The Town & Country emblem has adorned wood-clad Chryslers since the forties! The early cars used real wood in sections of their bodies and were very beautiful. The same cannot be said for this 1983 interpretation of the concept, but it’s still an interesting car that deserves a second look. It may have been based off the mass produced k-body platform, but these faux wood paneled convertibles were built in limited quantities are actually collectible today. In fact, one sold for a surprising $13k at auction in 2013! This car may not be quite as nice as that one, but it’s a heck of a lot cheaper!
It may be hard to believe at first, but this was pretty high level Chrysler when it was new. The seller claims that the car did pass inspection before being parked two years ago. The odometer is only showing 83k miles though so this might be a good one to get. With that many miles you could either use the car as a driver or hang onto it and hope that values go up. I’d probably just clean it up and drive it.
The exterior is very dirty, but I bet it will look great after a good detailing. It’s never going to be as prestigious as its forefathers, but it’s reliable and fuel efficient… The 93 horsepower Silent Shaft four-cylinder engine was built by Mitsubishi and is attached to a TorqueFlite three-speed automatic transmission. This is one you could actually drive in the town and the country.
Check out the chocolate brown leather inside! Now that looks more in line with the “Town & Country” brand. This isn’t a big car, but it looks downright comfy in there! It may not be as fancy as the classic version of the car, but the price tag does make it a tempting proposition as a comfortable and unique daily driver. John P would like to get $3,500 and you can contact him via email here if interested. The car is located in Perkasie, Pennsylvania.
Thanks for listing this with us John! If you have an odd classic that you are thinking about selling, please give us a shot.
planes trains and automobiles….
“YOU’RE GOING THE WRONG WAY!”..
For a second I thought that was a 1/64 car sitting on a shelf and was about to go looking for where I could buy myself one
$3500 for a fake wood paneled K car? No thanks.
I can’t believe that the “Related Finds” would even be shown at the bottom of the page in relation to this vehicle. Iaccoca sold his soul by this time as well as Montalban with the Rich Corinthian Leather campaign. I wonder if there was Corinthian leather anywhere on the Love Boat when Tattoo was announcing the seaplane’s arrival on Fantasy Island.
Boff!,Boff! The Cordoba Plane !
Ah yes Tattoo….the Cordoba has arrived. Please see Our sucker guest’s to their over priced cabins…….
Just amazing the transformation from say a 1948 Chrysler T&C to this. The late 40’s and 50’s T&C’s were elegant cars, this is a rehashed K car, the most generic car on the planet. Still, for what it is, and not what it was, this was a good, dependable car, I’ve had several K cars, including it’s cousin, the mini-van, of which I’ve also had several. This one could be cleaned up and still some fun left in the old gal, I’d bet. No trouble finding parts, that’s for sure.
Howard….I put full trust in Your faith when it concerns this one as I have very little.
I don’t know about the asking price… Seems a little high. My guess is this one is due for a timing belt if it hasn’t been replaced already. My ex bought an 85 Lebaron conv new and it was a decent ride, though hers had the 2.2 L turbo. I didn’t mind the wood on the wagon (I had a 2.6 L 85 T&C wagon that served me well, though it was on the gutless side), but on the ragtop it never looked right to me.
These motors have timing chains
And they rattle upon start up just like an old datsun !
http://omaha.craigslist.org/cto/5678737002.html
And there is one on CL too for ~$4700 in Brady NE. Looks a little cleaner…
And sitting in the back seat of this one is a definite WTF!
Looks like my boss at the Post Office………
just an old hippy
The big picture- still, WTF
It amazes me as much as anyone else that cars from the 80’s are becoming collectible. But that is indeed the case. And K-cars are a huge part of that history. One would do well to pick one up and put it away for twenty years. Do it now, while they are still relatively affordable.
No…….just no.
I had a silver, non-woodgrain version 2 or 3 years newer than this one, with the “Mark Cross” leather package and it was a great car for me; literally not one problem in the three years that I owned it. It even told me when my “door was ajar”, or my “lights were on”; which was cool in the video game era. Mine had the 2.6 Mitsubishi engine with the balanced-shaft and it was as smooth as glass, but it wasn’t exactly a speed demon.
My daughter and her husband had a silver Mark Cross just like the one you mentioned when they got married and though there was nothing particularly pretty about it, it was a neat little car for driving around New England in the summer. Comfy leather seats and a fun ride with the top down. (FUN in the driving-to-the-beach sense, not the holy-crap-we’re-sailing-now sense.)
Early 80s cars were pitiful. The last convertible had come out in 1975, emissions was kicking driveability butt. Lee Iacocca made this car and others with pizzaz and folks bought it because it was fancy and Lee was a good pitchman.
This car puts the “F” in Fugly. No doubt about it!! Fugly when built and still fugly today…..
Four years prior to this car being made many would NEVER have dreamed it would be possible for Chrysler to build ANY car. In 1979 employees were showing up for work and thinking this is going be the last day.
Iaccoca pulled off a miracle and saved the company. It was he who said how come we don’t have a convertible? We are going to build a convertible! This was unheard of at the time and said to everyone who wrote them off. WE ARE BACK!
Obviously no one gets what this little car represented but for everyone at Chrysler in 1983 it was a proud day for them. How soon we forget!
BINGO! Spot on, AMCFAN. I saw an interview with Mr. Iaccoca when Chrysler was in trouble the 2nd time, and the interviewer asked him if he would consider coming back, and he was very bitter about it, with a resounding NO! He said, he didn’t pull a dime out Chrysler until it was well on it’s way, and he said, these “spoiled brats” that run companies today deserve to go down. I think he would have made a great president of the US.
“This was Jon Voight’s car Jerry”
(someone will get it…)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fm2iNNqj2fQ
I think I just threw up in my mouth a little.
It’s rather hard to believe that the big crash didn’t happen for another 25 years after building these things, isn’t it? And I’m not just picking on this example/manufacturer, either.
There are a few exceptions but the 80’s sure weren’t the golden age of automobile design.
This car is a product of the 79-80 almost failure of Chrysler and Lee Iacoccas rescue. Another crash was 89-90 S&L/Real Estate crash…….
Pretty much every ten years there’s a crash.
I wouldn’t want that if the wood was real.