1994 Chrysler New Yorker - Driven Like a New Yorker Would

One of these came roaring past me the other day on 680 west of Youngstown, Ohio doing like ninety  and zig zagging in and out and around slower traffic. I was like, "Wow. I don't know if I'd be going that fast in a twenty-six year old Chrysler New Yorker." I was also like, "That is still a great looking car". 

Chrysler's 1994-1997 "New Yorker" was part of their much ballyhooed "LH" series of cars that first came out in 1993 mercifully replacing a significant amount of K-car vestiges. There was a whole gaggle of them among, at the time, three of Chrysler's then four automobile divisions including Chrysler (the division), Dodge and the late Eagle division. Plymouth didn't get one which probably indicated to anyone working for Plymouth they should get their resume together.

For 1993 Dodge had their Intrepid and Eagle had their Vision; yes that was the literal name of their LH sedan. Chrysler, again, the division, had the Concorde and for 1994 launched the LHS and it's more luxurious twin, the New Yorker. I liked all the LH's but was most fond of the stretched wheel base LHS and New Yorker. While certainly no 1976-1978 New Yorker or some of the more tasteful NYer's of yore, it went along way towards assuaging the pain and angst caused by the "R-body" and "K-car" based models of the '80's and early '90's. Ding dong the yee old literal shit box was dead.

All LH's were surprisingly nice riding and handling cars that in their time and having just a modest V-6, as I saw with that maniac on 680 this week, could really go. What made the LHS and New Yorker special for me was their styling. I usually don't find four door sedans appealing but the rear roof lines and tapered hood on these had me at hello. Me thinks that Ford took an inspiration or two from these cars when they redrew their Lincoln Town Car for 1998.

Compared to the blocky Cadillac's of the time and the oh-so-Taurus Continental, Chrysler had a cutting edge design that they claimed was inspired by the classic lines of the Bugatti Type 57SC. Automobile pundits back then a tad less generous of praise saying that it reminded them of classic Jaguar saloons of the '50s and '60's. Still, not too shabby a comparison. Regardless, it got my attention and the speeding New Yorker the other day got my attention too.

These were unique front wheel drive automobiles in their day what with their engines being longitudinally mounted as opposed to being transverse. The design gave Chrysler the flexibility to make rear wheel drive and all wheel drive models if they so chose. The freakishly awesome and highly flawed Plymouth\Chrysler Prowler was a rear wheel drive retro whatever based on a rear wheel drive adaptation of the LH platform. Chrysler never made a four wheel drive version LH.

The relatively odd engine arrangement, hearkening back to the days of GM's "Unitized Power Package" where the torque was routed out the back of the transmission through a transfer case to the front wheels, first appeared on something called the Eagle Premier. Based on a Renault design, when Chrysler bought AMC back in the late 1980's from Renault part of the deal was that Chrysler had to honor all automobile contracts that AMC was part of. That meant they had to market and sell the sedan Renault was working on at the time of sale with AMC; that car became the Eagle Premier. Chrysler baked up the "Eagle" division so as not to shoehorn another Chrysler sedan into showrooms still clogged with K-cars and their various off shoots. Eagle didn't last long with Chrysler pushing it out of the nest after 1998.

Somewhere along the way someone at Chrysler had the good sense to realize that the Eagle Premier was actually a robustly engineered automobile with a powerful engine and cavernous interior. While its styling left a lot to be desired, it proved to be more than an ample underpinning to an entire fleet of automobiles that would finally put the K-car out to pasture.It also helped Chrysler out of the financial dire straits the company found itself in after the K-car lost its luster. Some things never change.

Chrysler being Chrysler of course, things didn't work out exactly according to plan. Blame economies of scale - had these been GM or even Ford designs they would have popped these out like popcorn . Tiny Chrysler couldn't get enough of them out there to really make a dent in a wobbly domestic luxury sedan market. Also, ill-planned marketing failed to position them properly. They looked nice but lacked the cache of even Buick so who and what buyer were they going after? Bargain basement pricing didn't help either. Chrysler retooled all the LH's after 1997 pulling the plug on the New Yorker nameplate; a brand that hand been around since 1940.

Just as well. Being a "New Yorker" myself, I never quite understood what the nameplate was supposed to imply Yes, I get that it was to co-notate class and "luxury" but honestly, if you're from the area, you know that there's nothing overtly special about "New Yorkers" aside from being lucky and being born there. Then there's the obnoxious stereotype that's hard to tap down. To those who visit perhaps there is some allure but I digress. Nonetheless, it was good to see one of these the other day being driven like a New Yorker would drive one.

1976 Pontiac Grand Prix - Cream and Buckskin

"Cream-gold and buckskin" is not my favorite color combination but I can make an exception when it comes to a personal luxury car from the mid 1970's. Especially a Pontiac Grand Prix at the height of its leisure suit powers. This 1976 GP here is all but rental grade with no bucket seats or console shifter and just the Pontiac "350 2-barrel" stuffed under it's gigantic hood but with just sixty-six thousand some odd miles on her, not a spec of rust and priced reasonably at $6995 it's worthy of a tire kick or ten.

Personal luxury cars were the aspirational, luxury cross-over of the 1970's. High on style and rife with the pretense of sportiness if not a modicum of driving finesse, these were the types of cars that wannabee junior executives, the fashion conscious and anyone wanting to stick out from the crowd drove. Personally, I could care less about the statement they made; I just love 'em.

The Pontiac Grand Prix didn't start out as a "personal luxury car". First debuting in 1962, it was a "sporty" full-size car intended to liven up a Pontiac lineup that was construed as being old and stodgy.

Using the same shortened GM "B-body" wheelbase the Ventura used, which it replaced, '62-'64 Grand Prix' were available available only as a two-door hard top, featured a squared off formal roof line, bucket seats, a console mounted transmission shifter and could be ordered with a brace of "389" Pontiac V-8's making between three hundred and three and three hundred forty eight horsepower. The crux of the image of the Grand Prix was performance which was usurped by the mid-size GTO come 1964.

Along with all the other GM full size makes and models, Grand Prix was totally redesigned for 1965.  Still riding on a proprietary, shortened GM chassis, from 1965 to 1968 Grand Prix shared much of the same "coke bottle" styling other full size Pontiac's did save for a more squared off roof line. It was available exclusively as a two-door. Grand Prix was now marketed first and foremost as a luxury car and any leftover performance swagger was indirectly implied.

In an attempt to revitalize a nameplate that had become just another Pontiac model, for 1969, Grand Prix was "downsized" becoming a mid-size "sport-luxury" model built on the longer wheelbase, four-door and wagon version of GM's new for 1968 intermediate chassis. While somewhat smaller than prior models, the '69 Grand Prix was nearly four inches longer than other Pontiac intermediates like the LeMans, Tempest and GTO with its additional length all in front of the firewall with a "heroically" long hood.

Allegedly, GM designers used cues from grand touring cars from the 1930's as inspiration for the '69 GP's exaggerated, overt styling; Chevrolet doing the same with their 1970-1977 Monte Carlo. All these years later, much like the Lincoln Continental Mark III-VIII's "trunk hump", the inspiration for those styling vestiges is all but lost to the ages. Pictured above is a 1971 GP; love these old painted brochures that went the way of the tailfin in the early 1970's.

Our triple-cream '76 here is part of the Grand Prix "Colonnade" class of 1973; colonnade referring to the use of an additional column behind the doors rather than the hard top design of previous models.

1976 Grand Prix' were the last of the '73's to be revised before the great downsizing epoch whacked the fun out of GM midsize models, including all their personal luxury cars, come 1978. For '76, side by side rectangular headlights, replacing singular round ones, flanked a new "waterfall" grill. Whereas on the Chevrolet Monte Carlo some distinctiveness was, arguably, lost going to rectangular headlights, on the Grand Prix the new front end was, subjectively, a delightful updating of the 1973 GP's somewhat dated looking, "neo-classical" front end.

I know I'm not alone in my sentiments about these cars. While the 1969-1972 GP's are worth more than these '73-'77's these days, the downsized models that came after 1977, while honestly better transportation conveyances, are worth significantly less. No sooner had I decided to break from quarantine and venture out for a socially distant test drive I found that someone gobbled this up already. Triple cream, whitewalls and all.

1977 Ford Thunderbird - Still Getting Bested

Imagine my delight the other morning when I arrived at the office to find this historically significant hoopty for sale in the parking lot across the street. This is a 1977 Ford Thunderbird and it was one of the very few bright spots for the Ford Motor Company during the 1970's. 

While it started out, technically, in 1955 as a competitor to Chevrolet's Corvette, for the most part  (not counting the 2002-2005 retro models) "Ford Thunderbird" meant some sort of luxury car during it's forty-three year model run. However, if I define the personal luxury car as one based on a midsize two-door sedan, and I do that based on what the most popular selling ones were, remarkably, until 1977, Ford didn't really have a contender in that oh-so-'70's market segment. Sorry, Ford Elite fans, that car just didn't cut it. 

From its inception through 1976, the Ford Thunderbird was built on top of whatever standard or full-size chassis Ford was using at the time; albeit at times with some modification. While many give credit to Ford for creating the "personal car" with the Thunderbird, General Motors redefined the class in 1969 with their mid-sized Pontiac Grand Prix and in 1970 with their Chevrolet Monte Carlo. Both the Grand Prix and Monte Carlo sold significantly better than the Ford Thunderbird which was left behind being a discounted Lincoln Continental Mark. Which is somewhat ironic given that the Lincoln Continental Mark III and IV were built off the Thunderbird's chassis dating back to 1967. With their higher price points, the Continental Mark and Thunderbird were targeted at different buyers than the burgeoning "personal luxury car" buyer was.

The best Ford had to compete with GM was a gussied up, mid-sized Torino coupe they called "Elite"; Torino replaced Ford's mid-sized Fairlane in an elongated model transition in 1969 and 1970. A classic example of "styling does matter", the half baked Elite languished on dealer lots as GM sucked in the profits of an automobile type that in today's crossover world makes no sense whatsoever. Ford made the Elite from 1974-1976; 1974 models were "Gran Torino Elite", 1975 and 1976's were simply, "Elite".

For 1977 Ford woke up and didn't so downsize the Thunderbird as much as restyle the Torino and badge it as a Thunderbird; the Torino itself got some cosmetic work and became the "LTD II".  That moved the Thunderbird out of the Mark IV\V lane and into the personal luxury car key party. In a decade when Ford seemingly did nothing right it was a simple but effective move that worked quite well. These 1977-1979 Thunderbirds were the best selling T-Birds of all time. 

Didn't hurt that Ford also chopped over two grand off Thunderbird's sticker price year over year and that starting in 1978, GM turned their personal luxury cars into homely, lilliputian sadness-mobiles. This generation of Thunderbird checking all the boxes style conscious, personal luxury car buyers had been corn-fed on and came to expect. Big but not too big on the outside, cramped on the inside. What's not to love? Ha.

I swear I thought this said "14,500" at first but with the seller asking $1,450 they may find a buyer sooner than later. Closer to $1,000 the buyer gets the better. It's got some advanced surface rust on the bottom of the doors and fenders that would need to get taken care of before any fun stuff happens under the hood. Wouldn't take much to hot rod this thing into a really cool sleeper.

Now, if this was a '77 Monte Carlo or Grand Prix. even in this shape. I might have a problem on my hands. Then again, it wouldn't be priced so low either. Sad that the GM models still besting the Thunderbird even after all these years. 

1980 Oldsmobile 88 and 98 - The Cars of Ordinary People

Robert Redford's directorial debut, 1980's Oscar winning "Ordinary People" tells the story of a well-off Chicagoland area family that falls apart following the accidental death of one of the sons and the attempted suicide of the other.

I was fifteen or sixteen when I saw it for the first time and while I couldn't relate to their lifestyle and the trappings of their wealth, I identified and was enthralled with the combative, disconnected relationship the surviving son had with his mother and the ambivalent relationship he had with his father.  I was also fascinated, and I remain so, by what the set designers picked as the automobiles the family drove.

The mother, played by Mary Tyler Moore drove a 1980 Oldsmobile 88 while the father, played by Donald Sutherland, who was a tax attorney, drove a 1980 Oldsmobile 98. To young me, a household with two cars was a benchmark of affluence; two brand-new cars in the garage was out and out opulent.

There are myriad reasons why certain automobiles are cast by set designers in films. While I'm all but certain the Oldsmobiles in "Ordinary People" weren't there to symbolize anything as significant as what I believe "The Deer Hunter Cadillac" supposedly did, they represented the restrained taste the family had in every facet of their lives with the exception of their ability to control their emotions following a couple of most unfortunate circumstances. In retrospect, the big Oldsmobiles are perfectly cast in "Ordinary People" since they appear to be a lot more than what they actually are; they're nothing if not ordinary. We see that much more clearly now than we did forty years ago seeing what became not only of Oldsmobile but General Motors.

Up until the division's demise in 2004, Oldsmobile was the middle rung on General Motor's pricing ladder with Pontiac and Chevrolet below it, respectively, and Buick and Cadillac above it. Much like the other GM divisions, with the exception of Cadillac, Oldsmobile had a full range of models to seemingly, much like the GM pricing ladder was supposed to do, fit every pocket book. The 98 was at the top of the line up with the 88 slotted right below it. Save for some trim pieces and the 98 having a slightly longer wheelbase, both cars were all but identical. While the 98 and 88 were all too similar to other GM makes and models, still by 1980, there remained enough cache to the Oldsmobile brand that they wouldn't seem out of place in front of the home of a family of means. Especially the top-of-the-line 98.

Which begs the question of what was the point of the back drop of the film being a well-heeled family as opposed to one with a more ordinary bank account. All families have their ups, downs, trials, tribulations and melodrama regardless of how big or small their household income and cash flow is. Was it meant to show the world that having money really doesn't matter since we're all part and parcel in the same shit show? That the rich are "ordinary people" just like us poor slobs?

This much is certain, though, given five and especially ten years, any Oldsmobile in the driveway of the home of a tax attorney would look as out of place as a rusty old pickup. See it again if you can. It stands up well against the test of time and the performances of the cast, with arguably the exception of Judd Hirsch, are brilliant. As opposed to the "Deer Hunter", it's worthy of the accolades it received. 

1973 Pontiac GTO - Last of the Real GTO's

No doubt the EPA, government safety standards and the energy crisis had a hand in killing off the muscle car. However, what really did them in were insurance premium surcharges on anything remotely construed as a performance car. While domestic manufacturers had their hands full scrambling to comply with governmental standards, monthly insurance payments that many times surpassed car payments relegated our beloved behemoths to the back burner in buyer's minds. One such "victim of circumstance" was this 1973 Pontiac GTO; what we refer to as the last of the real "GTO's".

We say "real GTO" because while the Chevrolet Nova based, Ventura GTO for 1974 and 1975 may have seemed innocuous enough at the time, in hindsight it's as off putting in the same way as seeing Tom Brady in a Tampa Bay Buccaneers uniform is going to be. GM had the good sense to not  festoon "GTO" to anything else save for that Holden based thing of 2004-2006 infamy.

Actually, the debasement of the GTO began in 1972, the last year for the wonderful second generation GTO that debuted in 1968. Like it had been when the whole thing began back in 1964, GTO was once again a trim level of the LeMans and in this case the LeMans Sport. We may have gotten two years of this GTO and one even with a slender front bumper or updated "Endura" bumper  (doubtful) but labor strikes delayed the debut of the new-for-'73 models.

Seeing how great the rubber nosed '73 Grand Am's were we wonder why Pontiac even bothered with a GTO for '73 in the first place. Our somewhat educated guess is that the '73 Grand Am was supposed to be the next GTO but Pontiac, much in the same way Chevrolet had their "Laguna S3", tagged the car "Grand Am" to help it fly under insurance company radars. Curiously, Chevrolet also had a Chevelle SS for '73. Why? Who the hell knows. Knowing that muscle cars did in fact have their fans inside GM at the time perhaps it was a nostalgia play.

What forty-eight hundred and six buyers got with a GTO for '73 over a LeMans or LeMans Sport was a "heavy-duty" three speed automatic or four-speed manual with floor shifter, either a two-hundred and thirty horsepower, four-barrel, four hundred cubic inch V-8 or, backed by an automatic transmission only, a two-hundred and fifty horsepower, four-hundred and fifty-five cubic inch V-8; the legendary, three-hundred and ten net horsepower and new for '73 "SD-455" was not offered on the GTO. They also got firm shocks, heavy duty sway bars, GTO badges and a special hood with non-functioning NACA ducts (National Advisory Committee for Aeronautics). The ducts were allegedly designed to be functional but the functioning parts never made it to production. Supposedly buyers could get the plumbing to make it all work as a dealer installed option although legend has it there were like ten takers. By the way, of forty-eight hundred some odd GTO's that left the factory in 1973, only five-hundred and forty-four were powered by the larger engine.

Speaking of the SD-455, again and interestingly, Pontiac didn't offer it on either the GTO, the Grand Am or the Grand Prix. Cubic inch for cubic inch, it was the most powerful engine ever offered in a Pontiac up to that time and was available only on the Trans Am. What had been their performance halo car, the GTO, all but becoming an afterthought. The Grand Am and Grand Prix were marketed more as "grand touring cars" as opposed to "performance cars".

Compared to today's new car showrooms that are jam packed with vehicles that are utility based, seeing a Pontiac lineup that consisted of vehicles that were nothing if not first and foremost appearance conscious, first and foremost, is a bit of head scratcher. And between the LeMans coupe, Grand Am, Grand Prix and GTO, not to mention the Firebirds and two door versions of everything else they offered, Pontiac had a lineup for 1973 that coupe lovers like us can only dream about today.

Y'know, depending on the way you look at things, sometimes the good old days were in fact great.