Well, today’s ’92 Fifth Avenue post got me thinking. Yes, the Fifth Avenue and New Yorker were the last Chryslers of the Great Brougham Epoch, but they weren’t actually labeled as a Brougham. So what was?
It was the 1992-93 Dodge Dynasty Brougham. While not a strict model designation (it basically consisted of the landau vinyl roof on the top-trim Dynasty LE), it was truly the very last Mopar to have the Mark of Brougham Excellence on it. The 1993 LH cars would end Chrysler Corporation’s Great Brougham Epoch, but the Cadillac Fleetwood Brougham would carry on the tradition through the 1996 model year (I have to do a CC on one of those soon…).
The Brougham is dead! Long live the Brougham!
(Looking forward to the Fleetwood Brougham CC…LT1 Fleetwoods are my favorite search on Craigslist. Cheeeeeeaaaaaapppp for what they are.)
Getting tired of the Broughmance here….move along people, nothing more to see here…..
Tom: So *that’s* where the emblem on your dash came from?
Not quite, mine is off of a 1992 Cadillac Brougham that was in a you-pull-a-part junkyard not far from me.
Maybe Mopar and GM were sourcing the same Brougham logos?
I know one guy here in town who still drives a clean well kept 1993 Dodge Dynasty LE minus the brougham package. White with a blue velour interior. White walls and the works, so clean you could eat off the trunk. He happens to be my age (in his 30s) and his appearance is a dead ringer for Walter Mitty.
Just wait for the Fiat 500 Brougham, I hear it’s coming in 2013!
Did Lido get rehired?
And technically, this wasn’t just the last Mopar brougham, but the last Chrysler brougham proper — the Dynasty was sometimes sold as a Chrysler here in Canada.
I saw a mint Dynasty last summer, with wire wheels, fake convertible top, and a Continental kit. (I wrote about it a bit and posted some pictures here (http://studentwheels.wordpress.com/2011/06/11/blast-from-the-past-dodge-dynasty-le/).
My parents had an ’88 New Yorker back in the day. It was an incredibly reliable car. The hooded headlights were a little flaky, but that was the only really big problem it ever encountered.
Wasn’t the Sprit/Acclaim based LeBaron available for one more year in 1994 with broughamlicous top and pillow seats?
True it was the smaller car, but it still, it has a Landau! (it could be the last landau)
Now you’ve got me dreaming about a Spirit Turbo R/T with the landau and other tacky things added on just to confuse people. 😛
Now that would be a sleeper.
I think that would be cool. Landau R/T!
You don’t want the headaches of the R/T engine!!
Other than that it might be a cool idea…I prefer my vinyl tops full length vs the landau style
I had a Lebaron Landau identical to the blue green on pictured above as a “beater” I inherited from my Grandmother….was a pretty decent car until the ultradrive went ultracrap at 88k miles
Those Broughams are really growing on me. But if I ever buy one, it would have to be from the early 70’s, like a fuselage Imperial.
Speaking of Broughams, yesterday, at a veterinarian’s office I pass daily, I saw parked there a spotless new Cotillion white CTS with the gold package and a tan fake carriage roof. A vanity plate with the lady’s name graced the back. I guess Cadillac still hasn’t given up on the carriage set. Fido is riding in style.
Having bought a 93 white Deville with blue carriage top new, I can’t fault anyone for buying one. I’ll never buy another car with the fake roof, though.
Cadillac dealers, yes, but there are no factory CTS carriage roofs.
I recall reading back at the time when the 1990 Town Car came out, Lincoln supposedly threatened dealers to prevent the addition to carriage roofs and other broughamified details to the new, clean, modern Town Car.
Not the Town Car, the Lincoln LS. Ford was really determined to go after the BMW 5-series with this car (at least while the enthusiasm held) and were determined not to be derailed by the dealers. I remember a center section front page article in a Wall Street Journal back then about the travails Ford had trying to keep the dealers in line (which, legally, they couldn’t do). I have seen a ‘fake convertible’ LS with all the chechke’. It looks just as awful as it sounds.
I do know that in either 1991 or 1992 there was, in fact, a “factory” option of a full length halo vinyl top for the Town Car, I saw a small picture of it in one of the showroom brochures. It was seen most often on the 1992-94 Jack Nicklaus Signature Series, in Deep Jewel Green with the White roof and White leather interior.
There ya go!
Still one of my favorite special editions… green with tan leather interior… YUM!
Oh well, more for you. I think it’s ghastly. Town Cars should either be black or silver. Period.
IMHO large cars should be painted dark colors. Black, Smoke Grey, Chocolate Brown, Emerald Green, Maroon, Navy… ect.
My mother had two of these (though neither had the Brougham vinyl top), followed by two Intrepids. Then she got a new ’99 Accord, and still drives it.
Okay, so maybe I am the weird one here, but I have to officially, Come Out and say it…I love All Things Brougham! It’s true. Normally quiet, practical and conservative me loves me some Serious Brougham!
I saw a 1994ish LeBaron Sedan today, and I remember thinking about how that would have been the perfect car for me, not too big, economical, but on the inside, it’s Brougham Baby, BROUGHAM!!!
I’ve always called these the “Dodge St. Petersburg” ever since making a trip to that part of Florida in 1992 or ’93, and finding, I’m not kidding, that they made up half of the cars on the road. At least until they all went home after getting the 4:30 early bird dinner special at Shoney’s.
Wow, this must be Cars I Used To Own Week here. I had a white ’93 Dynasty, minus the tacky vinyl roof, from 1996-2001. Yes, I actually chose to buy it – for $8995. That car was Camry-reliable; even the much-maligned Ultradrive tranny never gave me a lick of trouble, and the performance from the 3.3 was rather surprising. It had the same wheel covers as the one pictured here; they look like aluminum rims, but they’re just plastic wheel covers.
The one story I have was the time right after I got it, some guy in a bright yellow Beretta, supposedly the “performance” model, decided to try to be a tough guy at a light. I don’t know why he decided to pick on a 35-year-old driving a car meant for retirees, but, stupidly, when the light turned green, I forgot how old I was and dropped the hammer right with this dude. Even squealed the tires. We took the same onramp to a freeway, and once we merged, I couldn’t believe it – I left this dude far behind. With a Dodge Dynasty! I backed off when I saw I was doing 105, he flew past me, and I never did it again, but I did gain a whole new respect for the car.
Believe it or not, the Dynasty was actually stolen in 2001, with 198,000 miles on the clock. Here in the Motor City, Chrysler products are the most stolen vehicles, mainly because they’re easy to steal and the parts fit a wide range of models. They never found it. These days, I drive a ’99 Grand Voyager (with 244,000 actual miles – gotta love that 3.3!), and that ’96-’00 generation of minivan is the most stolen vehicle here. Not an Accord, not an Escalade, but a teenaged minivan. Ain’t that something…
Woof! What a dog.
I’m not a huge fan of the Bro-ham-ization, but I can dig it for a few days. This has been fun to see some of the Mopar Bro-hams. I was never a fan of the Dynasty, OTOH, my taste in Mopars is more the performance side rather than the cushy side.
If I were to go for the bro-hamminess, I think I’d go with a 74-76 Mercury Cougar XR7. Which coincidentally, I would have chosen back then, too.