Junkyard Find: 1987 Plymouth Caravelle
The alphabet soup of platforms that Chrysler based on the K-car during the 1980s and 1990s gets a little overwhelming to sort out. The “extended” K-car chassis was known as the E Platform and included the Dodge 600 ( we’ve seen one in this series), the Chrysler E-Class ( we’ve seen one of those as well) and the Plymouth Caravelle — essentially an E-class with a different grille — appearing for the 1985 model year. They didn’t sell particularly well, nor did they retain much value over the years, so spying one in a wrecking yard today is unusual.
No cassette deck, but at least you had FM to go with your AM in this car.
Not quite the “ Tormented Faces In Hell” badness of the Ford Granada’s fake wood, but still not very convincing.
The owner’s manual stayed with this car to the very end.
The interior is a sea of cushy Simu-Velour™ upholstery.
A Plymouth, engineered with quality and luxury to challenge the Buick Century and Olds Ciera… but for hundreds less.
Here’s the Canadian version.
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, Hagerty and The Truth About Cars.
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I love that stereo. I miss the brushed metal look of the 70s and 80s, now everything has to be glossy piano black and attract dirt from all over the known universe. Also, did you take the manual? I snuck out a 1989 Thunderbird manual that was in better shape than my 1995 one on my last trip to the junkyard...
A friend of the wife had an E version of the K car. No maintenance, lived in Brooklyn. She was always cash short among other issues. I watched this car survive 265k with a 2.2 turbo motor into an automatic. No car washes, no oil changes, no vaccum. Tire pressures up to chance. Lots of dings. The K car was a tough bugger.