We return to the Imperial story once more today, at a worst-ever moment. The year is 1974, and the future is bleak for the large prestige car. The economy is down, fuel prices are up due to a recent oil crisis, and the market's trend is toward front-drive vehicles and sedans of a smaller size. What was Chrysler to do with its flagship Imperial in that sort of environment? Kill it off, that's what.
I've been meaning to cover the final Chrysler Imperial for some time now. The only Imperial featured in this series so far is a collection of the early Eighties version, which was a very expensive and complicated pet project failure of Lee Iacocca. Today's Imperial is the follow-up model to that boxy rear-drive PLC. Let's check out the longest and most luxurious K-car variant ever made.
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By 1978, the Detroit-based automotive world was in the midst of a huge transition, but the full impact hadnât been fully expressed. While the companies were building cars like the Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Chevette â as well as the all-new Omni and Horizon from Chrysler â a few automotive dinosaurs continued to roam the landscape. Among them was the new Mercury Grand Marquis.
Perhaps itâs unfair to call the Grand Marquis a dinosaur. It was a large, family-sized sedan that was handsome in appearance, large in size, and offered the type of luxury that promised to comfortably cradle the driver and passengers. But by 1978 those attributes werenât enough. The U.S. government was compelling the Detroit companies to build more fuel-efficient automobiles, and 45 years ago that translated into smaller cars with smaller engines, and with fewer bells and whistles. The industry was mostly answering that call and so were most consumers. But not everyone w