by Blue387
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: 1986 Dodge 600 Convertible
– Posted on September 20, 2020
by Blue387
-
-
-
American Brands: GM 
American Brands: Ford 
American Brands: Chrysler 
American Brands: AMC, Jeep and All Others 
Automotive Histories and Misc. 
Asian Brands 
UK Brands 
Australian Brands 
European Brands 
Cars Of A Lifetime & Auto-Biography 
Buses 
Trucks, Pickups and Vans 
Design 
Trains, Planes & Ships 
Motorcycles, Trikes, Bicycles 
Engines, Transmissions and other Tech 
Tractors, Lawn Mowers, Off-Road Equipment 
RVs, Motorhomes, Trailers, Campers
Put together with tissue paper. We rented a Dodge 600 coupe in 1983 when we were in California on vacation. One of children was getting nauseous so I stopped on the side of the freeway, well off the roadway. I gout out of the car to go to the passenger side, the door was still open as I was exiting when a tractor-trailer drove past at normal highway speed. The door of the 600 was wrenched forward and displaced from its hinges. Adorable to look at but certainly not a safe vehicle.
This was my favorite flavor of these early Konvertibles. I liked the sportier flavor that Dodge tried to convey (as opposed the the more conventionally luxurious Chryslers).
I don’t believe I was ever in one of this generation, but believe Thomas above who was not impressed with their structural strength. I think that the 1987 re-do improved these cars a lot, but there was something about the styling of these that resonated with me. They were never objectively beautiful, but they had that kind of quirky, offbeat good look that Mopar seemed to find so often.
We had a 92 Chrysler LeBaron GTC convertible, turbo 4 cylinder with a five speed manual. Was a fun and peppy car, attractive too I thought. Got rid of it after a couple of years when our daughter turned 16. It seemed a recipe for disaster.☹️
My first car was a 1986 dodge 600 convertible! Mine was white with a black top and non turbo. It was an excellent car and the perfect combination of fun and practical for a teenager. It was very durable and reliable. I miss it.
The story goes that Chrysler’s finance people told Iacocca the Lebaron/600 (then 400) would be too expensive to build and would not be profitable. Iacocca overrode them, his instincts turned out to be correct (again) and the car was a success.
Personally, I favor the first generation Lebaron convertible as my favorite K-car, particularly the first versions that had quarter windows and a glass rear window. The only negative about it was the soft-touch, A-frame steering wheel; the very first cars without the quarter windows and plastic rear window had what might have been one of the last, old-school, hard, shiny plastic steering wheels.
These cars looked mildly muscular to me. Rented a turbo something convertible once. When you nailed the gas, about a half second went by then it lunged forward with power, Not turbo lag, like torque converter lag, if there was such a thing.
I kinda miss that era of crappy Mopars. Would buy another cheap one.
There’s an ’86 600 convertible that I see occasionally in my neighborhood and just haven’t been able to get decent pictures of it yet. Sometimes it’s driven by a man, sometimes by a teenager, so I assume it’s a family’s car that the kids can borrow. One memorable time I saw it with five teenagers in it, with the three in the rear sitting on the trunklid, with their feet on the rear seat, having a great time driving the streets around a local high school — something more likely to have been seen in 1986 as opposed to today.
And somehow, despite its stodgy K-car styling, these still look good today.
Lopping off the roof took away the stubby upright dorkiness out of the K cars, I’d go so far to say I find them downright handsome as convertibles, and the hood louvers and sporty wheels harken back to the good times 15 years earlier. I liked this facelift too, which have a mild resemblance to the 83 Tbird
My Dad bought an ’86 Dodge 600 (albeit a 4 door sedan) new…seem to remember there was some change in the tax law for ’87 that made interest payments on cars non-deductable, maybe it was that, or his prior car, Dodge Omni 024 was bought up in Vermont, didn’t have air conditioning, and they’d moved to central Texas in the meantime…the Omni was probably his mid-life-crisis car, so the 600 was a return to more practical family cars…he owned 2 Dodges in a row (maybe partly because my Mother worked briefly for a Dodge dealership in South Burlington?) but was never to own another in his lifetime…his first car was a ’56 Plymouth Plaza, bought new when he graduated from college.
Didn’t have the 600 long…it was an OK car, but in 1989 my middle sister was having her own car problems with her ’84 Ford Escort, it was in the shop and she borrowed my Dad’s 600 to go to a family outing (my Dad I seem to recall was in the hospital for some reason, but my other sister was visiting from Vermont and we wanted to do something fun while she was in town even though undoubtedly the reason for her visit had to do with my Dad’s hospital stay)…and middle sister drove through a red light and the 600 got clobbered (totalled)…sister went to a (different) hospital, she was OK but beat up a bit in the accident.
Dad went with 3 Mercury Sables in a row after the 600…then 2 Impalas in a row, including the 2006 my Mother inherited when he passed away in 2016…same sister just totalled the 2006 (just a fender bender taking my Mother to the hospital for an appointment..but the 2006 isn’t worth much nowdays)…so kind of like 1989 all over. Still had collision coverage on the Impala, we’re keeping it since the damage is minor, and only 72k miles on the Impala.
I also prefer this to the Chrysler version. I liked to refer to them as the “modern shoebox.” For some reason they remind me of the 1949 Ford. Maybe I could buy one and turn it into a klassic kustom.