Eagle and LeBaron minivans

Hi this is Dave from Motels and we're going to talk about a couple of vehicles

that were planned but never made and these are the Chrysler LeBaron minivan

and the Eagle minivan. Eagle was basically created as a way to both

attract people who wanted to buy imported cars in the US but were willing

to buy them from an American company and as a way to sell more Renaults that they

had agreed to sell as part of their deal for buying AMC away from that French

company. So the Renault that was largely designed in the US by AMC was sold as

the Eagle Premier and that would later form the basis of the Eagle Vision LH

car and they also tossed in two Mitsubishis, the Talon and the Summit. So

you can ask what the goal was. Was it to give former AMC dealers something else

other than Jeeps? Was it going to have a more aggressive suspension like the

Eagle Vision or did they think it would appeal to import buyers or was it

something like a luxury edition that was replaced when they did the 1990 Town and

Country which hadn't been introduced yet when these clays were made. Probably

have been a sportier model and more expensive. You notice the gold wheels

that's an interesting trim bit. You'll notice the front fascia and symbol are

the same as on the Eagle Premier. This would have come out probably for 1991 or

so and that was just a few years after Chrysler bought AMC and that would

revolutionize Chrysler engineering which made the minivans less important in the scheme of things and of course then they would drop Eagle around 10 years later

Which brings us to the Chrysler Town and Country, sorry the Chrysler LeBaron

minivan. This was never actually made. The LeBaron name went to completely

different cars. Minivan development started in 1972. These clays could have been any time in the late 70s or the early 80s so it doesn't really tell us

much about what their plans were for the Chrysler minivan if there was to be one

What they eventually did was a Town and Country with leather trim and all the

options they could throw at it but this is what the LeBaron might have looked

like if they had produced one in 1984-1985 with the first Voyager and

Caravan. More in my Mopar minivans book. In the meantime I hope that you all go

to Motales.com to learn more about old Mopars or buy my Mopar minivans book