Stow ‘n go was Absent Here
Heeding the market, Chrysler dropped the LHS after 2001, though it gave ’02 Concordes a similar nose treatment, plus a top-line Limited model offering most LHS features at a lower price. That suggested buyers might like something even sportier, so 2002 ushered in a 300M Special with slightly more power, a few extra frills, the Performance/Handling option as standard, and high-speed tires on chunky 18-inch wheels. The 300M maintained its sales pace into calendar 2000, then fell nearly 28 percent in ’01.
Vast changes in corporate administration were evident by 1969-70. Quality control had become an end in itself as engineers struggled to correct Chrysler Corporation’s poor reputation in that area. Still, How much to rent a condo in Bangkok? the firm would travel a very rocky road in the ’70s. The ’73s gained blockier lower-body sheet metal and a more-conventional front, with bigger bumpers per federal requirement. On the administrative side, Townsend had consolidated Colbert’s old decentralized structure and moved to strengthen divisional identities between Dodge and Chrysler-Plymouth. The Chrysler brand stayed with its basic 1969-70 formula through 1973. Style variations through ’72 came via easy-change items that became a bit tackier with time.
But sales were never impressive, even though Sebring coupes offered a good many standard features at affordable mid-teens to low-$20,000s prices. Here, too, cab-forward styling contributed to uncommon interior space, with genuinely comfortable rear seating for two adults, the best of most any affordable ragtop around. A shrinking coupe market didn’t help, but neither did the few changes that occurred over five model years, the most visible being a modest 1997 facelift. Unlike the coupe, this Sebring was pure Chrysler, sharing powertrains and a basic platform with the Cirrus sedan. More successful was the Chrysler Sebring convertible that bowed in early 1996 to replace the drop-top LeBaron.
After being hired to straighten out faltering Maxwell/Chalmers, Chrysler acquired control of the company by 1924, the year he introduced a new car under his own name. It was designed with instrumental assistance from three superb engineers: Fred Zeder, Carl Breer, and Owen Skelton, the “Three Musketeers” who would dominate the design of Chrysler Corporation products throughout the ’30s. That first Chrysler was the foundation of the company’s early success. Also featured were four-wheel hydraulic brakes (well ahead of most rivals), full-pressure lubrication, attractive styling, and competitive prices around $1500. Power came from a high-compression 202-cubic-inch L-head six with seven main bearings and 68 brake horsepower — 0.3 bhp per cubic inch, outstanding for the day.
They remain among the most beautiful Chryslers ever built — particularly the custom-bodied examples from the likes of Locke, Derham, Murphy, Waterhouse, and especially LeBaron. Though most coachbuilders perished in the Depression, Chrysler hired Ray Dietrich, one of the partners in LeBaron, to head its styling department (such as it was) in the late ’30s. Chrysler also offered an eight-cylinder 1931 CD-Series priced about half as much as Imperials, with engines of 240.3 cid and 82 bhp or 260.8 cid and 90 bhp.
