In sum, I thought the article was pretty fair to our marque. I have read
countless articles in car magazines, both contemporary to the era in which a
particular Chrysler car was introduced, and also those of a contemporary
"collector" nature; almost always, the superior handling of Chrysler
products is brought up. So I don't think Chrysler in general, or Imperial in
particular, is getting routinely "jobbed" or unappreciated by these various
writers.
Imperial chose to play in the same arena as the big boys, Lincoln and
Cadillac, and this is how they should be judged. They came up short in the
sales department; way short, usually, except for '57, when Lincoln slipped
behind Imperial for that year. The reasons have to be analyzed, pure and
simple. Build quality, especially fits and finishes, were behind the other
two in the '60s, and way, way behind Mercedes, which was starting to develop
a following. The difference between build quality for a Chevy vs Cadillac
was a lot greater than Plymouth vs. Imperial. By '69, when the full size
Plymouth and Imperial (and everything else in between) had the same C body,
product differentiation became a real headache. Wheelbase differences can
only do so much. Consumer Reports (not my favorite car mag, so no flames,
please) was especially sensitive to this.
I'm going to say something a little provocative now, and I say this as a
proud owner of a '53 Imperial, and also as a former employee of Chrysler
(Defense, tanks): Chrysler had over a half century to establish the Imperial
as a successful marque in terms of sales and customer acceptance. They
failed. The '67 and '68s came, in baseball parlance, around the 7th inning
or so if this process. Hence the non-cheerleading tone of the CA piece...The
writer otherwise would be remiss in ignoring reality.
In contrast, Lexus became a successful luxury marque in 3 years, maybe
less...In fact, the term rapidly became a part of the lexicon, as in, "The
Lexus of this, The Lexus of that", meaning, well, whatever is being referred
to is really something special. I never heard "Imperial" used in this
manner, sad to say. And there's a reason.
Currell (hoping there will be yet another Imperial some day, Mercedes be
damned! Maybe they can get it right this time. Where is Lutz when we really
need him)?
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