OK, when’s the last time you saw one of these? Here in Rust Central, even ’80s Diplomats and Gran Furys are getting scarce, so I was happy to see this ’79 LeBaron coupe at–you guessed it–the Geneseo car show. In sleek black, no less, with no offending water-trapping full vinyl or landau top, either!
The LeBaron was cash-strapped Chrysler’s answer to the Seville. Despite having less money than FoMoCo, the resulting coupe, sedan and T&C wagon were MUCH more convincing as a luxury car than the “are they dumb enough to buy it?” Lincoln Versailles.
As you would expect of a 1970s near-luxury car, ample amounts of chrome, wire wheel covers, whitewalls, and velour upholstery were available. Most people who bought a Chrysler back then wanted to advertise their good fortune to everyone, and that meant adding all the gingerbread they could, resulting in over-dressed showboats like this one. Why would you get those wire wheel covers, when there were so much more attractive options. I guess those kids in the background borrowed their Aunt Gert’s new car…
Even a trim-bedecked one looked so much better with the available alloys, which were also optional on the Cordoba. But I imagine most of these went out the door with the rattly wire covers or “deluxe” wheel covers. Too bad. Interesting fact: the LeBaron came STANDARD with hubcaps! On a Chrysler!
Interiors were suitably plush, especially with the available leather seating. I don’t normally like gray interiors, but the dove-gray leather thrones shown here look very, very nice. One of these could have been a pretty comfy ride back then. As you’d expect, a variety of Slant Six, Super Six and 318 and 360 V8s could be installed in the LeBaron’s engine bay.
Yes, the LeBaron coupe could get every luxury car styling cliché: landau top, opera lamps, opera windows, pinstriping, and on and on.
But you didn’t HAVE to. Just a few pages past that wire-wheeled, dove gray parade float in the ’79 LeBaron brochure was this handsome coupe, with just the always-sharp Road Wheels and whitewalls to set it off. And you could make things even simpler–or stealthier, if you prefer…
…thus bringing us to our featured car, which looks all for the world like a two-door police car. Maybe that’s just what it is/was. It had the standard pleated vinyl interior as well, but the black-and-red color combination made it look very, very good indeed.
Could this be a factory police-package LeBaron? Or did the current owner just add the slotted wheels and ventilated hubcaps? I wouldn’t blame him; they look great.
The LeBaron lasted to ’81 in this form, albeit with a moderate facelift in ’80 (CC here). Starting in ’82, the car would become the Fifth Avenue, and the LeBaron would fall into a K-shaped hole it would never climb out of.
However it came into the world, I like it. And the coupe roofline looks so nice. I love how the C-pillar flows into the mini-boattail deck lid. Great to FINALLY see one without the dratted landau top! Do want.
Note: a rerun of an older post.
I always thought that these were very handsome cars. However I don’t ever recall seeing a coupe out in the wild. I am quite familiar with these cars in their Dodge Diplomat sedan version. A bit cramped inside but a nice driving car. I suppose that they were a rival for the Monte Carlo?
Chrysler may have conceived these as rivals to the Monte Carlo, but most people I knew barely paid them any attention. Plus the confusion between the LeBaron, the Diplomat, the Plymouth Caravelle, all essentially the same girl with different shoes on, compromised their already somewhat meagre success.
Probably the Cordoba was still hanging on as the Monte rival.
I found these reasonably handsome cars mind you.
Why Chrysler came out with this in 1979 and then the new Cordoba in 1980 is a mystery to me. It’s the same car! Further I like the “J body” cars, especially the Mirada and Cordoba LS with their aero noses but the LeBaron actually looks like a more natural successor to the 75-79 Cordoba in its styling than the 80 Cordoba did.
The LeBaron debuted in mid-1977.
I do think both the LeBaron coupe stepped on the toes of the Cordoba; certainly Cordoba sales started dwindling from 1978 onward, although other factors were also at play.
The LeBaron was a nice car. We had a few as taxis and they held up well. The quality of the interior was far better than anything coming from Ford and GM. The unit body meant that it was possible to use chair high seats and a LeBaron was a more comfortable space to spend twelve hours than any comparable Ford or Chevy. The only downside was the Queen Mary turning circle necessitated by transverse torsion bars.
Love it. I highly doubt any police dept would order a coupe, then again we had Mustangs and Camaros, sooooo…..
I think that updated gray example with the alloys and chiseled lines is the bee’s knees.
The LeBaron and Dodge Diplomat lineups, including the coupe, were introduced in 1977 1/2.
Very affordable (if more cheaply made) alternatives, to the Cadillac Seville and Lincoln Versailles.
Never saw a LeBaron at the time, with dog dish hub caps. I doubt the owner knows (or cares?), about their lack of authenticity, on this example.
My bad n the year ranges, nevertheless the styling itself looks like a perfect vision of what a downsized 77 Codoba would have looked like in a way the actual Cordoba successor in 80 objectively didn’t.
These were all ultimately F body (Aspen/Volare) based under the skin, It always seemed really cynical Chrysler started departing from their A/B/C body nomenclature for F M R bodies on what would have simply been designated A (F) or B bodies prior. The 80 Cordoba may well have been priced above these in their market, as far as what you got as a car? What’s the difference? Even the Seville got extra isolation from a Nova, Versalles got rear disc brakes vs a Granada, the 1980 J body Cordoba got…???
Weren’t these available with a four speed overdrive ?
I’ve mentioned this previously. Chrysler really cheapened out in 1979, by making optional, the formerly standard distinctive two-tiered front bumper rub strips.
The nose lost much of its former unique appearance. Base 1979 bumper, looking near naked, and low budget. A sign of the times, for Chrysler.
Daniel one would hope dealers mostly ordered them with the strips after that, even if not the vertical guards. Those strips had to be a very cheap option, like a few bucks…..
I agree the look is bare without, and the exposed bolts make it worse.
If you do a quick Google search, including a Google image search, a significant number of ’79’s don’t have the rub strips. I was surprised, how many didn’t have the rub strips any more.
Perhaps somewhat, a sign of the financial dire straights Chrysler was in.
That shot of the brown one on the left sure harkens to it Volare roots.
Loved the highly sculptured looks of these LeBaron coupes, especially the rear deck area. I even learned to like the upside-down headlight clusters. The looks of the two door took a hit with the shorter, squared-up 1980 restyle. I just wish these had more lasting build quality. I’d love to see more of these at shows. Really attractive personal coupes that I didn’t really appreciate until I had noticed they were mostly gone.
Actor Frank Converse was Chrysler spokesperson for the LeBaron.
He was later a spokesperson, for the 1981 Plymouth Reliant/Dodge Aries launch.
Interesting how Converse says there are many ‘new-sized’ personal cars, but the LeBaron is the one that started it all.
He is referring to the LeBaron/Diplomat coupes being released in 1977 1/2. Before the 1978 downsized GM A-Body-based Grand Prix, Monte Carlo and Cutlass coupes. All model names, that obviously came before the LeBaron.
I believe the only year that the LeBaron was available with a police package was 1981. The Volare had been dropped after 1980 and the M-body Gran Fury wasn’t introduced until 1982, leaving the LeBaron as Chrysler-Plymouth’s mid size fleet bid model for a single year.
My parents leased one in 1978 and it was junk with a capital J. In Canada, we only got the Medallion version, the top trim. The Diplomats, conversely, were only available in base trim. It was a silver 2 door with red leather guts and stayed nice for about 2 weeks.
It was delivered with missing emblems, loose bolts, etc and it got worse from there. It was a 318 with a 2.45 gear and it was beyond sluggish, it struggled to move because the Lean Burn wasn’t functioning properly. Said Lean Burn also failed repeatedly, leaving you stalled out without warning at random times. Sometimes it would fire up again again sitting, sometimes not. It went back to the dealer numerous times for things I can’t even remember. After 2 years, a 50 cent piece sized flake of paint departed the quarter panel, leaving scabbly rust. The wiring in the tilt wheel shorted out, leaving us with no cruise or horn. The pin that held the shift lever departed, causing it come off in my dads hand. In the fall of ’80, a wheel bearing failed, causing the front wheel to part company with the rest of the heap. The skimpy 7 1/4″ rear end wore out prematurely.
Wouldn’t you know it, some friends of my parents got one around the same time and they didn’t have a single problem. Just our luck. Go figure!
After the lease went up, he ended up buying it and driving it for 2 more years before buying an ’82 Audi 5000, itself a whole ‘nother story. But you know, a funny thing happened. Between the warranty work, the money we put into it after (including paint touch-up and a great deal on an 8 3/4″ Sure Grip off a wrecked ’80 Volare Road Runner with 3000 miles on it, it actually became a decently running reliable car. My brother took it over, and when he sold it in the fall of ’83 it was in better shape at 5 years old than when it was brand new!.
It wasn’t so much 4 speed overdrive but a lock up torque converter (shutter and all). My mom and dad traded their 74 Olds 98 Regency for a 78 LeBaron. Nice car but no big Oldsmobile.
I think the question farther up is referring to a 4-speed manual OD, which these cars could have, with either the 225 of the 318. Maybe more common on base models, not Medallions. Never saw one in Canada, as all sold here were the Medallion trim level, if you wanted a base model you got either a Diplomat or a Caravelle.
Caravelle AKA Fury in the USA. The only Caravelle we ever got was a Dodge 600 twin in the mid 80s, very rare and short-lived.
My mom purchased new a ‘79 LeBaron Medallion T-Top in Sable Tan Sunfire Metallic (root beer brown) color matching brown padded leather look landau vinyl roof with cream-tan leather interior with matching tan vinyl pin striping on the outside… it was loaded digital signal-seek radio with foot control pwr aerial a/c 318 lean burn/torqueflite 904 full power seats locks windows electric defroster delay wipe all the auxiliary interior lights fender cornering and turn repeating lights. $5409 base price another $4300 in options paid $8504 for it. Chrysler found out May’79 they had almost a million unsold ‘79 model year Mopars sitting on lots storage yards plus dealership lots all over the USA so after July 4 Chrysler had a “Fire Sale” took all the unsold inventory (at least in the Washington DC area) to empty shopping mall lots. One was in Virginia (Tyson Corner strip mall) for DC VA dealers the other in Maryland (Capital Plaza in PG Co) for DC MD dealers. First sale days were for then current Mopar owners remaining days open to the public. Our LeBaron was from Fred Frederick Chrysler in Laurel, MD(Time magazine Dealer of the Year 1976) but our salesman was from Maryland Motors in Rockville. You could only “complete” the sale at the dealership. My mom always wanted a Chrysler (she was a B-O-P girl) plus it was the opposite color wise with her Grand Prix (cream paint/saddle brown interior). The LeBaron had a lot of GM styling cues the GP’s boat tail G body bent rear window glass Cutlass/Monte Carlo side sculpting. That car was a looker lots of positive comments and that LeBaron/Diplomat 2dr body style was very popular in the DC area we counted a least a dozen T-Top versions. The 4dr top-line versions were also very popular a “value” Seville. For one of the commenters 4sp overdrive manual was optional w/the slant-six that’s a 3sp w/od 4th. We saw a Diplomat wagon with one.
I drove the Dodge Diplomat version of these while working as a transporter for Hertz in 1977 and 1978. Back then Hertz mostly rented Fords, but we had a fair selection of MOPAR, except only Dodges, no Chryslers nor Plymouths. We did have both the 2 door and 4 door version (the latter more common even back then).
They were nice cars, a bit plusher than the Dodge Aspens we also had as rentals. For some reason I specifically remember driving one to Harold’s Gulf, the closest location to our own home location, the former being in Montpelier, the latter in South Burlington. It was common to have gas stations as rental offices back then; more gas stations were full service and there were lots of small towns that didn’t rate a regular rental office. When I first started at Hertz that was a challenge, as it is harder to locate small gas station locations than larger ones the first time you ever visited.
Anyhow, the Diplomat was a nice car…I don’t know why but I never checked under the hood (something I usually do when I rent a car, but I wasn’t renting these, just driving them. Lots of gauges (something the Fords lacked) and comfortable seats
Vivid memories of our “79”, luxed out coupe. Got traded in “1991”. Car was quite attractive, comfortable, mechanical nightmare.
“Quality control” was sorely lacking.
I like the Town and Country wagons versions of these best and surprised they didn’t hang on after ’81 as they had a unique size and look. But this is one of the better examples of a successful rebrand into the 82-89 5th Avenue. I always liked those and Chrysler had a nice niche with a traditional but not massive rear drive luxo-sedan.
This brought back all of the memories I have of my Lebaron. I absolutely loved it. Such a wonderful car to drive. Yellow with red velour interior. I’ve owned a lot of cars but this one really stood out as the perfect, daily driver.