The key to the K was that it cost a billion dollars to develop, but the first spin-off car only cost about $50 million. And spin off they did: Chrysler launched the K for the 1981 model year in sedan, wagon and coupe forms, back when such things were the norm.
How many K-cars did Chrysler sell?
Since the front wheel drive Reliant and Aries debuted, Chrysler has sold almost 1.2 million K car models, nearly half the 2.6 million passenger cars the company has delivered overall in the three years.
When did Chrysler K come out?
Introduced in the fall of 1980, the original K-cars—the 1981 Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant—were already under development when Lee Iacocca became Chrysler Corporation chairman in 1978. Aged models, poor build quality, and mismanagement had brought Chrysler to the brink of bankruptcy.
Did the K-car saved Chrysler?
Chrysler K-cars may look ridiculous today, but they saved the company. Back in the early 1980s, there was plenty to get excited about here. K-cars were offered in a variety of body styles, from sedans and coupes to convertibles and more. Chrysler’s family haulers were supremely versatile.
Are K cars good cars?
The Chrysler K cars (Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant) were average in reliability for their time. They sold incredibly well, and combined with all the models they spawned, saved Chrysler from going out of business.
What did K car stand for?
Kei car, a Japanese category of small automobiles. Informal term for a series of modern trolley cars built for the Southeastern Pennsylvania Transportation Authority by Kawasaki. Rhodesian Air Force attack helicopter (“kill-car”).
How many K cars are left?
Take heart, your car will be all the more rare and valuable and we at the CKCC will ensure at least every model has a survivor for 2020 and beyond. Only around 30,000 cars are on the road now, with only a few late models used as daily drivers. Half the survivors are convertibles.
What did K-car stand for?
How did the K-car save Chrysler?
Known as the K car platform, it would become the centerpiece of Chrysler’s turnaround. Not only was it less expensive to produce cars built on the same platform, they could be built more reliably with tightly focused engineering.
How long was the K car made?
Chrysler produced the original K-platform vehicles between 1981 and 1989. The mid-sized K car was succeeded by the C-platform and the AS-platform for minivans. By the mid-1980s, four Chrysler K cars dominated the econocar market.
What was the name of the first Chrysler K car?
Lee Iacocca’s original Chrysler K Platform spawned an incomprehensible tangle of K-related offspring between the 1981 and 1995 model years, but only a few U.S.-market models were true K-Cars: the Chrysler LeBaron, Plymouth Reliant, Dodge Aries, Dodge 600, and Dodge 400.
What kind of cars did Chrysler make in 1982?
Layering on luxury features and different styling to the K cars yielded the upscale Dodge 400 and Chrysler LeBaron for 1982, including the first American convertibles since the 1976 Cadillac Eldorado. In addition to the Dodge 600, other E-body variants included the Chrysler E-Class and New Yorker and Plymouth Caravelle.
When did Chrysler stop making the Dodge K?
The K-cars ( Dodge Aries, Plymouth Reliant, Chrysler LeBaron, Dodge 400, and, in Mexico, Dodge Dart) sold over 2 million vehicles from 1981 to 1988, and around 100,000 in their final year, 1989.
Is the Dodge Aries a Chrysler K car?
While Chrysler developed endless variations of the original K Platform, adding branches to the K-car Family Tree through 1995, only the Dodge Aries/400/600, Plymouth Reliant, and Chrysler LeBaron were true Ks.
