Chrysler LHS Overview

The LHS is Chyrsler's full-size luxury flagship with acres of passenger and cargo space. But it's no land yacht. Equipped with front-wheel drive, relatively little weight and a sporty character, the LHS is an enjoyable car to drive. It may look rich and formal on the outside, but underneath the sheet metal, is the heart of an import performance sedan.

The LHS is the direct descendant of the once-revered New Yorker. Designed to attract import-buying baby boomers, the LHS was introduced as a sporty upgrade to the New Yorker. Much to Chrysler's surprise, everyone--including the traditionally more conservative New Yorker buyer--began opting for the more lavish, more expensive LHS with its bucket seats and taut suspension. So in 1995, the long-lived New Yorker nameplate faded into oblivion.

We're not spending a lot of time lamenting the passing of the New Yorker, however, because the LHS is a much more enjoyable car to drive. Those buyers opting for the LHS were no dummies.

The LHS is the latest in a long line of full-size Chrysler luxury sedans, but this class is part of a vanishing breed. This fall, the LHS will shrink toward midsize sedan dimensions, in part because Chrysler's research shows most customers prefer smaller cars.

So while plenty of people still want a full-size luxury sedan, their choices are continuing to narrow. The 1997 LHS may represent the last opportunity to keep Chrysler on the full-size shopping list.

And we're here to tell you there are good reasons to keep this year's LHS on that full-size shopping list. Besides its sporty nature, the LHS offers a lot of value. There's only one model available and, priced at $30,850, it comes with a high level of standard equipment. The only option on our car was a premium sound system, which brought the total to $31,150.

Compared with other domestic luxury cars, the LHS is about $7,400 less expensive than a Lincoln Continental and about $9,400 less than a Cadillac Seville. It also stacks up well against the smaller imports, going out the door about $5,500 less than an Infiniti J30 and about the same as a Lexus ES300.