Junkyard Find: 1983 Chrysler E-Class

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

We might as well follow up last week’s Aries K wagon Junkyard Find with another member of the Chrysler-saving K family. I’ve been intermittently fascinated by the E-Class, so this Crusher-bound example in Denver caught my eye.

We laugh at the idea of a blinged-out K-Car with a vaguely Benzified name today, but the E-Class boasted a tremendous amount of interior space for its fairly small external dimensions, and the ride was much nicer than that of, say, the Diplomat-based ’82 New Yorker.

The E was bigger and plusher than the mechanically similar LeBaron, but not quite as luxurious as its de-Diplomat-ized ’83 New Yorker sibling. GM and Ford had nothing that could compare to the combination of fuel economy, interior space, and bling-per-buck of this car, though their rear-drive V8 machinery would obliterate the (non-turbo-equipped) Chryslers in a drag race.


No mention of Corinthian Leather, but it was an option on the E-Class.

Instead of the traditional Whorehouse Red Quasi-Velour™ interior seen in so many Detroit cars of this era, this car has Bodily Fluid-Friendly Blue Quasi-Velour­™, straight out of the pages of a custom-van supply catalog.

I might need to go back and buy this tasteful emblem.







Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

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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  • CarolinaGreg CarolinaGreg on Nov 09, 2012

    My then girlfriend and now wife of 11 years had an 85 LeBaron 4 door, the 2nd cousin to this e-class, back in 1999. What I remember best about it was the bench seat in the front (manual no less) that was this same "bodily fluid" absorbent color. So when we went anyhwere and she drove, my knees were in the dash, as it wasn't a "split" bench. And it was the same "luxurious" edition, but didn't even have power windows, locks or a tape deck (OK, i'm carbon dating myself here). Car also had a full vinyl top, that the NC sun had not been kind to, and had taken on the smell of an old swimming pool. AHh, good times.

  • Hoser Hoser on Nov 10, 2012

    In addition to my own 85 NYer, one of my friends in HS had an '83 E-class. Red exterior and red cloth interior. It was impeccably maintained. If anything started to cause any kind of problem, it was off to the dealer to get fixed. Any hint of wear was set back to as-new. I went off to college a thousand miles away and one day he told me the E-class blew a head gasket and was done. He traded it in on a new 95 Neon to replace it. The dealer gave him $200 for the E-class. $200. I told him a a day and a case of beer, we could have had it perfect again. I would have given him $300 and pimped it around a few more years. I bleed Ford blue now, but the EEKs were pretty good cars for what they were.

    • Roberto Esponja Roberto Esponja on Nov 13, 2012

      "$200. I told him a a day and a case of beer, we could have had it perfect again. I would have given him $300 and pimped it around a few more years." No doubt, what a waste. He got robbed...

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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