Montalban, Former Chrysler Pitchman, Dies At 88

Remember the phrase "personal luxury cars"? These cars weren't
intended for the comfort of those in the back seat. If that was what
a person wanted, he bought a Newport four door... for about the same
money.

Don't know what you mean by "ancient junkers" and "70s boats". Could
you give me some examples of each?

 

Well, nothing in that size class and configuration ever sold as well
for Chrysler after the first gen Cordoba. However, GM did quite will
with 2 door rear drive Cutlass Supreme's and Regals into the mid 80s.

 

The reason they disappeared in the mid 80s is because the platforms went
away for (mostly) CAFE reasons. The mid 80s was when CAFE stepped up and
it's like a K-T barrier for big cars.

 

I'm sorry, but the RWD Cutlass etc were slated for replacement twice,
once by the Cutlass Ciera etc, and again by the Cutlass Calais etc,
and both times were not cut because they were still selling. That's
why the cars ran unchanged from 81 to 87 or 88.. I'd have to look up
the last year. They ran unchanged all those years because GM always
figured the end was closer than the time needed for a restyle.

The same thing happened with the RWD Fifth Avenue, which ran unchanged
82 to 89 (if you count the identical except for namplate 82 New
Yorker in the year count). Chrysler even paid a gas guzzler tax on
the New Yorker (while overall meeting CAFE) rather than spend the
money on trying to update it mechanically to beat the gas guzzler tax.

They only got rid of these cars because they stopped selling...
probably mostly because they became stylistically stale... not because
CAFE killed them.

 

I didn't say all went away... just that MOST went away. And analyze what
you wrote above. GM was going to replace them with their blah front
drivers but good sales numbers prevented it. So they let the same
designs continue -unchanged- until they didn't sell any more. If you
leave a car unchanged on the market long enough it will stop selling
eventually in most cases because everyone who wants/wanted one has/had
one. Few car designs can get someone who wore one out to replace it with
another that is almost exactly the same when everything else on the
market got better.

A similar case would be that of the Ford Mustang. It was going to become
a 4 cylinder front wheel drive car for 1989. Only strong sales and loud
protest stopped that. Mustang IV became the Probe. Other models that
didn't have the strong sales to keep an essentially unchanged car going
were dropped, the plans made in light of CAFE went forward.

If the decisions were made on sales alone, wouldn't they not have had a
replacement car that kept the same basics that were selling? Obviously
there were other factors in play.

 

Diamond in the back
Sunroof top
Diggin' the scene
With a gangster lean
Uh huuuuuh.....

 

I started with a 1968 Volvo 142S and moved "up" to a 1964 Rambler
Classic. The Volvo would seat four very comfortably and the Rambler
would easily seat five or, if you really wanted to push your luck,
six.

The only boat I can remember specifically was an LTD, which seemed
enormous to me at the time but was absurdly uncomfortable in the back
seat.

But I love practicality way more than I care about any other aspect of
a car, which is why I currently drive a Prius.

 

What about the absurdly expensive battery pack when the warranty runs
out?

 

Surely any LTD except the Fairmont based one would have more back seat
room than the Volvo or Rambler. Are you perhaps referring to the lack
of entry ease on a two door?

Oh, say mere. But not with the same result. When gas was $1.10 in
the 90s, I considered a 76 Newport highly practical.

 

You know I could've sworn that a few decades ago I read where he wasn't
even of any Spanish background and the name and accent was all a fake,
but searching now I see no sign of that.

Oh well.

G

 

The warranty runs ten years. I got ten years out of my prior car
before it nickeled and dimed me and/or stranded me and/or otherwise
became more trouble than it was worth, and that's ignoring little
things like the fact that it was on its fourth starter before I
finally got rid of it. The battery is a non-issue.

 

Two door cars are the direct, personal work of the devil. That aside,
I'm talking about cars that were giant on the outside but where I
could only sit in the back seat by moving my knees off to the side,
and I'm a completely average six-footer.

As for any further details on the models, we're talking about 30+
years ago, I'm afraid those details are gone. I have pretty specific
reasons for remembering "LTD", but not much beyond that.

 

Not Spanish, but Mexican, born in Mexico City. Birth name "Ricardo
Gonzalo Pedro Montalban y Merino". He was the real deal.

 

That trend of no room in the back of two doors started in the late
'50's. I had a two door 48 Plymouth sedan that the back seat was like
a sofa with tons of legroom. However, my present car, a 1940 Chrysler
Royal Coupe, you could not get an infant's legs between the back seat
cushion and the front seatback!(to be fair, it's really a business
coupe with the back seat). Coupes got better in the late '40's, but
the trend to longer, lower, wider killed the back seat room of the two
door.

 

Well believe it or not the article back then stated he was some Jewish
guy from New Jersey or somewhere similar and the whole Mexican thing was
an act.

Guess it might not be, who knows?

G

 

"knows" is a strong word. But the probability that your memory is
better than all available resources is pretty low.

 

No, it's a preference. The automatic transmission is the work of the
devil for all the sloppy driving it encourages.

 

Just like Chrysler's ads for Fluid Drive, it still lets you be in
charge with a clutch, or if you prefer, leave it in high range and
merely lift your foot to shift gears! I am a big fan of Fluid Drive,
having had it on my '49 Windsor. I wish that I had it on my present
car, a '40 Royal, but they only offered it on the straight 8's for
that year!

 

Brent filted:

Ptah!...real drivers start their cars with cranks, not keys....

Things actually started going downhill when they did away with tiller
steering....r

 

Are you sure you're not confusing this with a similar rumor about
Geraldo Rivera?

http://www.snopes.com/media/celebrity/geraldo.asp