Internet photo. I could not find any photos of the actual car.
Picking up from where I left off last time, my dad was moving on from the conversion Chevy Van that had outlived its usefulness.
1986 Chrysler LeBaron GTS
Suffice it to say that the negative experience with his last three GM vehicles (and the relatively positive experience with the Plymouth Reliant) soured my dad on GM and converted him into a semi-regular purchaser of Chrysler vehicles for the rest of his life.
The first of these Chrysler purchases was a 1986 Chrysler LeBaron GTS (not to be confused with the ‘85 LeBaron GTS I would own several years later in college).
Despite my best efforts, I could never convince my dad to get a family car that could be considered cool by the standards of a 1980s high school kid: No hidden-headlight Honda Accord, no Pontiac 6000 STE (yes, that was cool car. Change my mind). He was certainly not going to buy an imported car (even if the Accord was made just up the road in Marysville, Ohio).
What he ended up with (the LeBaron GTS) was probably the next best thing. It felt kind of imported, with its unusual 5-door hatchback body style. It had a five-speed manual transmission, albeit a rubbery cable-activated K-car unit, but hey, three pedals for the win!
But best of all, it had Chrysler’s 2.2L turbocharged four-cylinder engine, pounding out a pavement ripping 146 hp and 168 lb-ft. Paltry numbers by today’s standards, but back in the ‘80s that wasn’t too far off from what a Camaro or Mustang was putting out (or so we convinced ourselves).
This was also my first run-in with forced induction. The Turbo I (first-generation) engine had no intercooler and massive amounts of turbo lag. Unless you were willing to abuse the clutch and tires, a typical launch from a stoplight might go something like this:
- Release clutch, drop accelerator to the floor, hope you don’t stall the engine.
- Wait as other cars, pedestrians, and grannies with walkers all pull past you. This thing is really slow off-boost.
- Wait for the turbo boost to kick in.
- Wait a little more, and showtime! Blow past the pedestrians and grannies. Holy crap, we’ve gone plaid! This thing’s gotta be faster than a Vette. What a rush!
In my defense, I had never driven a Corvette at that point, and therefore the only point of reference for how fast the GTS accelerated was in comparison to how slow it was going a few seconds earlier.
Unfortunately, the LeBaron would end up being short-lived. For reasons I can no longer recall, I was driving it back to college (as opposed to the Reliant or other family rides that I normally commuted in) and ended up totaling it in a freeway accident that all involved miraculously walked away from.
So my dad needed another car quickly, so back to the Chrysler/Plymouth/Dodge dealership we went.
1988 Dodge Dynasty
Wow, what can I say? After the Karmann Ghia, the Ranchero, the conversion van, and the LeBaron GTS, I’ve long since given up trying to get a bead on my dad’s automotive tastes. Clearly he had a soft spot for Personal Luxury Coupes (hence the Galaxie 500, the Monte Carlo, and the Bonneville), which is where I think his heart truly lied. With the PLC all but extinct by 1988, a Dodge Dynasty was probably the next closest thing. Unlike the LeBaron GTS, which half-tried to emulate a European sports sedan, every aspect of the Dynasty (even down to its name) was pure Lido Iacocca. That is some seriously formal roofline going on there.
Dad’s Dynasty was a curious mix of new and old. It was gold, like the internet-sourced photo above, which I think is one of its more flattering colors. It also had the same wide whitewall tires. You would have expected fake wire wheel covers to complete the look, but no, it came with alloy wheels, which again work pretty well here. It even had power seat controls on the doors, a useful feature that modern cars would be wise to emulate.
Even though the Dynasty’s AC platform was loosely based on the K-car platform, I was impressed by how well it hid its K-car bones. Unlike Mom’s Reliant, which felt tinny and flimsy, the Dynasty felt solid and substantial. The doors closed with a satisfying thud, and there was nary a squeak or rattle to be heard inside. Honestly, it wasn’t a terrible car: The Mitsubishi-sourced SOHC 3.0L V6 accelerated the car with authority and had a satisfyingly expensive cammy sound, although an OHV V8 probably would have been more in character with the car. The 4-speed Ultradrive transmission shifted smoothly and was apparently one of the few trouble-free units produced that year.
OK, there was one aspect of the K-car origins that Chrysler engineers couldn’t hide: The width. While Chrysler was able to stretch the length and wheelbase of the K platform, The AC rolled on the same 68″ width of the original Aries/Reliant and every other K-Car derivative. Compare this to a contemporaneous Oldsmobile 88, which was almost five inches wider. This long and narrow profile was prone to excessive brake dive and acceleration squat, not helped at all by the excessively compliant suspension. But still, overall it was a decent car.
I had a 1987 Dodge Lancer ES turbo back in the day. I kept it for 11 years and 160K miles until I traded it for a Dodge Dakota.I agree 100% that the turbo lag was a pain, but could be mitigated with with a little bit of holding the brake and spinning up the engine to get it on boost at a stop. The old 2.2 turbo was pretty zippy once it was on boost. It’s one of the cars I miss the most…
I had a Dynasty as a rental, coincidentally while I owned the Lancer. I tried driving it in my normal style (back then) and experienced all of the bad handling traits you noted. Once I re-calibrated my driving style, it was not my cup of tea, but still a nice car. Those ACs were on the road up here in Rust Country (TM) up until recently, proving their durability.
Small world… we had an 86 Lancer ES 5MT. The car was somewhat oddly configured. A highly optioned ES model (cool checked seats and all) yet no power windows or locks.
But alas, 2.5 NA. Dad wouldn’t even consider the turbo… complexity, oil consumption, center shaft beearing failures, blah blah. But really I think he just instinctively knew that Mom would never observe proper warmup / cooldown procedures. I suspect he was absolutely correct about that. 😅
My Lancer was pretty well equipped with the exception of: sunroof, leather, and power windows and locks. It did have the Level 3 suspension, stiff ride, but handled great. Also had the Recaro knock-off seats. The cheapest car today is far better equipped than a decent car from 30+ years ago.
I had no problems with the turbo itself, but a pinhole leak in the turbo coolant return line caused the car to overheat and ruin the head gasket. Once that was diagnosed and repaired, no issues for the rest of the time we had the car.
I wonder if the width thing is a major impediment to updating a vehicle, particularly for the smaller manufacturers. IIRC, it certainly hampered Studebaker. They could lengthen or shorten their cars (i.e., Lark) but could do nothing about making them wider on their seriously antiquated assembly lines.
Widen the car with the same geometry on the strut-based front suspension, and strange things will happen.
ANother great story! Thanks for sharing! Much enjoyed the writing style.
Is it just me, or do the LeBaron GTS and Dynasty have the same front doors?
Wonder if the windshields interchange as well?
“… Holy crap, we’ve gone plaid! ”
Any reference to “Space Balls” gives me an early morning smile.
This is enjoyable writing.
I also liked the Dodge Dynasty we rented for a few weeks when we first moved from NYC to the NJ suburbs.
There was still one personal luxury coupe among the Every Extended K era Mopars, the LeBaron coupe and convertible. I had a 1989 LeBaron Coupe for a number of years that I liked very much and sometimes wish I still had. It was more of a base model than a totally optioned out car but it still had four wheel disk brakes, a stainless steel exhaust system but not power windows or locks or leather seating. It was a beautiful car but the salt started wreaking havoc on it and it eventually ended up in the hands of my nephew with about 200k miles when I replaced it with a 1999 Concorde Lxi which had twice the horsepower for the same gas mileage or better and more room. The LeBaron I had showed a real tendency for tossing those “lace” style hubcaps so it went through a lot of crappy cheap hubcaps instead of tossing factory caps. It also developed some problems with the cylinder head that caused it to go through copious amounts of oil through a dropped exhaust valve guide and eventually a spider gear went bad in the transaxle. Both were fixed from parts I got from a minivan with the same 2.5 four cylinder. Interestingly, the minivan had a better first gear ratio so with 60 series tires on it, the LeBaron could take off from a stop in a manner resembling something I was more accustomed to after years of 318 powered coupes. If the picture manages to attach to this comment, the LeBaron is parked with my ’79 St. Regis circa the summer of 1997. The LeBaron sadly has gone to the Great Garage in the Sky but the St. Regis abides in my garage today as I’m in my 25th year of helming that boat.
For an unknown odd reason I’ve always harbored an affinity for the Dodge Lancer Turbo, possibly because a friend of mine’s family had one when we were freshly minted drivers and I loved the turbo rush (when it arrived).
If nothing else, it’s probably the most “modern” or perhaps “european” shaped of any K-car variant.
I would have guessed that perhaps a Thunderbird of the era or a Lincoln MkVII might have figured into your Dad’s fleet given his PLC proclivities. Perhaps there will be another installment…
146 hp was a lot for the time, and the LeBaron weighted about 2700 lbs, so if it wasn’t quite competitive with 2020 cars, it would handily beat most of what was on the road in the ’80’s. Your average Ciera/Aries/Taurus had somewhere between 100-140 hp.
Your dad made some good choices. Lee had made Chrysler quality a priority. If he didn’t invent the K car, he made sure it didn’t have the Aspen/Volare debut. Yes, people did get some bad Chrysler products but overall they were pretty well put together by the mid 80s, especially in the lower line versions. The more electronic gimmickry they had, the more likely they were to have problems.
That hatchback that looks like a sedan style was amazingly functional. You could load incredible amounts of cargo in there, we had a Sundance, and it swallowed large pieces of furniture handily.
Interestingly the Neon carried over some K genetics because it used the same body jigs and wheelbase/width as the Dynasty. This made the car much cheaper to build and much larger inside.
My first car was my mother’s hand-me-down 1986 Chrysler LeBaron GTS. But, mine was not equipped with a 5-speed, or with a turbo’d engine. It was just a hum-drum slow K-Car with a sporty body. Probably a great first car for me, actually, as it was too slow for me to get into trouble with it.
And mine, over the eight years it was in my family (six with mom at the helm, two with me), was so terrible no one in my family’s even looked at anything sort-of Chrysler since. We literally shot video of the odometer rolling 100,000, because we couldn’t believe it had actually made it.
A 1985 Dodge Lancer ES turbo automatic was the car that ended an allegiance with Mopar that dated back to a 1931 Chrysler CD-8 rumble-seat roadster on my mother’s side and a 1939 Dodge(possibly a Plodge) sedan on my father’s. The car was plenty quick with the automatic. I don’t recall turbo lag being an issue at all.
The first head gasket lasting 17K miles was an issue. The second one lasted 7K miles. The dealer damaged the paint while the car was in for head-gasket repairs. The 5/50 warranty had a big deductible. The digital dash failed shortly after 24K miles, complicating warranty claims. The hood vent served as an early detection source for head-gasket failures. The third one went at unknown mileage, as there was no longer an odometer. it certainly didn’t make it to 35K miles though. My parents had long since given up and let my sister have the car. Her mechanic abandoned it on Staten Island and the State of New York tracked the title to my parents in Virginia.
When the Lancer was a year old in the summer of ’86, it was joined in the driveway by a 1987 Porsche 924S. The Porsche was about 25% more expensive than a loaded Lancer ES turbo, but it looked like it was five times as expensive based on panel fits and paint finish. Also the lifespan of the center-caps on the Lancer’s cast aluminum wheels was measured in weeks. The Lancer was gone about a year later, even though my parents typically kept their cars over a decade. For the next seventeen years, every car any of us bought was German. German cars may be unreliable, but they didn’t seem that way coming out of a few decades of Mopars. Starting in 2004, we all bought various Honda/Acura products. They make the German stuff seem like Mopars, but now Honda has gotten out of the keeper car business. Future purchases will be Toyotas/Lexi.
I think the reason the Dynasty had no transmission issues was because it was the 3-speed Torqueflite, not the Ultradrive, which was introduced for the 1989 model year. Other than that, I really am enjoying the series!
That ’86 LeBaron wasn’t a bad-looking car, IMO. Definitely better styled than other K-variants of the era. I had forgotten Ricardo was plugging Mopar long after the demise of the Cordoba.
Finally I have something of value to add! A few years ago, a friend was looking at a 2000 Dodge Minivan. At the time, I thought it had the UltraDrive. So I did some research into it, and I found that the UltraDrive was actually not unreliable if it was well maintained. As long as the transmission stayed cool and kept the correct transmission fluid in it, it would run reliably for a reasonably long amount of time. The problem was that technicians would often put the wrong fluid in early UltraDrives, which would lead to premature failure. The alternative was that people never bothered to change the fluid at all, and the transmissions would overheat and fail prematurely.
It’s also worth noting that you might not have actually had an UltraDrive. About a year after my friend’s van died (Not from the transmission), I learned it might have had the old Torqueflite. The Torqueflite is surprisingly decent, and might have fooled you into thinking it was an UltraDrive.
Stumbled upon this and had to comment because my Dad also bought a brand new LeBaron GTS and then replaced it with a brand new Dynasty.
I grew up in suburban Detroit, where my parents families were from the area and had roots with the ChryCo on both sides. Needless to say, we were a pretty strict “Chrysler Family” and I was in and around a TON of K-based Chrylser stuff as a kid in the early 90’s.
My Dad bought the Lebaron GTS shortly before I was born. It was either an 86 or 87 2.5L Auto in black. I don’t remember much of it, other than that it seemed to do just fine hauling my 2 siblings and I (ranging in ages from 1-5) in a few rare occasions where my Mom’s Plymouth Voyager wasn’t available. My Dad remembers the car positively and notes that it was WAY better than a brand new L-Body Charger “2.2” he bought new before that, as well as X-body Skylark he had been given as a company car that he hated.
Impressed with the Mitsubishi V6 powered 1991 Plymouth Acclaim his parents bought new, my Dad went out sometime in late 1992 or early 1993 to buy the successor to his LeBaron, the AA-body LeBaron. Somewhere in his search, he ended up at a Dodge dealer, where they told him he could get a decently loaded new 93 Dynasty off the lot for a lot cheaper than a comparably outfitted Spirit or LeBaron. SOLD. Got one in the same Black Cherry paint that was on the 90 Voyager my Mom drove at the time, with porno red cloth interior and the 3.3 V6. While it often was referred to by names like “Die-Nasty”, it gave him 5.5 trouble free years before he got sucked into the SUV craze of the late 90’s and traded it on a super cheap lease deal for a new ZJ Grand Cherokee in 1998. Ask him about the Dynasty today, and he’ll usually talk about how the 3.3 made it quicker than you’d think.
A couple things I remember:
-His had the same wheel covers as the one pictured in the article. I’m not sure what the appeal was, but his were stolen at least twice. Of the times I remember, once was in our own driveway on a very rare occasion where he parked it close to the street overnight. The other time was randomly in the middle of the day in a CompUSA or Circuit City parking lot.
-As kids, my siblings and I couldn’t resist playing around with those goofy opera lights or whatever they were called in the C-pillar. I think there were at least a couple times where one was left on overnight and he was scrambling to find some jumper cables before work the next day….