This week my German friend Peter Wendt steps up as guest author. I met Peter around 1996 or ’97, early in my learning about the differences between American and European vehicle regulations, standards, and equipment. He had put up a homepage about the Chrysler Saratoga, which I guess I found via Lycos or Altavista or some other pre-Google search engine. I never saw in person the cars described in this instalment, let alone rode in one—the closest we came to that was when Peter rang the wrecking yard from across the ocean, then I (out of five people who could have) answered the phone, he said “Wanna buy a red Saratoga?”, and we had a good laff. But Peter and his car were a central inspiration for me, so here they are. More, stories of German-car ownership in America are common, but the vice-versa not so much. So with Peter’s kind permission, then, I present here his stories as he wrote them—his English beats the Schweinwerfer out my all-but-nonexistent German—and as he illustrated them (his own photos, images from the brochures, plus more images added). Mind, in German usage the decimal point is a comma and the thousands-separator is a period. Take it away, Peter!
April 1990: I’m working for nearly two years now at CompuNet in Hamburg. Every Monday morning I’ve been driving 250 km from my hometown Lemgo to Hamburg, every Friday driving back 250 km from Hamburg to Lemgo. Along the week I have a small apartment 20 km outside of Hamburg. During work it may appear that I have to visit our customers outside and used to take my own car, because it is much more comfortable than the company’s cars, have my cassettes with me and may smoke as much as I like in the car.
Those days our customers were spread in a much larger area than today, CompuNet Hannover and Kiel weren’t existing yet and some customers reside in locations maybe 300 kilometers off from Hamburg. During the years I have reached an average of about 50.000 km a year. My old Opel Senator had reached the 300.000 km mark and the next TÜV-exam for road-worthiness should be held in August. The waterpump and the radiator were leaking, the undersides of the front doors were rusted through and there were some larger and expensive repairs to come at all. A new car had to be purchased.
So I made some visits to the car dealers. It should have been another Opel as well, cause I knew them very well. In that year the Opel Omega with the 2.6 liter straight-six engine and 150 hp came out—a fine car and a potential powerful and reliable motor. This one it should be: either a sedan or a caravan, either coloured in black or dark red. But my Opel-Dealer wanted to make me wait until August/September—they have a delivery forecast of some month. Alright—I’ll have to wait. I didn’t order one in advance, cause maybe I find something else.
Half a year ago the girl-friend of my old fellow Roland had bought a Chrysler ES with that 2.5 liter / 145 hp turbo-engine. A real great thing, elegant, fast and remarkable inexpensive. I’ve been driving some rounds with that car and found him really impressive. But from the layout it was a complete different type of car I originally wanted: four cylinder, manual gearbox, two door Sports-Coupé.
Well—at least there should have been a Sedan of that type available. So I went to the local Chrysler dealer. Accidently I knew this guy from some years ago. Roland and I had helped him with some of his computer related problems and he listens to what I wanted.
The limousine to the ES was the GTS. It was available with the 2.5 liter / 98 hp-engine with manual and automatic gearbox, with the 2.5 liter / 145 hp turbo-engine only with manual gearbox and with the 2.2 liter / 177 hp Turbo-engine and manual shifting. A Turbo-Automatic version was not available. I’ve been testing the 98 hp-automatic version. Result: you may forget about it. The automatic of those time was an old-fashion 3-speed type and the engine was too powerless.
Six cylinders? No chance. Not in the GTS, not even the LeBaron of those days had one. That was available only in the Voyager (Mini-Van) or in the Saratoga.
“Saratoga? What is that anyway?”
A four-door Sedan with numerous extras, a 141 hp / 3.0 liter V-6 engine, an electronic controlled 4-speed automatic gearbox and a—for Europeans—very unusual look. I hadn’t heard about that before. A first walk around the car. Well—it has about the size of the Senator but looks a little different in shape: wider, taller. Alu wheels, hmm, 205 tires, aha, dark-red metallic.
“And how does it drive ?” I asked the dealer. I shall find out by myself. This is his presentation car and he hands me the key. “You should come back before we close.”
First way leads me back to my house. When I enter the parking lot behind the house I nearly come off the way. This thing has got 13 meters turning diameter. The Senator has got 10 meters. That may cause problems. Minor—probably. So I drive on the federal road leading eastwards out of town. The automatic shifts soft and nearly unnoticeable, a lot power is available. Roadholding, Acceleration and driving through bends is excellent. The major equiment is electrified: power windows rear and front, both outer mirrors, adjustment of drivers’ seat. Tinted windows, Cassetteradio with four speakers, tilted steering wheel with integrated speed-control buttons, cupholders. Sorry, but no Air Condition. And no Anti-Lock Brakes and no Airbag, but I haven’t missed that until today. I could have an A/C installed after selling, the installation-kit including cables is already built in the
car, but I didnt’t miss it that much that I had spent much money on it. It was okay without one until now. Sometime I drove back to the dealer from test-driving.
The presentation car was half a year old (November 13th, 1989 first allowance for traffic) and had about 6.000 km on the counter. The warranty lasted until 110.000 km or three years—under my conditons 110.000 might be the point. The official selling-price was 39.990 DM plus delivery, first inspection and additional extras. The metallic paint would have been an extra, which might have cost another 500 DM. A/C and an optional sunroof would have cost extra money, but the car came without that.
After some dealing and calculating we made an agreement over 32.000 DM. Therefore the dealer hadn’t to take my old Senator. That was promised to another one of my fellows. On July the 3rd 1990 I have got the Saratoga with the VIN 1C3BA7634LF736669 into traffic with my name in its papers. The sign on the number-plate—taken over from the dealer as first owner—is DT-AX 917 and the counter was on 6.551 kilometers.
The first reactions of friends, neighbours and relations: “Well—will that go fine all the way?” Funny people. They have no problems buying a Japanese, a French or even a Korean car—but if you mention, that you own an American car they still use to think in terms of street-cruisers, gasoline guzzlers, poor quality and lousy economic stats. They ignore the fact, that American car-manufacturers have taken giant efforts to make their cars more efficient and competitive. Those US-guys haven’t sleeped all the time—especially not at Chrysler, which was close to bankruptcy some years ago and came back onto the US market in a triumph with a brand new variety of small, economic cars worth the money they cost. At those days I owned the only American car far around. Not included the several Mini-Vans that often were not recognized as alien, American cars anyway.
Interesting. There was a time in the 90s and early 00s when these (and later) Mopar products were starting to make inroads into the car market here in Austria and I always thought M-B missed a huge opportunity in not developing the various Chrysler brands as entry level cars, just as VW did with Skoda or Renault with Dacia. The Neon for example – assuming reasonable quality control could have been ascertained – might have offered an alternative to the Koreans, particularly with a diesel engine. Unfortunately this is not what M-B had in mind.
Oh these FWD Chrysler boxes were notorious here too. Survivors usually tend to have the manual 5sp, most people would not have persisted like Peter did, when the box blew up the 2nd time the car went straight to the scrap yard…
Nice to see someone have fond things to say and wring the most possible life out of what is, in Europe at least, an unusual car.
Since 1980, Chrysler is really the only company that managed to sell American-designed vehicles in any considerable quantity in Europe. The minivans and Jeeps are of course not rare, and neither are PT Cruisers or even Neons, but any one of these Euro-market K variants would be a rare find indeed. Only ever saw a Saratoga once in France, and I’m not holding my breath to spot a GTS or ES.
Ford of Europe did have some success with Explorer and Probe/Cougar in the 1990s. Both were offered with right-hand-drive, which improved the sales in the UK and other left-hand-rule-of-road countries in Europe. Ford had less success with its Windstar due to its size and fewer engine options.
Oddly, Mustang wasn’t even officially exported to Europe since 1967 and until the current generation made its debut in 2015.
It was very interesting to read the perspective of a German in Germany, where this car was very much an oddity. The 300,000 kilometer milestone is impressive!
These cars were maddening in so many ways – the basic vehicles were quite nicely done but were mostly let down by weak powertrains. The infamous Chrysler transmissions, of course, along with the Mitsubish V6 that had some of its own issues. How the world could have been different had the Chrysler Ultradrive been as good as all of us expected it would be when it was introduced.
Hi !
As someone more clever than me once stated: Life is lived forward but understood backwards. We could make good use of rear view mirrors on our heads ..
In the case of the Saratogas I have to blame myself for a few out-of-order repairs that had come neccessary. Over all neither the Mitsu 3.0 V6 nor the A604 was bad in its entirety. The engine *needs* some attention, regular oil-changes, looking after the PCV valve and avoiding “El Cheapo” filters and sparks. The one on the red one started to blow blue clouds when cold and after gaining rpms after a longer idle roll phase.
I *had* a full set of new valve stem seals, PCV valve and valve cover gaskets already in the trunk when this guy with his Pajero crashed into the front. I’d invested money in a new catalyser already and if it hadn’t come to this silly accident I had been working on the engine that weekend to get the oil leakage fixed. The car – by the way – went to the Netherlands later the year. With all the spares and they took the engine and them to keep a Voyager Minivan on the streets for a few years longer.
The gearbox … I would not say that it was “doomed by design”, but it was … well … picky. One of mine had been destroyed with friendly help of the workshop. They added it up with regular Dexron, which is a no-go on the A604. They later confirmed they made a mistake and I got some discount on the new gearbox, which lasted another 140.000 km if my mind serves me right. At the time of the fatal crash (for the red Sara) it worked fine under either condition.
When the gearbox broke down on the silver one I was a bit fed up with this thing and neglected the repair offer. A little too steep pricing for my taste. The car *had* been repaired by one of the crew and sold later. *That* owner contacted me a year later … the car has landed on the island of Borkum in the North Sea. One of maybe 15 cars on the entire island … don’t know what happened later to it.
And I payed significantly lesser money for the 525i BMW than I would have had to spend on a new gearbox with control module … Call it an economical decision.
Peter from Germany
Fascinating. I’m waiting for those commenters that repeatedly state that the Mitsubishi V6s ALL fail in predictable ways, resulting in blue plumes of smoke, or worse. Especially one that’s been driven at 120 mph on the autobahn.
Having owned a ’92 Grand Caravan, I’m all too familiar with the strengths and weaknesses of these. Our van made it to just about 300,000km (170k miles), and then I saw it for several more years on the streets. But by then it was on its fourth automatic, and third ABS pump, which fortunately had a lifetime warranty.
Due to Mitsubishi’s oddball positioning in Australia as inheritors of Chryco’s Big Three position (ie: GM, Ford, Mitsu), there’s an inordinate number of those V6’s that have been sold, out of all expected proportion for an invisible world player in a wee 1 million-car market. And those engines just don’t give trouble, with only the small caveat that SOME had faulty valve guides that were done by about 80K miles, but that itself is not even a heads-off fix (and I vaguely recall the company came to the party to some extent in paying for these long-out-of warranty issues). There must, for just one example, still be a minimum of 20,000 15+ y.o. Pajeros out there that have had a hard life 4-wheeling and towing vans, and all will have 300-400,000kms on them, and they’re still plugging away.
Thanks for another great read, Daniel! I’m really enjoying your COAL series. Another thanks for introducing Peter to us! His German take on American cars is fascinating. The tale of the accident in front of the outdoor cafe giving the local Chrysler dealer a boost was a riot. I, for one, would enjoy a seeing more COAL articles or other contributions from him.
Hi !
I’m afraid I cannot contribute a very lot to COAL at all. I had the two Saratogas – and a fair lot of other european cars … and a pretty basic and ruined AMC Gremlin for a while. But most likely not enough for extended stories.
Germans point of view onto cars is surely different to most other people in the world. In the land of Porsche, Audi, Mercedes, BMW and Volkswagen still with no general speed limit on Autobahns (even though: the *local* Limits grew and grew) we mostly put an emphasis on the performance at higher speeds.
Most of our rural roads allow speeds that would bring you in jail in the US. Even though 100 km/h (about 65 miles) is the limit for federal roads it is not uncommon to cruise along at 120 – 130 … and we won’t judge that as “speeding”. Not really. 70 in the city is a bit strong, but 130 outside ?
Well … what we got all these performance cars for ? Chugging along ?
Even 3.5 ton delivery vans go 160 – 180, some Ivecos even 200 at the Autobahn. If you drive at 100 in a 70 zone there is a good chance that a FedEx or UPS van is impatiently tailgating you. “Moooove !!”
It’s Germany. In earlier years the Belgians were up strong with us but they changed the rules after europeanization a bit.
BTW: Dan mentioned the “Schweinwerfer” at some point. Once we were discussing german expressions for several technical parts and I came along with “Flippenflappen Muckenspreader” for windshield wipers … He immediately liked it.
Let’s see. Maybe I find something worth writing down.
Needs to be entertaining I guess …
Peter from Germany
The number of other-brand cars humbled by an encounter with the rear bumper of that Chrysler Saratoga is amazing!
Yah, eh! It’s almost enough to make one think “H’mmm…maybe those US bumper regulations aren’t so stupid after all…”.
Peter, thank you the amazing article. Writing such a long piece in a second language is really an accomplishment of which you should be proud!
I was working as a Chrysler service advisor when the A604 was in its “heyday.” The fact I didn’t have a massive heart attack was truly amazing. I’d personally do at least one a day, usually more. It was used in every single FWD model so we saw huge numbers of them fail. The parts department got replacements shipped by the 5 ton truckload. Please forgive me if I am ranting but it was a traumatic experience. I’d dread the phone ringing because I’d have some irate customer chewing me out for a car I didn’t make or buy. Hell, we all joked there’d be no way we’d drive a Chrysler and in fact, none of us did!
The Mitsubishi 6G72 V-6 gets way too much bad karma. The very early ones in the 1987 cars had problems mostly with valve seals and the rear main leaking but by 1989 those problems were gone. I always liked it because it was smooth and had decent torque.
What the 6G72 could not tolerate was bad maintenance. Many owners were coming from iron block V-8s which could tolerate bi-decade oil changes. It was such a problem, especially when the 2.7 came along, that we’d call customers in for oil changes. I’d even tell the customer they could take their car for an oil change anywhere they wanted if they just keep the receipt.
The 6G72 was replaced by the iron-blocked 3.3 V-6 which could take all kinds of abuse. The only one I ever saw blown up went 72,000 km without an oil change.
Very enjoyable writing, Peter. Lots of falling glass. Gut gemacht!
I truly enjoy reading the article from the German about his experience with the American vehicles that were engineered specifically for the European market.
The German perspectives of American vehicles as Peter wrote were (and still to this day, are) the same. One problem with the Domestic Three was trying too hard to make their vehicles as European as possible when they could have focused on the “niche market”, catering to the Europeans who like “Americana”.
When my paternal grandmother passed away in 2000, my family hired a 1999 Chrysler Voyager for a very comfortable drive from Nuremberg to Waldshut-Tiengen. It was only time we ever had driven an American vehicle in Germany. We loved its spacious interior and plenty of legroom in the rear (for me and my brother who are quite tall). However, Voyager was fitted with a small petrol four-cylinder engine and automatic gearbox that didn’t seem to enjoy 160–180 km/h sprints on the Autobahn and insisted on visiting as many petrol stations as possible.
Aye. Thanks Peter and Daniel for another entertaining and informative read. I have always enjoyed reading about how US/Canadian vehicles were perceived in other countries, as well as how they performed in day to day service. The changes in equipment to meet regulations and customer preferences, the advertisements and market placement… and so on. I’m probably an outlier, but these cars are another one that I much prefer with the sealed beam (or lamps in a sealed beam form factor) front fascia.
The A604 horse has long since been beaten into glue, so nothing more to add there… but do hafta admit that the first thought that comes to mind when someone says “Mitsubishi 6G72” is blue smoke. I still remember pulling up behind 1st gen Caravans/Voyagers at traffic lights while looking for the characteristically greasy tailpipe, then automatically rolling up the windows before the light went green and they engulfed me in a thick haze. IIRC, it was mostly a problem with valve guides and seals, and there were a few other niggling issues… none of which contributed to catastrophic engine failures. Certainly not a horrible engine, but the Chrysler 3.3 and 3.8 that went on to replace the Mitsu 3 liter were all that much better!
Err…but these AA-body cars never had sealed beams.
Whoops! I was looking at the ad for the P body, then just the nose of the Chrysler Laser, and totally brain-farted. I should refrain from typing when very tired.
Oh, the P-body! After I posted my response to you, I wondered if you might have meant the H-body (Chrysler GTS/Euro-spec Dodge Lancer). Me, I’ve long thought an AA-body might look interesting with the nose of a pre-’93 J-body (LeBaron coupé/convertible), including the hidden quad rectangular headlamps. That would require some skilled weldwork, as the forward edge of the door isn’t the same between the two cars.
Peter, I echo Canucknuckehead’s thoughts – your English is very good, and yet your German roots show through, quite charmingly!
Imagine my disappointment when Daniel’s regular COAL was preempted for a post by a guest writer. And yet, what a great story! Disappointment banished. Stimmt so!
In some sort of variation on CC effect, in 2005 we hosted a young man, David, from Lemgo, as part of a student exchange. He was a delightful guest, and a few months later our son stayed with David’s family in Lemgo to complete the exchange.
In 2018, my wife and I visited David and his family in Lemgo. Of course we visited Herman, and clambered about on the rock formations.
We (I) spotted many interesting (to me) vehicles in Germany, but no K-car derivatives. Saw a few late-model RAM trucks which looked very out-of-place.
In any case, we loved Germany and the German people, and we pleased to find that the negative stereotypes were untrue – the good stuff was in evidence (neatness, order, and hard work), but the negatives (that Germans are harsh, rigid, and humorless) were completely false.
As well, as an avid cyclist, I found Germany to be ideal.
Looking forward to more stories from you! Vielen Dank.
Germany has 1000s and 1000s of excellent cycle routes. They are well marked and almost entirely on non- or low-traffic roads. I´ve cycled along the Danube, the Elbe, the Rhein, the Oder-Niesse (on the Polish-German border), the Main, the Havel and the Werra rivers. It has been wonderful. A typical day starts with a huge breakfast in a reasonably priced hotel then 60 km to lunch and 45-60 km to the evening stop. The Germans have quite excellent planning laws so that the town-country demarcation is observed. In between towns you just see farmland and nature and the river you might be following. The routes are popular but very far from busy. You might meet no cyclists in the inter-town stretches at all. And along the way are nice stopping points for coffee and cake.
Richard, one of the highlights was spending some time in the Friedrichshafen area. We rented bikes (Radfahren) for the week. One glorious day we took the ferry (with our bikes) across the Bodensee to Romanshorn in Switzerland. Figured on doing an out-and-back, and taking the ferry home.
We were surprised to not have anyone check our passports on the Swiss side. Oh well, off we went. Cycled east along the trail, stopped for lunch at Rorschach, and carried on into Austria (and another passport-free border). Thought “OK, we have 20 minutes to decide whether to turn back to get to the ferry in time, or we can carry on”.
We carried on. That particular part of Switzerland had been underwhelming, but Austria was beautiful. Around the lake through Hard, Bregenz, and Lochau, and back into Germany. Stopped for ice cream in the late afternoon, perhaps in Wasserburg or Langenargen, and returned to our B&B in Immenstadt. It was a glorious day.
Another day we cycled out to Unteruhldingen and took the ferry to Mainau. Another glorious day!
Great memories – would love to go back and cycle right around the lake.
Peter, if you don’t care for French cars, that’s your business. But in your place I would have been looking for a Peugeot 405 or Citroen BX.
Hi !
Dan surprised me a bit with this. I *did* publish most of that on my old (more or less long gone) pages, but he made it a quite nice read. Plus some useful additions. Thanks Dan !
When he visited me in – I think mid-2005 (?) – it was the time with the BMW already gone (after – of course – an automatic gearbox mayhem) and the company car was not yet delivered. I had a blue rental VW Golf Turbodiesel 5-speed manual to pick him up at Hannover train station and bring him back there. So from the automotive perspective it was lesser entertaining to him I think. Apart from driving on the Autobahn maybe … 🙂
Sometimes I sit and wonder about the “what ifs”.
What if I had taken the dealers option to get a presentation car from him. Right from the exhibit with a few 100 km on the counter ? In this case it would have been a 2.5-litre-V6 silverblue metallic Chrysler Stratus with automatic.
What if I had taken the option to buy the 3.5-litre V6 Vision (LH) they had there ? A few thousand km collected. A 30.000-DM-car at that time with “a good discount”. But the dark green body / light grey leather didn’t appeal that much to me. Sidenote: the car was around in Lemgo until late 2019 ! But driven by an elder couple with two dogs. I don’t think they put the weekly mileage on it like I’d had …
The BMW was really cheap. Really. There was almost no marked for a white 525i / 24V back then, even with low mileage – it got sold over the price, honestly. It had its pitfalls for sure which finally lead to its demise. It took it five years and 200.000 km to get there however. After 2005 I had no own car. Just company cars: VW Golf Variant Turbodiesel manuals. Gen. IV, V, VI and VII came and went. Actually I have a (drum roll !) Opel Astra Sportsvan with a GM 1.5-litre-3-cylinder Turbodiesel and 122 hp. And 6-speed manual.
Soundwise a tad agricultural even to the standards of VW 4-cylinder Diesels.
I really miss the 3.0 V6 of the Saratogas and the dreaded A604.
Thanks to all of you for the nice and friendly comments.
If anyone is in the area … give me a call … 🙂
Peter from Germany
(I wish I could find the image of Dan sitting on my desk in “The Lab” back then to attach it here …)
For whoever might be curious, I ran that magazine ad for the red Chrysler ES through Google Translate, which dutifully served up what appears (to my less-than-fully-informed self) to be a reasonably good translation:
Anyone who wants to experience the 2.2-liter turbo driving experience, with an impressive body above it, will have a lot of fun with the Chrysler ES Turbo.
“I want turbo fun and that in super stereo!”
With front-wheel drive, 109 kW / 148 PS, a top speed of 184 km / h, this robust four-cylinder with electronic injection has plenty of reserves.
But now to the equipment. For standard luxury equipment: take a seat in high-quality, body-friendly sports seats. Turn on the cassette radio, super stereo sound with separate bass and treble controls will be heard from four integrated loudspeakers to the delight of all music fans. Electric windows, electric door locks, electric adjustable exterior mirrors, tinted windows, a leather-covered sports steering wheel, the Chrysler ES offers comfort.
It continues with extras that do not cost extra: power steering, power brakes, light alloy wheels, controlled 3-way catalytic converter, stainless steel exhaust. The secret to increasing the capacity of the trunk lies in the backrests of the rear seats. They are divisible and foldable. There is already space for skis or additional suitcases. The practical tailgate makes loading and unloading child’s play. So much for the visible joy. You will not appreciate the reliability and durability of the new Chrysler ES for years. But it is already reassuring to know that Chrysler gives an unusual guarantee: 3 years or 110,000 km. 7 years on the body against rusting. Plus the Chrysler Privilege Service, which will help you around the clock.
The Chrysler ES, whether with a 2.2-liter or 2.5-liter engine, is a powerful, complete offering. Take a test drive. To find out where your nearest Chrysler dealer is, call 0721-816025.
Chrysler is breaking new ground. Are you coming along.
(This appears to be Google’s equivalent of mom and dad trying and failing to talk like the hep young teen-agers; the tagline actually translates Chrysler are headed in new ways. Come along with [us].)
Now, for a good time, translate it back into German and translate THAT back into English. Or insert a third language of your choice. You will read things that you just could not have imagined before.