Would you believe that the Dodge Challenger SRT Demon 170 might not be the most excessive Mopar product of the past 40 years? Sure, four-figure horsepower and promises of eight-second quarter-mile passes is bonkers, but there’s one over machine that makes people’s jaws drop all over town. A 1984 Chrysler Executive Limousine just sold on Bring A Trailer for $10,555, a strong yet still reasonable price for one of the most conceptually outrageous vehicles Detroit ever put into the world. Forget a Rolls-Royce, here’s a K-Car built for the Fortune set.
In case you aren’t familiar with the K-Car, be it due to age, geography, or some other factor, it was a Hail Mary that worked. In the 1970s, Chrysler was, to use a technical term, a broke-ass company drowning in red ink. To turn things around, they brought in the godfather of the Mustang, Lee Iacocca, where he struck a deal with congress for a bailout loan before dropping a massive effort of simplifying vehicle structure across brands, known as the K platform.
Starting with the midsize Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant, variants of the K platform would eventually underpin everything from sport compact cars to minivans, turning the automaker around and securing profits for years. However, only one K-Car can be the true king, and that’s the Chrysler Executive Limousine.
If you haven’t seen one of these magnificent machines in person, here’s some perspective on their absolutely cartoonish proportions. Measuring 210.4 inches from stem to stern, this thing is 2.2 inches longer than a brand new long-wheelbase Mercedes-Benz S-Class, all while being 2.5 inches narrower and 3.5 inches lower than a new Corolla Hatchback. The result is a full-on limousine that fits in places a new Cadillac Escalade ESV won’t.
Granted, it certainly won’t hike up its skirt and high-tail it out of situations like an Escalade ESV, mostly because this rolling monument to Lee Iacocca is powered by a 2.6-liter Mitsubishi 4G54B four-cylinder engine with hemispherical combustion chambers. Yep, this thing has a Hemi. Interestingly, this was the engine that made vibration-smoothing balance shafts famous, as even Porsche would go on to license this tech from Mitsubishi. Think smooth, but definitely don’t think fast.
Indeed, once American Specialty Cars was done chopping up LeBarons to make factory-commissioned limousines, a few eccentric rich people got the ultimate K-car. Even up front, the focus on luxury is strong. Whoever’s driving will be cosseted by power seats, button-back velour upholstery, a digital dashboard, and more woodgrain than the average IKEA kitchen. However, as with any limousine, the real party is in the back.
Not only do rear seat occupants get a metric buttload of legroom and upholstered footrests, there’s also velour everywhere and a full partition with a power window to seal off hijinks and offer some modicum of sound insulation. Need to take two more passengers? No problem, jumpseats fold down from the partition, and you can entertain everyone with rear compartment stereo controls. Look, it was the ’80s, don’t expect screens crammed everywhere they could possibly fit.
Obviously the market for ultra-luxe stretched K-Cars was rather small, so these cars are properly rare. With only 1,698 production examples ever in existence, you stand a better chance of seeing a Ferrari Berlinetta Boxer or a Lamborghini Countach than a Chrysler Executive Limousine. It’s genuinely amazing that 1,491 homes were found for these four-cylinder limos, although the ’80s was a different time, and if one of these was good enough for Frank Sinatra, it’s probably good enough for you.
When you drive a Chrysler Executive Limousine, you are making a statement. Nobody knows what exactly that statement is, but it’s provocative. The people know that you make the Dos Equis guy look like an average Joe as you radiate eccentricity from every facet of your being, driving a rolling monument to American excess that also happens to be an economy car with a four-cylinder engine, torsion beam rear suspension, and rear drum brakes.
America has made many jaw-dropping things in the past 247 years, and this is one of them. The Hoover Dam, the KFC Double Down, The Chrysler Executive Limousine. For $10,555, this isn’t the cheapest Chrysler Executive Limousine to have ever sold, but can you put a price on glorious absurdity? You just know that whoever won this auction is absolutely stoked, and we’re 100 percent here for their stretched K-Car intrigue.
(Photo credits: Bring A Trailer)
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This just screams Eric Trump.
“Daddy can I ride in the limo with you?”
“No, get your own.”
The thought of a narrow, long cushy car jumped from this glorified turd to the magnificen Citroen DS. I’m googling where to find a church to repent on. It can be a bar, too.
I can smell that interior from here… a heady mix of cocaine, vomit and bodily fluids.
Pillowy velour interiors need to make a comeback.
In the 1990s I ordered a car service to the Tampa airport. I lived about an hour away and one of the 1,698 of these showed up to take me. I hadn’t specified a limousine, just “a car and driver” but was actually pretty happy.
They may not have the cachet of their contemporary Lincoln or Cadillac stretch limo “competition”, but it was properly comfortable in there. A/C was ice cold and it was a quiet and roomy cabin. The trunk was decently-sized as well. It was a relaxing ride to the airport.
Limos aren’t about power beyond getting the thing moving reasonably well and keeping up with traffic. Again, perfectly fine for that. I love that this one is still in such glorious condition and ready to take people around.
It would be a blast ot have one of these as a Lyft or Uber if the companies would allow it.
By then I distinctly remember my dad calling a “limo service” to ferry our family of five around on several cities in the US. Latin American me was amazed at the sheer comfort of early 80’s Olds 98, Chevy Caprices, Mercury Grand Marquises. I don’t remember any Mopar landyatch, or one of these K cars. I guess it’s for the better, though.
“Yep, this thing has a Hemi.”
I greatly enjoy harassing hardcore Mopar types with this factoid. Recently in a group I’m part of someone posted a late ’70s Dodge Challenger from the years when it was a badge engineered Mitsubishi Galant Lambda, and some chest thumping current Challenger owner chimed in that it’s not a “real” Challenger, whatever that means. But they did come with the same 2.6L Astron engine as this limo, so I reminded him that while it may not be a “real” Challenger, at least it does have a hemi engine. Some of them even had “Hemi 2.6” badges on them.
He really didn’t like that and tried every which way to validate his non-existent point but I bombarded him with enough evidence to prove I’m right that he eventually did a dirty delete on all of this posts, much to my satisfaction.
https://cdn-fastly.thetruthaboutcars.com/media/2022/07/19/9303381/junkyard-find-1981-dodge-aries-station-wagon.jpg
A pink example of this car featured momentarily (a different pink limo had been in the previous shot—I guess the filmmakers had trouble finding a consistent source of pink limos) in Valley Girl, the movie that put Nic Cage on the map.
This is like hooking up a Shetland pony to the Budweiser beer wagon.
I read that as “hooking up with a Shetland pony” and I had questions.
Catherine the Great’s little sister had a pony.
Meh, I’d rather have the 1981 stretch Chrysler Imperial in olive drab from Cannonball Run II.
On a side-note, when I was interviewing for jobs out of college, I flew into DFW for an interview. The company had a limo pick me up and take me to the hotel in downtown Dallas. I got a basic Lincoln TC limo, but in the limo line there were several Honda Accord limos. This was 1989, so we’re talking the pop-up headlighted 3rd gen Accord. Kinda awkward, but kinda cool.
Like a velour dream. The only problem with owning one, is that YOU are the driver. I wanna be in the back seat, blasting 8 tracks, and sipping zima from a plastic flute. My nipples are hard!
COTD for sure!
Hell yeah! You know how to party! Wait. Do they even make Zima anymore?
I think it’s called White Claw now.
I’m surprised it doesn’t have wire wheel covers. I’m pretty sure it was an option. Trying to stand out with body-colored wheels?
(Checks the internet)
DAMN! Chrystler didn’t even have proper wire wheels in the 80’s!
Trying to copy the Mercedes body-color hubcaps from the W123.
I’m a sucker for those plushy 80’s interiors. I know it ain’t right, but I totally am. I can’t help but be charmed by the “driving ergonomics be damned, ALL GOOD FEELS PRETTY EVERYWHERE ALLTHETIME!” design ethos.
Oh, it’s perfectly alright. I love me a great bordello interior.
Objective take: In the current market, $11k doesn’t buy much. It doesn’t even buy much in the old/interesting category, certainly not much you’d want to drive daily.
I’m calling this one as exceptionally well-bought. Congratulations to the new owner!
So much velour.
I love the line, “Nobody knows what exactly that statement is, but it’s provocative.”
YES! I was a parade of classic muscle cars on a closed public road this summer….. and one LeBaron convertible. The LeBaron stood out as most interesting to me! (Desirable? NO! But interesting.)
there’s a person at my university (in the Colorado-Wyoming area) who has a Plymouth acclaim turbo with Virginia plates (if I remember right) and it’s one of the most interesting cars in the lot I park in compared to all the trucks (old and new), SUVs, and hondas.
That is the proverbial polished turd.
If I had a million dollars…
…a nice reliable automobile.
Took me until I found the Autopian to discover the song wasn’t about Kei cars
Ooohh, soary, the line is “A nice Reliant automobile”.
(Reliants were the Plymouth version of the K-car)
Dig the correct Canadian pronunciation of “sorry”
Thanks! Keeping it real over here 🙂
I always wondered how to spell that in Canadian.
My error. Saw them last fall and it sure sounded like reliable then.
No worries! I was lucky enough to see them when Steven Page was still in the group. It was a great show.
Great show without him too. They were at a new venue in DC with a capacity of 450. Thought it was last fall but it was last summer. This time thing gets funky the older you get.
I like the Chrysler Executive Limousine more than I should
Aah I know who this car was built for. I spent several years working for the Tribune Review Newspaper chain. I could see it’s owner Richard Melon Scaife rocking one of these. Now he had money like very few people. Think Melon Bank, the Scaife branched loaned money to people needing a billion or more. He and his sister were the only 2 from the family in that generation. Well worked there in the early 2000s. He was a nice gentleman who never got a rich man’s ego. He used rent a bus and take the upper management of the Newspapers around to his Newspapers, mostly around Pittsburgh. I was there the bus pulls up Mr Scaife gets off wearing a lime green leisure suit and Converse All Stars. Everyone else is sporting $1,000s of dollars in threads. This was my 1st time meeting him. He was to spend half a day and meet with all the staff. However I was 1st we had a great meeting that took 4 hours. We swapped Newspaper stories with the CEO while Mr Scaife kept sending the CEO and my boss out for water and soda. It was Twilight Zone like for me, and my boss couldn’t believe the repaired I established. It didn’t stop him from allowing my position to be eliminated years later in cost cuts. But I didn’t mind since I knew it was few now or everyone later.
Wow! I’m still wary of ever owning an older vehicle, mainly for safety reasons, but this? That looks comfy and I’d sure like to drive one.
Stretch limos suck to get in and out of, but “regular” limos like this are legit.
Is that production number accurate? I remember seeing a number of these when I was a kid and a couple in the junk yards (though they might have been some of the same ones I had seen driving a few years earlier). Even going to Italian concours and such, I’ve definitely seen more of these POS than Countaches. Does look decent in back, but I never got to sit in one as the JY ones had been open to the elements and were wet and smelled like mold (still, with the image in my mind of the kind of person who would be the final owner of an old K-limo, it could have been worse).
I… actually like this. Could make one hell of a fun road trip vehicle, and while it’s long it’s not so long that it’ll cause issues, other than perhaps at certain railroad crossings. Normally I’m not a fan of acres of velour and fake wood but somehow it works here.
Hey maybe Autopian can borrow it and have DT and JT spend an entire weekend in it?
Would daily this one.
The limo has always been the most interesting K-car for me.
I’ve always been curious if someone took the 1986 version that had the turbo 4, and modified it to make good power, like many have done with the 2.2/2.5 turbos.
That would be a hilarious sleeper car to lose at a stoplight to…
I wouldn’t even be mad if I was the loser haha
It wasn’t me, in case anyone was curious.
Many years ago (circa early 2000’s), my Dad and I would take trips to auto museums. While at one (I think it was Historic Auto Attractions in northern IL), we saw a K-Car limo that Nixon used after his resignation. It always stuck in my mind as far more interesting than any of the other presidential limos. Hats off to the buyer.