Clay, Your point about realizing just how far Chrysler had sunk by then, and also what a leap of faith would have been required to put out that much money for their best car was a good one, and one that I made a couple of weeks ago in another thread. As far as the comparison between the Imperial and the K-car, I can only say that the K-car was a success (in fact it and the soon to come mini-van saved the company) while the Imperial was not. Paul In a message dated 2/6/2004 5:29:28 PM Eastern Standard Time, imperialman@xxxxxxxxxxxx writes: > I just finished reading cover to cover the June 1981 Motor Trend magazine. > Though no Imperial specific articles, the letters to the editors section >did mention Imperial. > > The June issue had the MT editors taking a lot of heat about their >selection for the Motor Trend car of the year, the Plymouth-Dodge K-car . > > One irate reader wrote in part > " You(also) gave the Imperial, obviously more luxurious than any other >car tested a rating of 6 in comfort and 5 in ride and drive, while the Reliant >turned in the highest rating > in both categories. > I fail to see how the Reliant could score better than the Imperial, C#$lass >and G%nada in ANY of the luxury categories. > > The short answer from the MT editor was " We don't feel that comfort and >ride & drive are necessarily synonymous with > "luxury" > > Now what kind of answer is that ? > > I don't think anyone on this list would argue that an 81 Imperial's ride >is better than any K- car and I sure don't want to start a K-car discussion >so I am offering up this letter because it mentions Imperial and I think it >shows how political Motor Trends car of the year (was)is. > > Something that also impressed me after reading this 1981 Motor Trend was >how far Chrysler really had sunk. > What a leap of faith it must have taken someone to even > consider laying out 18K to buy an Imperial > > Clay Smith > 67 Crown Coupe > 60 Custom > > > > >