Dowdy to Dashing: Chrysler Styling in the ‘90s
It’s easy to look back through the lens of time and pillory vehicles such as the LH cars for quality problems - both perceived and real. But anyone who was a gearhead at the time knows just how much of a shift in styling was witnessed in Chrysler showrooms during the 1990s.
In just a few short years, Iacocca-era straight-edge appearance and formal rooflines gave way to the likes of Cab Forward design and pickup trucks that looked like Freightliners. The latter was such a runaway success that Dodge dealers began turning inventory more quickly than they had in ages - such was the popularity of the new-for-’94 Ram truck.
[Images: Stellantis]
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Which is, of course, a great place to start. We’ve talked about this model in our daily series of gallery posts in the past, though in a different context. This time around, we’re agog with the truck’s sheer difference in styling between the 1993 and 1994 model year. The old truck shared more than a passing familiarity with metal dating all the way back to the ‘70s - both inside and out.
Flat dashboards with hopelessly outdated ergonomics greeted occupants while the square jawed mug, while decently handsome for what it was, didn’t really stack up well to Ford and GM of the early to mid 1990s. The ‘94 was a complete departure (and something of a risk, according to insiders back in the day) and so resoundingly successful that any leftover ‘93s on dealer lots must have been tough sells, indeed.
But to be honest, it’s not like Chrysler was alien to completely rewriting the style of something in its showroom. Witness the LH cars, a group of family sedans which dropped into the 1992 North American International Auto Show in Detroit as a trio 1993 models:
Those models were the Chrysler Concorde, Dodge Intrepid, and the Eagle Vision. Nerds will rightly point out the appearance of a Chrysler New Yorker and Chrysler LHS. Compare these models with the staid Dodge Dynasty and Chrysler Fifth Avenue and its ilk, a set of cars our own Murilee Martin likes to call EEKs: every extended K.
As mentioned, it’s easy to pillory the lowly Dodge Neon since time was not kind to a car which was affordable to begin with, had quality quirks, and was likely maintained on a shoestring as it aged. It is still worth including the model in this roundup though, such was the complete 180-degree turn it took from the boxy Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance it replaced.
While a V6-equipped Shadow with the Duster package could be entertaining, it certainly didn’t hold any candles to the performance variants which Dodge based on the Neon.
The same can be said for the Dodge Spirit and Plymouth Acclaim which turned into the curvy Dodge Stratus and Plymouth Breeze (and yes, pedants, Chrysler Cirrus).
I mean, look at those two things. It's easy to imagine that '96 Stratus asking the '93 Acclaim something along the lines of "Hey, kid - are you sure we're related?"
