Junkyard Find: 1991 Chrysler Imperial
By 1991, Chrysler was using the K platform as the basis for everything from penny-pinching econoboxes to minivans to the once-majestic Imperial. One thing about the Whorehouse Red Interior Era (approximately 1983 through 1994), though, was that enough red velour and gold-plastic emblems could make even an Iacoccan front-wheel-drive first cousin to the Plymouth Reliant-K into a quasi-credible luxury sedan. Here’s a ’91 Chrysler Imperial that I found in California a couple of weeks ago.
I see a fair number of these cars in wrecking yards, but only this ’92 has graced the pages of this series prior to today.
If the K-based Imperial (technically a Y-body) had evolved into an early-2000s luxury SUV, this Imperial Eagle emblem would have been enlarged to dinner-plate size and slapped on the tailgate.
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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Guess that rose is not as popular as it once was, I haven't seen one in 20 years.
My father ordered a 1985 Olds 98 Regency from the factory that didn't look all that different from this. His was a metallic red with a tan velour interior. Aside from the choice of the cloth interior (he had a hatred of leather at the time that he go over in later cars) the car was loaded with every gizmo available in a top of the line 80's Oldsmobile, including a trip computer and a pre-federal law CHMSL. He drove the car until I got my license, which made the insurance more than we could afford. He sold it, picked up a mid 70's Dodge window van to get back and forth to his job at GM, and pocked the difference. I made it up to him years later by lending him my '91 Z-28 convertible long-term as a commuter. By that time I was onto VWs and the Camaro was becoming a bit of a money pit.