Junkyard Find: 1991 Eagle Premier LX
While it’s cool and all to find genuine, everyone-agrees-it’s-a-classic cars in the junkyard, what I really like to find is the cars that serve as evolutionary dead-ends or corporate-merger footnotes. The Eagle Premier is a fine example of the latter type.
This ’91 ended up in a Denver self-service yard because it bashed into something, hard. That means we can assume it was running properly up until the moment of impact.
Always wear your seat belt! This Premier’s driver didn’t, hence the bent steering wheel.
The AMC 2.5 four-cylinder was standard in the Premier LX, but this car has the optional PRV V6. Not exactly a reliable engine, but sophisticated.
I’ve never ridden in a Premier, but I’ve heard that it was the nicest-riding product Chrysler offered in the early 1990s. Its Renault 21/25/Medallion AMC/Renault genes have lived on in Chrysler’s products until the present day, with some of the Premier’s suspension design showing up in the current Challenger and Charger. It’s always fun to trace the AMC family tree!
Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.
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@Vanilla, I had a Plymouth Gran Fury. The same guy I bought it from, a lifelong AMC and Mopar fan, his family had an 88 Premier. Probably the best riding car i've ever ridden in, and that's saying something...
In the original "Final Fight" by Capcom, you could smash up one of these in the first bonus round! I never understood why the license plate read "Japan" though...