Ford really set the standard for designer-edition luxury cars during the late 1970s, with the Lincoln Mark V available with Superfly-grade styling by Bill Blass, Givenchy, Emilio Pucci, and Cartier. The competition scoured the world for competing designers, with even AMC getting into the act, and Chrysler signed up Mark Cross for some glitzed-up luxury cars based on stretched variants of the aging K Platform.
Here’s a 1989 Mark Cross Edition New Yorker Landau, spotted in a Denver self-service yard a couple of weeks ago.
Broughams and Landaus and Concourses and all the rest of that faux-luxe badging didn’t last long into the 1990s, at least not in the mainstream, but the word Landau still meant something to Chrysler shoppers in 1989.
Chrysler no longer used the “Corinthian Leather” term by this point, so the Mark Cross New Yorker (and Imperial) came with “Mark Cross leather with vinyl trim” inside. Sure, we mock this sort of interior today, but the setup was very comfy for a long drive across, say, Iowa and Nebraska.
Power came from the versatile Mitsubishi 6G72 V6, an engine that went into everything from the Mitsubishi Debonair to the worst car ever inflicted upon humanity.
The padded landau roof is in good shape by the standards of cars living under the withering Colorado sun. The resale value of these cars is so low today, though, that any mechanical problem costing more than a few hundred bucks amounts to a death sentence for most examples.
It was sold new in Denver and, 29 years later, will be crushed in Denver.
New Yorker gives you… everything!
That engine is what killed this car.
Don’t be so sure, 1989 was the first year for Ultradrive.
I had said engine and transmission in my ’95 Caravan. When the Ultradrive gave out at 123,000 miles the shop owner asked when was the last time the transmission was replaced. After telling him it was the original, he said I was very lucky because I should be on my third, maybe fourth transmission.
The only issue I had with the Mitsubishi 3.0 was that I could never get the valve cover gaskets from leaking.
It certainly looks comfortable. But why are the rear seats so high off the ground?
…And why is there apparently zero padding for the front passenger’s seat cushion? It looks deliberate, not a symptom of wear.
It is wear, those buttons were sitting as deep as those in the back when it was new.
>> But why are the rear seats so high off the ground?
It’s to accommodate the large flat lithium-ion battery pack under the fl–oh wait, wrong car.
Because someone went looking for change and pulled it.
15 years later Chrysler touted it as a feature in the Jeep Commander.
Pizza with all the toppings..
No sirloin under the hood.
Well…I wonder how far this one got to…
I guess an older person owned it and then they died and their kin didn’t want it and just sold it to the scrapyard…
Hood seems to indicate a small engine fire, but engine bay pics don’t indicate that.
You see that type of paint “burn” on hoods a lot in high altitude climates. Heat from the engine bay accelerates the rate of deterioration from UV rays.
Pssst – friendly reminder – send me more of your Impulse pics – txt at 65zero-22eight-486seven – and tell me where you are (to figure out shipping) Ready to buy by end of Feb.
My first car was a 1990 Chrysler Fifth Avenue Mark Cross edition. B-C pillar stretched a bit more with an opera window, same seats, 3.3 Chrysler V6.
The transmission on mine was awful too, 3sp w/OD. It would sometimes get stuck in 1st gear, and the only fix was to turn the car off and on.
Eventually would get tired of stopping on the shoulder or parking lot, and would just pop in neutral while rolling, kill the engine and turn it back on while cruising along at 40mph or so.
It became something I didn’t even think much of until the first time I did it with a passenger. My friend freaked out, “What the %[email protected]& are you doing! You just turned off the car while we’re driving!”
Those seats were awesome. I bought a set from a wrecked one of these cars and they bolted directly into my K car. Zero mods required. As did a host of other cool touches…
One could bolt those seats to the floor of one’s living room, facing the TV.
You sir win the Internet.
Nah, not the living room. The front porch, overlooking the remains of the New Yorker in the yard.
Oh man these suggestions are too good!
Did they come with cupholders back then? You know, for the cans of PBR and Bud Light when you’re sitting on the porch.
There *is* a bug zapper next to the remains of the New Yorker, which *is* up on blocks, right??
“The Emilio Pucci Edition Continental Mark V bespeaks elegance and good times”
Say it in a Montalbán-esque accent. It sounds even better.
A bebroughamed, lengthened K-car is still a K-car. These drove exactly like the abused fleet Acclaims that we used at my college job whenever our even crappier ’85 Ram van was broken (i.e., often).
Those seats make my back ache just looking at them. I fail to see why people seem to think that these sofa style seats are comfortable. Maybe for 10 minutes on the around the block test drive, but after two hours I am screaming to get out. Horrible memories of my folks execrable Olds 98.
These cars were truly the low point of the era of tarted-up junk American “Luxury”.
Well in fairness, everyone else had moved on and was climbing out of malaise. Chrysler was just stuck with no money and little effort through 1993.
Is there any car company that made such massive improvements in such little time other than Chrysler? Specifically talking the very early 80s and 1992 to 1994.
I agree about the sofa seats. The Volvos owner stereotypes of that era were intellectual snobs, but those owners knew what good, comfortable car seats were! And that was not these fluffy and soft kinds of seats. (They knew what proper brakes were too…)
krhodes1, I am very familiar with the Olds 98 seats you refer to, as we owned a 1987 model ourselves with said seats, and I agree with you on how bad they were. However, the New Yorker’s were much better. Had a higher back, better support, and were overall very pleasant on long trips. I know because I rented them several times for one-way trips between Charleston SC and Charlotte NC, for a job I once had. The funny thing about this is that, I would book a small car via Dollar Rent-A-Car and when I got there they were always out of them and would then upgrade me for free to a New Yorker most times, other times an Imperial, and occasionally a Chrysler minivan. I never got the small car I’d booked, it was great…
90% of sofas in furniture stores are too soft. It is always challenge to find sofa or armchair firm enough to comfortably seat for extended period of time and small enough to fit into average room. Bigger, softer, sweeter, spicier, two for price of one, 80” TV, louder speakers (and rock bands). More is always better than less, quality be damned.
Almost 30 years is a decent run for these. I have an odd soft spot for the Dodge Dynasty.
The only thing finer than a 89 NY Landau Mark Cross is a 90 Imperial with the Mark Cross Pkg. Chrysler malaise at its finest
Anyone know more about the story behind Marc Cross? I think they made purses for nearly 100 years in the Massachusetts area, but went out of business around 2000 or so. But how did they get involved with Chrysler? And is it just me, or did it seem like Chrysler never promoted the Marc Cross editions as well as they should have? The first LeBaron convertibles had Marc Cross interiors which were really nice and very comfortable!
https://www.businessoffashion.com/articles/global-currents/mark-cross-the-american-luxury-brand-revival-that-almost-wasnt
When I was in high school I had a friend who blew the motor in his ’76 Cougar and wound up with one very like this as a hand-me-down from his grandparents.
He listened to Primus and Ministry and loathed the car’s style but riding shotgun I thought it rode just fine.
As a 16 year old, for some reason I was always impressed that they put the mouse fur on the A-pillar trim.
It has been 30 years!!!