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1997 Drive the Showroom
Feb 4, 2025
When Chrysler had completely changed their entire lineup and really wanted people to check them out! This was a confident Chrysler at its modern height, with a full lineup of profitable cars and trucks, able to have some fun.
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hi this is Dave from mot tales.com and
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I'm here to walk you through this lovely
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1997 press book and the thing to think
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about here when you look at it is that
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until very recently Chrysler had been
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going down hill it looked like it was
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impossible to avoid bankruptcy even and
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then starting in 1993 they started
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coming out with new products that just
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wowed the critics and the customers
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alike and so they had some right to be a
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little bit giddy in their pressed
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materials as in anything else they were
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firing on all cylinders they were
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incredibly profitable and they had a
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corporate culture that everybody wanted
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to emulate along with a Technology
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Center that every other automaker wanted
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they were really at the top of their
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game around 1997 and early 1998 and this
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is their story that they wanted to tell
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so 1997 they had basically turned over
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every single product in their entire
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portfolio and that's when they issued
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this drive the showroom press book and
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it was very unusual in its whimsicality
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uh their past press books had been
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pretty bland in the early 90s they had
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really been quite cheap and very short
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on detail and then as the LH cars were
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developed they really started going into
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a lot more detail on what was new and
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what was unique and what was Innovative
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and it was a really big switch and then
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they started to get kind of fun as you
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see here they also had a lot more money
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to spend on their press materials and
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that's how they could go to this
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interesting format with a bunch of
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different individual color brochures
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stuffed into a pocket so we start out
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with the neon which at the time was
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pretty revolutionary people really
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forget that no American automaker was
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making money on their small cars when
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the neon came out they were Los losing
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thousands per car then the neon came out
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and they had thousands of profit per car
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while outperforming every competitor
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including Honda it was really pretty
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amazing and then we also had their uh
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minivans which had Leap Frog the
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competition in
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1996 and that was their first truly New
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Generation designed from the ground up
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to be a minivan not just something that
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was taken from A Kar and then modified
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heavily this was the first really new
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minivan designed from the start to be
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just that then there was the breeze
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which was really kind of an afterthought
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they had not given any of their bread
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and butter uh midsize family sedans to
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Plymouth and they really should have it
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was kind of crazy to give one to
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Chrysler but not to Plymouth and so
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belatedly they gave Plymouth the breeze
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and that was only available with the
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smallest engine a 2 L engine from the
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neon putting out 150
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horsepower and it was kind of stripped
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down the value model you were really
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supposed to get a cus or Stratus and
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then there was and keeping in mind I'm
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using their order not my own which would
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have made sense but there's which seems
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almost random the Eagle Vision which is
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the big LH car like the Dodge in trepid
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or
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Chrysler uh LHS or Chrysler Concord this
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was a sporty tuned version it had the uh
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big engine starting in 1997 a 3.5 L it
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started out with the 3.3 but it always
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had a sportier tune to it and it was
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marketed to people who would normally
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buy an imported car although the number
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of people buying full-size imported cars
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then was probably fairly
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small the these cars were all very
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popular the Eagle Vision the Dodge
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Intrepid the Chrysler Concord
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then we had the eagle talon this was not
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really imported but it was for people
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who liked imported cars it was a
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Mitsubishi Eclipse with uh body styling
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by Chrysler
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Corporation and what was interesting was
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that they were already using a Neon
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engine in it at that point and as I
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recall it was hiled as a big deal
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because it was the first Japanese car to
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use an American engine in a few
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decades next up we have the Chrysler
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Concord this was Chrysler's LH car for
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97 they got the 3.5 engine standard
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again it originally came out with a 3.3
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and again I really can't tell you what a
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big difference this was for large cars
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when it came out it just felt completely
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different it had great cornering and
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handling and feel compared to the older
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style large cars which really hadn't
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been changed much since the ' 50s or 60s
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and it was a huge break from the K cars
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that Chrysler had been making so much so
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that when the New York Times reviewed it
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the stock actually went up by a factor
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of four within a couple weeks and then
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we have the Sebring convertible which
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was also a big deal when it was launched
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because it was the first car in quite
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some time made in America designed to be
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a convertible from the ground up
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actually created as a convertible and
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not as a coupe and then having its roof
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cut off by an by somebody else later it
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was
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uh really the best convertible and it
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was acknowledged as such by pretty much
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all the critics and yet it wasn't that
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expensive it didn't cost that much more
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than the Chrysler uh well Sirah sedan
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did at that point so it was quite the
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vehicle and it was a fun drive looked
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good too the Sebring Coupe was another
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Mitsubishi
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Eclipse and there's not much to say
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about that the Town and Country that was
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the Chrysler version of the Dodge
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Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivan it
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came basically it came very well
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equipped and that was the big deal with
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it it had the leather seats it had a
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bunch of options were standard uh it had
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the same suspension tuning as the
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Plymouth it was designed for Comfort
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whereas Dodge had a stiffer suspension
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other than that it was pretty much the
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same as the Plymouth and Dodge but with
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a bunch of options as standard and then
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we have the Chrysler cus that was
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basically a Dodge St or plumouth Breeze
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but with originally the V6 was standard
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and then they made the four-cylinder as
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a lowcost option and then the four
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cylinder became standard depending on
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the air they juggled that a lot but it
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was basically a pricier version of the
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Dodge Stratus and the Plymouth
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Breeze and finally we wrap it up with
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the Chrysler LHS which was basically a
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Chrysler Concord with more Chrysler in
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it it came with the 3.5 L engine
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standard from the start it was was as
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you can see a more expensive car than
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most of the others and it had uh more
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luxury features from the start it was
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supposed to be a comfortable car above
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all else it wasn't really Sport Luxury
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like the vision was and like the later
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300M was it was purely on luxury and it
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was quite a nice car they really hit the
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mark now you might have noticed that we
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left out the Dodge Strat sedan we also
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left out out a few other vehicles and
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that's because they weren't in this
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brochure for whatever reason so with
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this they were really trying to get
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journalists out to take test drives and
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all these new vehicles for the few who
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still thought of Chrysler as old and
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stodgy and stuck with K cars and they're
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American so they can't be Innovative and
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they can't feel good and they can't
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handle well they were still fighting
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with all these perceptions that were
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really outdated by this time well I hope
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that you had a good time looking through
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this book with me are remember I had a
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good time looking through it when it was
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new and fresh and so was I I look
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forward to seeing you at motels.com and
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on this YouTube channel
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