shot and posted by RiveraNotario
CC Cohort Day: Chrysler LeBaron – Mexican Edition
– Posted on April 7, 2023
shot and posted by RiveraNotario
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Ultimate dream car was 61 Imperial LEBARON. This LEBARON was predecessor to 83?through 88? RWD Fifth Avenues (only available as four doors). Had 83 and 85 Fifth Avenues. Great cars with formal look. 🏆. One of best reworks and upmarketing of existing vehicle. Later LEBARON name went to smaller FWD but still luxurious at first, but later downgraded. Sad finale for storied LEBARON name! 😎
Chrysler looks to have spent a big sum to completely restyle the LeBaron coupe for 1980 from the B pillar back, along with shortening the wheelbase, and had few sales to show for it during the two years it was available (sales figures are actually higher than I expected, but still much lower than the pre-facelift design).
LeBaron coupe exterior styling became too formal. The earlier ’77 to ’79 design, with the ‘boat tail’ trunk lid and less upright rear window, was more stylish. Plus of course, Chrysler was still struggling to get back on their feet, re-earning consumer confidence. Add the fact, there was a new Thunderbird/Cougar, GM intermediates were more popular, and Chrysler’s own Mirada/Cordoba provided better looks, in a comparable package.
Chrysler did start to offer some nice looking road wheel options on the R, M, and J-bodies during this time, that greatly improved their looks.
I’ve come to understand that Chrysler probably had to shorten the LeBaron coupe, since the upmarket Cordoba that had also been downsized was now the same size as the outgoing LeBaron coupe.
I suppose Chrysler might have kept the same dimensions for both cars, but it would have made both cars seem redundant. The Cordoba and LeBaron coupe were personal luxury cars in two different sizes from between 1977 and ’79. It might have worked. Who knows.
I didn’t know Chrysler made a grilled like that, with the ‘hood ornament’ stuck into the grille. I guess I missed it, or maybe that was only in Mexico.
I cannot ever say that I liked the “upside down” turn signals/headlights. This shows that it was worse as the turn signal plastic aged from the sun.
Still, by this time they were very well-sorted cars and would typically last a long time, probably while it’s still tooling around in Mexico.
I found the similar circular ‘300-like’ grille centre badging on the 1980 Cordoba LS, somewhat unattractive. I don’t think they used this ’embedded’ badge in their crosshair grilles again.
Thanks, Paul, for selecting these pictures!
All I will say is… those wheel covers look remarkably shiny besides the fact they’re attached still!
The way I remember back then from the automotive publications, Lee Iaccoca asked his then Ford coworkers to defect and move to Chrysler including the advertising agency. The roof design for this coupe was an idea for a Lincoln coupe that ended up on the LeBaron. Also notice the Cordoba redesign ended up looking like a mini–Mark V. Iaccoca tried his magic on the ’83 Imperial similar to the concept of the ’69 Mark III.