My dad bought one of these brand new in 1986. Turbo model in burgundy paint with pinstripes and matching burgundy velour cloth and all plastics and trim in the same burgundy hue. Digital guages and a three speed automatic transmission. It was pretty sweet compared to the other stuff offered by the other automakers at that time and I was instantly smitten. Turbos were the big performance bywords coming out of the 70's malaise era and to a teenage car enthusiast about to turn 16 it was a dream come true. Dad taught me to drive in that car and I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for these. Sadly they have completely disappeared from the roads here in the rust-belt. Thanks MotorWeek for reviving my memories of my 16th year on this earth.
It sounds like your dad had one of the more upscale models with the turbo, digital dash and beautiful burgandy paint. I miss those cars. I had a friend who had the 1985 Dodge Lancer with the base engine but digital dash. It gave him no problems over the years and i thought it looked very handsome at the time. His was black.
I had a burgundy '85 Lebaron GTS, loaded with the turbo and automatic. It was a fun, dependable car, but had a crack in the block, so I had to use various stop leaks that worked ok, but would fail if the turbo was pushed too hard. Slightly frustrating that you couldn't reach it's full potential, but fun otherwise. I also had a regular Lebaron, '86 I believe, that also had the turbo. That one could be pushed to the limit and was a blast. Those K cars were fun, cheap and dependable. My son had a '94 Labaron with the 3.0 Mitsubishi V/6 that was mentioned at the end. Fantastic motor with lots of power and very dependable
My parents bought a new 1985 LeBaron GTS. It was black. It was one of the best looking and performing cars of that era. I plumbed in an oil cooler and an external oil sump that held extra oil that would continue to feed into the turbo after being shut off, to prevent coking.
@@shimshonbendan8730 Wow that's super awesome that you knew how to plump all those accessories into the engine. Very smart thinking because these engines were known for oil coking.
That’s bad ass man. That’s why I love cars and coffee for stuff like this. Not some brand new Ferrari. I have with many people considered to be an exotic and I bring it to cars and coffee and nobody cares. It still makes me laugh.
80s still had the GM RWD V8 G-bodies too. The 80s were great! Not only that, you had the option of a GM "bulletproof" 3800...I'm still driving a 19 year old Buick with one of those engines.....today.
My Dad bought a 1986 LeBaron GTS, White with Burgundy Cloth seats from my Uncle, and his brother in 1999 with the 2.2 L Turbo and 5-speed manual to teach us how to drive a stick. The car was virtually brand new, with 39,000 original miles, always garaged and dealer serviced. I turned sixteen in 2005, learned how to drive this car, and then was given the car as a birthday present. I loved that car, ran like a top, and looked great twenty-five years later ( when I was rear-ended by a Lincoln Navigator at an estimated thirty miles an hour in 2011). Needless to say, the car was totaled and I was heartbroken. the car had an original 58,000 miles, an original turbo, and no major repairs done to the car over its' lifetime. The paint was original as was the cloth interior and looked like new. Everything worked, power windows/locks, mirrors, and AM/FM cassette player. I installed an aftermarket CD player and had the original 16" rims polished. The car was beautiful!
I had a fully loaded '85 Lancer with the 2.2 Turbo and 5-spd as my first car. My folks found it with 68k miles on it and it took all the abuse high school me could throw at it, until I finally wrecked it with a little over 240,000 miles on it. Still one of the best cars I've ever owned.
Funny how MITSUBISHI (which used to be partly owned by Chrysler) also makes a car named Lancer, but yet the Mitsubishi Lancer is NOT related to the Dodge Lancer...
had the same car but automatic. sweet leather interior but that thing even being turbo would barely spin tire in wet grass. mine caught on fire sitting at a red light. i remember going to the junk yard to look for the front nose peice and there was like 5 mopars with the same motor parked next to each other all with fire damage under the hood
I drove my Grandma's 1989 Lebaron convertable early on in high school (mid 90s) before I got my own car. Everyone loved it. It really drove so smooth and handled perfectly.
I had an 86 Dodge Lancer bought from an elderly lady that was the best car I had could put everything in the hatchback gave me 288,000 miles was a great car never had issues easy to change the oil and oil filter take a wrench and screwdriver and everything was repaired and simple. loved the Lancer great on gas also drove great.
I had 3 of them, almost a 4th. The first was an 86 black Lancer turbo 4 & 5 speed, full leather & power everything. Loved that car, first FI car we had. Had a 2nd Lancer, an 85, in gramps gold, , turbo & 5 speed, base otherwise, was my daily driver. Traded the black car for the first minivan. The 85 was around, was T boned to an uninsured driver, but a talented friend was able to resurrect her. In a weak moment, sold it to my sister in law, who hosed us plus wrecked it again. Fixed it then sold it again. 3rd one was a maroon LeBaron GTS, loaded, electronic dash, bad thing that made it cheap was an aftermarket sunroof that leaked. Fixed it, drove it a few yrs, then a unicorn appeared. An 89 Shelby Lancer with an upgraded Turbo IV, 5 speed, from Texas, & a great pedigree, was Carrol Shelby's sons car. We were building a house, so didnt have the $6k to buy....the one that git away...at any rate, drove the 85 LeBaron til a 1 only Neon caught my eye in 96 & let it go......but that's another story.....
This was my dad's last car a blue metallic '86 Turbo fully loaded he purchased in 1989. He enjoyed this car. After he suffered a stroke I acquired it in 1991. It was my daily driver until I traded it in for a new '92 Ford Taurus. Thanks for showing this video.
I had an '86 GTS turbo hand me down in highschool ('92) and loved it. Black with gold pinstripes, black leather, sunroof, electric windows, and trip computer.
We had so many Ks when I was really young. 83 Aries Coupe, 86 Reliant Wagon, 90 New Yorker, 94 Shadow. I will through the 94 Caravan in there for good measure. So simple to run, outside of CVs and staying away from the Mitsubishi engines for their love of destroying head gaskets.
And no Yuppie ever bought that car, even with its cassette storage. I will give it one thing, that 0-60 in 8.7 seconds was very descent for cars from the 80's
These were very likeable sporty cars back in the day it was like a budget friendly Saab 9000 that K car platform was definitely a winner for the Chrysler Corporation for sure.
My born in the 1920s Grandparents had one, they only ever bought Chrysler products. Although it was a base non-turbo automatic. For as much hate as digital gauges get, there are examples of "good" digital clusters (ie my Nissan 300ZX and others that have full engine readouts) and "bad" ones like nearly every Cadillac. Chrysler always had pretty good ones IMO. And nothing embodies the 1980s like turquoise liquid crystal displays.
I still have an 87 Daytona Shelby Z (17.5 years now) and I just picked up a 100% rust free 1988 Dodge Lancer Shelby a month ago (it was featured on Hagerty the day after I won the auction). Great, fun little cars that are super easy to work on.
I had one of these as a student in the mid 90’s. A 1986 with the digital dash. With a better stereo to drown out the 2.2 turbo, it was a great ride for that time in my life.
My first car was the non turbo GTS in silver. It had 95k on it and we paid $200 for it in 1993. They definitely did not hold value very well. I drove it for 10 years and it finally died at 250k. Best snow driving car i ever owned.
My Mom bought one of these from a used lot in the early 90s... Was an '85 with the turbo and automatic. Fantastic car. I loved it so much that we used to trade cars all the time. We didn't experience the vibration and engine noise that he talks about in this video- I think it was a benefit of having the automatic. My car was a Pontiac Grand Prix coupe at the time, and she liked to drive that too - it was a win-win
I always wanted a Lebaron GTS. I like the late '80s and early '90s Chryslers. I drove a '89 Lebaron convertible, '90 Sundance 5-door, and a '92 Plymouth Acclaim. I liked all of them.
My neighbor owns his grandfather's 1991 Plymouth Acclaim LX in Black Cherry with a matching Cloth interior. The car is loaded for the time and even has Anti-lock disc brakes from the factory. The only thing I don't like is the chrome luggage rack on the trunk lid, but it came from the factory that way, and he is keeping the car original as his Grandfather took impeccable care of the car. It has the Mitsubishi 3.0L V6 engine and Automatic Transmission. People always make positive comments when they see the car.
I was 13 and this was the first "sport sedan" I fell in love with. I liked the Laser coupe so when this came out with basically the same engine and transmission I was intrigued. I sat in one at an auto show and the butter soft Corinthian leather wowed me. The digital readouts were like a spaceship, and the sound system amazing to my ears. I always felt I'd get one "when I grew up" LOL. 😂
@@trevorsutherland5263 wow you would have loved the Acura Legend then, which made mopar products seem like a bad joke. I was never looking at cars like this, I was always looking at high-end automobiles, like benz, bmw, audi, Acura , caddies, Lincolns, rolls royce, Bentley etc.... And I don't come from a rich family, but I do have a rich eye apparently haha 😆
The only vehicles I have owned since my 86'GTS are Chryslers and Jeeps. I love my 2018 Chrysler 300c Platnuim Hemi and my 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Hemi.
Well, that's pretty easy to say when "Chrysler" basically makes NOTHING today. The only "Chrysler" branded vehicle in production today is the minivans.
OMG!! I had one of these back when it was new. I had a LeBaron GTS, loaded, with the digital dash and very nice interior. Mine was a non-turbo model; I don't remember if then engine was 2.2 or 2.5 but it was completely trouble-free. Red/red; great looking car. No problems with it. Only sold it when I was moving out of country. The funny thing (to me) is, at 2:37 in this video, they show that the cup holder can pull out to reveal 2 cup holders. In all the years I had this car I did not know that. I remember wondering why the car only had one cup holder, and several passengers asked the same question as well. I drove it for several years and sold it never knowing that the cup holder can pull out like that!
My parents had a silver 1986 LeBaron GTS with the normally aspirated 2.5 liter when I was a teenaged kid. Handsome car, and it got attention from chicks, too lol ;). I loved that car, and when I could drive it-especially after baseball practice, my floppy sneakers kicked off, in my tube socked stocking feet 🤣🤪with my buddies piled in-brings back awesome 80's memories....JV Johnny ⚾⚾
My grandad had a brand new 1986 Plymouth Caravelle, similar to this. It was a nice car. This always reminds me of my 88 Dodge Aries… nice car but gutless!!!
Lol, at least the transmissions in the LeBaron last more than 60,000 miles. Yeah, Ford sold a ton of Taurus... Seen one lately? No, they were junk. The K-cars are still around, though.
@@LakeHowellDigitalVideo I will see a Taurus a few times a year here in AZ - can't recall the last of these i have seen - rust ate most of these class / age of vehicles
I was a new car prep kid at a Dodge dealer back in '82, and k-cars were awful. Especially the manual transmission ones. Total crap and I was 16 and figured that out.
@@seeburg220 where's your 80s Cavaliers...escorts...tercels...stanzas? Cars are consumables...they dont all last 40 years .my 88 aries might go 40 but the average daily driver won't
@@AndyRoss-z3t they weren’t trash, they just weren’t having be past 20yrs old . Sometimes cars disappear just because people don’t want them. There’s a couple around here still though
@@AndyRoss-z3t The only cars that tend to be around after 40 years are cars with a significant fanbase-people who are willing to spend more to keep them going than their book value. These were nice cars for their time, but they don't have much of a following.
I had one of these, a black on black leather turbo. I never had any serious mechanical failures with it - but the one annoying quirk it did have - was if it fell out of tune, it was like the turbo wasn't even there. I'm no mechanic but I thought this might have been timing? In any case, I did like it - even put a Blaupunkt in it :)
I was in elementary school in the early 1980’s & knew a Jessica LeBaron in my class. I always thought her dad made the Chrysler LeBaron Convertible, so much so that after 40 years, I still remember her name…
I had a 1988 red Lebaron GTS with the 2.5 liter and a 5 speed. It was a base with a set of options added to it. Not a bad ride for me. I liked the car, but in the Fall of 1990 I bought a red Stealth R/T. :)
I had lots of K car variants through the years. My Lebaron GTS was a 1988 Turbo in black cherry with a dark red interior. It was a nice car but I didn't have it long as there was always something else I had my eye on.
I STILL want a Lancer/LeBaron GTS 40 years later. If the Pontiac 6000STE was within a gnat's eyelash of being the perfect American road car, then this WAS the perfect American road car!!!!! A former neighbor had an '86 Lancer ES in red, & oh, how I BADLY wanted that car!!!!
@@davidaubin3902 ummm GM and Ford never liked to spend the money for gauges.look at a 68 Torino...77 Granada...79 nova...base s10....no gauges.just a measly Speedo and gas gauge.
If You bought a US " luxury" car in the 70´s, it usually had a speedometer and a fuel guage. period🙂 The rest of the information was left to "idiot lights"....
In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, full gauges were commonly offered as options. It’s just that a lot of people ordered the cars without that option. It was a bit unusual for a car to have it as standard.
My best friend parents had one of these and I have to tell you the sound system was top notch! He would turn it all the way up and use that joystick thing to move the sound around lol
I had an 86 GTS 2.2 Turbo. Total lemon. My mom had an 87 GTS N/A that they bought new. That one was a decent car up till 100,000. After that it didn’t last long. They were comfortable though
My uncle had the turbocharged Lancer version. He called it "Killer". I'd love to find one. The idea that Chrysler went from such a nice sleek design to those boxy damn things around 1990 is sad. (though you can see a resemblance in the Shadow and Sundance)
That was Iacoccas move right there. He insisted that the Taurus rounded look was a fad and the people wanted the formal look. This misstep was what pushed his retirement a few years later.
I'd like to have been in the meeting when they decided on the name. "We've got a fast, good looking modern sports sedan...how should we name it?" "A storied name from Chrysler's performance history like a 300?" "Naw, lets name it after our baroque, vinyl topped, button tufted bench seated grandma-mobile. We'll add a GTS so people will think it's sporty!" 🤦♂. In reality, it was probably Iacocca's insistance that it be named the GTS. When this didn't sell that well, he probably said "see, folks don'tt want rounded cars!" and replaced these with the "formal look" 1989-1994 LeBaron. Which looked dated the day they were introduced.
My aunt had an 85 Lebaron coupe for 10 years. Non-GTS, non-turbo, automatic, landau top. First car I ever drove. I don’t remember any of the stuff shown in this video. Were the coupe and GTS really completely different?
The Lebaron name went on several different, unrelated cars from the time (K, H, J/AJ and AA bodies at least, if not more). This GTS is an H-body, and the car you're referring to, the Lebaron GTC, was the J-body (not to be confused with the older J body that the Cordoba/Mirada was on).
'82-'86 Lebaron coupes were luxury versions of the K car. '87-up Lebaron coupes had a sleeker, sportier look, no landau or vinyl top available. GTC was the performance version of this that was introduced for 1989.
05:15 that bounce of the car going over that hump in the road is just unbelievable to see in this day and age I mean that thing look like it jumped off the ground and bounced back without ever touching the ground lol lol lol anyone else catch that? Timestamp above please watch it please and reply I'd love to hear other people's thoughts and opinions on that one😅
A girlfriend’s mom had one in 87, after the third engine, the dealership finally bought it back. Ironically my girlfriend had a Daytona Turbo manual, I remember it being a decent car.
@@palebeachbum 0-60 in 6.4 seconds. Those cars hauled some major ass. I don't like Mopar products but I like those. And the Plymouth Horizon GLH That was a fast little hatch.
We had one when I was in my teens. You'd be lucky to get 400 kilometers (250 miles) out of a tank of gas, and yet somehow people today are convinced that EVs are crap because they can't go 500 miles on a charge...
99 base HP, 3 speed automatic. How the west was falling in the 1980s. Imagine looking back at the GM and Mopar beauties from the 1960s in 1985. sad times.
Chrysler also offered the LeBaron and GTS (hatchback was just called GTS) in Europe, but at least the GTS wasn´t really a success, despite being quite good for an american car. Competition from european and japanese brands was to stiff. The Lebaron Convertible was more successful as it had an exotic charme while being relatively cheap compared to the BMW 3series or Saab 900.
In 1986, I was 30 and was seriously considering this car to replace my 1980 Honda Accord LX hatchback. I ended up buying a pre-owned 1985 Lincoln Mark VII LSC for not much more than a fully loaded LeBaron GTS. I think I made the right decision!
You SURE did! I was in middle school and my friend's mom had a 1986 Mark VII. There were times I prayed for Jesse's mom to be in the pick up line, just so I could ride home with them since they only lived a block away from me. Even a 5-minute ride in that car was like a trip on the Titanic in 1st Class! I can still remember how it looked, felt, and sounded! 🙂
My dad bought one of these brand new in 1986. Turbo model in burgundy paint with pinstripes and matching burgundy velour cloth and all plastics and trim in the same burgundy hue. Digital guages and a three speed automatic transmission. It was pretty sweet compared to the other stuff offered by the other automakers at that time and I was instantly smitten. Turbos were the big performance bywords coming out of the 70's malaise era and to a teenage car enthusiast about to turn 16 it was a dream come true. Dad taught me to drive in that car and I will forever have a soft spot in my heart for these. Sadly they have completely disappeared from the roads here in the rust-belt. Thanks MotorWeek for reviving my memories of my 16th year on this earth.
It sounds like your dad had one of the more upscale models with the turbo, digital dash and beautiful burgandy paint. I miss those cars. I had a friend who had the 1985 Dodge Lancer with the base engine but digital dash. It gave him no problems over the years and i thought it looked very handsome at the time. His was black.
I had a burgundy '85 Lebaron GTS, loaded with the turbo and automatic. It was a fun, dependable car, but had a crack in the block, so I had to use various stop leaks that worked ok, but would fail if the turbo was pushed too hard. Slightly frustrating that you couldn't reach it's full potential, but fun otherwise. I also had a regular Lebaron, '86 I believe, that also had the turbo. That one could be pushed to the limit and was a blast. Those K cars were fun, cheap and dependable. My son had a '94 Labaron with the 3.0 Mitsubishi V/6 that was mentioned at the end. Fantastic motor with lots of power and very dependable
My parents bought a new 1985 LeBaron GTS. It was black. It was one of the best looking and performing cars of that era. I plumbed in an oil cooler and an external oil sump that held extra oil that would continue to feed into the turbo after being shut off, to prevent coking.
@@shimshonbendan8730 Wow that's super awesome that you knew how to plump all those accessories into the engine. Very smart thinking because these engines were known for oil coking.
Actually just bought a rust-free 64K mile '85 GTS (non-turbo). If nothing else it'll be a unicorn at the local cars-n-coffee
😂 oh nice, they will love laughing at you at cars & coffee haha
Especially when you try and act like you know what you're talking about.
@@thewiseguy3529 Why you being rude, bro?
@@kz1000ps because he’s a wise guy
Must look amazing parked outside your trailer
That’s bad ass man. That’s why I love cars and coffee for stuff like this. Not some brand new Ferrari. I have with many people considered to be an exotic and I bring it to cars and coffee and nobody cares. It still makes me laugh.
I still miss the 80’s. It wasn’t perfect, but it was the best time of my life.
Same.
80s still had the GM RWD V8 G-bodies too. The 80s were great! Not only that, you had the option of a GM "bulletproof" 3800...I'm still driving a 19 year old Buick with one of those engines.....today.
You were a Yuppy! I KNEW IT!
@@aurorajones8481Not even close.
My Dad bought a 1986 LeBaron GTS, White with Burgundy Cloth seats from my Uncle, and his brother in 1999 with the 2.2 L Turbo and 5-speed manual to teach us how to drive a stick. The car was virtually brand new, with 39,000 original miles, always garaged and dealer serviced. I turned sixteen in 2005, learned how to drive this car, and then was given the car as a birthday present. I loved that car, ran like a top, and looked great twenty-five years later ( when I was rear-ended by a Lincoln Navigator at an estimated thirty miles an hour in 2011). Needless to say, the car was totaled and I was heartbroken. the car had an original 58,000 miles, an original turbo, and no major repairs done to the car over its' lifetime. The paint was original as was the cloth interior and looked like new. Everything worked, power windows/locks, mirrors, and AM/FM cassette player. I installed an aftermarket CD player and had the original 16" rims polished. The car was beautiful!
They can run this show 24/7... and I would watch it all over again...
I had a fully loaded '85 Lancer with the 2.2 Turbo and 5-spd as my first car. My folks found it with 68k miles on it and it took all the abuse high school me could throw at it, until I finally wrecked it with a little over 240,000 miles on it. Still one of the best cars I've ever owned.
Funny how MITSUBISHI (which used to be partly owned by Chrysler) also makes a car named Lancer, but yet the Mitsubishi Lancer is NOT related to the Dodge Lancer...
had the same car but automatic. sweet leather interior but that thing even being turbo would barely spin tire in wet grass. mine caught on fire sitting at a red light. i remember going to the junk yard to look for the front nose peice and there was like 5 mopars with the same motor parked next to each other all with fire damage under the hood
I drove my Grandma's 1989 Lebaron convertable early on in high school (mid 90s) before I got my own car. Everyone loved it. It really drove so smooth and handled perfectly.
Im loving all these videos of the K car line!
I had an 86 Dodge Lancer bought from an elderly lady that was the best car I had could put everything in the hatchback gave me 288,000 miles was a great car never had issues easy to change the oil and oil filter take a wrench and screwdriver and everything was repaired and simple. loved the Lancer great on gas also drove great.
Childhood memories here!!!! My mom had this car in 1985.
I had 3 of them, almost a 4th. The first was an 86 black Lancer turbo 4 & 5 speed, full leather & power everything. Loved that car, first FI car we had. Had a 2nd Lancer, an 85, in gramps gold, , turbo & 5 speed, base otherwise, was my daily driver. Traded the black car for the first minivan. The 85 was around, was T boned to an uninsured driver, but a talented friend was able to resurrect her. In a weak moment, sold it to my sister in law, who hosed us plus wrecked it again. Fixed it then sold it again. 3rd one was a maroon LeBaron GTS, loaded, electronic dash, bad thing that made it cheap was an aftermarket sunroof that leaked. Fixed it, drove it a few yrs, then a unicorn appeared. An 89 Shelby Lancer with an upgraded Turbo IV, 5 speed, from Texas, & a great pedigree, was Carrol Shelby's sons car. We were building a house, so didnt have the $6k to buy....the one that git away...at any rate, drove the 85 LeBaron til a 1 only Neon caught my eye in 96 & let it go......but that's another story.....
This could be a movie
Fully loaded $14,500?!? Wow that was pricey back then holy crap
That price or less is what a base model Chevy Caprice or Ford Crown Victoria would cost.
That's two million dollars in today's money thanks to the democrats.
This was my dad's last car a blue metallic '86 Turbo fully loaded he purchased in 1989. He enjoyed this car. After he suffered a stroke I acquired it in 1991. It was my daily driver until I traded it in for a new '92 Ford Taurus. Thanks for showing this video.
I had an 1987 Dodge Lancer ES and I loved it.
One of my Dream Cars!🤓I will Always remember the Dodge Lancer in the bank robbery/high speed chase in Walter Hill's Extreme Prejudice (1987).😎
Very futuristic of the time. Rare to have cupholders in an 80's car too.
I had an '86 GTS turbo hand me down in highschool ('92) and loved it. Black with gold pinstripes, black leather, sunroof, electric windows, and trip computer.
We had so many Ks when I was really young. 83 Aries Coupe, 86 Reliant Wagon, 90 New Yorker, 94 Shadow. I will through the 94 Caravan in there for good measure. So simple to run, outside of CVs and staying away from the Mitsubishi engines for their love of destroying head gaskets.
And no Yuppie ever bought that car, even with its cassette storage. I will give it one thing, that 0-60 in 8.7 seconds was very descent for cars from the 80's
@@albear972 it was literally a poor person's sport sedan lol
Exactly not when there was 16v jettas and 325is a plenty! 80k a year was the equivalent to 880k a year now times....
@@alextube1101 $80,000 back then is like $320,000 today. Not $800k
But I do understand your sentiment
& decent too!
These were very likeable sporty cars back in the day it was like a budget friendly Saab 9000 that K car platform was definitely a winner for the Chrysler Corporation for sure.
My born in the 1920s Grandparents had one, they only ever bought Chrysler products. Although it was a base non-turbo automatic. For as much hate as digital gauges get, there are examples of "good" digital clusters (ie my Nissan 300ZX and others that have full engine readouts) and "bad" ones like nearly every Cadillac. Chrysler always had pretty good ones IMO. And nothing embodies the 1980s like turquoise liquid crystal displays.
I still have an 87 Daytona Shelby Z (17.5 years now) and I just picked up a 100% rust free 1988 Dodge Lancer Shelby a month ago (it was featured on Hagerty the day after I won the auction). Great, fun little cars that are super easy to work on.
I had one of these as a student in the mid 90’s. A 1986 with the digital dash. With a better stereo to drown out the 2.2 turbo, it was a great ride for that time in my life.
Had that exact looking car as a company car in 1991/92. Silver turbo... Loved it.
Look at that huge greenhouse!
My first car was the non turbo GTS in silver. It had 95k on it and we paid $200 for it in 1993. They definitely did not hold value very well. I drove it for 10 years and it finally died at 250k. Best snow driving car i ever owned.
My Mom bought one of these from a used lot in the early 90s... Was an '85 with the turbo and automatic. Fantastic car. I loved it so much that we used to trade cars all the time. We didn't experience the vibration and engine noise that he talks about in this video- I think it was a benefit of having the automatic. My car was a Pontiac Grand Prix coupe at the time, and she liked to drive that too - it was a win-win
I had a 86. Loved it
I always wanted a Lebaron GTS. I like the late '80s and early '90s Chryslers. I drove a '89 Lebaron convertible, '90 Sundance 5-door, and a '92 Plymouth Acclaim. I liked all of them.
My neighbor owns his grandfather's 1991 Plymouth Acclaim LX in Black Cherry with a matching Cloth interior. The car is loaded for the time and even has Anti-lock disc brakes from the factory. The only thing I don't like is the chrome luggage rack on the trunk lid, but it came from the factory that way, and he is keeping the car original as his Grandfather took impeccable care of the car. It has the Mitsubishi 3.0L V6 engine and Automatic Transmission. People always make positive comments when they see the car.
I don't care what anyone says. Lee Iacocca was one of the Greatest minds in the History of ManKind!🧐I Miss You, Man!!😢😢
I was 13 and this was the first "sport sedan" I fell in love with. I liked the Laser coupe so when this came out with basically the same engine and transmission I was intrigued. I sat in one at an auto show and the butter soft Corinthian leather wowed me. The digital readouts were like a spaceship, and the sound system amazing to my ears. I always felt I'd get one "when I grew up" LOL. 😂
@@trevorsutherland5263 wow you would have loved the Acura Legend then, which made mopar products seem like a bad joke. I was never looking at cars like this, I was always looking at high-end automobiles, like benz, bmw, audi, Acura , caddies, Lincolns, rolls royce, Bentley etc.... And I don't come from a rich family, but I do have a rich eye apparently haha 😆
Have you grown up yet or are you a Toys 'R' Us kid??😎
"yuppie car" lol it was my buddy's high school beater as a teen in the 90's. took a beating until the rocker arms fell off. LOL
I love these cars!!! I wish I had bought one when I was younger! What an awesome American yuppie machine!
I don’t like most Dodge/Chrysler products but the turbo, 5 speed with the pizza wheels is a tempting antique
The only vehicles I have owned since my 86'GTS are Chryslers and Jeeps. I love my 2018 Chrysler 300c Platnuim Hemi and my 2023 Jeep Grand Cherokee Summit Hemi.
This is better than anything Chrysler makes today.
Better than any new car made today even any Honda or Toyota!
Well, that's pretty easy to say when "Chrysler" basically makes NOTHING today. The only "Chrysler" branded vehicle in production today is the minivans.
If anything it would bring way more driving pleasure and fun than any current Stellantis crap.
We had an 84. It needed some suspension work and bounced hilariously.
OMG!! I had one of these back when it was new. I had a LeBaron GTS, loaded, with the digital dash and very nice interior. Mine was a non-turbo model; I don't remember if then engine was 2.2 or 2.5 but it was completely trouble-free. Red/red; great looking car. No problems with it. Only sold it when I was moving out of country. The funny thing (to me) is, at 2:37 in this video, they show that the cup holder can pull out to reveal 2 cup holders. In all the years I had this car I did not know that. I remember wondering why the car only had one cup holder, and several passengers asked the same question as well. I drove it for several years and sold it never knowing that the cup holder can pull out like that!
I had a Daytona Turbo Z, what a great car it was for the money.
My parents had a silver 1986 LeBaron GTS with the normally aspirated 2.5 liter when I was a teenaged kid. Handsome car, and it got attention from chicks, too lol ;). I loved that car, and when I could drive it-especially after baseball practice, my floppy sneakers kicked off, in my tube socked stocking feet 🤣🤪with my buddies piled in-brings back awesome 80's memories....JV Johnny ⚾⚾
I remember looking at these and New Yorkers with my Dad. He ended up going with a '86 Camry for my Mom.
My grandad had a brand new 1986 Plymouth Caravelle, similar to this. It was a nice car. This always reminds me of my 88 Dodge Aries… nice car but gutless!!!
Turbo 4 cylinder in a midsize sport sedan is now the typical go to (almost 40 years later)
Seemed good looking and motorweek seemed to say mostly good things. I’m surprised these didn’t sell better.
These things dominated the 80’s and 90’s…..dominated the line of cars being crushed at the monster truck rallies.😂
From a Seinfeld monologue before the John Voight's Lebaron episode "Has a Baron ever actually owned a LeBaron?"
One of the best K-Car variants. The 1986 Ford Taurus, immediately made these seem unrefined, and dated.
That Taurus did that to nearly the entire market, it was ground breaking.
Lol, at least the transmissions in the LeBaron last more than 60,000 miles. Yeah, Ford sold a ton of Taurus... Seen one lately? No, they were junk. The K-cars are still around, though.
@@LakeHowellDigitalVideo I will see a Taurus a few times a year here in AZ - can't recall the last of these i have seen - rust ate most of these class / age of vehicles
@@LakeHowellDigitalVideo lol! I have better odds of seeing alfa romeo on the road than any of the thousands of k cars sold.
I was a new car prep kid at a Dodge dealer back in '82, and k-cars were awful. Especially the manual transmission ones. Total crap and I was 16 and figured that out.
This car deserved better.very well put together.
Well put together ??? Are you serious ?? Lol It was nothing but absolute trash.
If they were so well put together, how come none are still on the road?
@@seeburg220 where's your 80s Cavaliers...escorts...tercels...stanzas? Cars are consumables...they dont all last 40 years .my 88 aries might go 40 but the average daily driver won't
@@AndyRoss-z3t they weren’t trash, they just weren’t having be past 20yrs old . Sometimes cars disappear just because people don’t want them. There’s a couple around here still though
@@AndyRoss-z3t The only cars that tend to be around after 40 years are cars with a significant fanbase-people who are willing to spend more to keep them going than their book value. These were nice cars for their time, but they don't have much of a following.
I had one of these, a black on black leather turbo. I never had any serious mechanical failures with it - but the one annoying quirk it did have - was if it fell out of tune, it was like the turbo wasn't even there. I'm no mechanic but I thought this might have been timing? In any case, I did like it - even put a Blaupunkt in it :)
There was a lot of mystique in that “turbo efi “ badge when I was a young teen.
Great looking car, love the lift back. Back when Chrysler sold cars..
I used to like these!!!
I was in elementary school in the early 1980’s & knew a Jessica LeBaron in my class. I always thought her dad made the Chrysler LeBaron Convertible, so much so that after 40 years, I still remember her name…
That's a great story!
Remember cars without cup holders? It was the main reason my mom bought a Plymouth Voyager. It had cup holders.
Always loved the theme music
I had a 1988 red Lebaron GTS with the 2.5 liter and a 5 speed. It was a base with a set of options added to it. Not a bad ride for me. I liked the car, but in the Fall of 1990 I bought a red Stealth R/T. :)
I had lots of K car variants through the years. My Lebaron GTS was a 1988 Turbo in black cherry with a dark red interior. It was a nice car but I didn't have it long as there was always something else I had my eye on.
That cup holder is very cool
The cassette holder was awesome too.
I STILL want a Lancer/LeBaron GTS 40 years later. If the Pontiac 6000STE was within a gnat's eyelash of being the perfect American road car, then this WAS the perfect American road car!!!!! A former neighbor had an '86 Lancer ES in red, & oh, how I BADLY wanted that car!!!!
I worked at Chrysler dealerships in 80's and 90's so I remember a lot of those cars.
Sold as the Chrysler GTS in Europe
2:25 John: All cars come with a full compliment of gauges! LOL
@@davidaubin3902 ummm GM and Ford never liked to spend the money for gauges.look at a 68 Torino...77 Granada...79 nova...base s10....no gauges.just a measly Speedo and gas gauge.
Many USA cars never came with a tach if they were automatics.
If You bought a US " luxury" car in the 70´s, it usually had a speedometer and a fuel guage. period🙂 The rest of the information was left to "idiot lights"....
In the ‘70s and early ‘80s, full gauges were commonly offered as options. It’s just that a lot of people ordered the cars without that option. It was a bit unusual for a car to have it as standard.
Tell that to the base model Camry I had in highschool, manual transmission with no tachometer 😂
My aunt had one for awhile, red with red interior, I remember it clearly because it has that distinguished K-Car stench in the sun 😂
In 88 I got my dads 86 GTS Turbo for my first car. Black with black leather. Loved the pizza wheels and was a great car even with a notchy 5spd.
The "Yuppie " vibe....
God, I miss the 80s and 90's 😢
Nobody remembers this car from Short Circuit 2? Johnny Five had that car going berserk
My best friend parents had one of these and I have to tell you the sound system was top notch! He would turn it all the way up and use that joystick thing to move the sound around lol
I had an 86 GTS 2.2 Turbo. Total lemon. My mom had an 87 GTS N/A that they bought new. That one was a decent car up till 100,000. After that it didn’t last long. They were comfortable though
My uncle had the turbocharged Lancer version. He called it "Killer". I'd love to find one. The idea that Chrysler went from such a nice sleek design to those boxy damn things around 1990 is sad. (though you can see a resemblance in the Shadow and Sundance)
That was Iacoccas move right there. He insisted that the Taurus rounded look was a fad and the people wanted the formal look. This misstep was what pushed his retirement a few years later.
Just riding around in Jon Voight's car.
I'd like to have been in the meeting when they decided on the name. "We've got a fast, good looking modern sports sedan...how should we name it?" "A storied name from Chrysler's performance history like a 300?" "Naw, lets name it after our baroque, vinyl topped, button tufted bench seated grandma-mobile. We'll add a GTS so people will think it's sporty!" 🤦♂. In reality, it was probably Iacocca's insistance that it be named the GTS. When this didn't sell that well, he probably said "see, folks don'tt want rounded cars!" and replaced these with the "formal look" 1989-1994 LeBaron. Which looked dated the day they were introduced.
Looks like new. I would favor this over any K car.
My aunt had an 85 Lebaron coupe for 10 years. Non-GTS, non-turbo, automatic, landau top. First car I ever drove. I don’t remember any of the stuff shown in this video. Were the coupe and GTS really completely different?
The Lebaron name went on several different, unrelated cars from the time (K, H, J/AJ and AA bodies at least, if not more). This GTS is an H-body, and the car you're referring to, the Lebaron GTC, was the J-body (not to be confused with the older J body that the Cordoba/Mirada was on).
@ Thanks. Wiki actually says the 2nd gen coupes were K-cars.
'82-'86 Lebaron coupes were luxury versions of the K car. '87-up Lebaron coupes had a sleeker, sportier look, no landau or vinyl top available. GTC was the performance version of this that was introduced for 1989.
Le Gorge's favorite~😂
05:15 that bounce of the car going over that hump in the road is just unbelievable to see in this day and age I mean that thing look like it jumped off the ground and bounced back without ever touching the ground lol lol lol anyone else catch that? Timestamp above please watch it please and reply I'd love to hear other people's thoughts and opinions on that one😅
"The Dodge Avenger brings the Lebaron to its logical conclusion"...
"No, Baron has ever owned a LeBaron." Jerry Seinfeld.
Back when Chrysler hired automobile designers from the local community college campus…..😂🙄🤔🤨🤦♂️
There’s no denying a 2.2 liter Turbo engine in an innocent looking machine like this.
Everyone owned a satin baseball style jacket at some point in the 1980s , the royal blue was definitely a top color
My childhood dentist owned one. Don’t think it was for long.
A girlfriend’s mom had one in 87, after the third engine, the dealership finally bought it back. Ironically my girlfriend had a Daytona Turbo manual, I remember it being a decent car.
2800lbs… nowadays we have EVs weighing in at nearly 5000lbs 😓
2800lbs is hundreds of pounds lighter than today's lightest Porsche 911! 😳
EVs are way over 5,000lbs. GMs pickups and Hummer are approaching double that. 😞
Who had the Lancer name first Chrysler or Mitsubishi? I remember foreign market mirage were badged lancer for a whileeee.
Probably Chrysler. There was a Dodge Lancer in the 1960s, probably long before Mitsubishi was much of a name in the United States car market.
This is peak K car for sure. Still looks good today!
The 1991-1992 Dodge Spirit R/T was the successor to this car and offered much better performance with 224hp 2.2L 4cyl.
@@palebeachbum 0-60 in 6.4 seconds. Those cars hauled some major ass. I don't like Mopar products but I like those. And the Plymouth Horizon GLH
That was a fast little hatch.
It was dated by the time the Taurus came out but for it's time, it's not a bad looking car.
I thought they used to call this a notch back.
We had one when I was in my teens. You'd be lucky to get 400 kilometers (250 miles) out of a tank of gas, and yet somehow people today are convinced that EVs are crap because they can't go 500 miles on a charge...
My '86 Dodge Shelby Charger 2.2L Turbo had those same magnesium wheels. It did not have the joystick sound balancer though 😆
NO
BODY
CARES!
Had an 85 non-turbo Lancer. We liked it but it was slow. Wish I had bought the turbo.
That's some amazing fuel mileage for 1985.
99 base HP, 3 speed automatic. How the west was falling in the 1980s. Imagine looking back at the GM and Mopar beauties from the 1960s in 1985. sad times.
Joystick sound balance is one of the dopest things I've probably seen in my entire life on a car speaker system
What's with the terrible paint match on the front right fender of the LeBaron? Transport damage or plant rework?
press fleet car. probably crashed.
Chrysler also offered the LeBaron and GTS (hatchback was just called GTS) in Europe, but at least the GTS wasn´t really a success, despite being quite good for an american car. Competition from european and japanese brands was to stiff. The Lebaron Convertible was more successful as it had an exotic charme while being relatively cheap compared to the BMW 3series or Saab 900.
Must be a saab 9000 , looks nearly identical
I was thinking that too
My first car.....
In 1986, I was 30 and was seriously considering this car to replace my 1980 Honda Accord LX hatchback.
I ended up buying a pre-owned 1985 Lincoln Mark VII LSC for not much more than a fully loaded LeBaron GTS.
I think I made the right decision!
Yeah the 1985 Lincoln Mark VII LSC was a beautiful car. What color was it?
You SURE did! I was in middle school and my friend's mom had a 1986 Mark VII. There were times I prayed for Jesse's mom to be in the pick up line, just so I could ride home with them since they only lived a block away from me. Even a 5-minute ride in that car was like a trip on the Titanic in 1st Class! I can still remember how it looked, felt, and sounded! 🙂
@@klwthe3rdWhite with tan interior.
'If you can find a better car..buy it' LEE IACCOCA CEO
Rest In Peace, Man.❤😢The Automotive industry REALLY needs you right now!
Those LeBarons GTS's were nice looking and aren't as famous as the K-cars which are also good looking
The bad guys car in Short Circuit 2
5:16 Nice