2003 Chrysler Town & Country Van, Lxi Edition Stafford County, Va on 2040-cars

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1986 Chrysler LeBaron owned by Lee Iacocca to cross the auction block

Enthusiasts will have the opportunity to bid on an overlooked piece of Chrysler history during the huge Bonhams auction taking place in Scottsdale, Arizona, on January 16. Offered without reserve, this LeBaron Town & Country Convertible was first registered to former Chrysler boss Lee Iacocca, and it has covered only 20,500 miles since. The LeBaron Town & Country shares its K platform with numerous Chrysler, Dodge, and Plymouth models built between 1981 and 1989. Nearly every nameplate built on it was mass produced and mass destroyed, but this wood-sided droptop is a rare exception. It's one of 1,105 examples built, and its connection to the man who saved Chrysler (and helped create the original Ford Mustang, the infamous Pinto, and Chrysler's first minivans, among many others) likely helped it reach its 34th birthday in like-new condition, a fate a majority of Ks could only dream of from the wrong side of the Pick-N-Pull fence. Bonhams stated the Town & Country comes from Iacocca's personal collection. The auction house doesn't mention how long the influential executive owned it for, or how many miles he put on it. What's certain is that Iacocca undoubtedly knew there was nothing exhilarating about the 97-horsepower engine that came standard in the LeBaron, so he paid extra for a turbocharged version of the fuel-injected, 2.2-liter four-cylinder that put 146 horses under his right foot. It spun the front wheels via a three-speed automatic transmission.  Our archives indicate Chrysler charged $17,595 for the Town & Country Convertible in 1986, and priced the turbo four at $628, figures that represent about $42,300 and $1,500, respectively, in 2020. While Chrysler's K-based cars haven't set the collector world on fire yet, Bonhams expects this exceptionally clean example will sell for anywhere between $20,000 and $25,000 when it crosses the auction block in sunny Scottsdale. To quote Iacocca, "if you can find a better car, buy it." Or, if you're into faster Mopar products, his personal, 6,500-mile Dodge Viper — the very first regular-production example made — will also cross the block in Arizona. Featured Gallery Lee Iacocca's 1986 Chrysler LeBaron Town & Country Convertible (high-res) View 21 Photos Chrysler Auctions Convertible Classics

1950s car ads are timeless

Usually around the Super Bowl a few great car commercials show up, but for the most part auto ads today pale in comparison to the '1950s and '60s. In an era with a truly viable magazine industry, automakers would take out gorgeous full-page spreads to get the word out about their wares. It was also a time when imports were just hitting the US, and there was a boom in sports cars. Car and Driver has gone for a dig into its advertising archives from when the book was known as Sports Cars Illustrated for a truly great viewing experience. You can imagine a young Don Draper mulling over the copy for these ads, but some of it is laughably quaint today. For example, there's a great image of a driver whipping an Austin-Healey 100 around a track. The italicized red text proudly proclaims, "From 0 to 60 MPH in 10.5 seconds." One of the beautiful parts about these advertisements is that you seldom see photos of the cars. Instead, there are often detailed drawings that slightly distort the vehicles' lines. With this approach, the Porsche 356 ends up looking far more curvaceous than in real life. Plus, the front end of the Chrysler 300 looks large enough to land a helicopter on. The whole thing is worth scrolling through. There are some fascinating glimpses into auto history like an ad for Abarth exhausts before the brand was just known for tuning Fiats. Related Video: News Source: Car and DriverImage Credit: GM Heritage Center Marketing/Advertising Read This Chrysler Fiat Porsche Performance Classics porsche 356 abarth

Marchionne hopes Apple will partner with Fiat

Apple wants to make a car. Fiat already makes cars. Therefore, Apple and Fiat should partner to make an Apple Car. Makes sense, right? Clearly, it's not quite that easy, but FCA chief Sergio Marchionne hopes that Cupertino will consider Fiat a worthy candidate for partnership, assuming, of course, that Apple follows through with its overtures into the automobile industry. Marchionne is, according to Bloomberg, a self-proclaimed "Apple freak" who owns every kind of product Apple makes. He suggests that he understands the tech company's needs and wants. "Apple has a language, and you have to be able to speak that language," said Marchionne. "Usually the industry comes into that dialogue with a high degree of arrogance as we know how to make cars. That's not very helpful as their syntax is worth more than our ability to build cars." By "syntax," we assume Marchionne means Apple's sleek and modern design language more than the code behind its software. It's interesting to note that the FCA CEO seems to indicate that Apple would bring more to any partnership than the automaker would. Fair or not, we'd wager that more buyers would care about a potential Apple Car's design and branding than would be concerned with which automaker helped assembled it. A partnership with Apple may be exactly the kind of cure that the FCA CEO believes ails the auto industry. After finding it impossible to further pursue industry consolidation, a tie-up with the massive tech industry, particularly Apple, could generate some much-needed positive cash flow. At present, though, it's all just conjecture – Apple hasn't offered any hints as to the true nature of its so-called Project Titan automotive project, and doesn't seem likely to anytime soon. Related Video: