Eagle Premier

Encyclopedia : E : EA : EAG : Eagle Premier

The Eagle Premier was a development of the Renault and AMC partnership, inherited by the Chrysler Corporation when it acquired American Motors in 1987, and sold from the 1988 to 1992 model years. It was a full-size four-door sedan styled by Giorgetto Giugiaro. It was marketed as a sporty refined sedan in the style of a Acura Legend or Audi 5000 Although it used the drivetrain from the Renault 25 (at least for V6-powered models) and suspension components from the Renault 21, the body and floorpan structure were unique. It was also sold as the Dodge Monaco from 1990 to 1992. A proposed two-door version, named the Allure (not to be confused with the Buick Allure), was never produced.

Originally to be called the Renault Premier, before Chrysler acquired AMC, a few early 1988 models left the factory with that badging. Early Premiers also carried a Design Giugiaro badge, removed after the car's mid-term freshening. The Premier's interior was designed by AMC's in-house staff under the direction of Dick Teague.

The Premier was available in LX (equipped with a 2.5 L AMC I4 engine, offered until the end of the 1989 model year) and ES trims (3.0 L PRV V6). Very few LX models seem to have been built, mostly for fleet use. The heating controls used an unusual up-down button that cycled through the different heating modes indicated by column mounted array of lights.

A new, highly advanced factory was built to manufacture the Premier at Bramalea, Ontario, near AMC's existing plant at Brampton. The state-of-the-art plant was one of AMC's features that interested Chrysler.

The introduction of the Dodge Monaco resulted from the fact that the Premier was more sophisticated than Chrysler's own contemporary entry, the Dodge Dynasty, and from a contractual obligation to use 260,000 of the V6 engines from Renault over five years. The Premier's European roots meant that it was more sophisticated than what Chrysler was offering in its range, most of which were made up of K-car derivatives. The Chrysler LH-cars — regarded as the cars that saved Chrysler for the 1990s — were based on a platform (chassis and suspension design) directly derived from the Premier.

In all, 139,051 Premiers and Monacos were built at Bramalea. Reportedly, Chrysler paid a penalty for every engine not purchased (120,949) from Renault.

External links

[The Eagle Premier and Dodge Monaco home page]
[Eagle Premier - The Accidental Dodge at Allpar] provides detailed information about the Premier.

Eagle	Historic:
	Cars:	2000GTX \| Medallion \| Premier \| Summit \| Talon \| Vision \| Vista

From Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Original article here. Support Wikipedia by contributing or donating.
All text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License See Wikipedia Copyrights for details.