If the movies St. Elmo’s Fire and The Breakfast Club aren’t running through your head right now, you weren’t a child of the 1980s. The seller has this 1989 Chrysler LeBaron GT Turbo convertible posted here on craigslist in Delano, Minnesota and they’re asking $3,000. Here is the original listing as I have a feeling this one won’t last too long – although, the listing has been up for over two weeks now.
This 1989 Chrysler LeBaron GT Turbo convertible would have fit right in for either of those movies and I’m surprised that this car is still for sale. You can hardly get a brake job on the massive, 12 mpg seven-seater SUV that most Americans commute with these days for three grand, and here you get an entire car. A convertible no less and one with a turbo and a red interior. This one was never driven in the winter, that’s a major plus.
Chrysler made the third-generation LeBaron from 1986 for the 1987 model year up until 1995 and although they visually just seemed smaller, they were actually a few inches longer than the previous generation of front-drive LeBarons, including the GTS four-door version. You have to go back to the rear-drive first-gen cars to get one longer. The seller hasn’t gone nuts with endless photos, which isn’t surprising but is always disappointing.
The exterior looks great in what photos are shown, other than a ding or two from hail and some scrapes, and the interior also looks fantastic. I have to wonder if what may be holding this car back is its TorqueFlite automatic transmission. I don’t even see the specs for this car with an automatic which is surprising. The five-speed manual seemed to be the most popular version.
The engine looks deceptively like more seats, but it should be a Chrysler 2.2L inline-four turbo II with around 175 horsepower. They say that it was in storage for a decade and the left rear window doesn’t work, but it runs great and it has a new battery and new tires. For very small money, a person could have a unique ride here. Have any of you owned a LeBaron of this era?
Great deal, looks very clean, plus a turbo for cheap.
If this was closer to me I’d be running there with cash in hand. These were neat looking cars back in the day, would love to relive some childhood nostalgia, top down style :)
Love these. Typically turbocharged cars work well with the autoloader transmissions.
That is a 2.5L Turbo 1 with about 150 hp. Only the maserati version came with a turbo 2 auto. I have one with a 5 speed turbo
Jay, GREGORY, Larry, and all: thanks for the clarification. You’re right, I shouldn’t have listed it as a GTC. It didn’t click in my brain that the GTC would have had a color-matched grille. Thanks for catching that, my apologies for letting that one slip through.
Hey no problem we all make mistakes. Like you’re my one comment it says frame red that’s supposed to be flame red also my car did not have a governor.
That’s one car I’ve had that I was never able to talk it out to see how fast it would actually go.. but in 1990 I was at the most part Nationals in Columbus Ohio on Brice Road at the knights inn doing sick ignorant burnouts with 235 50 16s on the car smoke the Jesus out of those tires for two nights in a row.
It made it in I think March 92 Mopar action magazine five pictures four for outlaw burnouts and one for an article called chip soup.
Every time I came around the building and it got ready to do a burnout the crowd would go wild. Being the front wheel drive vehicle I would smoke the tires until I couldn’t see out of my windshield. It made for cool pictures when I would drive out of the cloud of smoke but then everybody started getting closer and closer to my car that I was afraid I would hit someone so I would just sit there until the smoke cleared so I can see.
Good times
Yeah I don’t think that’s a Chrysler LeBaron turbo GTC.
I think it’s just a LeBaron turbo GT with the 2.5 liter.
I had a 1989 Chrysler LeBaron GTC turbo coupe 2.2 turbo II 5 speed. On the molding it said turbo GTC not turbo GT.
Plus my interior seats were different.
And I believe mine had a little more than 175 horsepower especially after a friend of mine opened the wastegate from 17 lb of boost to 21 pounds of boost.
Also all Chrysler LeBaron GTCs front grills were color-coded to the car not chrome.
This LeBaron is not a GTC. It is a GT. The GTC LeBarons had 16-inch rims, different (GTC labeled) pewter color moldings, 4 wheels disc brakes, a unique driver’s seat, and upgraded suspension. The 1989 LeBaron GTC Turbo II with the A555 5-speed transaxle is a low-production model.
I had one just like this, same wheels, same trim, same interior,
and it was ordered and delivered as a GTC. It was a fun car
that delivered 34 mpg on long road trip once. The 2.2 Turbo
was a longer lasting engine than the 3.0 Mitsubishi that ended up
in most LeBaron convertibles. The new buyer may have to replace the
head gasket at some point. No big deal on these. Also replace all
plastic and rubber tubing under the hood. A fun “driver” convertible for not much money. I assume the hailstorm dents effected the sale price.
I ordered the daylights out of this color combo. The customers liked it as much as I did. Somebody already told the difference between the GT and the GTC. Another point about the GTC, it was available, as I recall, with an automatic, but at the cost of losing the Turbo II. So it just became an expensive trim package and I believe that is why you see many more 5 speed GTC’s. It also seems to me the perforated seat covers were vinyl and not leather, so that might be slowing down the sale. The GT seemed to be the sweet spot in looks, equipment, and sporty for the family man, our main customer. As I said, these sold well while true high performance cars languished on the lot and often had birthdays.
Well my 1989 LeBaron GTC turbo 2 5 speed coupe was pretty fast.
I would bury the speedometer at 125 mph in third gear and still have 4th and 5th to go.
Mine was frame red charcoal interior removable moonroof heated mirrors 18-way power front driver seat four-wheel disc brakes touring suspension Chrysler Infinity 6 speaker surround system with headphone jacks with matching color combo headphones and CD player plugins 205 55 16 v rated Goodyear eagle GTs.
Out of all the cars I’ve owned that’s one of the three that I would love to have back.
And it was the only Chrysler LeBaron GTC turbo 2 that I’ve ever seen with a five-speed.
She’s changing her name from Kitty to Karen, she’s trading her MG for…
That’s a lot of rad for cheap.
My 89 GTC coupe also had chrome exterior door handles in place of the color matched door handles on the non GTC LeBarons, another unique feature. I Still own this car.
My first thought was: The back windows won’t go down. I owned a ’91 LeBaron convertible, not the turbo version, for three years. It was both the most beautiful car I’ve ever owned and the worst. There was a recall to drill some drain holes under the back windows, so mine never did fail during that time, but most did. The transmission was a nightmare. Mine had a total of three in less than 60K miles. The car would also simply die driving down the road for no apparent reason. I never spent a dime on repairs because of the warranty, but it was in the shop 27 times in three years and Chrysler spent more than 7K on parts for it. Beware.
I ended up buying this car. Odometer dosent work so no idea how many miles it actually has and turbo makes a bad noise. Was a bit irritated, But interior is immaculate, starts up on first crank and drives very well, almost everything works. Friend of mine still has a built 2.2 from a Shelby z that I had in an identical lebaron 10 years ago and has been sitting on a pallet all this time, plan on getting that back from him and swapping it in.
I bought this car, funny to see an article about it! Got it for 2300, has more issues than the ad suggested, turbo spools but definitely needs rebuilt, and odometer dosent actually work. But body is very clean and interior is nearly perfect. Runs and drives excellent starts first crank so I think it was still a decent deal.