Jenseits von Cadillac

The American Big Three, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, were and are the dominant car companies in the USA. Tesla has recently joined them and we must now speak of The Big Four. In the second half of the 20th century, The Big Three each had a luxury brand. The most well-known today is Cadillac from General Motors, but the luxury brand Lincoln from Ford is also well known. The fact that hardly anyone knows Chrysler’s Imperial brand is mainly because Chrysler only operated this brand from 1957 to 1970. The famous designer Virgil Exner began working at Chrysler in 1951. For 1955 he created the “One Million Dollar Look” for all of the company’s models (Chrysler, Plymouth, Dodge and Imperial). Chrysler products were soon considered to be technically groundbreaking and better manufactured than the mass products from General Motors and Ford. The famous “Forward Look” followed in 1957. Not only were the models even more future-oriented – a fundamentally new body design with a much flatter trapezoidal shape and tail fins coined the phrase “Three years ahead of the other two”. This referred to General Motors and Ford. At the time, an Imperial was both the largest and most expensive and most prestigious car on the American market. An Imperial was equipped with every luxury available at the time and a stylistic feature were the free-standing headlights. In the thirteen years that the brand existed, five generations were offered. In total, only 146,352 Imperials were built of all models combined and only 531 of the 1963 convertible. We are delighted to be able to offer one of these 531 examples and would like to thank the current owner!

This Imperial Crown convertible with the so-called flight sweep deck lid (i.e. the trunk lid with suggested spare wheel) was first registered in 1963 through Chrysler-Plymouth Fairfax in Virginia. On May 1st, 2018, it was imported to Germany by Jens Borgmann Route 66 and sold to a gentleman near Hanover. According to the invoices available, he has since invested €40,780.74 in repairs plus $10,139.79 in spare parts in the vehicle. Among other things, the hydraulics of the convertible top were repaired and the leather, the carpets in the interior and trunk, and the tarpaulin of the convertible top were replaced with original materials from the USA. The samples of the leather and carpet from SMS Auto Fabrics from Oregon are available. The gentleman from Hanover is a customer of ours and has mainly French vintage cars. He couldn’t resist the Imperial, but now realizes that he hardly drives it and has therefore entrusted us with the impressive convertible to market. The Imperial has an H certificate and a general inspection valid until June 2026. The air conditioning has been deactivated and apart from that there is no backlog of maintenance. The vehicle has a mileage of 79,530 miles and is ready to drive and register immediately. A convertible that is XXL format even by American standards of the 1960s. The empty weight of the vehicle is 2,360 kg, the vehicle width is 2.08 meters and the total length is 5.79 meters. The convertible has, among other things, a fully automatic top, power steering, electrically adjustable seats, electric windows, exterior mirrors that can be adjusted from the inside, central locking, automatic dipped beam and much more. Another special feature is the lighting of the instrument panel called “Panellescent Lightning”. The electroluminescence simply sends electricity through phosphor. This not only creates a floating appearance of the numbers in blue, but also reduces glare by 500% compared to conventional light bulbs. Electroluminescent panels last 10 times longer than conventional light bulbs. The car was advertised as “America’s most carefully built car” and a total of 600 quality controls were mentioned. Chrysler’s aim was not only to produce the finest and most elegant American cars, but also the best and most comfortable. The vehicle comes with repair invoices, an original sales brochure, an operating manual and the Owners Service Certificate.

Our Économie offer for €77,200 refers to the tested and roadworthy vehicle with a general inspection and H-report until June 2026. The standard offer for €78,700 also includes a major inspection with oil change and a new general inspection. The supreme offer for €80,900 also includes preservation of the cavities and the underbody with wax as well as professional polishing followed by ceramic sealing. We would be happy to send you the detailed offers.