eBay find: Mercedes and Chrysler was never a winning combination

Lee Iacocca, the man who brought Chrysler back from the brink in the 80s, wanted to merge Chrysler into a larger company called Global Motors. He believed that taking U.S. manufacturing strength, European style, and Japanese build quality, would make the perfect cars. This is defiantly what he didn’t have in mind.

This is for those who’ve decided that the perfect vehicle is one that incorporates an almost twenty-year-old German design with 80s American “we’re bring quality back, really!” engineering. Although it looks like a Mercedes 600SL from the previous generation, it just a 1990 Chrysler LeBaron with a bad German accent. The possible saving grace of the car is it uses a 3.0-liter V6 engine from Mitsubishi that Chrysler was passing off as its own.

While it may look tempting to pick this up for between one and two thousand dollars, do a little more digging on the internet. A genuine Mercedes 300SL from the same era can be had for a few grand more. Those cars come with a 228 hp six-cylinder (versus about 140 hp in the LeBaron), making this example a LeBaron even George Costanza can resist.

So before this car rattles off into the sunset, hopefully to never be heard from again, let’s give it a fitting name. How about Chrycedes? Mercesler? No wait…it’s definitely the Red LeBaron.