Up next in 10
1997 Drive the Showroom
1K views
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.
View Video Transcript
0:03
hi this is Dave from mot tales.com and
0:05
I'm here to walk you through this lovely
0:07
1997 press book and the thing to think
0:10
about here when you look at it is that
0:13
until very recently Chrysler had been
0:15
going down hill it looked like it was
0:18
impossible to avoid bankruptcy even and
0:21
then starting in 1993 they started
0:24
coming out with new products that just
0:26
wowed the critics and the customers
0:28
alike and so they had some right to be a
0:31
little bit giddy in their pressed
0:33
materials as in anything else they were
0:35
firing on all cylinders they were
0:37
incredibly profitable and they had a
0:39
corporate culture that everybody wanted
0:41
to emulate along with a Technology
0:44
Center that every other automaker wanted
0:48
they were really at the top of their
0:50
game around 1997 and early 1998 and this
0:55
is their story that they wanted to tell
0:57
so 1997 they had basically turned over
1:00
every single product in their entire
1:04
portfolio and that's when they issued
1:06
this drive the showroom press book and
1:09
it was very unusual in its whimsicality
1:12
uh their past press books had been
1:14
pretty bland in the early 90s they had
1:17
really been quite cheap and very short
1:19
on detail and then as the LH cars were
1:24
developed they really started going into
1:26
a lot more detail on what was new and
1:28
what was unique and what was Innovative
1:30
and it was a really big switch and then
1:33
they started to get kind of fun as you
1:36
see here they also had a lot more money
1:38
to spend on their press materials and
1:40
that's how they could go to this
1:42
interesting format with a bunch of
1:44
different individual color brochures
1:47
stuffed into a pocket so we start out
1:50
with the neon which at the time was
1:52
pretty revolutionary people really
1:54
forget that no American automaker was
1:56
making money on their small cars when
1:58
the neon came out they were Los losing
2:00
thousands per car then the neon came out
2:02
and they had thousands of profit per car
2:05
while outperforming every competitor
2:07
including Honda it was really pretty
2:10
amazing and then we also had their uh
2:14
minivans which had Leap Frog the
2:16
competition in
2:18
1996 and that was their first truly New
2:21
Generation designed from the ground up
2:23
to be a minivan not just something that
2:26
was taken from A Kar and then modified
2:30
heavily this was the first really new
2:34
minivan designed from the start to be
2:37
just that then there was the breeze
2:39
which was really kind of an afterthought
2:42
they had not given any of their bread
2:44
and butter uh midsize family sedans to
2:48
Plymouth and they really should have it
2:50
was kind of crazy to give one to
2:51
Chrysler but not to Plymouth and so
2:54
belatedly they gave Plymouth the breeze
2:56
and that was only available with the
2:58
smallest engine a 2 L engine from the
3:01
neon putting out 150
3:03
horsepower and it was kind of stripped
3:06
down the value model you were really
3:08
supposed to get a cus or Stratus and
3:11
then there was and keeping in mind I'm
3:13
using their order not my own which would
3:16
have made sense but there's which seems
3:17
almost random the Eagle Vision which is
3:20
the big LH car like the Dodge in trepid
3:23
or
3:24
Chrysler uh LHS or Chrysler Concord this
3:28
was a sporty tuned version it had the uh
3:32
big engine starting in 1997 a 3.5 L it
3:37
started out with the 3.3 but it always
3:39
had a sportier tune to it and it was
3:42
marketed to people who would normally
3:44
buy an imported car although the number
3:47
of people buying full-size imported cars
3:49
then was probably fairly
3:52
small the these cars were all very
3:54
popular the Eagle Vision the Dodge
3:57
Intrepid the Chrysler Concord
4:00
then we had the eagle talon this was not
4:03
really imported but it was for people
4:05
who liked imported cars it was a
4:06
Mitsubishi Eclipse with uh body styling
4:11
by Chrysler
4:12
Corporation and what was interesting was
4:15
that they were already using a Neon
4:17
engine in it at that point and as I
4:20
recall it was hiled as a big deal
4:23
because it was the first Japanese car to
4:25
use an American engine in a few
4:27
decades next up we have the Chrysler
4:30
Concord this was Chrysler's LH car for
4:32
97 they got the 3.5 engine standard
4:36
again it originally came out with a 3.3
4:39
and again I really can't tell you what a
4:41
big difference this was for large cars
4:44
when it came out it just felt completely
4:46
different it had great cornering and
4:49
handling and feel compared to the older
4:52
style large cars which really hadn't
4:54
been changed much since the ' 50s or 60s
4:58
and it was a huge break from the K cars
5:00
that Chrysler had been making so much so
5:03
that when the New York Times reviewed it
5:05
the stock actually went up by a factor
5:07
of four within a couple weeks and then
5:10
we have the Sebring convertible which
5:12
was also a big deal when it was launched
5:14
because it was the first car in quite
5:16
some time made in America designed to be
5:19
a convertible from the ground up
5:21
actually created as a convertible and
5:24
not as a coupe and then having its roof
5:26
cut off by an by somebody else later it
5:29
was
5:30
uh really the best convertible and it
5:32
was acknowledged as such by pretty much
5:34
all the critics and yet it wasn't that
5:36
expensive it didn't cost that much more
5:39
than the Chrysler uh well Sirah sedan
5:42
did at that point so it was quite the
5:45
vehicle and it was a fun drive looked
5:47
good too the Sebring Coupe was another
5:49
Mitsubishi
5:52
Eclipse and there's not much to say
5:54
about that the Town and Country that was
5:57
the Chrysler version of the Dodge
5:58
Caravan and Plymouth Voyager minivan it
6:01
came basically it came very well
6:03
equipped and that was the big deal with
6:05
it it had the leather seats it had a
6:08
bunch of options were standard uh it had
6:11
the same suspension tuning as the
6:13
Plymouth it was designed for Comfort
6:16
whereas Dodge had a stiffer suspension
6:19
other than that it was pretty much the
6:20
same as the Plymouth and Dodge but with
6:23
a bunch of options as standard and then
6:26
we have the Chrysler cus that was
6:28
basically a Dodge St or plumouth Breeze
6:30
but with originally the V6 was standard
6:33
and then they made the four-cylinder as
6:35
a lowcost option and then the four
6:37
cylinder became standard depending on
6:39
the air they juggled that a lot but it
6:41
was basically a pricier version of the
6:45
Dodge Stratus and the Plymouth
6:47
Breeze and finally we wrap it up with
6:49
the Chrysler LHS which was basically a
6:52
Chrysler Concord with more Chrysler in
6:54
it it came with the 3.5 L engine
6:57
standard from the start it was was as
7:00
you can see a more expensive car than
7:02
most of the others and it had uh more
7:06
luxury features from the start it was
7:08
supposed to be a comfortable car above
7:11
all else it wasn't really Sport Luxury
7:14
like the vision was and like the later
7:17
300M was it was purely on luxury and it
7:22
was quite a nice car they really hit the
7:24
mark now you might have noticed that we
7:26
left out the Dodge Strat sedan we also
7:29
left out out a few other vehicles and
7:30
that's because they weren't in this
7:32
brochure for whatever reason so with
7:34
this they were really trying to get
7:35
journalists out to take test drives and
7:38
all these new vehicles for the few who
7:40
still thought of Chrysler as old and
7:43
stodgy and stuck with K cars and they're
7:46
American so they can't be Innovative and
7:48
they can't feel good and they can't
7:49
handle well they were still fighting
7:51
with all these perceptions that were
7:53
really outdated by this time well I hope
7:56
that you had a good time looking through
7:58
this book with me are remember I had a
8:00
good time looking through it when it was
8:01
new and fresh and so was I I look
8:03
forward to seeing you at motels.com and
8:06
on this YouTube channel
#Chrysler
#Classic Vehicles
#Custom & Performance Vehicles
#Motor Vehicles (By Brand)
#Online Video
#TV & Video
#Vehicle Shows
#Vehicle Specs
# Reviews & Comparisons