on these. In fact, the Caravelle was the only Plymouth that was available with the 2.2 T, until 1987 when the Sundance also had it as optional.
Then Jim should have mentioned it. 🙂 I was never quite up to date on all the K derivitives. Someone should do a K family tree with engine cross-reference…
The Turbo Caravelles all had a TURBO badge on them! That’s why I said this Caravelle had the regularly aspirated 2.2 or the 2.5 in it.
Another case of Plymouth getting shafted since Dodge had a turbo Omni/Charger – a Plymouth version, without the Shelby name but at a lower price and in a wider choice of colors, would’ve been a no-brainer. Call it the Horizon Road Runner if Warner Bros was willing to play ball.
It still is odd to me that these cars didn’t sell better. They certainly weren’t at the top of their class, but I don’t think they were any lesser than the GM A-bodies. And I don’t think it wasn’t a Plymouth problem either. The midsize Plymouth Breeze was also introduced later than its Chrysler and Dodge siblings, yet according to my big book of American automobile production numbers, outsold the Chrysler Cirrus by a big margin.
I suspect a lot of those Breeze sales were to fleet buyers.
3 box car design looks like a kid designed it. Could this have been the 1st of the nonstyled car line?. The New Yorker looks like it should have stayed on a childs merrey go round.
Canuckistan was awash in the Caravelle when these cars were in their heyday. The Plymouth brand had always been popular in the penny-pinching GWN so naturally the Caravelle did well. A really important factor in this was the state of the Cunuckistani Peso at the time; as the Caravelle was built in Canadian plants, it could be offered at a substantial discount.
I had one of these as a rental during trip to Ottawa and I really liked it. If I recall, it as a 2.5 litre with a 3 speed automatic. The thing that really stuck me was how really good the seats in the SE model were. The materials were excellent and the dash had real instruments. The car rode and handled well and since they really were’t all that heavy, it went just fine and got good gas mileage, too.
By this point Chrysler had the K-Car thing down pat and were churning them out quite profitably. They were a really good family car for the money, especially in Canada where the prices of the Japanese offerings were out of reach of many, again, due to the low Peso at the time.
These cars were cheap, however, and they were ten year cars. By the year 2000 they’d vanished off the roads here.
Making this central Indiana Caravelle all the more remarkable as a find at more than 25 years old.
Every time I see one of these (and they’re still fairly common around NM) I wish Chrysler had stopped the drip rail at the corner of the rear window. I’m sure it was extended past the greenhouse to hide the weld between the roof and C-pillar, but that one small styling trick would have done wonders for the side profile IMHO.
My family had an ’86, bought with 7000 miles as a small-town dealer demo. Truly nothing but maintenance in its first years, and a solid FAST driver even with the 2.2. Sold to a family member for a grand to get a Maxima in ’96. 10 years of service, I remember it fondly.
I wonder if any of these ever made into police car duty, Mopar did offer a police package for the Reliant K in the 80’s, for departments that were concerned about fuel economy. The E-class are like the FWD equivalent of a Diplomat.
Chrysler considered the Dodge600/Plymouth Caravelle (2.2 turbo equipped) for police duty, but only got as far as doing a couple of prototypes. BTW-if you ever have seen the movie ‘The Wraith’ there were a couple of Caravelles done up as police vahicles.
Here’s a screenshot of a Dodge 600 as a police car from the Twraith then I saw on IMCDB http://www.imcdb.org/vehicle_28835-Dodge-600-1986.html
Yes, I was thinking about those, I never thought they were real police cars since there was heavy Chrysler sponsorship of that movie.
These things would last exactly 20 minutes in true patrol duty.
NYC had a bunch of Aries/Reliants for their traffic enforcement patrols in the 80s.
The 6 window version is not a bad looking car from the side. As soon as you are facing the front or back, though, the illusion evaporates, as you realize how narrow the car is. As for the Broughamified New Yorker, it’s kinda like a little kid playing dress-up with Grandma’s old fancy clothes.
Oh, I dunno – the Caravelle was 68 inches wide, and a contemporary Ford Taurus was 70.8 inches wide. I think the car just seems narrow because of its styling — the Taurus’s styling gives it broader-looking shoulders.
I recall a few of these up in Canada back in the day, but I think that their time was limited due to a fairly high price in relation to improved competition by 1986. The Taurus and GM A bodies had smooth V-6 power for similar dollars, and were seen as more modern. I worked for Chrysler Credit in 1987-90, and we had a number of K-car derivaties as company cars or repo’s. The 2.2 in these was quite underpowered, and one had to break the rosary out when trying to accelerate up to highway speeds with a few fatties onboard and the a/c going. The 2.5 was smoother and had more acceptable torque, but was no V-6. Poor Chryco only started putting in the 3 litre V-6 in the minivan’ s fpr M/Y 1987, and the Dynasty/Fifth Ave models in 1988. They were late to the party, and it really hurt some of the product line like the Lancer/Lebaron GTS line.
Bought an E-Class new in late ’84. It had the horrific Mitsu 2.6 and electronic carbuerator. These cars seemed big inside because of the small seats used in them. The stitching of my car’s seats rotted and fell apart within the third year fo ownership and the bodywork was rusty around the edges after seven years of driving in the Washington DC area. This is when I finally ditched it!
Caravelle is name of a candy bar, too. The car was an after-thought, I think, and was meant to be a fleet queen. Lee I. didn’t want to see Chrysler branded cars in fleets, I suspect. [He retired in 1992, long before Sebrings screamed “Rental Car”, btw.]
I remember many ‘program car’ sales of 1 year old used Caravelles in late 80’s, even at GM dealers. By the late 90’s most were long gone
Anyone know what an ’87 Caravelle in good condition is worth today?
Christine it depends on condition.If you can find one with low provable miles which depends if a person is honest and if they are the original owner,etc in mint condition maybe 1800$ That is completely mint engine body undercarriage,interior!! Other than that 500-800$ Hope this helps!! Theres idiots online tryin to sell these cars for 4000-5000$ Which is almost what they cost brand new LOL!! These yoyos are tryin to rip off the unsuspecting!!
The K cars get so much crap! I personally loved them! They never left you stranded,started in the coldest weather,excellent in the snow,cheap to repair,cheap on gas. They also if taken care of with oil changes,and tune ups easily got over 200,000 miles. Sure would be nice if cars were still made like these without all the electronics crap.Some of us just want a basic cheap car.Not into ompressing anybody!! Bring back the K CARS!!
Nick, thanks for telling all the haters to shut up. By dad had a couple of the K-cars in wagon form. Were really great for basic transportation for the family. So I agree with you.
I liove curbside classics
https://youtu.be/605m9jgUI-8
A video I made six years ago. A Caravelle Turbo for sale for $1500. I should have never passed on this one. 6,000 views. Wow. I have not seen this in years.
These were a nice upgrade over the boxy original Ks. They had more room in the backseat, a much nicer interior and the best front seats being made by Detroit at the time, I believe. The six-window design never bothered me, after all, the Fairmont/Zephyr had that too as well as GM’s A-body sedans. What really let them down was the rough and rude 2.2 engine. The 2.5 was better having balance shafts, and the Mitsu 2.6 was a disaster best avoided.
A few years ago I looked at an 86 for sale that wasn’t passing smog for the original owner yet couldn’t agree on a price. Then an hour later ran into a friend who had a 1978 Celica Liftback 5spd with low miles and he offered it to me. Sure, I”ll take it. Only he had it at another house and needed to fix a vacuum leak in order to smog the car. Unfortunately after fixing the issue, and trying to find the time to bring it down, it was caught in Santa Rosa so I have neither.
A friend’s parents had a Caravelle when it was pretty new. I thought it was a really weak car at the time, but I find myself appreciating the K car sedans a lot more nowadays. I didn’t used to like anything that didn’t have a V8 or at least rear wheel drive. Now I appreciate a simple, basic car in these days when even new compacts are bulgey, overweight and fashioned with front ends that look like they take themselves way too seriously. Don’t get me wrong, if someone gave me a nice one for free, I probably wouldn’t keep it. I just think it’s great that there are still a few survivors (hopefully this car is still tooling around 4 years later).
I always really liked the alloy wheels Chysler was putting on various cars as seen in the maroon factory photo above. Very attractive wheel.
Those mid-eighties K-car cloth seats were very comfortable and surprisingly durable.
Timely re-post. What Chrysler did with the softened front and rear clips on these K-cars is the flip side of the job they did on the ’75 B-bodies like the Sport Fury Paul posted a few days ago.
I can’t speak for all of these, but you couldn’t kill my (loaded) ’86 with the 2.5. In fact, I’ve had 6 K-and-derivatives-including 2 2.2 turbo H bodies-and never had any major problems with any of them. 7 if you count my 2.2 Rampage. I never understood why people rag on these cars so much.
I agree. Always thought these were a bit nicer than the regular K-cars, which were themselves very good cars for the times. Certainly pretty rare on the ground these days. Wouldn’t mind having one as an extra car.
Is the favorite Chinese restaurant Yen Ching by any chance?
Before there were cheap Kias and Hyndais, there were K cars. Some bought them because they admired their functionalism, but most bought them because they were cheap.
And theres nothing wrong with that.
I have an 87 Caravelle Salon that I use as my daily driver in Barrie Ontario….but mine has a 5.2 V8, not sure why the V8’s are not getting a mention here.
Paul
Funny. As some on here may have seen, I like odd ball cars and/or brands that many others don’t. For example, I have a pristine 1988 Cadillac Cimarron which most on here hate. I also have an all original 1986 Seville with only 22,800 miles. So what does that have to do with a Plymouth Caravelle? Nothing except that it’s one of the cars on my short list of cars I (for some strange reason) want to own at some point.
Others aspire to own the Audi A8’s, BMW 3, 5 or 7 series, Range Rovers or maybe an Escalade. Not me. I want a super clean and low miles Caravelle even more than any of the other K-car derivatives.
It’s easy to rag on the ’86 Seville with hindsight, but if gas had actually gone into the $4 range in the mid-80s as GM was predicting they might’ve looked pretty clever.
Valet parked a bunch as the 90s approached. The exterior was tolerable (though not at all the home run it was after 1991) but that interior. Ugh.
I think what ended up as the Coupe de Ville would have been a better Eldorado in that lineup.
As I’ve mentioned before, plenty of redundancy in launching the Dodge 600 and Chrysler E Class in 1983, and the Dodge Lancer and Chrysler LeBaron GTS in 1985. Only two years apart. The 1985 H-Bodies should have ready for 1983, if Chrysler was as aggressive as they needed to be.
Chrysler increased the wheelbase to make the many K car derivatives but could not make them wider. I always wondered why. The larger ones all looked too narrow.
What a remarkably bland, bland car. It´s a kind of brown paper bag vehicle, designed to appear in adverts where a car in the background should not be identifiable. I wonder very much what the designers were thinking and feeling when creating such characterless (and necessarily charactless) vehicles.
My Dad bought an ’86 Dodge 600, which is similar to this car. His first car was a new ’56 Plymouth Plaza, but though he owned a couple of Dodges, he never bought another Plymouth.
It was an OK car..he really didn’t have it too long though, in ’89 my middle sister was having problems with her car and borrowed it…and totalled it. As I remember my Dad was in the hospital for some reason I can’t recall…he did have a heart attack in the mid 80’s but this would have been a few years later. Anyhow, my sister was also banged up and briefy went to the emergency room so had 2 immediate family members in hospital at the same time.
It was his last MOPAR….he replaced it with the first of 3 Mercury Sables he was to buy in a row. Don’t know why except maybe a new Mercury dealer opened up not far from where he lived…and he was used to buying Fords. His prior car was also a Dodge (Omni) which he bought up in Vermont, it lacked air conditioning, which was a big problem when he moved down to central Texas….of course it was the last car he was to buy without A/C (he stayed in Texas till he passed away, before that he was used to moving every few years).