1966 Crysler Crown Imperial 4dr Ht on 2040-cars

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Junkyard Gem: 2001 Plymouth Neon

Chrysler's Plymouth brand was created in 1928 (and named after a brand of twine favored by farmers), in order to compete against Ford and Chevrolet for entry-level car shoppers. Plymouth stayed in third place in the US-market new-car sales hit parade for most of the years through the early 1950s and remained a strong (if gradually shrinking) player for decades after that. By the 1990s, though, it was tough to distinguish Plymouths from Dodges and DaimlerChrysler announced in late 1999 that the Plymouth Division would be getting the axe. 2001 was the last model year for Plymouth, with just one kind of vehicle sold for that year: the Neon. Today's Junkyard Gem is one of those final Plymouths, found in a Denver self-service yard recently. In the years just before the DaimlerChrysler "merger of equals," Chrysler had attempted to make the Plymouth brand more interesting. An updated version of the old Plymouth ship emblem was created, a Plymouth-badged car on the Chrysler LH platform was planned, the PT Cruiser was going to be a Plymouth, and then there was the Prowler crypto-hot-rod. Those dreams of a revived Plymouth bit the dust once Herr Schrempp took over. The Prowler and Voyager became Chryslers, while the PT Cruiser never had even a single year of Plymouth badging. The only 2001 car sold as a Plymouth was the humble Neon. Since the very beginning of Neon production as a 1995 model, there never had been much difference between the Neons with Dodge badges and the ones with Plymouth badges, continuing the tradition of the Dodge/Plymouth Colt and Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon. Earlier generations of Plymouths (e.g., the Valiant) had been mechanically identical to their Dodge-badged siblings, but at least they looked different and had smaller price tags. In 2001, the MSRP of a base Dodge Neon was $12,715, or about $22,156 in 2023 dollars. The price of the base 2001 Plymouth Neon? $12,715. At least the Plymouth Division got two model years in which to sell the second-generation version of the Neon. The engine is the SOHC version of Chrysler's 2.0-liter straight-four, rated at 132 horsepower and 130 pound-feet. Sorry, 2001 Plymouth shoppers, your Neons didn't get the 150-horse version that Dodge Neon R/T and ACR models received that year. This car has some extra-cost goodies. There's this three-speed automatic transmission, which had a $600 cost ($1,036 in today's money). It has the $1,000 air conditioning option as well ($1,742 now).

Junkyard Gem: 1983 Chrysler LeBaron Mark Cross Town & Country Convertible

When Lee Iacocca took the helm at the Chrysler Corporation in 1978, the company appeared to be doomed. The company's only modern front-wheel-drive cars either came from Japan or had been developed from Chrysler Europe's Simca operation, inflation was raging, and Middle Eastern conflict a year later sent fuel prices skyrocketing for the second time in the decade. Iacocca secured government loans to keep the company afloat until vehicles based on a brand-new front-drive platform could reach showrooms. Those were the K-Cars, debuting in the 1981 model year, and they saved Chrysler. The LeBaron was the ritziest of the early Ks, and today's Junkyard Gem is an example of the most prestigious LeBaron of 1983, found in a Colorado car graveyard last summer. The cheapest possible 1983 K-Cars were the two-door Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries, priced at $6,577 (about $19,959 in 2023 dollars). The 1983 LeBaron Mark Cross Town & Country convertible had an MSRP of way more than twice as much: $15,595, which comes to around $47,327 today. The LeBaron name came from a coachbuilder that Chrysler eventually devoured, and it was applied to the most glamorous Imperial models for decades. The LeBaron didn't become a model name in its own right until the 1977 model year, when a thick coat of bling was slathered onto the midsize Dodge Diplomat. That generation of Chrysler LeBaron stayed in production through the 1981 model year. The Town & Country name goes way back in Chrysler history, too. The very first Town & Country was a woodie wagon—with real wood— that first appeared as a 1941 model. Over the decades that followed, the T&C name was applied to sedans, coupes, wagons and convertibles, some with wood (or "wood") trim and some without, with only wagons getting that designation from 1969 through 1982. Beginning in 1990, the Chrysler Town & Country name went on minivans, and that's where it remained through 2016. The paneling on this car is plastic, but it was more convincing (when new) than most of the fake wood found on Detroit cars of the era. Convertibles made a big comeback for American car companies during the early 1980s, after much wailing and gnashing of teeth over "the last convertible" 1976 Cadillac Eldorado (it wasn't the last convertible you could buy new here, even at the time). The LeBaron convertible went on sale for the 1982 model year, and new drop-top LeBarons remained available all the way through 1995.

Revisiting the 2008-09 auto bailout that saved GM and Chrysler

The Federal Reserve stayed open late on December 31, 2008. There's almost no way you could remember that because barely anyone knew at the time. But General Motors had to pay its bills, and the Fed wired money so GM could still buy things in January. Without those funds, the nation's largest automaker wouldn't have seen much of 2009. It's one of many heart-stopping moments that illustrate just how close Detroit's Big Three came to extinction nearly a decade ago. They're chronicled in a new movie, Live Another Day, premiering in theaters September 16. Filmmakers Bill Burke and Didier Pietri interviewed nearly all of the key executives, federal officials, and union chiefs to recreate the auto industry's most perilous period. The movie begins in the aftermath of Lehman Brothers' demise amid the global financial meltdown. Things looked bleak for American carmakers, and their CEOs were laughed off Capitol Hill when they sought a Wall Street-style bailout. "It was a feeling that it was the end of the world," Pietri told Autoblog in an interview where he and Burke previewed the film. Saved by last-minute loans authorized by the Bush Administration after Congress refused to act, Detroit staggered into 2009 with a faint pulse. Live Another Day illustrates the downward spiral that played out that winter as President Obama and his task force – with little prior knowledge of the auto industry – wrestled over the fate of hundreds of thousands of jobs. GM's longtime CEO Rick Wagoner was fired in March. Fiat CEO Sergio Marchionne suddenly appeared as a savior for Chrysler, with his own motives. Obama rejected restructuring plans from the automakers. Chrysler declared bankruptcy on April 30. GM followed June 1. The sequence was very public, but Pietri and Burke showcase lesser-known events that shaped the outcome. They also seek to dispel the notion that the government rescued GM and Chrysler from incompetent leaders. "We never subscribed to the theories that the management structures of the companies were a bunch of idiots who didn't know what is going on," Pietri said. At one point, Chrysler executives were negotiating with Marchionne and Fiat. Unbeknownst to them, the government was having its own talks with the Italian automaker. The filmmakers also cast light on the bankruptcy process, which was shredded to shepherd two of America's industrial icons through reorganizations.