Imperial misconceptions

[My imp]

Since I purchased my '81 Imperial, nearly everyone who has ridden in the car wants to know how I modified it. While the PO installed a 360 & MOST of the prerequisite modifications, nothing has been done to the interior, or exterior. "Oh, it couldn't have come with this or that. You must've changed, or added...". No, I didn't. A Chevy guy rode in it the other day & said he'd take my Imp over a brand new car. He never knew Mopar had anything like it. These cars will outdo GM & Ford offerings in almost anyway. I use mine as a daily driver for 3 seasons. I've taken it on 1,000+ mile trips with no problems. In the old days, you drove your new car for 3 seasons, & your "old" car (winter beater in rust belt speak) during the winter. Now I drive my "old" car for 3 seasons..... I don't see anything out there new that has as much to offer as the Imp that I want, let alone could afford. My nephew-in-law just bought a new Lexus that doesn't come close. He said about my wind noise, let's see what your Lexus sounds like in 34 yrs. I can change window seals for a lot cheaper than a new Lexus. Just sayin'.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Damn straight.
My Fifth Ave has been my daily driver for three years now
I haven't seen anything new or even in the past 25+ years that would make me change that either. It's not an Imperial but it's a beautiful old Chrysler and I love it.
One day I'd like to get one though....I absolutely love those Imp's.
And you are indeed correct....
Bring me your lexyota in 30+ years and let me know how it's working out for you.
Only way one of those shitboxes would be showing up at my door after that long is if it was melted down and part of a new lexyundai POS.

 

[slant6billy]

Agree. There is and will never be a nostalgic Japanese or Asian Sedan. Perhaps a coupe racer with rear wheel drive- but the offers are slim and they would not stand the test of time. All these 4 door front wheel drive have no originality. Nothing stands out from the rest. What ever marketing guru came up with the idea of flooding the plant with front wheel drive 4 door cars should be burned in the street. Probably the same genius who cancelled the magnum and the shares went down. Not too smart ah?

 

[My imp]

Easter Bunny needed all those jelly beans for baskets, not auto design!

 

[Jack Meoff]

Easter Bunny needed all those jelly beans for baskets, not auto design!

A coincidence that you brought this topic up...

I was walking through a parking lot to get my crack laced Tim Horton's coffee.......
And noticed this line up of......(term used loosely)...cars.
A line of plasticized bulbous asses all in a row.
How the hell do you know which plastic lunchbox is yours?
They all look the same.....
Man....I'm so glad I have my classic Chrysler Corp fleet.
I wouldn't own one of these things if it was free....

 

[My imp]

One thing I can say is you'll never have a hard time finding our cars in a crowded parking lot! I don't remember the songwriter, but I do remember the lyrics. I'm paraphrasing here;"Boxes, little boxes, & their all made of tricky tacky. And they all look just the same" pretty much sums up the styling world today. Less is more, because too much is not enough, or something like that. My son can't STAND my Imperial. He can't put his finger on it. Likes the ride, power, options, comfort, but actually laughs at me when I tell him I can't wait to drive it again. Just about any other car I drive or ride in gets my back stiffer than a wedding night pr*ck after a couple hrs of driving or riding. I drove to Va. Beach straight through (roughly 8-10 hrs depending on traffic through D.C.) from Brunswick, Oh., unloaded the car, then immediately went out drinking for the next 8hrs. I didn't drive then, I rode in my son-in-laws Cobalt POSS.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Yes Sir, I hear ya.
During trailer season which runs March to October
Every weekend it's a three hour run there, three hours back
I take the Fifth up and lo and behold, I'm not stiff, my back doesn't hurt and I feel great when I get there. It's a comfortable beautiful drive everytime.
And yes....I can spot my car a mile away in a parking lot full of melted turd cars...or sorry....they call them vehicles now right?
Sure am damn glad I own cars and not a plastic lunchbox designed for neutered metro sexual's....
I had to replace the (what GM apparently calls) the engine cradle on my mother in laws 98 Scumfire which means I had to drive it a few times.
What a steaming POS.
And sometimes I have to work on a neighbors Pissan which means I have to drive it too.... God I hate new cars....absolute garbage.

 

[My imp]

I drive my Imp because I want to, not because I have to. So the F what if I don't want a car payment for some smell good, POS that may, or may not make it to the end of the warranty w/o needing work that the dealer ALWAYS tries to get you to cover some cost, or fee, or whatever. Ford now charges (legally!) a diagnostic fee on cars under warranty! Suspend me, but what a cluster f*ck! So I paid cash for my cars, WTF! In order to get a "muscle car" from Dodge (HEMI, no options, live axle, lightened chassis, etc...) is WELL over $100,000! The more they take off, the more they charge? With my bad back, the A, B, E bodies that are SOOO the rage these days would probably kill my back in a short period also. For less than half that $100K, I could build the Imp exactly the way I'd like it. It turns heads now, even though it's an 8 on a 1-10 scale. It needs paint, & a little TLC to be a 10' but when it's done, you can hold your head high knowing no one else has anything close.

 

[Jack Meoff]

Nice to hear someone has the same headspace as me.
The idea of forking over something in the vicinity of $25k on a overly computerized melted turdmobile that's gonna lose $10k as soon as I cross the stealership's threshold just doesn't sit well with a mind that actually functions. Why not just tattoo idiot on my forehead?
The Fifth....I paid $600 cash. Put maybe $1500 in....and that's the works...plugs wires, cap, rotor, shocks, tires, universal, etc. I fixed or upgraded anything that needed it and I'm still out the door for $2100!!!
And on top of saving myself well over $20k, I'm driving a distinctive time piece that turns heads at the lights instead of a plasticized triple coiler that looks like it's been partially melted on hot asphalt.
And the comfort factor of the drive itself is amazing.
Up at the trailer there's this young couple that are friends of my nephew.
He wanted to shoot up to his trailer at the top of the park to grab himself some more beers....hey it was a hot day. I tossed him the keys to my Fifth.
He went on the whole night about how he couldn't believe how comfortable it was...and on Saturday nights they have a dance up at the lodge in the park. I went up with the Fifth...I had a crowd around it within a half an hour.
A head turning, eye popping lazy boy on wheels for $2100.
Beat that math with your yaris...
My Caravelle?....different story to a point.
I originally paid $400 for that beautiful rotbox.
$5k in and probably another 10 to go before I finish.
But even at that....my dream ride will be realized for well under the price of a Furd F**kup (focus).
Dang....I love these cars!!!

 

[My imp]

Hell yeah, as I've stated here before, thee olde hide (wife) coined the phrase succinctly, "you're not riding in a car, you're riding on a couch!". I let my son-in-law drive the Imp & he said he was SO jealous. He kept going on & on about the car for days. He & my daughter both drive Cobalt poSS's. He just recently added heated seats to his. He wants to help me put them in the Imp. He says that's the only thing he likes about his car better. They both took out 5 yr loans on those shit boxes, hers has been a POS from day one. Good thing I paid it off for her last yr., ($7000) is more than I have in the Imp! Because her trans is on the way out. She's done the periodic maintenance, but to no avail, not even 100k on a n/a 4 cyl. POS! He's asking me about doing a clutch at JUST over 36,000 miles! He granny shifts the thing! Not 1 hole shot, power shift, red line, unless I drive it, I don't think that carb's seen 5000 on the tachometer. Va. Beach is almost all highway driving, with a few side streets thrown in for good measures. There's no reson in the world for trans, or clutch problems. Simple transportation ain't so simple anymore. Thee old hide wants a new ride next year, but she wants late model junk. Her last shit heap sounded like a deal when we bought it 6 yrs. ago. Mint 26k 1999 Mercury Marquis GS. The first year it developed an overheating problem. She overheated on the way to work, & had it towed to Firestone. She Ok'd the repairs, & they literally changed everything except the rear end & brake fluids! W/P, belt, hoses, stat, rad, oil, & trans fluid. Still overheated for no apparent reason, at no predictable time or circumstance. Ford took it in for 3 months & couldn't figure it out either. I found the intake (plastic fantastic) was cracked & leaking. Changed that, added the aux. ground to alt. as per Internet instructions. Till this day, at no particular time, that car decides to puke half it's coolant. Also changed stat again, both coolant sensors, fan & relay always work, it's just one of those things. After 3months, ford had their troubleshooter look at it. His great fix; change the engine! What troubleshooting skills! The long block alone exceeds the blue book of the car!

 

[Jack Meoff]

They sure build them well these days don't they?
With all the supposed shortcomings that the old Chrysler's apparently had
They're head and shoulders above the disposable garbage they're selling these days...a few bucks and a bit of labor and you have a totally reliable beautifully driving car. Go figure...

 

[83Imp]

One of you two needs to buy my white one.

 

[My imp]

Perception is everything. Chrysler has always been an engineers company. They've all been designed to on. A frt. wheel drive, 2.2 can have the cap, rotor, wires, pick up, plugs, air & oil filters, oil & coolant changed before you can FIND the attachment screws on the distributor cap of a FWD 2.5 (Iron Duke) GM product! But, if all you've worked on is GM products, the Mopar offerings are foreign & therefore must be junk. All the badgering Mopar has received through the years must be true, look how many times people have said it. Just like these polititions keep feeding us bullshit. After you hear it enough times, you begin to think that it must be true, or they couldn't say it. Could they? I'll take my Imp over any Bonsai, Ginsu (and they really, really work) POS the Pacific rim (job) can deliver. In the old days, I was built for speed. Now, I'm built for comfort. Just like my cars! Revel in the thought that you're an individual, not some cookie cutter x-gen.'r with plastic clown hair, alarm clock size wrist watch, gold chains big enough to tow a car with, ass crack hanging out because your pants are 3 sizes too big because belts aren't cool, entitled feeling moron with a vehicle to match. Hawaiian punch can exhaust tip, 24" rims & rubber band tires on a $500 Lexyotassan with primered mis-aligned body kit pretty much sums it up.

 

[Mr.Lopar]

hell ill take any old car over a newer rice rocket burning POS. other then mopar (don't worry theyre still the tops for me) but I do like lincolns also. I had to move my buddies 89 towncar limo, and since I put it in storage for him, ive been workin on it here and there and cruising it on the weekends, and I enjoy driving the 89 more then my 02 Lincoln, just has the nostalgic feel

 

[My imp]

My Mom had the same car! Loved the hell out of it! After the dealer let the pellets in the valve cover gaskets (to prevent overtorqueing the gaskets) fall down into the engine, the engine pretty much shot preened itself from the inside out. I dropped in a long block, & she was so pissed the dealer wouldn't pick up any of the cost, that she traded it in. White with a blue interior. That car ruled! I wasn't in to the land yachts at that phase of my life, but it was one sweet cruising machine!

 

[Jack Meoff]

One of you two needs to buy my white one.

I'm tire kicking at the moment but I'd love an Imperial..
Price?...details?...

 

[Jack Meoff]

hell ill take any old car over a newer rice rocket burning POS. other then mopar (don't worry theyre still the tops for me) but I do like lincolns also. I had to move my buddies 89 towncar limo, and since I put it in storage for him, ive been workin on it here and there and cruising it on the weekends, and I enjoy driving the 89 more then my 02 Lincoln, just has the nostalgic feel

You know I've razzed you in the past about the stinkin' Lincoln
But I can totally relate to an 89 town car...
Luxury and class.

 

[Mr.Lopar]

You know I've razzed you in the past about the stinkin' Lincoln
But I can totally relate to an 89 town car...
Luxury and class.

and the 89 really has luxury and class being a limo
I know part of why I love driving it is cuz its a limo,,,with custom paint,,,and hydraulics
but it just feels better driving something older, that doesn't look like the rest of the jellybeans

 

[Jack Meoff]

and the 89 really has luxury and class being a limo
I know part of why I love driving it is cuz its a limo,,,with custom paint,,,and hydraulics
but it just feels better driving something older, that doesn't look like the rest of the jellybeans

For sure....
The new shitboxes all have that melted nose that slopes down so you can't even see it....one of the things I love about my cars is looking out over the hood.
It's a beautiful thing.

I've seen your buddy's limo.
That thing is wild!
What a monster of a car...I'm jealous you get to drive it.

 

[Jack Meoff]

This thing is for sale about a half hour from me....
I think I need to go look.
Just what I need....another car.
But....it's an Imperial!!!! :icon_cool: