One of the last great American car platforms that doesn’t get nearly enough love from collectors (in my humble opinion) is the M-body lineup from Chrysler. Known throughout American pop culture for being everything from a reliable commuter to an unkillable police car to even a somewhat luxurious option in the domestic wagon/sedan marketplace, cars like this handsome 1989 Dodge Diplomat listed here on eBay certainly rival the Panther platform for significance but get far less attention. This Diplomat appears to be a true survivor, and bids currently sit at $2,550 with the reserve unmet.
Of course, it could be that the perception of it being largely used by fleets – taxi companies and police departments gobbled them up – that led to it being seen as a low-buck option when you couldn’t afford anything else. The proliferation of them being used by public agencies and livery drivers didn’t help, but why does the Ford Crown Victoria get all the glory for being an incredibly durable (yet boring) machine? The M-bodies came equipped with equally unkillable drivetrains in the form of a 318 V8 or the venerable Slant 6, with the latter good for 110 horsepower. While these cars were visually as interesting as a pile of cold mashed potatoes, that wasn’t the point. As any Hollywood film involving a police chase in the 1980s showed us, the Diplomat could endure and dish out prodigious amounts of abuse.
As a final year model, this Diplomat looks surprisingly modern on the inside. Sure, it’s not going to be mistaken for anything from the middle 1990s, but that steering wheel and the wood trim bridges the gap from early 80s to the next decade. And like any good domestic product, the model was shared across the lineup, with Dodge getting the Diplomat, Plymouth owning the Gran Fury, and Chrysler making the car as an upscale model by calling it the Fifth Avenue. The tufted leather seats were all the rage in cars like the Fifth Ave., and made a big difference for buyers feeling they were only spending a little more and getting lots of luxury (they weren’t, as Chrysler was essentially broke during this time period.)
The 318 V8 was the gold standard for the M platform. There was a 360 option but most of these cars were equipped with the 318, and this Diplomat likely makes around 140 horsepower but a beefy 265 lb.-ft. of twist in 1989. The police spec cars made more power, but this appears to be a civilian version – however, the seller speculates that the wheels are from the police package, even though the VIN tag doesn’t confirm it as such. The aftermarket for the 318 is fairly robust, so finding ways to extract some additional performance could be a worthwhile approach while maintaining the sleeper look on the outside. Diplomats in this sort of condition appear for sale fairly infrequently, and this one should be worth $7,500 or more without much of a struggle. Do you agree they are underappreciated?
I agree with you Jeff. These Diplomats deserve some love too. This one is just neat, as is, it just has that unmarked police car look going for it. I’d leave it exactly as is. I always thought the airbag equipped steering wheels looked a little funny to me in these, I don’t know what year they started installing them in these cars, but most of the ones I saw didnt have them. The 318 will last a lifetime too. This is indeed a tough platform. And certainly deseves respect.
Not many cars ever had an airbag and a carburetor at the same time.
Remember these patrolling the highways. 🚨 Great looking cars, with a powertrain reliable as the tides.
No 360 version of the police package Diplomat/Gran Fury. The 318 four barrel had heads from the 360, but thats it. Drove several police package models of both the Dodge and Plymouth versions. After 1986, our department bought Chevrolet Caprices. I liked those better. They were faster and didn’t stall during spirited driving.
I owned three Chevy Caprices back in the early 1990’s and all had 305 engines which ran great. My 1986 Caprice Brougham had a 305 4 barrel carb and ran great.
There was always a rumor floating around that a couple dozen examples were shipped to Florida Highway Patrol that had “accidentally” had a 360 installed in them at the factory. And of course “My friend Randy Beeman’s mom’s cousin’s neighbor worked on them at the FHP motor pool. ‘Kay bye.” For all that, none of them ever turned up on the second hand market that I’m aware of, so I’m inclined to write the whole thing off as nonsense.
This one is definitely not a Police package car. Wheels are not police wheels either, as the seller falsely states. They are great cars, especially models equipped with the Police package.
I can’t tell from the pictures whether the wheels are the “cop wheels”. If they are, they’d have 6 little kidney shaped holes, much like the 5 on a Chevy. The hubcaps are cop wheel style.
Back in the early 90’s when I had a Mopar, I used to grab all the “cop wheels” I found in the junk yards and all the cop caps, too. Lots of them were on taxis, too. I sandblasted a set, painted them white, mounted blackwalls on them, and added the cop caps. Had them on my 73 Dart Swinger, and I thought they looked cool. Apparently others did too, because I sold a lot of sets of them to others.
1989 was the only year for the driver side airbag, although a few late build 1988 models got them too.
My first car was the Plymouth version with a 225 Super Six. Surprise surprise, I bought it at the government surplus auction! In the 1980’s nothing said squad car quite like that front end in your rear view!