1983 Chrysler LeBaron convertible: A Roadway Disaster

This is very confusing.  Chrysler has, for a while now, been creation  pseudo-luxury cars. Even today, the  Chrysler  300 S has become a “poor man’s Bentley.” And even though those cars are far from perfect, they do, at least have a few redeeming features. The new ones have started to look nice, and has become comfy pseudo-cars in a line up that even includes a 5.7L V8 powered Sedan. But that’s not what we are here to look at today. Today, we are here to look at the odd and dumpy attempt at class that was the infamous 1983 Chrysler LeBaron.

Hmmm, where to start with this one. Well, with a car this awkward and dumpy looking, there isn’t really a good place to start. Every possible starting point is as bad as the next. So, here it goes.

First off, did someone forget to tell the folks at Chrysler that boats belong on water and not on land? Seriously, look at the second photo, the one angled from the back of the vehicle. It you were to cut off the wheels and fill in the gaps where they are supposed to go, put it on the water and you it would take a stretch of the imagination to think it was anything but a boat. The metal rack and the wood paneling on the side signal even more that this thing belongs on the water and not on land.

And the comparisons to large seagoing vehicles don’t stop there. The boat aspect of the design appears to have worked it’s way into the way the boat... uh, I mean car, handles. Cornering this thing was a nightmare. Not least due to the horrible weight of this thing. Never before has a four wheeled vehicle been flipped so easily whilst going around a gentle curve at 15 to 20 Miele an hour. And if you thought trying to get it to go around simple curves, bends, and turns, was bad, wait until you try to dive the thing in a straight line after only six months of owning the vehicle. It gets ugly fast. The ‘83 LeBaron didn’t react well to  wear and tear to begin with, but the steering in the vehicle took a particularly bad hit. After only 7 months or so of driving the  convertible shitbox, drivers expressed complaints that the vehicle wouldn’t drive in a straight line anymore.

It was an absolute nightmare. Not to mention the horrible excuse for a  canopy roof  found on the convertible version. The roof tended to rip open seemingly out of nowhere, when,  in actuality, all that had happened was that a small gust of wind had blown the wrong way across the roof. The paper-bag style quality of the roof is what lead to so many material replacements and taped up holes on the vehicle, and became one of the reasons why America, and the rest of the world, would like to forget about this horrible hunk of junk and put it out to sea where it belongs... and then sink it with a cruise  missile.