(first posted 4/8/2011) The eighties were shaped by two very powerful divergent influences: the price of oil and the desire for the trappings of luxury and prestige. These two do tend to be mutually exclusive. But the human mind is an infinitely flexible organ and there are ways to bridge almost any gap with a bit of creativity and a cutting torch.
The most perfect example (the TC runs a close second) is this Chrysler Executive Limousine: a K-car seven passenger limo powered by a 93 hp four cylinder engine. You either experienced the early eighties, or you’ll spend the rest of your life trying to make sense of them. Or both.
The whole history of the American car, as well as our whole built environment, lifestyle and everything that spins off from that has been shaped by the price of oil more than anything else. In 1980, the average price of oil was $92 (adjusted), a record that has not yet been broken, until perhaps this year? Worse than that, the projections in 1980 were that oil would just keep zooming up. How else could one explain Chrysler green-lighting this doomed project? Just plain poor judgement?
The premise was pretty ridiculous, high oil and all: the K car was a very compact affair to start with; it looks tiny in today’s traffic. Imagine building a Ford Focus limo today; that would get a few laughs. The truth was that the Executive was just way too small to carry even two executives in the comfort they were used to, let alone seven. Munchkins, perhaps.
from allpar’s piece on the Executive:
The sedan lasted two years, while the limousine lasted four. Bob Wilson noted that Bob Marcks presented the idea to Robert Lutz [ED: not correct; Lutz started with Chrysler in 1986. Iacocca, more likely], who approved it. Details are at Bob’s web site (see below). Bob Wilson noted:
They were discontinued because they were not “real” limos in the sense that you could not carry three people in the back seat and two more for the jump seats, despite the fact that they were rated by the EPA as a seven-passenger car. The jump seats had no seat belts.
Making an Executive involved sending a Le Baron coupe to ASC, where it was cut in two, and a new center section grafted in. There were even two versions: a slightly shorter “five passenger” Executive sedan, and this “seven passenger” limo.
The other profound limitation was in the engine compartment. All Chrysler had at the time was its own 2.2 and the Mitsu 2.6, which was drafted for the first three years. For the grand finale, the new 2.2 turbo was bestowed on the Executive. What a combo, with the three-speed automatic. Unlike turbos of today, then they were riddled with holes and buzzes. The V6 was still a distant dream.
And to think that just twenty years earlier, Chrysler’s limo looked like this:
A grand total of 1698 of these Executives were built, and I consider myself fortunate indeed to have found this one looking for a new buyer ($6820). Oil is up; so maybe the Executive is just getting ready to find its second wind.
There’s one of these in a driveway on my sister’s street. I’d always assumed it was coach built, I never DREAMED that Chrysler built it that way on purpose! Oh the humanity!
Still, my favourite upscale Kcar was the talking New Yorker that belonged to a friends father. As the (brand new) turbo 4 struggled to idle, loping and missing, the automated voice would announce “All monitored systems are functioning normally” which would get a laugh every time.
A few years ago I was working in an office sort of on the border of San Francisco’s Tenderloin and Nob Hill districts. Weird mix of elements in that neighborhood, including various providers of “black market” goods and services and their clientele. One of these “limousettes”, in exactly the color and trim of the one profiled here, drove endlessly around the block for the whole time I worked there, every single day. I always thought he must’ve been on drugs when he bought it, too.
Completely OT, but it does make me wonder this though:
If I can spend a few hours in a neighborhood and spot the crimes, why can’t the cops?
Thats an interesting picture you paint here.
I live across the bay from you in richmond, and have exactly the same experience, just keeping an eye out the window now and then, and taking walks, its amazing the stuff you see. Just last week foiled the theft of neighbors boyfriemds old Nissan pick up, broad daylight guy in a hoodie walks up to it apparantely with keys, when challanged “hey is that your truck”?, he replied ” oh I thought this was mine”, shoved off to return a few minutes later in a car being driven by female accomplice presumably to see if I was still about. Guess that was the value of having cops walking the beat.
Man, I can’t express how much I dislike the whole K car era. Just freakin’ awful. This thing, was IMHO just ridiculous. Like Yugo making a stretch limo. Friend had a Chrysler LeBaron k car convertible. New at the time. I can attest to the rough idle, the timing always being “off” the puny turbo charger. He thought he had a “classy” gem, as it was ..GASP!” a CHRYSLER!
Was the convertible once owned by a famous actor or a dentist?
I don’t think even Mr T could feel any pity for those 1698 fools.
Allpar’s facts seem to be off a bit.
I’m curious how Lutz approved the car when he was busy at Ford bringing the Sierra across the pond as the XR4Ti. My memory says Lutz didn’t go to Chrysler until 1986. I could be wrong, but I have a feeling history may back me up.
It may be maximum K-car, but I don’t think it’s Maximum Bob.
Good point. He joined Chrysler in 1986. allpar wrong??? WTF!
Yes, it’s rare that Dr. Zatz gets it wrong.
Yeah, I thought Lutz is the one who finally pushed Chrysler away from chintzy crap like this. Which is also probably one of the reasons Iacocca didn’t like him.
How did Iacocca agree to bringing Lutz on board?
This kind of cheap, tacky chintz-mobile has Iacocca written all over it.
Maybe Mr. Lutz really did green light this for Chrysler while still at Ford. — BWAHHAHAHA!
But seriously, I remember seeing these on the ground. For the times, they kinda made sense to me, but I never really considered the limitations of the available power train choices.
How would these have compared to the contemporary Chrysler minivans in terms of engine choices vs. curb weight?
I’ve seen one in the wild. At a wrecking yard. Draw your own conclusions.
Although I’ve often thought that one of those factory limos with the 3.0ltr V6 that was used in later K-cars would be interesting in a “WTF is that?” sort of way.
That looks like a cartoon. I realize that the K-Car saved Chrysler (that particular time), but how a company that made that atrocity is still around boggles the mind. Actually, given that all American car companies (and many others) made atrocities back then, I guess Chrysler wasn’t at that much of a disadvantage. Maybe my thesis should be, “wow, the ’80s really sucked, didn’t they?”
On the other hand, that Imperial is stunning. I’d have one of those to drive, let alone be carted around in it.
Maybe I’m an unreasonable snob, but imagine being deposited at the door to some glittering affair by one of these. Oh, the humiliation…
I just think about the poor kid going to prom in it and knowing that he wouldn’t be getting to the promised land that night. I imagine that he’d also be in one of those baby-blue wide-lapel 70’s prom tuxes while everyone else was all “Miami Vice”-ed up.
One of these is prominently featured in one of the exterior shots of Dynasty, a show about the richest people in the world. I always chuckle when I see it.
Dodge Dynasty? 🙂
What a great (and rare) find. Definitely ranks right up there with the TC in the “What were they thinking?” department of Chrysler’s voluminous ‘Deadly Sin’ file. I just can’t imagine any executive foregoing a full-size Lincoln or Cadillac livery vehicle for one of these. Even as a media/publicity stunt to show how much they were saving during the high gas price era of the eighties, I can’t believe anyone would buy it.
About the only saving grace on the Lebaron limo is that it’s unlikely to have cost much in the way of development. Essentially, it was just a grungy Lebaron that was pulled off the line and outsourced to ASC. Then, after the modifications, sent out to the unlucky dealers who had to try and find buyers for them.
Speaking of which, in an odd irony, there was an almost identical number of 1970 Plymouth Superbirds built (around 1700). I’m guessing that the Lebaron limo won’t ever reach the same collectable status, though.
I remember seeing these in Manhattan in the 80s, alongside my favorite 80s limo the the stretched Volvo 740. Ideal transport for Limousine Liberals. The idea of a smaller more economical limo made sense, it’s just that the execution fell down, rather like the difference between a Pontiac Aztek and a Honda Element.
Hmmmmm, a Pontiac Aztek stretch limo….
The element had about the same lifespan as the Aztec.
I’ve never seen one of these in the wild, ick. Still see the occasional K-LeBaron, though. I don’t know how anyone could have taken these cars seriously as a premium product.
Or any Chrysler car for that matter. They absolutely owned the minivan market for years, and the last LeBaron convertible was actually kinda desirable, but the rest was just garbage. The original K was cheap and dorky, the stretched New Yorker was a cruel joke and the fact that the Omnirizon was still in production in 1990 was an embarrassment.
The original K was fine for the times. It was a crude little beast, but so were the other small FWD cars from Detroit in the 1981 time frame.
I think I prefer the Y-body Imperial.
I definitely prefer the Imperial. 🙂
Hard to believe it isnt a 9 year olds photoshop project but of course Chrysler ceased to exist on this side of the world around 1980 ,so I hadnt seen these abortions other than on TV. Wow no wonder Americans thought an awful POS like a Neon was ok.
You have to admit though that this particular example is in rather good condition!
Sometimes I wonder if Lee looked at this project as another way of shouting to his cross-town rivals “See? I can do more with less!!!” Of course, it doesn’t mean that was a good idea…
I wonder if he actually used one of these as his personal limo???
Bob Marcks claims that the convertible and the limo were about showing the investment community that Chrysler had a second act after the K car. It was dumb luck that the public was ready for (a few) convertibles again.
That first photo profile view seems like some kind of fun house mirror image caricature of a limousine and yet it is real.
Wow, I don’t get the hate for the Executive… I’m guessing no one remembers the late 1970’s and how we were constantly being told that gasoline would be $4/gallon by 1984 and we’d all be riding bicycles because we couldn’t afford the $50 fillups? Actually, it’s no better now, 30 years later…
In light of these myths, the various permutations of the K cars all make sense. $1/gallon gasoline was bad enough, but people were just about pooping themselves over the prospect of what we were being told about the future. Luckily, that future didn’t arrive for another 27 years, and without the benefit of what was being circulated at the time, these cars do seem odd. But I believe they were a rational response, and considering lead times to plan and productionize things, these were well under way when the price increases DIDNT materialize. Had fuel prices gone up as much as predicted, Iacocca would have been considered a genius. Now, not so much.
Regarding the car itself, during the 80’s and early 90’s, I used to see one regularly parked at a convent near Youngstown, OH. I don’t know if the novitiates actually traveled in the car. I did see the car traveling near the convent, going on and off the grounds, but during the mid 90’s the convent was sold and I have no idea what become of the K Limo.
You’re right on some accounts, but a luxury car should be well engineered and sturdy. The sluggish Mercedes diesels were a response which made sense. Or maybe even an M-body with a turbo 2.2.
This car will never make sense.
Yes, if a 25 gallon fill-up today were $250 we would be seeing some seriously tarted up economy cars.
It is here or almost, $1.76 per litre for regular 4.5 litres to a real gallon, but no stretched economy shitboxes yet.
I totally agree with everything you posted!! I have one of these in my driveway and trying to get back running again….that was the whole purpose of making these cars back in the days with the cost of gasoline rising and these cars were put into production for!!!….Some may groan and make snap judgement of that era…but look at the way things are!!!
Thank you for your wise words here. The vitriol against the limousine (and anything Chrysler in general) is really ignorant. Iacocca turned the company around in a fairly short time, saving thousands of jobs along with Chrysler. He had little to work with, and made the most of it. Yes, these cars look odd today, but In the context of the times, they were a solution. How might people look at the 2010’s in thirty or forty years? Gas-swilling SUV’S carrying shaved-headed guys in hoodies with AR-15’s?
I’ll take 1984 any day. (The year, not the book 😉 )
I don’t see the hate for these cars. When I was a college student in Daytona in the late 80’s early 90’s I used to call a cab company that only had these for my ride back and forth to the airport. Cost the same as other cab companies. I liked them. Offered a nice ride. For what they were they offered a decent alternative to a Towncar. I got to ride in both a turbo and normal aspirated cars and did not notice any difference between the two in the NVH department. I did wonder about the lack of seatbelts in jump seats. Used to love the jump seats in Checker Cabs in Manhattan growing up.
Hahaha! I forgot all about the Southern Komfort taxis in Daytona!
When you get out of the back of a limo, it’s supposed to convey the message “I have arrived.” When the limo is one of these, it says “I have arrived in a K-car.” The car’s utilitarian roots are inescapable. I’m sure they’d make great airport limos, but they’re not CEO-grade material.
This article reminded me of some related Chrysler trivia. I just looked quickly at Chrysler’s website and they appear to have dropped it, but Chrysler did offer an extended wheelbase version of the Chrysler 300 called the “Executive Series”. It is 6″ longer in the rear passenger compartment, which is subtle but noticeable, especially when you notice how long the back door is. It’s not quite a Ghia Imperial limo, but worlds better than the K-limo in my opinion.
Ex-President Richard Nixon Had one or two of the Limos before his death. The Board Chairman of one of the largest Tech companies ordered four for executive transportation. In their day, they were quite nice. When the competition was a 200″ stretch that couldn’t navigate city streets, it worked. I have now owned three over the years, and the only problem I encountered was the carburetor on the 2.6 engine by Mitsubishi. It was total plastic and required replacement when it failed.
My 86 LeBaron Marc Cross Convertible had this Dashboard… I can Vouch for the 2.2 Turbo Having a Whillybird Sound all its own… particularly seconds after stepping on the accelerator… when the Turbo Lag gave way to the OOMPH it gave the car.
I Grew To like the sound, as it told of a healthy and happy though meager and fairly economical engine. And Once you knew when the turbo lag would kick in, it was hard to ever really count on it.
But I felt Styling… Looking at the Chrystal Pentastar, though by 1986 it was Plastic. $450. on a 13 yr old convertible got me 2 years in a LeBaron Conv…
Well, I have one of these + a 1986 Fleetwood 75 Formal Limousine – I love them in spite of their shortcomings. But, I am just a collector – what do I know what the future will say…
I would say that the FWD Fleetwood 75 was a somewhat better attempt at this sort of vehicle — if only because it was based on a nominally full-sized car platform rather than a compact, and therefore it does not look so ridiculously narrow. It also came with twice as many cylinders under the hood — not really that much more HP, but at least the power was delivered in smoother fashion until the 4.1 engine activated its auto-destruct sequence. But even Cadillac gave up competing against the aftermarket which was busily filling the void with stretched Town Cars and stretched versions of Cadillac’s own RWD Brougham.
Would you be willing to sell your Chrysler limousine?
I am getting ready to acquire a 1986 Chrysler Executive Limo that has 90k original miles and hasn’t been driven in ten years….someone is giving it to me in exchange for help renovating a bathroom…see pic……the interior in the rear is probably 9/10…black leather seats like new…..in the front the leather seats have uniform slight cracks but a good upholstery person could probably make them appear to be 100%…..i’ll sell it to you if interested. I’m in virginia now but heading to las vegas soon…reply to this with contact info……
sold..
We’ll, here at Latin América, would be a “BOOM” as regular cab or Airport Shuttle, since doesn’t burn more gas than necesary, would be a “MUST RIDE”, for the same price, including A/C.
I’d love to have it & make a living, adding a 32′ Smart Tv and Wi-Fi internet, with nice amplified stereo speakers system, small fridge, cold fresh bottled water, providing each pass a soft drink n snack or just a shot (if they drink), FREE, to become famous, let the rumor spread and have more business, in the way of getting: the 2nd, 3rd and on…”Exactly same Executive models”.
¡¡Bon Giorno Monsieur or Madam, Welcome Aboard!!
may I ask?, WHERE ARE WE HEADING TO ??…
ALL LIMOS
FOR SALE CALL 708-874-1113 ASK FOR LARY
I own one which I haven’t used in two years. It has only drove about 50,000 miles and the interiors still fresh and looking good. The outside, though, looks bad because its only been parked on the driveway all these years. I want to sell it but I haven’t talked to anybody what it’s worth. Please help! My email is [email protected] and my name is Frank; cell #562-753-1113. Thnx a lot.
jon would you like to sell it, lary 702-874-1113
call me if you still have the limo
OK, time for a fact check – or two. Other than the first two (a Sedan and a limo) all were built by ASC of St. Louis, summer of ’83 to spring of ’86. The cars were built only after being paid for – in advance; no demos available. There were 205 Sedans built for ’83 & ’84; and 1,498 Limousines for ’83 – ’86. Majority of engines were the Mitsubishi 2.6 four. No 2.2 turbos were in Sedans, but for most of ’85-’86 Limos. Original wheelbase of K-Car was 100 inches; the Sedan was 124″ and the limo was 131″. These cars are NOT a ‘stretch,’ but are each made from the front half of a 4 door sedan (cut just 1″ behind the “B Pillar) and the back half of a coupe/sedan (cut 9” behind the “A pillar” or 2″ beind the “A Pillar, and then welded together with two steel bar supports in the lower body floor pan. The rear doors were fabricated from the original doors (front & rear). There is only one weld around the body of the car, not two as in a ‘stretch.’ I know these items: i am a friend of Bob Marcks (Special Vehicles Projects) who designed the car in the spring of 1981, built it for approval of Lee Iacocca in fall of 1981 in Mica Red, and it was shown at the NAIAS in 1982. My silver Sedan was built in December 1983, at MSRP $19,377.00, and is near perfect at nearly 141k miles: took Second in Class at the Concours d’Elegance 2010. Around town, mileage is mid-20s, on the highway, 28-32 — on regular grade fuel And there are less than 50 Sedans plus 50 Limousines known to exist (Bob Smith, editor, The Limousine Registry, in 2005). OLD CARS WEEKLY on 4 Jan 2007 proclaimed the Exeutive to be one of the few collectible cars of the 1980s. I do enjoy my rather rare car! Thank you.
That’s some pretty interesting stuff. This makes me wonder how the cars were delivered to ASC; for example, did they even bother putting drivetrains into the cars that provided the rear of the Limo? BTW, glad to hear you’re having fun with your sedan.
.
Probably was just a body-in-white for the rear with a CKD trim kit of bumpers and lights etc. The front at a guess was probably fitted with a drivetrain. As it was a proper factory model it would have had dedicated kit of parts. Did ASC have the capacity to fit the drivetrain on site after painting and trimming the body?
They were more of a utility limo, not something one would use for a wedding or a prom or anything where your looking to impress. Alot of the funeral homes in my area used them as did a few shuttle companies. I rode in one once and it was pretty darn nice once you got over the fact it was a k-car on growth hormones.
I remember being a teenager in about 1985-86 and finding about 30 or 40 of these little limo’s around someone’s rural property near Tamaqua, PA. They looked new and absolutely out of place. Never got the story on them though….
Makes you wonder if they seen an early 50’s Chrysler limo or 8 passenger sedan and thought “Hey that would be a good idea”. They should have made it on the RWD Fifth Avenue as the execution probably woulda been better!
Well, Chrysler Corporation did have a history of building eight-passenger sedans on a longer wheelbase with large rear compartments on DeSoto and Dodge chassis as well as Chrysler. Maybe some old-timer at the company at the time remembered this.
I agree, people are being WAY too hard on these cars, either you’re not old enough to remember what the car world was like in the early 80’s or you’re getting too old and your memory is failing! A 93 hp limo may seem like a total joke today, but those were the days that all Cadillacs, the full size Fleetwood/Deville and the “smaller” Seville/Eldorado were being dragged around by the 4.1L V8 (at least in 1983 is I think when that motor came in) which produced a whopping 130hp and was also known for its many reliability problems, even though GM spent a long time developing it. Well, unless of course you paid EXTRA for a disastrous GM diesel motor, I think the 350 diesels put out somewhere around 90 or 100hp! Lincoln was no better! The idea that today, you’d be able to walk into any Cadillac dealer and buy a 550+ hp Caddy that could hit nearly 200 MPH, would’ve been 100% total fantasy! (and not some wild, special order Caddy, nearly every dealer has a CTS-V sitting on the lot!)
My dad used to take a lot of business trips and the car service he usually used for rides to the airport had at least one of these cars in their fleet and I’d always ask him to request it, which they usually did provide. I loved the few minutes I’d get to spend in the back compartment before he’d leave each time, it was nice in there, especially by 80’s standards. Sure, looking back now it all seems kind of silly, like the center console that rides over the big “air tube” that provides the HVAC for the rear compartment, while the Caddy factory limos had separate rear HVAC systems, but then you were also getting quite a discount from what they charged for a Caddy limo, too. As compared to riding to the airport in another Town Car or Fleetwood, this was a pretty nice ride back then!
Its a long shot but my fathers been in the market to sell his 86 Chrysler limo executive located in south Ontario niagra falls area I was hoping someone might know where would be a good place to start other than auto trader and kijiji
is it in good shape?
Hi Mark,
You have one of this Chrysler Limos in Ontario, Canada?
Is it for Sale and if it’s how much are you asking?
Please let me know.
Thank you!
Regards,
Mike
I have a 1986 Chrysler Exec. Limo that is now sitting in my barn that I have just taken out of storage that was on concrete and would consider an offer. It needs a starter. If there is an inquiry I will uncover it and open the doors, dust it off and take a pic and send a photo.
Hi I was wondering if you still have a Chrysler limousine for sale?
Words fail me,was anyone who was behind this given the boot?
We often talk derisively about the Cadillac Cimarron. But I think if Cadillac had introduced a limousine comparable to this LeBaron Limo, they would have never lived it down. IMO, it does go to show, many of us did expect a lot more from GM. At least into the 1980s. The Cimarron half-heartedly attempted to show European sport sedan pretentions. Not this little limo.
When I was a kid in the 70s, I used to think of GM as a sports dynasty, like the 1950s New York Yankees. More was expected from them, than Ford or Chrysler. It worked both ways, they benefited from that reputation… but they also had to live up to it. That’s where they got into trouble in the 80s IMO. Living up to that rep.
Today, I look at this Chrysler limo largely as a curiousity. Not a serious limousine contender. But a parody or an imitation. I certainly don’t think Chrysler wanted it to be perceived that way back in 1984. But the uncertain future and gas prices played a role for all car makers. They all risked their long term credibility in sending out cars like this one.They were brave, brazen and contemptuous at once… haha
(I do like how Paul posts the most controversial articles on holidays. People at least have more time to debate these polarizing cars. Haha)
I agree with you, if GM put out a FWD, compact “limo”, they would’ve received far greater backlash. Chrysler on the other hand was known to have limited resources (especially still recovering from near death several years earlier). They had much less to apologize for with the Executive than GM or even Ford. The Executive was like a “we tried” product.
In business, (and life), you go through a lot of bad ideas as you come up with the good ideas.
Former President Richard Nixon had a K Car Limousine??!!
http://forum.chryslerkcar.com/viewtopic.php?f=42&t=5156
I doubt it was because he thought it was a car he needed.
Likely more a show of support/friendship for Lee Iacocca, I would guess.
… or it was a gift.
Seems appropriate somehow…
I remember seeing quite a few of these around D.C. in the 80’s. I’m assuming politicians wanting to show they were being frugal by riding in the “economy” limo.
These bring back good memories though, for a lot of us that graduated in the 80’s, this was THE limo you got for your prom, either it was all they had or you got quite the discount in getting one of these over a town car or bigger limo.
I can just hear the background music of “I Melt With You” from Modern English playing from the movie “Valley Girl” (they use a K Car limo in the final prom getaway scene)
I remember reading somewhere (Collectible Automobile Magazine maybe?) that Iacocca essentially conceived and greenlighted this car to give/sell to other executive (no pun intended) friends and hotels. I don’t think he ever intended it to sell in large numbers to livery fleets or private owners.
One has to wonder why a factory M-body limousine was never produced in the ’80s. The tooling was certainly paid off by then and the Fifth Avenues were selling like hotcakes then. Not to mention that they were RWD, V8 powered, and much roomier.
Even before the M-Body, there was a ‘limo’ version of the Chrysler F-Body Volare… : )
Several 1981-83 Imperials were also converted to limousines. They actually look pretty good.
I agree, it looks pretty good.
But more a Hollywood limo than a presidential limo… I see Barry Manilow or Milton Berle riding around in this one at the time. Haha
Not far off.
Sinatra had one. Richard Dawson arrives at the studio in one in the movie Running Man.
I remember seeing the rear suspensions on so many K-cars and X-cars bottomed out, when they had as little as two people in the rear. Or trailer towing.
You’d have to assume they had self-leveling suspension installed in these?
I have to admit, this limo reminds me of how Hollywood may have portrayed the presidential limo for a banana republic. With Bill Murray in full decoration and dark sunglasses emerging from the rear. And Harry Dean Stanton as the limo driver. haha
As silly as these things are, they do have a novelty actor that makes them kinda cool- in a funky, offbeat way.
I’ve seen stretched Mercedes W123 diesels before, and even a couple of stretched early Cressidas.
Laugh all you want. Then go back and look at a 1934 Brewster limousine. Yeah, a full-blown limo based on a Ford V-8 chassis, hopefully the 85hp version. It rationale for existence is that a lot of rich people found it kinda undesirable to be showing off in a Pierce Arrow when you had a 25% unemployment rate.
The Chrysler seems to be about the same thing, only for slightly different reasons. And the Brewster succeeded. Or did it? I’ve seen quite a few pictures of those cars (never saw one in the metal), but none of the attached blurbs or articles ever said anything about how many were actually sold.
If a leader rode around in a stretched K-Car, it would look almost like he is pandering to, or mocking the average Joe in their mundane Dodge Aries. Suggesting the wealthy leader can “relate” to common people. Rather than being discreet, this extended K-car draws more attention. I think it would totally backfire.
Or just ride in a discreet, quality large sedan.
To take what is obviously a K-car to everyone, and attempt to turn it into a limo,
Is going to draw very mixed reactions. A stretched Lincoln or Cadillac would blend in better than this K-car. And the average person would totally expect politicians or leaders to ride in a Lincoln or Cadillac. In 1984, it was the default U.S. limo, as it was since the 1930s.
A Lincoln or Cadillac is the default limo… people expect them.
No African cannibal-dictator of the era would have been caught dead in a jokemobile K-Car limo. They all had the gravitas-uber-alles Mercedes 600 or S-Class.
This vehicle was a cheap prom-night rental at best — the Yugo of limos.
I think you are right about that Daniel- any limo will send a clear message about elitism in a frugal era! Better to have a discreet Buick or Olds 98…
Recalling when these were introduced having that kicked-in-the-gut feel, as if Chrysler and limousines had hit a new low. But, we were in the midst of the hideously stretched white Town Car/Fleetwood Brougham era so any asinine ideas got a go.
This thing would have been perfect for clown funerals. I can imagine 30 or 40 clown mourners spilling out of it when they arrived at the cemetery.
+1
+2
One of the rumors I remember reading about this was that Iacocca had a friend who owned a limo company in NYC who suggested that he build this….
Iacocca really had hideous taste in product. The Sinatra-edition Imperial and the Maserati TC were his personal projects.
The K-cars were acceptable in the early 80s as a corporate resuscitation project but Chrysler rode them way too long, almost to re-destruction in the late 80s with tacky crap like this limo and the Dodge Dynasty. They just screamed cheapness.
It might have been Bill Fugasy.
It was Bill Fugazy, who had a fleet of these beasts in NYC until he ran into ‘difficulties’, even though he was supported by a bunch of his ‘pals’, one of which was undoubtedly Iacocca. I remember each car had a little chrome light on top, shaped like an old coach light.
I’m sure the relationship was ‘mutually beneficial’.
Somebody please kill it. There were many good things to come out of the 80s but that’s not one of them.
This post reminds me of a similar project undertaken by Toyota in the late 80’s. The car was based on a Corolla 4-door, and they called it the Toyota Sprinter Limousine Sedan. I think only about 100 were made, and I’m not sure if any have survived. I used to have a photo of one that was given a bosozoko-style customization, but I must have lost it when the cat ate my homework and lightning struck my house.
However, I was able to locate a photo of a prototype Limo that was put together by General Motors, but was actually based on the Sprinter Limousine Sedan. It was called the Geeeeeeeeo Prizm Limousine. Sadly, one of Roger Smith’s last acts as CEO of GM was to veto this project.
Smart move by Roger, in order to maintain his legacy. : )
I think I’ve seen this auto somewhere before…
Brilliant Mike! 😀
Hey that’s Betsy!
I mean, Bettsssyyy 🙂
It’s all true, guys. Every single word of it.
Holy cow, that back door is huge! There’s no way you could enter or exit through that door if the car was parked in an average Walmart parking lot, even if the guy in the next space had a Yugo centered in his spot! 😱
Then again, if this was supposed to be a limosine, it would be pulled up to the front door of the store, probably blocking all the customers’ way in or out!
And the “limo” driver would never deign to park in a regular space, anyway. After dropping off his client, he’d likely go way around to the empty far back corner of the parking lot and wait to be summoned.
I actually have had a ride in one of these K-Car “limousines.” A friend whose father is a car auction addict picks up all sorts of ultra-cheap classics, and one was K-Car limo. It may have been one of the cars that gumbypiz saw during the 1980s, since it was a local DC area car when new.
My impression of the car from my brief ride in it several years ago is that it was decently laid out and trimmed inside, but that the interior was hopelessly too small — too short fore and aft, and too narrow — because of its K-Car foundation. I thought that the designers and workmen did the best that they could but must have been shaking their heads at the task that they were given by their superiors.
The same family has a 1969 Cadillac Fleetwood 75 limousine that I have had many rides in. The contrast could not be more extreme between two cars with essentially the same purpose in life.
Our local Chrysler Plymouth dealer in Florissant, MO at the time – Goddard – had one of these on the lot. I don’t recall seeing it stick around very long, as it sold, but never saw another one. Our salesman had me experience all the various iterations of the K platform through the decade and I even got to drive a few.
Youngsters on here can laugh about some of the 1980’s cars, but as Syke above stated, it was a different time and the K-Car was the hit of the early 80’s. Smaller cars were all the rage, and the K-Car LOOKED like a REAL car – a three-box sedan, proportioned pretty well, all things considered.
No use trying to fully explain it, I suppose you had to be there…
We owned K-Cars all through the 1980s, from our 1981 Reliant to our 1984 E-Class and on to our 1990 Acclaim. They all served us well, even though I secretly wanted a B-body Impala, but fuel economy to us was king at the time.
I agree, I was there too. I think the appeal of the K-car, in almost all versions, was that it was a very honest car. It was externally small, but roomy inside. And had the luxury touches, most buyers came to expect in cars. They were adequate in most areas and served most people very well.
But at the time, I think everyone would know these limos were based on the Reliant/Aries. Seeing them as limos was charming, but more of a head shaker in some ways. As K-cars were small cars.
I did find it interesting at the time the way Chrysler started to more heavily brand the “Pentastar” logo on their cars. Similar to how Mercedes-Benz applied their star… grille, trunk lid, hood ornament. The hub caps on this limo are very Mercedes inspired. Even the model nomenclature and the way model badges appeared on cars, seemed very Mercedes-like.
At the time, I found Chrysler’s marketing audacious more than anything. Like the scrappy underdog, they were. I knew people that owned various models. But you had to wonder if they were as good as the marketing lead you to believe. They were very honest and durable… but not necessarily the small American Mercedes, the marketing wanted us to believe.
I wouldn’t mind having one of these. I find the interior very attractive reminds me of my ’72 Imperial’s interior but in scale. Was the build quality any better than other K cars?
Please contact me direct or provide an e-mail address. Thanks, ne
I may have one of the nicest one of these left in existence. It is all white with blue ‘Corinthian’ leather. Still smells new inside. 60k original miles. Was ordered by a friend and local physician, and only one of two delivered to the state of Washington. Has a tv antenna, but because of digital tv, is problematic. I had some oversized custom wheels on it, but have reverted to the originals with matching wheel covers. If you are interested (I think it belongs in a Chrysler dealer showroom) it can be seen on Craig’s list Seattle.
Hi
I was wondering if you still have a Chrysler limousine for sale?
I do.
I have an 83 sedan that i may put up for sale?
Depends if i lose my lease on storage.
I’m glad to see Nicholas Essinger has helped set the record straight. I know Nick and his Executive Sedan, which is a metallic-silver type color and looks really nice. The interior is better in those cars than about 90 percent of today’s gray or black dime-store stuff.
I would judge most of the snarky comments come from people who never had any real experience with them, just hearsay. In my nearly 75 years I’ve had just about every type car, and Chryslers were no worse than any others
I read the comments from Nicholas several months ago.
I see this as a custom, low production curiosity for limo operator fleets trying to save money. Whether those savings are passed on to customers? Who knows. Buying it when new, would be considered speculating I’d say. Is it not the rarity of these, that makes them collectable?
I find it kind of misleading that they would sell what is basically a compact family economy car, as a high quality (I certainly won’t say premium) limousine. It is almost a parody of what most limousine buyers would expect, given the size and it’s humble origins.
I think it would be brazen for a limo service to try to charge LIncoln or Cadillac rates for this smaller, less prestigious limo.
I have to think that everyone here who’s looking at these as being serious entries into the market for factory limos in the early/mid 80’s is a bit off here. I’m thinking it was a bit more of maybe a styling exercise that one way or another made its way off of the drawing board and into very limited production. I’d guess that the styling exercise began as just looking to see what extreme they could take their “gussification” of the K-Car up to, they were already making the LeBaron model and around this time moved even farther up-market with the K-Car based New Yorker.
If you think about it, these cars cost Chrysler nearly nothing to produce in the big picture of making cars in the modern auto industry. They didn’t have to retool any assembly lines or do all of the other things one must do when introducing either an entirely new model or a variant on an existing model that will be produced in larger numbers. It looks like all they really had to do was ship a couple of LeBaron coupes (or is it a coupe and a sedan?) to ASC, nearly everything else is still off the shelf Chrysler parts. I suppose ASC fabricated the “doghouse” going between the front seats that so inconspicuously (just kidding!) hides the climate control ducts and whatever else they have going to the rear compartment, as well as those flimsy looking jump seats, so Chrysler didn’t have to even pay out for that stuff.
Could it have been a placeholder to prove ChryCo was still in the business of such vehicles until some more realistic platform became available? A theroretical LWB LH series that never appear in 1988 might have fitted the bill as a replacement…
Davve, you are spot on.
ASC, which stood for Automotive Sunroof Conversions, was Chrysler’s go-to for show cars at the time, thanks to ASC’s convenient location in St. Louis (where Chrysler has a huge assembly plant) and the fact that Iacocca was trying to get Chrysler some publicity and good feelings by resurrecting the convertible, an ASC specialty.
The limo market was pretty hot at the time, and while Chrysler ceased to be a major player in the market when its full sized New Yorker went out of production after ’81 in favor of the Le Baron Fifth Avenue Edition (which became the last rear drive New Yorker in ’82, then the Fifth Avenue when the New Yorker went front wheel drive), Imperial stretches and Fifth Avenue stretches did continue to be made. But there was no money for the carmakers in that market. They sold sedans to the conversion market awfully cheap, mostly because it was a way to elevate the status of their sedans. There’s a reason Cadillac would be out of the factory-bodied limo market by the time these went out of production.
Size had equalled status in the U.S. for decades, and people bought tuna boats because it was expected of them, even though lousy drivers had a habit of bashing all four fenders off. Somehow, even that was part of the status game. That began to change, slowly, with the two seat T-Bird, the Riviera, the Grand Prix/Monte Carlo, and etc. The fuel crunch hastened it, as did the increasing popularity of Mercedes-Benz, and more and more people found that driving a tuna barge was not only becoming socially unacceptable in the ‘we must all do our part’ fuel crisis era, but it was a lot like work.
Iacocca, who was not a car guy (which is a shame because car guys were Chryslers base customers at the time, and he did a lot to divorce Chrysler from its most fervent patrons) and he always liked ’em small (he did invent the Mustang and the minivan). Iacocca had nothing to do with developing the Aries/Reliant, but they convinced him to get on board, because he knew all he had to do was convince bankers to loan Chrysler enough money to survive until they came out, and he would get huge bonuses for it. They weren’t as fun to drive as the Aspen/Volare, but Iacocca couldn’t drive, so the distinction was lost on him. The Aries/Reliant were alleged to be as roomy as the Aspen/Volare they replaced, but not only were they much narrower, they really did lack leg room. This was measured in space behind the front seat when it was all the way back, and while the older cars’ front seats would adjust far enough back to make Wilt ‘the Stilt’ Chamberlain happy, the K-cars were more limited. So, the narrowness and lack of hip and shoulder room was exacerbated by a rear seat with only enough legroom for kids.
Chrysler didn’t have the money at the time to develop a wider front drive platform, but the idea did occur to people that they could lengthen the platform and solve the leg room problem. This did require an investment of time and money. Meanwhile, they were already offering the new front drive LeBaron for upper middle class people whose back seats were seldom used by adults anyway, and they had to find a way to convey some sense of status to such small but luxurious cars. They also wanted to generate interest in their upcoming narrow, front drive sedans with much, much more legroom (more than the Cadillac Fleetwood, eventually).
This and the need for some kind of special show car were the impetus behind the cash-strapped Chrysler looking to do something interesting with the LeBaron. Splicing the front half of a LeBaron to another LeBaron coupe body was really easy and cheap to do, and the result conveyed status to the new LeBaron line. It also was a way for car show personnel to gather reactions and give back to the executives a sense of how the market would react to a narrow car without the usual excess at each end, but with plenty of legroom inside.
And that would have been the whole story, except two interesting things happened. First, the executive sedan market took off and all manner of taxi companies jumped in, making it hard to stand out in a new market. Many of these taxi fleet owners saw these things at the show, and with gas prices as high in inflation-adjusted terms as it had ever been and would ever be to present, and the fact that executive car services only rarely need to haul a lot of luggage, they decided they wanted those cars. And ASC told Chrysler how cheaply they could make them on an as-needed basis.
And the rest is history.
These things were never intended to replace the stretch limo. They were show cars designed to convey status on the LeBaron series and to be a cheap way to stand out. And when dozens of fleet owners expressed a strong interest, and ASC turned out to be ready, willing and able to convert them right now and cheaply enough to undercut the Cadillac factory limo price by several thousand dollars, Chrysler said, why not?
And it’s a fair question. Why not?
The painted hubcaps suggest the probable target for this design, a stretch W123. Like a stretch W123 the K limo wouldn’t typically used to prove wealth (and probably saw a lot of fleet/specialty use). I don’t think I’d want to drive one without being paid, that’s for sure.
On proms and other occasions, weren’t novelty limos with hot tubs, etc., starting to enter the market around this time? There’s now entirely separate markets for serious and play limos, right? And unlike a Panther chassis (or, later, a Hummer) you can’t make a play limo out of this car by stretching it more.
I bought my 1984 Ex Limo from the Inn at Market in Seattle 25 years ago. Great road car, Very comfortable for two or three passenger plus driver. I liked leather upholstery and the leg room is spectacular, The jump seats are the ottomans.
As of lately this ride stays in the warm in the winter with some other low production auto: 1926 Pierce Arrow, Wilson Coupe (only handful made), and 1955 Cameo,
The parking is a breeze and the economy is tops. This ride was plush and tunes were rock & roll.
I believe you all are missing out on a bargain… Reading the for sale sign, I see it as asking for 2850, not 6820 🙂
The icing on the cake would have been if Chrysler offered it with a manual trans. and crank windows.
Great article! Here is a photo showing the design differences between the Limousine and the Executive Sedan (from allpar.com).
If I needed a limousine back in its day, and the company sent me this, I`d demand a bigger car and/or a refund!
Ah…the Executive Limo. What a great car. I have just finished restoring the very first 1984 Executive Limo built. The actual “Pilot Car” built on the last day of 1983 production as a 1984 model. It has an automatic trunk closing mechanism, no door locks on the rear doors and was up fitted with s phone antenna in the center of the trunk lid. Lot of neat differences between this car and the actual production models, it sits on the showroom floor of my dealership for viewing with only 66,000 miles on it. It also has the rare rear sear ventilation remote duct control option which was later dropped for production models. It rides like a dream, used it in my daughters wedding in Oct. 2016 Wow…a one of one car. I love it.
If you want to see it, or discuss the executive series described in the previous post, with an enthusiast, call me at eight six oh, eight three six, eight six oh six or go to Papa’s Dodge in New Britain CT. Kay jay pee eye rrr oh cee at aye oh ell dot com. I have another limo built almost a year later that is simular but different. The vin for the pilot car is 1c3bc55g1eg100052 and is non-conforming to the 1984 model year vin’s. that is how you can tell it is a pilot car. The MDH is 0714 or July 14th, which as during the 1983 model year. Really cool.
In the context of the times these cars make a lot more sense. Iaccoca was a showman, and these stretched K’s gave him something to show off. People were talking about them. They gave Chrysler a bold “Yes we’re back” sort of swagger. I think that they were very much an attempt to prove that Chrysler was not only off of life support but just how versatile the K chassis was. They were like a Ford Model T/A Town Car for the 80’s.
Yeah, these seem silly today, but back in the day, they don’t seem any more silly than a Pinto-based Mustang II in 1974, which was a huge success (at least for that first year). Ironically, the Mustang II was also an Iacocca effort.
The idea that the Chrysler limo wasn’t intended to be a big seller, but more of a halo vehicle seems accurate. I doubt it was an accident that the amount made was approximately enough to get at least one into every showroom.
There have been some good comments over the years on this CC and one of my favorites was the one which compared the K-car limo to the minivan. They were both either 5- or 7-passenger FWD vehicles so, theoretically, the market could have been the same, kind of like an ersatz luxury ride for the children of more aspirational soccer moms. In fact, I wonder how a station wagon version of the Chrysler limo would have went over. IIRC, the FWD Lebaron Town and Country wagon was a fairly good seller. Sinatra even traded his troublesome Imperial for one, which was supposedly his ride for occasional grocery store runs (link: http://www.curbsideclassic.com/automotive-histories/automotive-history-the-cars-of-frank-sinatra/ ).
Or the fact that it was a cheap build for Chrysler to simply have ASC do the work on a limited run to see how it went over. I doubt Iacocca lost any money on the project. Of course, I suspect that an expensive K-car was something of a tough sell at Chrysler dealers. But, then, Iacocca was smart in that there were no Lebaron K-car sedans, either, at least not until the FWD New Yorker which, frankly, seems like the 5-passenger Executive Limo’s successor. Plus, the smaller size of the K-car limo could actually be a benefit in maneuvering within congested, urban areas, as opposed to a full-size Caddy or Lincoln livery vehicle.
Taken as a whole, the K-car limousine doesn’t really seem entirely as goofy as it would first appear.
Yes! Yes! Yes!
A hundred comments and six years in, and someone gets it!
This was Chrysler and the auto business emerging from near death a few years earlier, and Chrysler was putting on a little swagger with these as much as anything. They showed up in some full-line advertising, and were part of Chrysler building a full line of cars from the K: sedans, wagons, coupes, convertibles and even a stretch sedan and limo!
Folks that think Chrysler was taking this undertaking seriously are missing the fact that the factory limo business was almost non-existent at the time, and officially died off a handful of years later – at least at U.S. domestic producers. Iaccoca couldn’t have been seriously looking for volume as much as he was experimenting with the market and creating more buzz around Chrysler. If the car had taken off, so much the better!
For as much comment as those 1,600 or so cars have produced here, I think the master showman can take a bow!
Ugh. No thanks. Gimme a Volvo 164TE instead, please and thank you.
It’s hard to believe that this is the same company that made the Valiant.
But not so hard to believe it’s the same company that made the Volare.
Touché!
They are cute in a “mini-me” sort of way. I think the Executive Sedan has better proportions than the Limousine, however.
And the Executive Sedan is actually rather rare. According to Wikipedia, there were only a total of 205 examples built for production in the two year, ’83-’84 run (and only nine of them in 1983).
So, for the most rare, one need only search for a one-of-nine 1983 car.
Ive got an 83 sedan.
Seems under powered, pain in the rear to park with the small rear window
In 1984 I was eleven and one of my best friend’s dad worked for Chrysler. He took us out to the Chelsea, Michigan proving grounds for some sort of open house day. He got his hands on a 1984 Dodge Charger Shelby and gave us a full tour of the proving grounds, including a 120mph ride on the high speed track.
I remember seeing a couple of these limos in the display area. At the time they made sense, even to my eleven year old mind, considering the fuel crunch and the direction of auto design at the time. While a K-car seems small today, it was mid-size at the time. Basing a limo on such a car may seem misguided now, I can still see the logic from a 1984 viewpoint.
If Lee Iaccoca had managed VW, perhaps he would have dreamed of this.
check out this one https://chicago.craigslist.org/sox/cto/6058417890.html
This whispers subtle elegance without being ostentatious, like a JC Whitney catalog to the back of the head at 88mph.
My dad recently passed and he has a 1983 Chrysler Exec Limo. I remember driving in it and it was a smooth ride. Just thought I’d share this rare one, only two of these produced from what I know.
The Chrysler Limousine1983-1986, was exported to Colombia, South America ?, Thanks for your response
IMO, THESE CARS COULD HAVE BEEN A BIGGER HIT IF MARKET ED RIGHT.THEY ARE PERFECT TAXI CABS!!! LOTS OF LEG ROOM AND GOOD GAS MILEAGE TO BOOT.Sure Beat 12 Miles Per Gallon In Lincoln Town Car…
What you may not know is that I ( a true Chrysler enthusiast) love these cars and recently rescued the prototype “pilot” car for the 1984 model year run. It was believed to be built on the last day of 1983 Model year production at the St. Louis plant in Fenton MIsouri as a 1984 model, making it a “1 of None Pilot Car. The last 6 of the VIN is 100052 making it the 52 Pilot Car built for the 1984 Model year against all assembly plants. (Can anyone confirm the VIN sequence for me). The car has been repainted and restored to its original look and runs and drives great. This could be the actual car that appears in all of the publicity and showroom brochure photos. A great find for a bygone era. Call me if you have any info on how this car was built as some of the unique components were etch dated in March and April of 1983. Ken 8608368606 [email protected] 9/19
Trunk looks miserable for a limo !
Is this for sale?
(first posted 4/8/2011)
CC Effect: Although this article was from years ago, I recalled it the other day when I read the article linked below on Motor Trend.
Somehow, I am on Motor Trend’s mailing list, presumably from attending their International Auto Show a few years ago. (They used to send me the printed version of their magazine.)
Anyway, when this article popped up on MT, I immediately knew I read about these limos before, right here on CC… and then this rerun appears. The CC Effect never ceases to amaze me.
https://www.motortrend.com/features/chrysler-history-k-car-limousine-executive-sedan/?lid=2mxbsj4lv7gv
In either 1983, or more likely, 1984, a friend’s dad took us out to the Chrysler proving grounds for family and friends day. There was a showroom of sorts, and a couple of these Executives were there. As a ten or eleven year old with little/no limousine experience, it was fairly exciting to be able to crawl around in a limo of any sort. Based on that experience, I have always had a soft spot for these cars.
As an aside, the friend’s father was John “Jack” Pointer, who is credited with designing the Dodge Daytona, among many other accomplishments. He took his son and me out to the proving grounds in a new Dodge Daytona or Plymouth Laser turbo and gave us a full tour of the proving grounds, including a 120+mph lap of the big oval track.
Iacocca’s thought behind these cars wasn’t exactly original. Packard did the same thing, using Henney to produce a limited run of limousines back in the mid 50’s.
Really, somebody ought to buy one of these and hot-rod it with one of those insane turbo engine builds one sees, and go racing with it.
“… the projections in 1980 were that oil would just keep zooming up.”
Car & Driver predicted most of America to be driving compact cars with manuals. Panthers, GM B/C body were supposed to get dropped after 1983. The Fox body LTD was supposed to be “new family car”, replaced by Taurus.
Minivans kind of changed that, also stable gas prices. And, Jeep XJ Cherokee, S-10 Blazer, and Bronco II ignited SUV boom.
What if Chrysler used the K-car New Yorker body instead of the LeBaron for the limousine? This idea could have looked better and offer more room inside. The LeBaron coupe roof doesn’t give that “Look” of a limousine as the New Yorker roof would have had.
Something fascinating about these K-car limos is how few were built, yet are still around today (and in really decent shape, to boot).
I guess it makes sense, too. I mean, who the hell would be driving one of these around as regular, daily transportation? It’s not exactly like they’d work for any kind of typical livery service, either. I can’t imagine anyone desiring to rent a limo for a formal occasion choosing to use an old K-car limo.
IOW, they didn’t sell when new, and they fall flat in the collectable market, as well.