The hallowed American custom of the comfortable, softly-sprung sedan with padded vinyl landau roof and puffy upholstery had its heyday within the 1960s and 1970s, however you might purchase such vehicles effectively into the 1990s. Even after Lee Iacocca’s fashionable front-wheel-drive Ok-Vehicles appeared within the early 1980s, “conventional” Detroit luxurious vehicles based mostly on the Ok platform continued to be constructed by Chrysler for fairly some time. An ideal instance of that is the 1983 to 1993 Chrysler New Yorker, which managed to combine up the philosophical ideas behind the plush-yet-affordable 1970 Chrysler Newport with the space-efficient, light-weight Iacocca Period in a single machine. I discovered one in every of these, a 1990 New Yorker Mark Cross Version in a Northern California yard, and I want to share its resplendence with you as at this time’s Junkyard Gem.
Lee Iacocca wished Chrysler-badged vehicles to seem like Mercedes-Benzes (somewhat earlier, Ford had the same idea with the Granada), however at one-third the fee, and so we noticed these “crystal-pentastar” hood ornaments for fairly a number of years within the center 1980s by way of early 1990s.
Whereas Ford had deals with Cartier, Pucci, Invoice Blass and Givenchy to promote “designer version” vehicles, Chrysler went with leather-goods king Mark Cross.
The bottom MSRP for the 1990 New Yorker Landau was $19,509, and the Mark Cross Version package deal tacked on an extra $2,069 to that value (that is like getting a $four,565 possibility package deal on a $43,050 automobile, when figured in 2022 dollars).
For that value, you bought energy all the things: a digital instrument cluster, a bunch of additional physique moldings and inside goodies, and throne-like seats swathed in vinyl and Mark Cross leather-based (which, I am simply guessing, couldn’t be distinguished from the famous (infamous?) Corinthian Leather of this automobile’s Cordoba predecessors).
Padded landau roofs have been huge within the 1970s and pretty deep into the 1980s, however had lengthy fallen out of favor with the under-80 set by 1990.
Nonetheless, Chrysler was pleased with its landaus, and this automobile has huge badges in and out to show it.
By 1990, most luxurious vehicles got here normal with not less than an AM/FM stereo radio, and that is what this automobile has. In the event you wished to play cassettes, you’d should pay not less than an extra $254 (about $560 at this time).
The 1990 New Yorker belonged to the prolonged Ok-Automobile household, residing on the identical platform as the very similar-looking Dodge Dynasty. The one engine obtainable for this automobile in 1990 was the 3.3-liter Chrysler V6, rated at 147 horsepower.
The New Yorker title lived on till the 1996 mannequin yr, when the ultimate instance rolled off the road at Brampton Assembly in Ontario.
No one else might promote Chryslers like this man.