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Imperial 1981
To resurrect Chrysler’s luxury division, Imperial, the company presented an interesting personal luxury coupe in 1981. In fact, this was the project of Lee Iacocca who came to Chrysler from Ford in the late ’70s and saved the company from bankruptcy. He wanted to do the same thing for Chrysler as he did with Lincoln with the successful Mark coupe series.
So, in 1981, they presented the Imperial as a stylish two-door coupe they built on the Chrysler Cordoba or Dodge Mirada chassis with a 318 V8 engine. The design was contemporary with several classic cues like the slant buck rear end and hideaway headlights. All in all, it was an aesthetically pleasing luxury car.
Chrysler invested a lot in marketing and even used Frank Sinatra as the spokesperson for the new model, but sales were slim. In just three years on the market, they only made about 12,000 Imperials. This is a shame since the car was special and highly-equipped.