The Chrysler K-car was something beautiful. This brilliant front-wheel-drive platform produced a slew of vehicles that may have been a bit slow, but were good enough to help save Chrysler’s bacon. Today, we asked you to choose the best K platform vehicle from a short list.
Personally, I chose the Chrysler Executive Limousine. I’m not really a Mopar person, but I would happily drive the weirdest K car around. Wait, maybe my wife would want to drive it while I chill in the back. Oh no, my ascension into Fancy Mercedes continues.
I love this story from Jonathan Green:
My sister won a K car in 1981. You could peel back the plastic lining on a bottle top on a glass bottle of Coke (or in her case, Tab), and if it showed the car, you won. She had just turned 16, and my parents weren’t going to let her get her own car, so it was totally meant to be.
We were an Oldsmobile family, and we had the big wagons. So when my dad opened up the hood on the K-car, he shouted to my mom “Jesus Christ, Phyllis, the fan is plastic!”
Look, don’t look too closely at the details. I would have loved to own a brand-new car at 16! Farty McSprinkles gets a laugh out of me:
Mini Van! True story time. We had a Caravan as our driver’s ed car. I had already been driving for about a year when I took driver’s ed. We had a set course that we went to that should have taken most of the class period. I set off on the course with the teacher in the passenger seat and two other students in the back. About 1/2 way into the round trip, the teacher fell asleep. My 17-year-old brain said I would be a school legend if I could get a speeding ticket in the van (my 50-year-old brain is less convinced that would have been true). So, I sped up and drove the van down the two-lane highway we took back to the school as fast as I dared, but alas, there were no cops to pull me over. The teacher woke up when we returned to school, and we were extremely early. He could not admit that he had fallen asleep but had no idea why we were back early and seemed very confused. The other students did not rat me out (that I know of), so I wonder if he ever figured it out?
Citrus also gets it:
The Executive Limo is one of the dumbest cars ever made and thus one of the best.
Finally, we also asked you about your biggest car mystery. I suppose mine would be why my former 2010 Volkswagen Jetta SportWagen TDI went into limp mode for underboost at the exact speed range of 73 mph to 83 mph. Rad Barchetta has me beat:
I found a cowboy in my gas tank. (above)
Have a great evening, everyone!
I like the Chrysler Executive Limousine more than I should :/
All this talk about drivers ed reminds me of when I was taking that class (many decades ago at this point now) and the teacher showed up 20 minutes late. Turns out he had a fender bender that he caused and that was the reason for his delay. Of course, the class razzed him for that.
The story about the driver’s Ed van makes me think a good “Autopian Asks” would be about what cars we had in driver’s ed, or what we learned to drive in.
Drivers Ed: It’s been a few decades, but I think it was a Chevy Citation.
First Drove: Chevy Caprice Estate Wagon with the Oldsmobile Diesel.
The hated 61 Corvair, 4 door, 3 speed stick and the ultra lux 62 Buick Special, 4 door, automatic. Manhatten Beach, CA 1962.
I don’t recall but maybe a 1971 Plymouth Satellite. Or maybe I never had driver’s ed.
We had two Driver’s Ed cars, a 1986 Ford LTD and an early 90’s Plymouth Acclaim, both were burgundy for some reason. Students were assigned to a particular vehicle, and I was very happy to get the Acclaim. The Acclaim model was actually still on sale at the time.
Learned to drive in my ’64 F100 crewcab with an automatic and our ’67 Mercedes 220 stick on the column. How the seatbelt clasp worked was different from standard ones, so I had to show the DMV driving tester how to use it. Always nice to get bonus mental points before the test even started.
It was 1968. No driver’s ed class, just Dad teaching me in Mom’s 1961 Dodge Lancer. Loved the push-botton transmission controls.
Thanks, Mercedes!
(So glad I cut my fingernails that day)
I had a rental just like the one in your lead image. My co-workers called me Secret Service for months after I showed up for work in it wearing a blue suit.
Your name fits the bill too! “Agent Lorengo” sounds pretty good.
Imagine Phyllis’ husband checking out a modern car, with plastic intake manifold, coolant pipes, brake pedal, etc. He’d have a shit hemorrhage.
Or just an electric motor.
Phyllis’ husband (my dad) just leased an electric Blazer, and loves the shit out of it. In 1981, plastic was synonymous with “Cheap”, and with that the dude could not abide…
Plastic is still synonymous with “cheap”, it’s just that everything’s a cheap piece of shit now. The ceiling lowering doesn’t mean that the floor’s getting any higher.