The 1980s were a love it or hate it decade, maybe more so than most other decades were. It was a transitional period from old school everything: cars, wars, fashions, technology, etc. This 1983 Chrysler LeBaron Town and Country convertible pretty much sums up the decade for me. This plastic-wood-clad ragtop is listed on eBay with only a day left on the auction and a current bid price of $3,472. It’s located in Tacoma, Washington, let’s check out this rust-free ragtop.
My first real and real nice car was a LeBaron convertible from this second-generation Chrysler family of K-Cars. Some (most?) of you just laughed out loud when I said “real” and “real nice” because you only think that cars from previous generations are worthy of being loved or of being shown on a classic car website. For me, after having started and built a nice business out of high school, this was quite an achievement when all that I’ve had up to this point were rusty, dented beaters. A talking car with full power and Mark Cross leather and a convertible no less, that was quite an achievement for this poor lad.
Mine was a couple of years newer and it was silver and it didn’t have the wacky Town and Country plastic-wood treatment or the love-it-or-hate-it two-tone brown and gold interior, but I loved that car. It talked to me, telling me that my door had somehow turned into a jar (“your door is ajar”) or that my lights were on. There’s a little white button in the glove box to turn that off if a person wanted to, but why would anyone want to turn that off in the 1980s? It was the era of video games, Commodore 64 and Apple Macintosh computers, and sport jacket sleeves pushed up to the elbows. This car appears to be in almost like-new condition.
Speaking of brown and gold leather interiors, here it is. I remember being disappointed that the gigantic, puffy arm rest in the middle was just that, a gigantic, puffy arm rest, there was no storage underneath at all. Why? Other than that, My LeBaron convertible was a fantastic car for me. It ran perfectly never giving me an ounce of trouble, I’m guessing like the one for sale here will do for the next owner. I had a big Radio Shack CT-300 cell phone, which I got in February of 1987, mounted on the tunnel in front of the shift lever in an era when hardly anyone else had a cell phone. Life was good. Yes, I still have it and it’s sitting right here as we speak. Hoarding 101 lessons from Scotty G.
The seller makes it sound like this is the nicest one available and they may be right. Whether a person likes a K-Car-with-chrome (what I called mine) or if they think that this era of frameless, front-drive, four-cylinder cars were the death knell for the entire auto industry is beyond the scope of this post. Just for the record, your ’57 Chevy or ’71 Barracuda were seen as not being as worthy as 1920s or 1940s cars were to previous generations. Sometimes it’s good to step back a bit so you can see the whole picture. Remember, we weren’t all born at the same time so naturally we have different likes and dislikes depending on when we grew up.There is no right or wrong in the car world, we all like what we like and that’s ok.
This is Chrysler’s, or actually, Mitsubishi’s 4G54 2.6L inline-four which would have had around 115 hp. Mine was flawless and velvet-smooth with that balanced-shaft. I don’t know if that hood spring should be white on this car but I could be wrong. I probably should have kept my car but I traded it in on a black BMW 318i two-door with a 5-speed and that was an even better car in many ways. But it wasn’t a convertible and that has to be the ultimate option, at least in my opinion. Have any of you owned a K-Car LeBaron convertible?
“Planes, Trains, and Automobiles” comes to mind.
Planes, Trains, and almost an Automobile. A refugee from the Red Green show.
The combination of this movie and the car’s location made “Tom Tuttle from Tacoma” come to mind immediately.
Different movie, same actor.
Absolutely a car to own…slightly garish, yet not offensive to the eye. I love these now as much as I did when they were new. If it had the turbo engine it would be perfection!
The turbo came in 1984 along with EFI. That was the beginning of the 2nd generation of the K cars.
The original LeBaron and Dodge 400 convertibles in 1982 started out as 4 door K cars.
At different times I have owned an 83 LeBaron conv . and an 84 and 86 Dodge 600 conv.
Very dated look, but not a bad ride. Had one for a while in the 80’s. Comfy enough. Good highway road tripper.
It’s amazing how nice the interior is, almost looks like it isn’t from the 80’s!
Ended at $4250. Not too bad, and might be a car that one day would even be considered collectible…
Was that John Voight’s car?
Close, Georges car was brown.
https://pics.imcdb.org/0is803/71024.830.jpg
“Don’t bite the pencil..”
George Costanza and the car fire comes to mind. It was Jon Voights car ! Good thing the wood on the side was treated !
Honestly, glad the car was shared. Great sign of celebrating drop tops again in the US !
My MIL owned one as a used car in the early ’90’s. Mom’s was an ’86 LeBaron
ragtop, dark red in color with a cream
top and interior. Her car was a turbo
model that ran great and probably a
blast to drive. Early one morning after
taking my BIL to work, the car suddenly
caught fire and burned to the ground in
her driveway. No one was hurt, but the
insurance company stated the car was
destroyed due to a defect in the turbo
charger itself that allowed gas to drip onto the intake manifold which exploded
and destroyed the car. Of all the cars
Mom’s had since then, none could stack
up to that ragtop. She loved that car and
still tells that story to this day. Would
like to find one for her to enjoy before she
has to give up driving. Too bad this one’s
gone, would’ve made an offer.
Scotty, I got my driver’s license at age 16 in 1984, the very year my Dad bought a new talking Chrysler E-Class, aka stretched K-Car with chrome. The girls loved that!
These cars actually run and drive quite well. Fun car for the dog days of summer.
Wreck it exactly like Planes/trains and Automobiles, dress up wearing a John Candy rubber mask and drive in local parades!
I actually own 2 LeBarons! A 1986 and a 1995! The ’86 was the car I always dreamed of owning and the ’95, well 2 is better then 1! The ’86 has 150,000 miles and the ’95 had 118,000 on it when I bought it 6 months ago!
I remember having one where the whole thing caught fire when my fat friend was smoking and the wind..
I had to drive it in the frozen cold till a trooper impounded it .
This seem just yesterday in my mind
It took a while to get hone for thanksgiving but I made it 😳👀
Had an 86 dodge 600 convertable brown with a tan top and leather, wasn’t as over the top as this, weren’t too many cheap convertibles at the time, fun to run it into the ground, even put a couple engines in it because I liked driving it, engines were cheap and plentiful. All I have left of it now are the hubcaps and boot in the garage. Have one of those old giant portable phones in there too, wonder if the phone will be a collector item.
Nice write up, and a very nice car except for the plastic wood never did like that plastic on any cars!
The next edition, the bean shaped one, with a V6 is the most undervalued used drop top on the market. Fast, reliable, and to me, looks COOL. It is to today, what a 20 year old Mustang was in 1986. If a kid wants into the hobby, let him find a good one, many were driven by women and not abused at all. Sexist, I know, there are women who abuse cars, so I apologize for the over generalization.
I owned 2 a 82 Dodge 400 conv with mitsi engine and an 86 Lebaron with turbo. Both were pretty good cars but the chrysler engine liked to blow head gaskets.
I say buy it, then have John Voit sign the glove box like Carol Shelby did.Then take it to all the car shows/cruise nites and see how many people get the joke.LOL
I say buy it, Then track down John Voit and have him sign the glove box like Carol Shelby,or just forge his name yourself for that matter Then take it to every car show /cruise nite and watch the reactions …..LOL
When Swedish hand rock band Europé (The Final Countdown) lived in tax exile in Bahamas in the late 80:s – they all drove LeBarons. Consequently they formed a hobby band called ”Le Baron Boys”…
with 5 rolls of duct tape,Red Green would turn this into a helicopter with a
washing machine!
My first car was an early 80’s k-car that I bought from my grandma in the mid 90’s. Very comfortable and great AC but by that time it was not considered very cool. My friends all had VW Golfs or some other hot hatchback. My friend’s moms always loved it and thought it was a Mercedes. Got rid of it when the head gasket failed. Still have some fond memories of that car though. I was always told that the K-car is what saved Chrysler in the early 80’s.