By the late 1970s, Chrysler Corp. was in trouble. They had been stuck with mostly gas guzzlers when the energy crisis arrived mid-decade. To help bail them out, the board of directors lured Lee Iacocca away from Ford, and he decreed that a new luxury car was needed to promote the company. So, the Imperial name was dusted off and applied to a 1981-83 personal luxury coupe. They even got crooner Frank Sinatra to help sell the car. This beautiful 1981 example may need nothing more than an owner who will have time to enjoy it. Located in a garage in Floral Park, New York, the low-mileage survivor is available here on craigslist for $18,500 OBO. Accolades go to “Zen” for the tip.
Chrysler used the J-body platform for the revived Imperial, one that had already served the Cordoba and Dodge Mirada. Only one engine and transmission combo was used, the 318 cubic inch V8 and A904 automatic tranny. The cars were smaller and sportier than Imperials of days past, and they continued to use the practice of omitting Chrysler badging as they had done back in the 1950s. The bustle-back look was borrowed from the second-gen Cadillac Seville.
Fuel injection was used but proved to be troublesome, and we understand some 1981 models were retrofitted with carburetors, which may be the case with the seller’s car. It now has a 4-barrel carb with the appropriate intake manifold. The new Imperial may have bolstered Chrysler’s image, but not its sales book. Just 12,385 were built in three years, with nearly 10,000 being built in 1981 alone. This car may have had just two owners, including the seller, who is busy with work and doesn’t have time to drive it.
We’re told the Imperial is a great runner, so you have to wonder why the seller didn’t bother to pull it out of the garage for better photos. All of them are close-ups that don’t show the true lines of the fine automobile. With just under 46,000 miles, the car has been seldom used and is often tethered to a battery tender. Everything seems to work as it should, so the Imperial should be turnkey for its next caretaker. “It’s a beaut, Clark”, so do you see this Imperial in your garage?
It’s nice, but is there enough of a following to command an asking price of nearly $20,000?
It also needs a different air cleaner.
Steve R
Agreed. That air cleaner looks ridiculous on that car.
Calling this an Imperial is like calling a Charger with four doors a Charger.
I really get where you’re coming from about the name Charger on a 4dr. It took me about 17 years to get used to it. They’re great cars honestly but I think Coronet would have been a better name. Younger buyers would have gone WTH is a Coronet though. I bought one 3 years ago and love it and FINALLY used to it having the name Charger on it. For the record though I have owned 3 3rd generation Chargers prior to this. Now for something funny. Dodge reintroduced a 2dr Charger and several younger owners were up in arms and saying a late model 2dr Charger just ain’t right. 😂😅
Looks very comfy, probably rides very nicely, but they want too much for that car.
The power mirrors on this car was interesting. They had a separate switch for the left and the right hand side.
I notice a little corrosion on the bottom seam of the passenger door. Even it wasn’t driven in winter, it may have been subjected to a moist environment in storage. Definitely a look underneath & the photos aren’t the greatest either.
Perfect Nascar body styling 🏁
They did look good in racing form, too bad they didn’t catch on.
Steve R
These drove Richard Petty into the GM camp.
Big C, Richard Petty had already departed from Dodge before this car was introduced. The first generation Cordoba-based body wasn’t very competitive in Winston Cup competition and the 1971-74 Charger that he’d been running was no longer eligible, so that’s when he left.
If I remember correctly, Buddy Arrington campaigned the Imperial for a while in the early ’80s but wasn’t terribly competitive without factory support.
Petty built a Mirada bodied car,not a Imperial. Ran slower than his previous car. The body panels were removed and he ran a Buick that year. Buddy Arrington was the last Mopar team,mostly Imperials but the scoring sheets showed him with Cordoba and Mirada too.
I would leave this one parked in the garage. With the door closed and locked.
There is just something that tells me to stay away. O.E.M 318 with an aftermarket carb and HEI conversion, all emissions.hardware ripped out. The inside looks nice as the outside but if it such a runner why not take pics outside.
This is the way most Imperials of this vintage will be found these days. The fuel injection systems were problematic and often failed, many while the cars were still under warranty. The typical solution back then, and the only viable solution remaining as the years passed, was to throw either a two or four barrel manifold and carburetor on the ol’ 318 and keep on going.
I thought Lee Iacocca was let go by Ford.
He was, but the Chrysler board still had to persuade him to take on the fiscal disaster that the company was at the time.
I just the other evening viewed a long online video about Iacocca’s life. It was longer than necessary due to AI but still informative. The Pinto legal issues occured before he was fired but really Ford III didn’t like him due to the attention Lee received after the Mustang success and Ford did not fit with him socially or personality wise. The Chrysler turn around was amazing.
This was an extremely stylish car when it was introduced in 1981. It had the muscle back design, which had nothing to do with Cadillac. I’ve read extensively on this subject and you’re just wrong. 20 grand for this car is way too much money. However, this imperial has a nice color and doesn’t look worn out. But it’s not like it is a 4000 mile barn find. All this car is worth is maybe $10,000. I wish the seller luck. Not many people bought this car at the time and thus it was discontinued quickly. I’d rather like the cordoba he stopped his body style but so few of those exist anymore.
Too bad there are no front-end pics of that beautiful waterfall grill.
If everything “works” as stated by the seller, this is not overpriced IMO.
Yeah, and why can’t we have some good overall pictures of the whole car!! Real pet peeve if mine, not being able to see the whole thing! What’s he hiding? We see this a lot in ads…laziness….
Ok, I’ll shut up.
My business partner in the 80s bought a new ’81 Imperial while I went with Lincoln. Strange with me being a MoPar guy. Bless their hearts, what with Chrysler’s excellent engineering, this one had a lot of electrical trouble. Driving home at night, sometimes the electronics would abruptly shut down and all was dark. As he told me one day, ‘I’ve been towed out of some of the best restaurants in Houston!’ haha Anyway…the things you remember when you get old.
I’m a Mopar guy and this is a far cry from the great Imperials of the past, but I still thought they were nice looking cars with very comfortable interiors. Still drives me crazy every time a seller posts a car and they can’t take a few lousy minutes to pull it out of the garage to take full, decent photos of it. What is it with people??🙄
Being a NY car I’d still want to see underside photos of it for sure. I can understand why they might have jettisoned the original fuel injection system but it seriously needs a different air cleaner.
Definitely way over priced. But that seems to be the norm nowadays.
Great car! Imperial was a flagship car from Chrysler. The lean burn 318 was a difficult tune, the E-Brock carb (Carter design) is a vast improvement. 318 can be modified for decent performance. Think of 318/360 Magnums in later trucks…
Chrysler went all out with these. The body panels are made from extra-thick metal and it was one of the first cars with a trip computer that calculated real-time and average MPG based on actual fuel consumption. I bought a literal parked-for-20+ years barn find ’81 during COVID and got lucky because it cleaned up beautifully inside and out. Mine was factory EFI and always ran fine the first time, but became unreliable if you ran errands and parked it a while, so I went to a Holley Sniper EFI. I just scored a 5.9 Magnum that will go into it with AOD and 3.55s (replacing the factory 2.21 (!!!) gears) but honestly even stock these things have enough torque for normal driving. They cost around $18,000 ($65k today) when you could buy a Cadillac for $11,000. I love mine and plan to rack up many miles on it. I’ve had it on several 500+ mile road trips and it’s wonderful to drive. That said you can score excellent specimens for less than $10,000. The GM HEI on this one is interesting considering they had electronic ignition from the factory, and I agree that the K-mart air cleaner housing is ridiculous. https://barnfinds.com/fitchs-folly-todds-1981-imperial-by-chrysler/