Origin
The title "Fifth Avenue" refers to a street in New York, New York in the United States. Fifth Avenue contains many upscale shops and cultural attractions.
The name first appeared as a special, upmarket sub-model of the R-body Chrysler New Yorker sedan in 1979. This generation of Chrysler, although already smaller than its maximum size in the mid 1970s, was still V8-powered and rear wheel drive. The R-body rode on a 118.5-inch (3,010 mm) wheelbase, which was still considerably longer than its downsized GM and Ford competitors. For 1979, ordering the New Yorker Fifth Avenue Edition package got the buyer a car finished in two-tone beige with matching leather interior. There was a standard landau vinyl roof, and somewhat unusual opera windows which opened with the rear doors. The package was so thoroughly color-keyed that even the bumper rub strips were beige. The R-body Fifth Avenues ran for three years, although additional Fifth Avenue colors were added for 1980 and 1981. Adding to an already exclusive model, the 1980 and 1981 Fifth Avenues had the option of a special edition version. This special edition model was painted a single tone "Nightwatch Blue" with gold pinstriping with a matching blue Landau roof. Of the 7,356 Fifth Avenues built between 1980 and 1981, only 733 were special editions.
The R-body New Yorkers and Fifth Avenues are now considered to be one of the most attractive of all Chryslers, and have been garnering collector interest. Overall production of the R-body New Yorkers was low (less than 75,000 from '79-'81) and the Fifth Avenue production was at most 25% of them. Sadly very few exist today, in any condition. Approximately 14 were stretched into limos and provided for use during the 1980 winter Olympics in Lake Placid, NY. A few still exist and are in the hands of collectors.
In 1980, a Fifth Avenue package was created by ASC (American Sunroof Corporation) for the Chrysler LeBaron, which shared its Chrysler M platform with the Dodge Diplomat. This rare option package, produced on 654 LeBarons for the year, included many of the exterior features found on the New Yorker Fifth Avenue in a smaller, more sensible package.
Read more about this topic: Chrysler Fifth Avenue
Famous quotes containing the word origin:
“In the woods in a winter afternoon one will see as readily the origin of the stained glass window, with which Gothic cathedrals are adorned, in the colors of the western sky seen through the bare and crossing branches of the forest.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“Each structure and institution here was so primitive that you could at once refer it to its source; but our buildings commonly suggest neither their origin nor their purpose.”
—Henry David Thoreau (1817–1862)
“There are certain books in the world which every searcher for truth must know: the Bible, the Critique of Pure Reason, the Origin of Species, and Karl Marx’s Capital.”
—W.E.B. (William Edward Burghardt)