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.
Baloney…that’s complete BS. That NEVER happened. Completely made-up story.
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.
Biggest disclaimer would be the absence of a certified speedometer.
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.
Those are not the slotted police wheels but the hubcaps are the police ones.
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!
Jeff Lavery,
Where is it?
Richmond, Virginia.
I need to find one on the west coast!
Police versions had “certified calibration” by the odometer, unless this ones had it’s cluster changed out.
I owned a 1980 Volare police car in the 1990’s that I scrapped out (318 4bbl). I kept the 100 mph speedometer. Civilian models had an 85 mph speedometer, including the ‘79 Roadrunner I wanted to put it in.
Not all of them. The Certified Calibration Speedometer was an option, even on police package cars.
I had a police package one back in early 90s. I was late driving to work on 95, and didn’t realize the temperature gauge was pegged on H. Got off my exit, stopped at the light and a steam cloud engulfed me. Opened the hood and the motor was so hot the spark plug wires caught fire. Motor survived but never ran the same. The fan had somehow sheared off the shaft…
The 360 was never available in these cars. The last year Chrysler put a 360 in any car was in 1980, period. Please don’t spread false information that is, utterly, untrue.
The wheels are not police wheels, and the police, vented hubcaps are not hard to find at all. There are thousands out there for sale, all of the time.
This is a 2bbl, civilian car that is nothing special.
I believe there is an “AHB” stamped on the build tag, on all seam-welded unibodied police cars. This is likely just a “fleet” car (a cop car build without any of the Extreme Duty pieces required for pursuit duty).
My Dad had an ex Nevada Highway Patrol car like this. For people that think the Dodge is as good as the Chevy OR the Ford. They have never driven all as I have. And here is my assessment. The Chevy has the edge in the power department partially because of the 350/5.7 engine. The handling is almost a toss up between the Ford and the Chevy worh the edge given to the Ford. Ride comfort goes to the Ford hands down. Notice that I have not included the Mopar in any of these comparisons. That’s because it doesn’t deserve any. The Dodge is reliable. I have spent the most time of the three in the Dodge. And belive me at high speed (particularly if in a pursuit) the Dodge is sloppy, and uninspiring. There just is no positive things to say about the Dodge other than it is reliable. Sorry Mopar fans, it’s just the way it is.
Torsion bars and leaf springs handled better than Chevys ,4 corner spring set up. Same with Ford. These cars with police pkg would go anywhere. I’ve owned all 3 with police pkg. While not as fast as Chevy or Ford. They handled much much better. I think my 4 bbl version was a highway car. Had 2.73 gears. My 2bbl had 3.23. My favorite police car was my 95 Caprice 9c1, Grand Fury close second.
We ended up with 5 of these Diplomats, & the 318 was decent for it’s time, but the bigger/taller guys preferred the Chevy Caprices which seemed to have more interior room & of course the more HP V8. I found out later, as they were rotating them out of service, a lot of the issues, & especially the brake fade during pursuit was because someone had ordered the fleet package instead of the police package. Probably to save some $$$.
These M-body Mopars always looked (when they were current, that is) “generic”: if someone were to have designed and built a no-brand 1980s car, this would be about what it would’ve looked like. Everything neat and in expected places, yet aggressively bland, anonymous, and devoid of any sense of style — a predictable box on wheels. The K-car was an abbreviated case of the very same concept, only looking awkwardly and disproportionately chopped to reduce size. No grace. No polish. Just a drab practical car. And that is what I see here: a fleet-type Diplomat with fleet/police hubcaps: blackwall tyres. If you like that, then GO for it. But at least the Panthers and G.M. 1980s sedans gave you something worth LOOKING at, and feeling pride-of-ownership in driving. And my 1988 Mercury Grand Marquis has 408,000 un-rebuilt miles. The 1980s were the time when Detroit was putting everything they knew about long-term reliability and fuel economy into full-sized rear-wheel-drive American cars, in response to the terrible “dependability”/”quality” beating they most justly had been receiving from the Japanese. If you can stand the below-entry-level plain-jane look of this Dodge (rather like a 1952 Ford Mainline), it would make an ideal long-term daily driver, no doubt. Don’t try to “admire” it; just use it for its intended purpose — to get you around.
Yeah I rode these as a deputy sheriff in Florida. They were OK until the rain started and we know it rains a lot in Florida. That is when they buck and spit and shut off. Didn’t do it every time just most times.
So they should only be driven on sunny days.
I had one. Excellent car at an excellent price. Somebody grab it !