I can’t believe how long it’s been since I’ve seen one of these hereabouts. But they’re all gone, or in hiding. canadiancatgreen caught this one at Walmart, and it’s sporting some distinctive elements on its flanks. Are those spot rust repairs? Or?
Cohort Pic(k) of the Day: 1987 Chrysler Fifth Avenue – Custom Paint Job
– Posted on September 16, 2022
I always thought Chrysler borrow-styled the M-body LeBaron/New Yorker/Fifth Avenue after GM’s great-looking Cadillac Nova Seville
and kept it much longer, certainly a cash cow for the seemingly always struggling company
Someone drives one daily here, to work at O’Reilly’s, so I see at least one on the regular. One thing that I remember about these from the time was that the velour used in the interior of these was super plush. My grandmother had an Olds 98, and it wasn’t comparable. I wouldn’t mind having one in metallic navy blue with matching velour. If you’ve ever seen one without the vinyl top, though, it shows how patched together the package was.
I can never look at one of these without thinking of the world’s most dangerous senior citizen, Mike Ehrmantraut, from Breaking Bad and Better Call Saul.
And great car casting for that. I also noticed that whenever Mike was buying a disposable car, he favored Buick Centuries.
A nice Fifth Avenue sat parked for years, along Baseline Road in Ottawa. Every winter, you could see it covered in powdered road salt, from heavy nearby traffic. As the paint noticeably deteriorated since before 2007 until 2015, when it disappeared.
You can visibly see the paint decline, and rust advancement, at Google Streetview from April 2012 to September 2014.
That’s looking more like 5th Street than Fifth Avenue these days. Maybe even the corner of 5th and Dodge. In Plymouth.
I do still see 5th Avenues occasionally around here – and the remaining ones generally seem to be in very good condition, like they were just taken out of grandpa’s garage. I haven’t seen one in rough condition in a mighty long time.
Two of the relatively recent ones that I’ve seen are below:
“FOR DAD” (the plate reads on the one on the right). And now I can’t keep from thinking that that DOES look kind of like my dad driving that 😉 He would have loved a 5th Avenue. Although for some inexplicable (to me) reason by the late 80s, he’d moved to Audis and never looked back at Chryslers (other than the one in his driveway that only my mom drove).
I’m sure that it’s a very debatable (off-topic) point, but I do think that Virginia has some of the best personalized plates.
I’ve been hoping to see the FOR DAD car again, and get enough pictures for a Fathers Day post. But that hasn’t happened yet.
Virginia does have some good plate designs. That 5th Avenue’s plate is called the “Patriot” since it features a colonial-era fife player. Each one of our three cars has a different license plate design… Virginia’s standard issue plate has the slogan “Virginia is for Lovers,” which I can’t stand, so I’ve chosen other plates for our cars that I like better.
On the featured car, some of those blotches look like clear coat delamination.
I have always liked the Chrysler Fifth Avenue. Here, where cars don’t rust, there are still some around, and most are in good shape. I can’t accommodate another car, otherwise I may have bought one. Yes, I know it’s a glorified Aspen/Volaré, and I had one of those for 22 years*! But a “just like everybody else” Toyota or BMW appeals to me not at all.
* Come to think of it, I have had my Dodge Intrepid longer than that!
Is that a Ford oval on the wheel covers?
Looks like something Cruella de Vil would drive after she fell on hard times. Gotta get a carton of Vantage cigarettes before heading to the bingo hall.
Yes, those are from a Taurus or Windstar.
That’s it! I couldn’t place them, but they’re base model Taurus wheel covers from 1998-1999, before they switched to 16″ wheels in 2000. Pics below.
It appears that the galvanized steel that Chrysler was using to build bodies in that era has stood the test of time, because I see no rust holes. The clearcoat finish, however, has not. I wonder if the gray paint/primer used for spot-repairs was chosen to match the areas of clearcoat delamination. If not, it is just a happy coincidence, I suppose, to keep the splotch colors down to a minimum.
The plastic Wal-Mart wheel covers are a perfect complement.
Best looking plastic wheel cover design I’ve seen.
They even simulated the “center cap being missing ” look of a real alloy rim.
Complete with fake tabs/clips or whatever.
Wonder how long that rear tire has been rolling with low air pressure?
They’re from a Taurus.
A gimmick car that worked unbelievably well. That Iacocca – sheer marketing genius!
A “hail-mary” from a struggling car company. The popularity of them was a suprise. They are delightfully tacky, with extreme brougham flourishes and they just seemed to have struck a nerve with folks who wanted their car to look like their Aunt Fanny’s living room sofa. Like the last year of the Frazier Manhattan with the last-minute front end styling, these Fifth Avenues were suddenly appealing. Sadly, the popular year for Frazier was designated to be its last, so they couldn’t benefit from the uptick in sales. Chrysler on the other hand, badly needed a hit, so they cranked these things out for years.
They are throw-back brougham rides. They were never in vogue. Remember this is the time for the Taurus and Sable, the C-Body GM FW rides, and no one was even trying to put out a 1970 RW compact sled like this. It’s rather funny how they caught on, like an inside joke.
That rear door – ghastly! It is one tacky patch job of a Volare. I believe they were rather affordable and a value if you wanted something like this. By this year, Chrysler was still unready to reveal their new full sized offerings, and these were fire-saled price to keep dealers from quitting the brand.
It was so retro.
Quickly checked out canadiancatgreen’s original high res pic, and the most serious start of rust is highlighted. Mostly superficial, if ever addressed in time. The dash pad is surprisingly intact, as these routinely cracked. If it was ever repainted, it could look near new again. Bright metal looks good.
How timely!!! I just picked up an 87 model in silver yesterday for the princely sum of $1500! If I had more computer smarts I’d upload some photos and do a little write up… This car as certainly had an interesting life as the sharp eyed reader will see!
Can you see the pic?
No, it’s probably too large, try reducing so it isn’t more than 1200 pixels in either dimension, that tends to limit it.
Darn, yeah it’s 3000×4000 apparently and I don’t know how to reduce it…. Guess this shows why I’ve had 60+ curbside classics and nothing on this site despite having been a reader sence this was on the truth about cars!
Download Irfanview (free). It comes in real handy for resizing pics.
I have a 1987 Chrysler dodge 5 avenue runs good. I been having to do some minor work to it but other than that it’s a great car.