Profiled Allpar-car: 1984 Chrysler Fifth Avenue

Jim Pepe did a marvelous job of preserving this 1984 Chrysler Fifth Avenue (click on the big image to play the video). The underhood area of Jim’s car looks factory fresh, with nothing out of place. Indeed, it looks better than factory fresh, yet it doesn’t look “restoration-perfect.” The paint has signs of age but is clearly original and nearly perfectly preserved. The interior looks factory fresh.

The Fifth was an interesting vehicle for Chrysler. It sold for a small fortune in its day - this one cost $18,000, a hefty price tag for what was, at its core, a dolled-up Volare (which was, itself, a next-generation Valiant). The 318 engine was making about as little power as it ever would, choked by a combination of smog equipment and corporate underfinancing; it needed multiple port fuel injection, which was already standard on some economy cars (e.g. VW Rabbit), but instead it got Lean Burn, a system that rarely seemed to work as it was supposed to. The Lean Burn on this car was designed to run 1,600 rpm for a minute and a half, then settle down to 800 rpm; presumably that was to light up the catalytic converter, which was then still not quite as close to the engine as in modern times. This car has always had problems with the Lean Burn system, and if it’s left for a few days, it gets terribly hard to start. It also kept on raising the idle while I was there, and Jim would whack the Lean Burn unit to make it settle down. Everything’s been checked and nothing is wrong, yet there you have it. It also recently started getting 6 mpg, the last straw for Jim, though it’s just two years from reaching the Classic status that drops insurance down to $100 a year (if you get the special registration and agree to drive it just a thousand or two miles a year).

The interior was very nice and cozy, with plush soft-leather seats that provided good support, feeling like the seats of the 300M but with more padding. The number of switches would make gadget freaks happy, though they weren’t necessarily ergonomically or intelligently placed (e.g. grouped in sets as in modern vehicles). Like the powertrain and suspension, the interior was an interim design, coming between the barely featured cars of the 1970s and the gadget-laden cars of the 1990s. The Fifth Avenue was recognized as an anachronism even when it was being made, but the basic body style died in 1989, despite having a massive market share among the police.

The styling had, oddly, reverted back to the last of the Valiant models in the rear and along the sides; the trunk was pure Valiant, except for the tire being taken out of the well and shoved back under the package shelf. The interior was completely different in trim, identical in proportion. Side by side with a 1974 Valiant, the Fifth Avenue would be instantly recognizable.

In motion, the Fifth Avenue looked terribly elegant parading down the street, a shining jewel making its way among economy cars and delivery trucks. The ride is not luxury-car plush, and sound insulation could be better, but it looks every inch a luxury car.

Thank you, Jim, for sharing your car.