1983 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue - Sufficient

I find most four-door sedans as interesting as a dishwasher. This 1983 Chrysler New Yorker Fifth Avenue's no different but seeing the shape it's in and it's reasonable asking price of $4,500, my latest Facebook find here deserves a closer look. 

For 1983, Chrysler had two New Yorkers, our blue-on-blue subject and these front-wheel-drivers on a stretched wheelbase K-car platforms they called the "E-body". Why they named these cars "New Yorker" and not something different is a question even Ricardo Montalban couldn't get a direct answer for.  And if I'm ambivalent towards today's subject I was flat out disgusted by these tarted up K-car's. Sorry, "E-cars". 

"Fifth Avenue" was first found on 1979-1981 "R-body" New Yorker's and was a trim package featuring a unique padded "landau" vinyl top with "opera windows" that opened with the rear doors, two-tone beige exterior finish with colored-keyed (matching) interior with tufted, wait-for-it, "Corinthian Leather". Hard to believe these oafs had trouble finding buyers, y'know? The Chrysler "R-body", incidentally, was a lightly updated "B-body" which not only was Chrysler's previous intermediate sized chassis, it had its roots going back to Chrysler's infamous 1962 downsizing of Plymouth and Dodge models. 

Starting in 1982, what had been the Chysler LeBaron four-door, based on an updated Chrysler "F-body" chassis they dubbed "M-body", became the Chrysler New Yorker. Sadly, only four-door sedans where offered whereas the LeBaron had been offered in coupe and station wagon as well as a four-door. For '83, these cars were given the suffix "Fifth Avenue" to make the distinction between them and the front-wheel-drive New Yorker. Mercifully, it was only for 1983 as these cars where simply known as "Fifth Avenue" from 1984 through 1989. 

Not surprisingly, or surprisingly given the amount of effort Chrysler put into the E-car New Yorker, sales for these quite good reaching a high of just under 110,000 for model year 1984. Not bad for recycled platform that was for all intent and purposes pushed to the back of showrooms as the new kid was  brought in. That new model that was outsold most years by these cars. Good going, gramps. 

Suffice to say most of the buyers for these cars were older clientele who either abhorred change, embraced the "traditional" styling and engineering of these cars or didn't care for the awkward, angular lines of the K-car New Yorker. 

The hemming and hawing of nameplates wasn't unqiue to Chrysler either. GM and Ford did similar on  on their luxury flag ships back then as well. Fleetwood, Fleetwood Brougham, Continental Town Car, Town Car etc. We're also talking about an era that "New Coke" debuted in which was subsequently sold side-by-side with "Classic Coke" not long after. The 1980's were known for many things; intelligent marketing practices not one of them. 

So, in a used car market that is absolutely bonkers with rusted out, unrestorable junk selling for thousands of dollars, it's nice to see something that's in great shape priced appropriately. I don't like this car at any price but that's not to say you or someone else wouldn't. 

My time spent behind the wheel of one of these years ago was pleasant enough. It checks the boxes on a number of cliched luxury car styling themes and cues going back to before World War II. Upright, boxy styling, they're actually quite large at nearly 207 inches long although they're diminutive compared to even the R-body New Yorker. They had fancy looking interiors. rear-wheel drive, a heavy, isolated ride and of course a god's green earth V-8. 

In this case a 318 cubic-inch Chrysler V-8 fed with a two-barrel carburetor and controlled by the last version of Chrysler's lean-burn system. Net brake horsepower was 130 with 230 foot-pounds of torque. That was not a lot then and is all but laughable now but then again, it was a time before fuel-injection became the norm. And in a car weighing just shy of 3800 pounds, performance was sedate if not, in Rolls-Royce vernacular, "sufficient". 

Sufficient being fancy talk for "slow".  

This car is or was located in Willoughby, Ohio a stone's throw east of Cleveland. Comment below if you're interested and I'll do my best to hook you up.