The history of Chrysler over the past fifty years or so is a long and sordid tale of joint ventures, bailouts, purchases, sales, and mergers, leading to its current situation as part of a giant conglomerate with a dumb name. All of these marriages and divorces left behind some strange step-kids, cars that wear the badges of old Chrysler brands, but have nothing to do with its current offerings. For your consideration today, I have found two clean low-mileage examples of such cars.
Friday’s final four were a motley bunch, with a little something for everyone. The Fiat 500 won, followed by the Plymouth Valiant wagon, then the world’s nicest Chevy S-10 Blazer, and the cheap New Yorker brought up the rear.
This is the order I’d put them in, too. That little Fiat looks like a lot of fun, but I’d be sorely tempted by the Valiant wagon too. The Blazer would be an interesting conversation piece, but I still don’t know what I’d do with it. And the Chrysler New Yorker would make a fine winter beater for someone, or first car for a kid, but it’s not something I want.
Vehicles with a Chrysler, Plymouth, or Dodge nameplate on them have been made by, or had components from, Mitsubishi, Renault, Mercedes-Benz, Hillman, Volkswagen, Talbot, and probably some others I’m forgetting. Not all at once, of course, but sometimes in the same showroom at the same time. The company’s boom-and-bust fortunes over the past several decades have left behind a trail of cast-off cars, some of which you probably remember, others you may have forgotten. Today we’re going to take a look at a couple of them, and dig into a little bit of the twisted history that created them.
1991 Dodge Monaco LE – $5,400
Engine/drivetrain: 3.0-liter OHC V6, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Emmaus, PA
Odometer reading: 24,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Chrysler went from near-bankruptcy in 1978 to having enough money to buy AMC in 1987, thanks to the success of the K cars and the minivans. Jeep was the real prize, but a lot of other AMC products came along for the ride. Among those was a big sedan that AMC had been developing with its partner Renault: the Premier. Chrysler created a new division as a home for these AMC leftovers: Eagle. This car is exactly the same thing as an Eagle Premier, but it wears a Dodge grille, and a famous Dodge model name.
The heart of the revived Dodge Monaco, and its whole reason for existing, is the infamous PRV (Peugeot-Renault-Volvo) V6 engine. As part of the AMC purchase deal, Chrysler had to fulfill a purchase contract for these infernal things. Eagle wasn’t selling enough Premiers, so Chrysler decided to sell a version of the car through its higher-volume Dodge dealerships. This Monaco is practically new; it has had two owners, each of whom put about twelve thousand miles on it. The seller says it runs and drives great, but the serpentine belt squeals when you turn on the air conditioning. A new belt and tensioner are probably in order.
Inside, it’s as clean as you would expect for such low miles. These are really comfy cars, too. One thing I should warn you about, though, is that unlike Dodge’s own 1991 lineup, the Monaco does not have a driver’s side airbag to fulfill its passive-restraint requirement. Instead, it relies on automatic shoulder harnesses and manual lap belts. I know. I hate them too.
The first owner kept it in the garage, while the second, it sounds like, left it out in a hailstorm. As a result, it has nice shiny paint, and a few dents. Adding to this car’s mixed pedigree is its styling: it was designed by Giorgietto Giugiaro, of DeTomaso Mangusta, Lotus Esprit, and VW Rabbit fame. If you’re playing the “six degrees of separation” game with cars instead of celebrities, the Dodge Monaco is the car equivalent of Kevin Bacon.
2002 Dodge Stratus SE Coupe – $3,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.4-liter DOHC inline 4, four-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Mechanicsville, VA
Odometer reading: 72,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives well
Chrysler and Mitsubishi first crossed paths way back in 1971, when Dodge started selling the Mitsubishi Colt Galant as the Dodge Colt. In the mid-1980s, the two companies started a joint venture, called Diamond-Star Motors, and built a factory in Normal, Illinois to build a line of sporty coupes bearing both companies’ badges. Among these was this car, the Dodge Stratus coupe, not to be confused with the Dodge Stratus sedan, which was Chrysler’s own design, built in Sterling Heights, Michigan.
Adding to the confusion is that both the Stratus coupe and sedan use 2.4-liter four-cylinder engines, but they’re different engines. This Stratus coupe is powered by a Mitsubishi engine, shared with the Mitsubishi Eclipse, also built at Diamond-Star Motors. This car was also first owned by an elderly driver, who took excellent care of it but didn’t drive it much. It has a little under 72,000 miles on it total, 20,000 of which were added by its seller. It has had a lot of recent work done, and it runs and drives great.
It’s in decent shape inside, but the dash top has some cracks. The seller has covered it with one of those custom-fit toupees, but personally, I think I’d rather just see the cracks. I’ve never seen a car with dual airbags with one of those covers, and I get the feeling that being hit in the face by what’s essentially a floormat if the airbag goes off would be a bad idea.
It was recently repainted, and it looks great. Yeah, it’s just boring silver, but it’s shiny. One fault that the seller does note is that the sunroof is non-operational; it will open, but they had to take it to a body shop to get it closed again. It doesn’t leak, but leave that button alone.
Dig back far enough in the history of almost any car company, and you’ll find some bizarre connections between them: engines bought by one company from a competitor, joint ventures that don’t seem to make sense, captive imports that were’t really imported at all. Neither of these two has anything to do with Dodge’s current offerings, and they didn’t have anything in common with any other Dodges in their own time, either. But that’s what makes them interesting, especially to someone like me with essentially zero brand loyalty and a love of oddball cars. Both of these are well-preserved examples of their type. Which one do you prefer?
The Monaco is close enough that I could check it out firsthand, but I’m not thinking that I want to. These badge mix cars were the best that Chrysler could do in the fight against Taurus. They were maybe somewhat interesting in the Euromix at the time – if you squint, they almost look like an Audi of the era – but that’s where the comparison ends. The Stratus looks good, and would be perfectly fine as an inexpensive everyday ride or first car.
I’ve never seen one of those Monacos, nor did I know they exist. Good fucking luck finding parts for that ugly box.
At least the Stratus looks decent. I don’t want it, and I cannot believe somebody spent the money to repaint it, but I would be fine commuting in that for a while.
Neither
Voted Stratus just because I wanted to participate
That Monaco is so close to me that I could probably locate it by bicycle, but I think I’d rather bike back home too than pay $5,400 for a 1991 Dodge.
Well hello neighbor! (I live in Fleetwood)
It should also be noted that the Premier/Monaco represent the genesis of the Cab Forward design ethos that matured with the later LH cars (Dodge Intrepid, Eagle Vision, Chrysler Concorde). This includes the longitudinal FWD drivetrain configuration.
As for the Stratus coupe, SWG should definitely be interested. The Stratus would share many underhood components with my 1990 Dodge Ram 50 – both use versions of the 4G64 engine. I test drove one of these with a manual around 2002, I don’t recall anything truly notable about it. Styling-wise I preferred the Stratus’ sister, the Chrysler Sebring Coupe. The 2001-02 models had a vaguely Aston-Martin-ish look to them IMO.
I think I’ll take the Monaco today simply because of its oddness, rarity and RADwood potential.
I wanted to go to Monaco, it seemed worth risking my life without an airbag for its weirdness and cleanliness.
Then I learned that its very clean jellybean shaped competitor had the same drivetrain as our late, lamented Mitsu Outlander, a stump pulling rugged thing that didn’t suck down too much gas. I rarely needed its cargo capability nor ability to drive over curbs to get creative with parking spots back then and I sure don’t need it much any more.
And with all the Internet dollars I’ll save, I’ll buy y’all Internet cocktails.
If I don’t go for the Stratus, I fear Stephen Walter Gossin will ascend from his evil wrenching lair and scold me endlessly for abandoning one of the best cars ever.
Jesus.
There needs to be a None button. A Thanks, I’ll Just Walk button.
The Monaco is only interesting for its origin, the Stratus is…not but is a lot more likely to keep working for a while. Neither of these looks like something I’d want to be saddled with. Both are museum pieces not for the engineering and technical prowess behind them – because there isn’t any to brag about – but as illustrations of the bedhopping that has been Chrysler Corporation.
Pass. Each of these is as appealing as being Contestant #3 in the Gang Bang of Cars.
That Monaco is about as bland as you can get. Super clean, but entirely forgettable (and all of this goes for the Premier too).
That Stratus will last a while, we had a 2.4 eclipse for 10 years or so and was dead reliable outside of routine maintenance. Great basic cars, easy to work on and maintain, and at least a bit more interesting than the Monaco.
I know nothing about either of these,but the Monaco seems grossly overpriced.
The Stratus is quite possibly shit as well,but it is at least priced accordingly.
Eh, the Stratus is cheaper. See if there’s a fuse for the sunroof I can pull to keep from making a mistake. (Or if there’s a simple fix for it.)
Or just unhook the switch.
No sweetening the deal on the Monaco by mentioning the PRV engine also powers the (non-personal fusion) Delorean??
I hope we get strongly worded advocacy for the Stratus from SWG at some point. All I’ll add is how can you not love that weirdly binnacled gauge pod?
I live a half hour from what was DSM…then Mitsubishi (when the not-cloud-car was made) and now Rivian.
So I’d rather have the more exotic and weird car named after a Malaise Era cop car that was named after a city state please.
I don’t know why, but I have always loved the boxy Monaco/Premier.
I DO know owning it would probably be a terrible idea, but man, that thing is clean!
Me too. I recall it looking a little askew even at the time, compared to everything else, which sealed the deal for me.
How much for the Monaco?!!!! Unless it was Princess Grace’s personal car, it’s an insane price.