Return of the ragtop

PHOTO COURTESY OF CHRYSLER

Chrysler's K-car-based LeBaron convertible was new for 1982 and it was a hit. The company hadn't offered a soft-top since 1970.

Jil McIntosh

SPECIAL TO THE STAR

They'd been dream cars in the '50s and '60s, but by the 1970s, convertibles were running out of steam. Buyers considered their higher prices, susceptibility to vandalism and the increasing availability of air conditioning in hard-roofed cars, while automakers heeded rumours of impending government rollover standards. In 1976, Cadillac produced an Eldorado marketed as the "last American convertible."

Chrysler made its last soft-top in 1970, but that was the least of its concerns: its downward spiral resulted in a U.S. government bailout of $1.2 billion in loan guarantees in 1979. Its front-wheel-drive minivan and K-car not only brought it back to solvency, but the car would also ultimately return the ragtop to U.S. automakers.

Lee Iacocca had become Chrysler's president in 1978. He liked chrome-bedecked luxury autos, and continued to sell big, flashy, rear-drive cars alongside the K models, such as the Imperial "Frank Sinatra Edition," which came with shag carpeting and an eight-track tape of Sinatra's greatest hits.

But more shrewdly, Iacocca knew that absence makes the heart grow fonder, and drivers who didn't buy a convertible when they were available now longed for one when they weren't. Vinyl tops that looked like closed convertibles were available at aftermarket trim shops, but Chrysler offered them as a factory option, putting them on some 537 Aries sedans in 1981, as well as on the rear-wheel Dodge Mirada and Chrysler Cordoba.

Over the next few years, Chrysler used the K platform to produce numerous models, including stretching it into a short-lived limousine, but its shining moment came in 1982. The fake soft roof was back for its second year, but only 86 buyers ordered it, and no wonder: the real thing had returned, in the guise of the Chrysler LeBaron and Dodge 400 convertibles.

The K-based LeBaron itself was new for 1982. The previous year, the name had been used on a larger, rear-wheel sedan. While convertibles were ordered through the dealer, they were actually two-door models that Chrysler sent to Cars & Concepts in Brighton, Mich., to have the conversion done.

Some 12,825 LeBaron convertibles were sold, along with 5,541 Dodge 400 models, even though the convertible cost more than half as much again as the base LeBaron.

Sales slowed in the second year, but were still respectable, and 1,520 U.S. buyers coughed up $15,595 for the high-end LeBaron Town & Country edition. It used fake wood appliqués to mimic the classic real-wood drop-tops Chrysler had sold in the 1940s.

With the first move made, the competition joined in: for 1983, Buick Riviera and Ford Mustang could also be ordered as convertibles. Thanks to Chrysler, open-air motoring was back to stay.

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