The hallowed American tradition of the cushy, softly-sprung sedan with padded vinyl landau roof and puffy upholstery had its heyday in the 1960s and 1970s, but you could buy such cars well into the 1990s. Even after Lee Iacocca’s modern front-wheel-drive K-Cars appeared in the early 1980s, “traditional” Detroit luxury cars based on the K platform continued to be built by Chrysler for quite a while. A great example of this is the 1983 to 1993 Chrysler New Yorker, which managed to mix up the philosophical concepts behind the plush-yet-affordable 1970 Chrysler Newport with the space-efficient, lightweight Iacocca Era in one machine. I found one of these, a 1990 New Yorker Mark Cross Edition in a Northern California yard, and I wish to share its resplendence with you as today’s Junkyard Gem.
Lee Iacocca wanted Chrysler-badged cars to seem like Mercedes-Benzes (a little earlier, Ford had the same idea with the Granada), but at one-third the cost, and so we saw these “crystal-pentastar” hood ornaments for quite a few years in the middle 1980s through early 1990s.
While Ford had deals with Cartier, Pucci, Bill Blass and Givenchy to sell “designer edition” cars, Chrysler went with leather-goods king Mark Cross.
The base MSRP for the 1990 New Yorker Landau was $19,509, and the Mark Cross Edition package tacked on an additional $2,069 to that cost (that’s like getting a $4,565 option package on a $43,050 car, when figured in 2022 dollars).
For that price, you got power everything: a digital instrument cluster, a bunch of extra body moldings and interior goodies, and throne-like seats swathed in vinyl and Mark Cross leather (which, I’m just guessing, could not be distinguished from the famous (infamous?) Corinthian Leather of this car’s Cordoba predecessors).
Padded landau roofs were big in the 1970s and fairly deep into the 1980s, but had long fallen out of favor with the under-80 set by 1990.
Still, Chrysler was proud of its landaus, and this car has big badges inside and out to prove it.
By 1990, most luxury cars came standard with at least an AM/FM stereo radio, and that’s what this car has. If you wanted to play cassettes, you’d have to pay at least an additional $254 (about $560 today).
The 1990 New Yorker belonged to the extended K-Car family, living on the same platform as the very similar-looking Dodge Dynasty. The only engine available for this car in 1990 was the 3.3-liter Chrysler V6, rated at 147 horsepower.
The New Yorker name lived on until the 1996 model year, when the final example rolled off the line at Brampton Assembly in Ontario.
Nobody else could sell Chryslers like this guy.
Keyword: Junkyard Gem: 1990 Chrysler New Yorker Landau Mark Cross Edition
