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Dreamed but unmade: the lost Eagle and LeBaron minivans
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Feb 4, 2025
What would an Eagle minivan look like? Or a LeBaron? We have the clay models to show you, with the story of the oddball Eagle marque!
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hi this is Dave from motels and we're
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going to talk about a couple of vehicles
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that were planned but never made and
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these are the Chrysler LaBaron
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Minivan and the eagle
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minivan Eagle was basically created as a
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way to both attract people who wanted to
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buy imported cars in the US but were
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willing to buy them from an American
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company and as a way to sell more Rena
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that they had agreed to sell as part of
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their deal for buying AMC away from that
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French company so the Rena that was
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largely designed in the US by AMC was
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sold as the eagle Premiere and that
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would later form the basis of the Eagle
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Vision LH car and they also tossed in to
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mitubishi the Talon and the summit so
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you can ask what the goal was was it to
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give former AMC dealers something else
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other than Jeeps was it going to have a
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more aggressive suspension like the
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Eagle Vision or did they think it would
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appeal to import buyers or was it
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something like a luxury edition that was
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replaced when they did the 1990 Town and
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Country which hadn't been introduced yet
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when these Clays were made probably have
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been a sportier model and more expensive
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you notice the gold wheels that's an
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interesting trim bit you'll notice the
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front fascia and symbol are the same as
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on the eagle Premiere this would have
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come out probably for 1991 or so and
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that was just a few years after Chrysler
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bought am C and that would revolutionize
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Chrysler engineering which made the
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minivans less important in the scheme of
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things and of course then they would
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drop Eagle around 10 years later which
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brings us to the chrys Lord Town and
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Country sorry the chrys Lord LaBaron
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minivan this was never actually made the
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learon name went to completely different
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cars minivan uh development started in
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1972 these Clays could have been any
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time in the late 70s or the early 80s so
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it doesn't really tell us much about
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what their plans were for the Chrysler
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minivan if there was to be one what they
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eventually did was a Town and Country
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with leather trim and all the options
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they could throw at it but this is what
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the learon might have looked like if
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they had produced One in 1984 1985 with
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the first Voyager and Caravan more in my
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Mopar minivans book in the meantime I
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hope that you will go to motel's
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to learn more about old Mopars or buy my
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Mopar minivans book
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