Wood Paneling, Wire Hubcaps And Turbo Graphics? Pay $27K For This Chrysler Town & Country And You Get It All

The 1980s was a transitional period for American car design. Detroit’s engineering teams had finally got around to building lighter, more modern, four-cylinder, front wheel drive platforms to take on the Japanese imports that thrifty buyers were flocking to as a fix for high gas prices.

But while the oily bits might have changed, the styling and trim was often stuck in some 1970s Groundhog Day nightmare, as this 1986 Chrysler Le Baron Town & Country, currently for sale at Worldwide Wintage Autos in Colorado, reminds us.

Part of the K-car program that saved Chrysler’s ass in the 1980s, it’s a gussied up version of more humble machinery like the Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries. Those base cars looked merely inoffensively bland, but throw on some fake wood, basket-wire hubcaps and white-banded tires and you’ve got something that looks more like a National Lampoon’s Family Truckster skit than a credible luxury car.

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And then, just to confuse matters further, a previous owner has applied “turbo” graphics to the rocker panels, and “2.2 turbo” script to the hood, referencing the fact that this is one of the few K cars to benefit from the blown version of Chrysler’s 2.2 inline four that sent142 hp to the front wheels via its column-shifted three-speed TorqueFlite auto.

A giant “Shelby” sticker has also found its way onto the rear window. And while we’re no K-car experts, we know that Shelby is connected to the genus via the Daytona coupe, and Omni GLH and GLHS, but have a suspicion the man behind the Cobra wasn’t involved in this car’s development.

Shelby or not, this Town & Country is still a fairly rare piece of Detroit automotive history, looks kind of fun in a kitsch way, and with an astounding 1730 miles on the clock, it’s barley been run in. Maybe that’s why the seller thinks it’s worth an equally astounding $26,900.

Even if you factor in the extremely low mileage the price is too high, especially since this exact car was advertised on Jalponik back in May for $13,500.