It’s a basic car, and not worth much money, but today it’s also a rare artifact.
Desperate times demand desperate measures. Lee Iacocca’s salesmanship had bought Chrysler some time by securing loan guarantees from the United States government and that let it launch the front-drive, boxy and boring, not exciting Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant “K-Cars” as 1981 models. The Ks were enough to keep the company going, but there was no way the marketplace was going to remain in thrall to them for long.
So why not resurrect the convertible? And Iacocca did that with the 1982 Chrysler LeBaron.
Through the Seventies buyer enthusiasm for the convertible dwindled as sunroofs, T-tops and effective air conditioning all developed as alternatives to dropping the entire roof. Plus, the assumption was, government rollover safety regulations would likely make convertibles impossible to certify in the Eighties.
“When you have air‐conditioning, and when the wind at freeway speeds seems about to rip your eyelids off, and you realize that a roll‐over accident in a topless car is very bad news,” wrote The New York Times as the presumably last 1976 Cadillac Eldorado convertible left the production line in April of that year, “it doesn’t seem worth putting up with roof leaks and winter drafts anymore.”
There was something of a mania that followed Cadillac’s announcement that the droptop Eldo was doomed. People who had never collected cars before went to Caddy dealers and demanded the right to pay over sticker for one of the last American convertibles. As much as $2000 over sticker on an expensive car that carried, for instance, a price of $13,409 for an example sold out of Groff Cadillac in Lancaster, Pennsylvania. That’s an $11,049 base price plus options including $647 for electronic fuel injection, $104 for cruise control and a $192 destination charge. In 2022 dollars, that’s a $10,249.70 premium on a car carrying an MSRP of $68,719.09. Buyers would take their new Eldorado convertibles and store them in anticipation of making a killing when the market inflated their prices.
Today, 45 years later, there are 1976 Eldorado Convertibles still being dis-entombed with practically zero mileage on their odometers. Cadillac made 14,000 of them that year, which is a lot. And Lee Iacocca and the LeBaron convertible ruined their value.
By any reasonable 21st century standard, the 1982 Chrysler LeBaron convertible was trash. By 1982 standards, it wasn’t much either. The LeBaron, available as a coupe, sedan and convertible, was nothing more than a Reliant that was stuffed full of cheesy trim and capped with a shiny grille up front. As in the Reliant, base power was Chrysler’s own anemic 2.2-liter four-cylinder engine breathing in through a two-barrel carburetor. If the 2.2’s 84-horsepower was inadequate, the only optional engine was a 2.6-liter, Mitsubishi-built four with balance shafts rated at 92-horsepower. That was still inadequate, but it was less inadequate.
The convertible LeBaron was a straightforward conversion of the coupe. Iacocca wanted the convertible version done quickly, so the job was contracted out to a company called Creative Industries. These first 1982 LeBaron convertibles (and virtually identical Dodge 400 models) could be rough and their structure was severely compromised. But they were instantly popular.
By May 1982, the Chrysler plant in Fenton, Missouri was strained to make enough of the convertibles. “John B. Burkhart, plant manager, said about 2,800 auto workers began working nine hours a day and Saturdays last week to meet customer orders for the Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge 400 convertibles,” reported The New York Times. Mr. Burkhart said he expected the overtime to continue through June. “Dealers said demand had been strong for the first American-made convertibles in six years. ‘I could sell at least two or three a day,’ said Paul Lewis, sales manager of Mid-City Chrysler Plymouth.”
Carrying a steep $11,698 base price, and much more when options like the posh Mark Cross leather interior were ordered, the LeBaron convertible wasn’t just a novelty for Chrysler, but one of the corporation’s few profit centers. The company sold 3045 of the droptops that first year.
And other manufacturers were noticing. By the middle of the 1982 model year, Buick had contracted ASC to build a convertible version of the luxurious Riviera that carried a eye-watering $24,064 base price ($73,366.87 in 2022 dollars). Ford, also working with ASC, brought back the convertible version of the Mustang for 1983 and Chevrolet revived the Corvette for 1986. By the early Nineties there were convertibles available from American manufacturers ranging from the cheapest Geo Metro to the Cadillac Allante.
This particular Chrysler LeBaron was spotted in the small coastal town of La Conchita at the far northern edge of Ventura County in Southern California. Going by the Olympic Games commemorative license plate it’s a 1984 model equipped with the turbocharged version of the 2.2-liter four rated at 140-horsepower when lashed to a three-speed automatic transaxle or 142 when feeding a five-speed manual.
By ’84, Chrysler had brought production of the LeBaron convertible in-house, significantly improved the structure from soggy saltine to stale saltine, and changed the top design to include a glass rear window and small quarter windows along the side. It’s a basic car, and not worth much money, but today it’s also a rare artifact.
An all-new, second-generation, engineered-as-a-convertible LeBaron was introduced for the 1987 model year and that would last through the 1995 model year. It was replaced by the Sebring convertible for 1996 and that droptop would go through three generations before finally dying off in 2010.
Today’s obsession with SUVs has practically killed off the American convertible. The Mustang, Camaro and Corvette are still around, but Buick gave up on the Cascada in 2019 and Chrysler hasn’t built a roof dropper since the Sebring. How long will it be until some manufacturer is desperate enough to attract attention again with a convertible? And wouldn’t an electric convertible be nice?
Keyword: The LeBaron Convertible Was Born Out of Desperation