Chrysler Executive Limousine

Back when I was young, Chrysler was the scrappy kid among Detroit’s three major automakers. Sure, it had a few brands under its portfolio — including Lamborghini — but wasn’t itself yet part of a larger constellations named Daimler or Stellantis that would come to take bites out of Chrysler's independence.

Wish you coulda seen Chrysler in its cab forward prime…

To get cab forward cars, first, Chrysler had to survive. Did I mention it received bailouts from both the U.S. and Canadian governments in 1980? Dire straits.

The biggest difference is that old Chrysler, just after near-bankruptcy, bought ads essentially saying, “We’re building the cheapest car possible, and you know what? It’s not that bad”. Humble.

Now, Stellantis pressures all areas of its business to reduce costs as much as possible, cheapening as much of its operation as possible, with negative implications for its core product lines — while turning around in many cases and asking buyers for a premium price. Hubris.

Back when this car was launched and "luxury" was a heated seat, livery services weren’t stretching Chryslers. Just as the European limo-makers weren’t stretching Volvos. Yet both somehow exist. What changed?

Lee Iacocca thought would be a perfect market for Chrysler to get into. The scrappy kid thinks, “How do I make do with what I’ve got?” while the ’80s parents at Chrysler rule, “It’s a limo because I said so”.

Think of it like this…

• S tier: Chrysler Executive Limousine = stretched Executive Sedan
• A tier: Executive Sedan = stretched New Yorker
• B tier: New Yorker = stretched LeBaron
• C tier: Lebaron = Dodge Aries / Plymouth Reliant K-Car

To build the Executive cars, Chrysler partnered with American Sunroof Corporation, or ASC, a firm familiar with such conversions. The cars went in as standard LeBaron coupes, with LeBaron sedan front doors mated to custom LeBaron coupe doors for the rear, finishing off with a LeBaron rear section.

Over its production run, there were a few changes over the Executive range; grilles, rear lights, etc. to learn about on your own time. ;)

Introduced in 1983, the two Executive cars were 90 per cent similar, with the major differences being the added length of the Limousine variant, which included a centre divider—complete with power sliding privacy glass, fold-down jump seats (sans seatbelts), additional air conditioning vents, storage compartment, rear cassette stereo system, and additional overhead lights. 

Buyers had, of course, the choice of velour-like "luxury" cloth or leather seating surfaces. 

The power to move such decadence was the choice, depending on year, of either the big Mitsubishi-sourced (carbureted!) 2.6-litre 4-cylinder engine with about 110 horsepower.

In the last year of production (the Sedan had been dropped by then), a very tuneable turbocharged 2.2-litre Chrysler 4-cylinder engine was fitted to the Limousine, with 146 horsepower and around 160 lb-ft of torque. The only transmissions offered were 3-speed automatics.

Does that mean you could probably plop in a later 224-horsepower version of the motor, as-offered in the Dodge Spirit R/T? Probably!

Predictably, the more decadent Limousine, not the Sedan, was the best-selling Executive car. 

Not including two prototypes, total Executive production from 1983-1986 was 1,698 units; the sedan was on-sale for only two years, with a take rate of 12 per cent.

Past owners include at least one former U.S. President, Richard Nixon.

These big Ks are rare machines, but have a certain charm as being among the few factory-approved limousines this side of a Mercedes-Benz Pullman or Volvo 264 TE by Bertone; because of this, they're kind of a Pullman for the Proletariat.

Already rare, time will tell if any survive long enough to be considered as truly, madly, deeply collectible. 

Pebble Beach 2065, anyone? 

Side note: on looks alone, those shopping for an attractive but equally crappy Chrysler luxury sedan should stick with an early ’80s Chrysler Imperial…

READ NEXT: Weirdly, only Canadians seem to be writing about this car, with Benjamin Hunting’s piece in Motor Trend and Thomas Hundal’s for The Autopian. And (!) my former colleague at Sympatico.ca Autos, Antoine Joubert, has an entire video (in French, above) on YouTube dedicated to the car’s brochure. Curbside Classic spotted one on the street(!)