Eagle Cars

Podcast Episode: 0230
Why was Eagle here and why did it leave so quick?

     Why did Chrysler create the Eagle brand and why was it only here for a short time?  AutoLooks takes a look at why this brand existed and what it kept alive for another twelve years.  Follow us as we explore the history of Chrysler's short lived Eagle brand, to find out why it was really here.

​       Eagle. We're not talking about the bird or the bald eagle, the famous bird from America, but this vehicle was one created by one American company, the number four American company, American Motors Corporation. When it died out and got taken over by Chrysler, its last product became its last stance in the automotive marketplace. The name of that product became its own line. It was only here for a short amount of time, but it had a reason to exist, and today AutoLooks is going to take a look at the reason why the Eagle brand was even here in the post-American Motors world.
 
       Welcome back to the AutoLooks Podcast. I am your host, as always, the doctor to the automotive industry, Mr. Everett Jay, coming to you from our main website at AutoLooks.net. If you haven't been there, stop by check it out, read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings and go to the Corporate Links website page. Big or small, we have them all on the AutoLooks.net website. The AutoLooks Podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group. 

       ​Eagle was one of the last fully American motor products the old Eagle wagons or the Eagle Kammback or the Eagle AMX or the Sundancer. Eagle was a brand, essentially its own sub-brand from the American Motors answers. Eagle was a brand essentially its own sub-brand from the American Motors.
 
       The last dedicated vehicle American Motors made before their complete collapse and their jump into bed with Renault, to try and save their skins in the very early 80s, as we've talked about in our previous podcast about American Motors the rise and fall of the car company. When they died out, Chrysler Corporation got their hands on both them, all of the previous car companies that they had owned and all of their names. Along with that, the most advanced manufacturing plant in the world. This plant was going into production in Brampton, Ontario, the Bramlea plant, essentially the grounds where Avro Technology had built products for Canadian aviation. And Eagle was about to change the world for American Motors, being one of the first Crosstreks to ever hit the market. The Eagle brand managed to save on shortly after the fall of American Motors as a dedicated product under the Chrysler Corporation nameplate. This was due to the fact that AMC's dealerships also sold Jeep products and those dealerships did not want to change over. So, the Eagle wagon stuck around. The Eagle brand originally lasted from 1987 all the way up to Independence Day, July 4th 1999. Kind of funny how they died out on Independence Day. Being called American Motors, they died on Independence Day, not gained Independence. They lost. They died on Independence Day, not gained independence. They lost their independence on Independence Day.
 
        The name originally appeared on Jeep products from the 1970s the J10 pickup truck, the Cherokee SJ, the CJ5, and the CJ7. Being the last dedicated product built by American Motors; this vehicle had not shown its true colors in the marketplace. Four-wheel drive cars were starting to come out in the 80s, with Subaru and their introduction in the North American marketplace, and even Audi showcasing us the Quattro power. Chrysler saw that AMC was onto something with the Eagle brand and they thought, maybe, maybe we should hold onto this for just a little bit longer. Considering the fact that they just bought out a bankrupt car company, the plant might not be too happy with a complete shutdown of the line once you take full control of it. So, Lee Iacocca had a great idea. He decided to take the Eagle-branded product from American Motors and utilize its name as a brand-new brand to compete against General Motors' newly created Saturn brand. And if you want to, you can hear about the history of Saturn on the AutoLooks podcast, on our original Saturn podcast, as well. Its original model was known as the Liberty. The Liberty was to use the K-Car platform, but unfortunately, with Chrysler running into issues in the late 80s, this was completely abandoned to be used as the brand-new product about to be built in Brampton, Ontario, at the Bramley plant.
 
      Right before the collapse of American Motors, AMC and Renault were working on a brand-new product, a new midsize sedan that was going to take American Motors to the next step. With the fall of the really shitty Renault Alliance product that essentially brought American Motors to its knees, the Eagle Premier was being developed, but because Eagle wasn't self-sufficient on its own right, dodge decided we're going to borrow this for our stakes as well. The Premier was nearly production ready and Chrysler decided that they want to keep the Eagle brand alive and they want to keep American Motors' production from this plant of a product that was about to be created. It was best to stick with the vehicle that they were nearly completed in developing as opposed to trying to create a brand-new K-Car platform, the newly created Eagle brand. They decided to use the Premier sedan, but due to this, the Premier would be coming out and because Renault still had a hand in the creation of the Premier, they also had a hand in the creation of the Premier. They also had a hand in keeping that product under a dedicated brand as well. When Chrysler bought AMC for Jeep, they also found out that Renault had ties into any AMC products in development.
 
       At that time. Renault held Chrysler to its contractual obligations, which meant that Jeep could not be sold in Chrysler dealers as well as Chrysler products be sold in ex-AMC dealers. So American Motors had tons of dealers out in the marketplace already and Chrysler couldn't sell their products in it. They couldn't sell Chrysler, they couldn't sell Plymouth, they couldn't sell Dodge products in those dealerships. But Jeep was not enough to sustain an entire inventory of dealerships.
 
        Something had to change and, like I said, Lee Iacocca wanted to go up against the Saturn brand. He saw that GM was creating a new entry-level brand for the marketplace. Chrysler, dodge and Plymouth all stood on their own. He needed something to compete with Saturn. So, he created the Eagle name, utilizing it from American Motors' previous product. And because Renault was holding them to the contractual obligations the fact that Chrysler couldn't sell their vehicles in Jeep-branded dealerships the Eagle name was launched. They needed to capitalize on their dealer network because Renault wouldn't let them go from that and they needed to keep it around for at least a short amount of time. So, Eagle was never planned to become a mainstream brand forever. 

​              Even in the beginning it was there to supplement the loss of the AMC cars from the Jeep dealers, kind of like the Mercury, meteor and Ford Monarch brands of the 1950s and 60s. Ford didn't want to sell Mercury products in theirs but they needed more of a tier up product. So, they created the Monarch brand, where Mercury dealers needed more of an entry level product but they couldn’t more of a tier up product. So, they created the Monarch brand, where Mercury dealers needed more of an entry level product but they couldn't sell Ford products in their dealers, so they created the Meteor brand. Now, if you don't know anything about those brands, go and look about for some history on the Canadian automotive industry. So that's what we'll be talking about in a little bit of a future episode here.
 
              These names were essentially used to sell full line products from dealers. They needed to sell vehicles from the entry-level point to at least the end of the premium or even luxury makes. Now the Eagle and Jeep dealers couldn't do this with just the Eagle branded cars and Jeep vehicles, but they needed to supplement the sales of AMC products where AMC sold sedans and Jeep sold SUVs. So, Eagle was brought in to make sure that that contract was withheld. Eagle, essentially, was going to go up against Saturn and to do this to create a whole brand-new product line. They only had one product, the Premier. So, they needed more and they couldn't really use the original Eagle products from AMC. They kept them in production but they couldn't use those as all their other supplementary vehicles because they for one more specific niche. They could branch them out and give them another name, but considering the fact that these vehicles were already in production for a few years, the new Eagle brand decided to slowly kill off the original AMC Eagle branded products to go after a brand-new lineup of Japanese rebrand vehicles for the Eagle name. These were going to be marketed at brand new Jeep Eagle dealers.
 
             Unlike the other big three brands, AMC only had its one dedicated brand and, in all likes, Chrysler never wanted AMC at all. They didn't care about AMC. They went after AMC during its bankruptcy for Jeep, similar to how, when Chrysler was being sold off by Cerberus Capital Management Group, everybody just wanted the Jeep brand. Nobody wanted Chrysler, nobody wanted Dodge, they just wanted Jeep. That's all they wanted from that car company, but if you bought it you had to buy it as a whole and you had to sustain it for a certain amount of time. Get my drift here. The new Peugeot Citroen really likes the Jeep brand and is pouring tons of money into it. But how many new Dodge and Chrysler products have you seen? Not a lot, because they only have to sustain them for a short amount of time before they can fold. The two divisions have the only product they wanted the Jeep and Ram truck brands and do away with the others. Sound familiar. Eagle was only in existence for 12 years. 2030 is pretty close to that 12-year mark. Yeah, we know how the automotive world works. Okay, Chrysler essentially would inherit the AMC products into their own stable and to do this, the Eagle lineup was added.
 
            Chrysler soon disbanded all the original AMC vehicles the Alliance and the Encores and eventually scrapped the plans to bring the e-space from Renault to North America and even the Alpine GT, which I think was a really bad step in their part, because the Alpine GT would have made for an amazing sports car right off the launch to gain a lot of traction for the Eagle brand. Can you imagine an Eagle Alpine GT in North America, if we get it. The Tiburon really shot them out of the market, especially with the Mitsubishi Eclipse blowing up in the original Fast and Furious movie, creating more presence for previous Eagle talents. But here we are. Chrysler didn't want to have anything on the table with Renault. They had the contractual obligation to keep their products out of Jeep-branded dealerships and they had a product in development with Renault. That's all they wanted. They didn't want anything else. 

            ​Well, building the original four-wheel drive Eagle crossover, station wagons, coupes, even hatchbacks, they built the new Eagle lineup until the brand-new Eagle lineup could be released into the world and with that the Eagle crossover became the first Eagle-branded product, the Eagle Wagon as it was called in 1988. It only lasted until December 1988, when production ended in favor of the brand-new product. Eagle soon replaced this with the Eagle Medallion Sedan in 1989, which essentially was a Renault 21. Yes, they did bring a Renault over here, but this is a product used to build the next Eagle product. Eventually, by 1988, the new Eagle Premier came in from 1988 to 1992, so for four years the ill-fated all-new AMC sedan, which Renault held onto for its own Renault 25 in its home market, would be sold in North America, the last existing French product to ever be sold on American shores and becoming the very first product as a dedicated Eagle-branded product. This first new sedan was produced jointly between AMC and Renault and was produced at this brand-new manufacturing plant, one of the most advanced in the world, in Brampton, Ontario, the Bramley plant. The Premier essentially was a superior product compared to Chrysler's other offerings, so Chrysler soon found itself utilizing this for their own product stable.
 
              You got to remember this is the late 80s. Chrysler didn't have a lot of great products at that point in time. The brand-new cab forward Concords Intrepid were still six years away and for that Chrysler used this new Premier sedan, built in collaboration with Renault, to be both the Chrysler Premier in Japan and the Dodge Monaco for Canadian marketplaces. The Premier had a longitudinal engine to accommodate a future all-wheel drive version. But this all-wheel drive version never came out.
 
The reason why it was being planned is because that is where AMC was actually going in their product stable. Had AMC been able to live on for another five years, they would have become North America's Subaru, with all their products being underpinned by a brand-new all-wheel drive system. AMC saw that the all-wheel drive system for sedans, wagons, coupes. Everything was the future of the automotive world and this is what would set the premier out from the competition. Unfortunately, Chrysler would never see the light at the end of the tunnel for the all-wheel drive variation and kept it as a front wheel drive layout. This essentially set the basis and gave Chrysler the basis for their future LH cars.
 
            Essentially, the Intrepid, the Concorde and the later Eagle Vision were built from the technology and the platform initially started by both Renault and AMC for the Eagle Premier. This car built the cars that set Chrysler apart from everyone else in the North American marketplace during the 90s. So essentially, the car that helped save Chrysler in the 90s was built by number four American company and a number one French company. After this, eagle added in its first collaboration the Eagle Vista in 1988 to 1992. This was a Canada-only product, you got to remember. Eagle was built in Canada so we actually got products that weren't available for the rest of North America.
 
              The Eagle Vista came as either a two-door hatchback, a sedan or a wagon and were built off of a rebadged Mitsubishi Mirage for the sedan and hatch, or the Mitsubishi Chariot for the tall wagons. Eagle was moving into the tall wagon or crossover marketplace, something that no one else was thinking about. This product had both Dodge and Plymouth Colt siblings, but only in the sedan and hatch products. The wagon was a dedicated Eagle product. Chrysler decided to do this to give some variation to Eagle over its siblings, whereas if both Dodge and Plymouth had the complete chain, eagle would just be lost in a sea of automotive abyss. The sedan and hatch were both front-wheel drive products, but the wagon variation Eagle's only product was a four-wheel drive crossover vehicle. It was bringing what AMC would have brought to the marketplace. It was eventually replaced in 1989 by the Eagle Summit, even though there was a crossover between both the Eagle Vista and the Eagle Summit products, with one being slightly bigger than the other. 

​          The Summit lived for two generations within the Eagle platform. The first generation had a sedan and hatch model only as Eagle products from 1989 to 1992. The second generation are the ones that you could still find these days. This came both as a sedan, a coupe and wagon platforms and it had both Dodge and Plymouth Colt siblings in both sedan and hatch. Again, the wagon model was only an Eagle product. Where Eagle was now becoming the wagon-only product stable in the Chrysler ring, the wagon was eventually replaced by the crossover van during the second generation, but only in Canada.
 
          In the US the original Mitsubishi Vista wagon was still kicking about and if you've ever seen one of these the original Eagle Coupes, the second-generation ones, they were pretty cool. Sure, they were gelatinous blobs in the 1990s. When you see them and you're just like, okay, weird looking. But they're one of the few coupes that never made its way into the aftermarket world. Few people have actually turned them into an aftermarket desirable card, but not on a wide scale. The Eagle Summit Coupe was one of the most amazing things. You will find some of them in the aftermarket industry, but when you do, they're usually Dodge Colt. Having an Eagle variation would have been a lot better. But everybody was all about the Talon. But the Talon had a sibling. The Eagle 2000 GTX from 1991 to 1992 was essentially the sedan sibling to the Eagle Talon. It was rebadged Mitsubishi Galant turned into the Eagle Sedan.
 
         This was to go after the mid-size marketplace. Unlike the Summit that went after the compact entry-level marketplace, eagle wanted to ensure that they hit every part of the market compact, mid-sized and full-sized. And where the Premier sat at the top of the food chain in the full-sized marketplace. The Summit sat at the bottom and Eagle needed something in the middle. With the Mitsubishi Gallant the 2000 GTX could take over. It would slot just below the Premier and above the Summit but also had the Dodge 2000 GTX sold in Canada as well. Unfortunately, again, Chrysler did not give the Eagle brand what AMC originally wanted and still didn't give us an all-wheel drive variation. Very, very disappointing. By 1990, eagle was starting to grow up and become more of a mainstay in the product stable of Chrysler.
 
         1990, Chrysler showcased the new Eagle Optima concept. This was to showcase a brand-new platform for the future of Chrysler vehicles. It was a cab-forward design which was now showcasing the new generation of the LH platform. It was originally planned to be sold with a V8 engine and have all-wheel drive capabilities, something that would never show up on the future of the LH platform If you actually go back and do a little bit digging into the history of the LH platform. The cab forward design was originally developed to have a V8 rear wheel drive platform underpin it. It was also set up for all-wheel drive abilities. 

​            Chrysler was looking forward to a future to bring back rear-wheel drive full-size sedans and they thought of doing this with the Intrepid and the Chrysler Concorde. They wanted to go up against the big guys like BMW and Mercedes that had rear-wheel drive V8 sedans in the luxury field. Chrysler needed this and the Concorde could have done it with a V8 rear-wheel drive platform bringing to us 10 years earlier, which would eventually become the Charger in 300 platforms later on. Had they have done this in the 90s, eagle would have had an all-wheel drive system underpinning their full sight to Dan, giving us something that we wouldn't even see in that marketplace for another 15 years. Chrysler was thinking years in advance. Unfortunately, they didn't jump at the chance to give us something that was futuristic and the Optima concept would never really come out the exact way it was planned. In 1990, eagle finally got the product that they should have got from Renault in 1988, where they should have got the Alpine GT for the North American marketplace. To really bring Eagle out of that generalized product stable and into the future, and give it something better than what Saturn could ever have. 

​            With their SC coupe, the Eagle Talon appeared on our shores and going from 1990 to 1996, across two generations, the Talon would become one of the import scene's best cars, although most of us went after its Mitsubishi counterpart with the Eclipse. The Eagle Talon would have feature’s that Mitsubishi would never have with it. The Eagle Talon would have feature’s that Mitsubishi would never have with it. A rear window deck spoiler was only available on the Eagle Talon and not the Eclipse, giving the Talon a more futuristic design than its counterparts. From 1990 to 1994, the Eagle Talon and its siblings, the Plymouth Laser, the Mitsubishi Eclipse and the Galant Sedan siblings would be produced.
 
          Its first design eventually had flip-up lights, where the second generation would eventually bring in the new-scale bubble lights as flip-up lights were soon becoming a thing of the past. Its designs ran from 1989 to 1991, and 1992 to 1994. The original ones from 89 to 91. So, if you found an original 1990 Eagle Talon it would have flip-up lights, but within two years that would change over to a front-scale bubble light collaboration. You could find more of the original Eagle Talons with flip-up lights than you can with the bubble lights as production soared with the initial release of the Talon.
 
            Of course, that was until 1992 when the Eagle Talon TSI came out and we all got the Eagle Talon we wanted for a growing sports car marketplace with an inline four. They finally brought us what we originally wanted an all-wheel drive, four-cylinder turbo sports car. The Eagle Talon did it. It was available in both front-wheel drive or all-wheel drive, and this all-wheel drive gave us what Eagle was supposed to give the world All-wheel drive abilities. And this is something that Plymouth would never get in the Laser, where the Laser would only be an inline-four with front-wheel drive. The Talon would get the TSI all-wheel drive inline-four turbo to push it to the next level. From 1995 to 1998, the Talon came out. Unfortunately, by this time it only had the Eclipse and Gallant siblings, where Plymouth decided to cancel its Laser counterpart, where the Laser only ever came.

            With the very first design iteration of the Talon with flip-up lights. By the second full generation of the Eagle Talon with flip-up lights, by the second full generation of the Eagle Talon, with its new counterpart, the Mitsubishi Eclipse, the one showcased to the world in the original Fast and Furious movie. This Talon would give us something completely different than its Mitsubishi cousin. The Talon would give us our window decklid spoiler. The only other car to have this within the Chrysler stable would be another Mitsubishi counterpart, the Dodge Stealth, where Dodge did that as well, because the Mitsubishi did not. The 2000 GT did not have a rear deck window spoiler where the Stealth did.
 
            Chrysler Corporation was starting to do this to differentiate its product from the Mitsubishi counterparts and the Talon really needed to separate itself out from the dealings of the Mitsubishi counterparts. And the Talon really needed to separate itself out from the dealings of the Mitsubishi product stable. And the Talon was doing this and again doing this with the inline four and the inline four turbo. But unfortunately, eventually the Talon was to come to the fall of Eagle and on February 10th 1998, the very last Eagle Talon was ever made and the worst thing is it became the last marketed product that Eagle ever sold in the world. The Talon was the vehicle it needed. But the Talon would be its last vehicle.
 
       Unlike its sibling, the Mitsubishi Eclipse, the Talon would never come as a convertible. This was only dedicated to the Mitsubishi Eclipse. Mitsubishi needed to differentiate itself from its sibling counterparts. Were the Eclipse to become both coupe without a deck-led window spoiler and convertible? The Talon never would. Oh, and if you're ever wondering what TSI meant, it means Turbo Sport Intercooler. Yeah, they basically lay out what type of turbo it had in it.
 
             And in 1990 and 1991, the Talon won the SCCA world touring car challenge. In 1993 to 1995 it won the GT touring car championship and is the only American nameplate other than Oldsmobile and their Achieva to ever win a touring car championship. In the 1990s this was from eagle, the brand that Chrysler really didn't give two shits about, whereas the Talon was the bread and butter of the Eagle nameplate, the thing that brought everybody. In 1994, eagle gave us the Jazz concept for the future. It never arrived and it was supposed to be a hatch within a hatch design. It was a very interesting car when you actually go back and look at the original Eagle Jazz concept and you take a look at Hyundai's IONIQ Talon sedan, which everybody loved the Eagle Talon and influenced the future of the Chrysler Concorde. ​

​               During the time of the Talon and its second generation, eagle had its second most notable product of all time, the Eagle Vision, built off the original LH platform that underpinned its first product, the Premier. This was built as a replacement for the Premier sedan with its new cab forward design and riding on the second generation of the LH platform. Along with its siblings, the Intrepid, the Concorde, the LHS and New Yorker, the Eagle Vision would become more of the sport format for the LH platform when Dodge was trying to give us that sport appeal. The Eagle Vision was giving us that premium sport appeal, which is kind of funny when you look at it. Why did the LH platform never have a Plymouth product on it? Well, the answer to that question can be resolved in the history of Plymouth.
 
               The platform was originally developed for rear-wheel drive and all-wheel drive, but only ever came in front-wheel drive format with 3.3- and 3.5-liter V6 engines. And I'll tell you, the 3.5-liter engines inside of those vehicles was amazing. I put over 309,000 kilometers on mine and my father-in-law put over 300,000 kilometers on his. Unfortunately, when the second generation of the Intrepid came out, they did away with those 3.5-liter engines because they said they were gas guzzling pigs, even though they were the strongest and best working V6 engines that Chrysler had throughout the entire 90s. Its design format was the same as the Chrysler Concorde, with only one different feature rear taillights. Funny thing is 3.5-liter the Concorde, the Chrysler Concorde, the New Yorker and the LHS were never sold in the European marketplace.
 
             The Eagle Vision was actually sold in the European marketplace as the Chrysler Vision in Europe and they only did that to try and get more money out of the Eagle platform to keep it going. For a few years later. They wanted to hold out to keep the Talon going because it was selling well in the sports car marketplace. The ESI and TSI models were available. But unlike its Talon going because it was selling well in the sports car marketplace, the ESI and TSI models were available. But unlike its Talon sibling, the TSI never came with a turbo, something the Eagle could have benefited strictly from. It did have an auto stick option which allowed for a clutch less shifting by moving the knob to the left or right or shift up or down. This was an amazing feature for its time in the 1990s, where sequential shifting wouldn't be found until Nissan brought it out in vehicles in the early 2000s. So, Chrysler actually beat them to the punch with the Eagle Vision auto stick option.
 
             In the 1990s. The Vision became the product that essentially gave us the LH platform. It would never live past the end of the Eagle brand. Unlike all the other products from the Chrysler Corporation, eagle never gained the Pentastar because of its history, being tied in with AMC and the fact that it was only utilized to sell full product lineups in Jeep dealerships, all due to their contract obligations with the Renault brands. But by 1997, Chrysler no longer had to abide by this contract and they were able to pull the plug on the Eagle brand. Chrysler saw that with poor sales and a lackluster lineup, eagle needed to be pulled from the Chrysler Corporation and with the ability to now add Jeep into the Chrysler stable, they no longer needed the Eagle brand to keep those dealers alive. Jeep can now move over where Chrysler leaderships can now be. Chrysler, Plymouth, dodge, jeep dealers and the former Jeep and Eagle divisions conform to become either Plymouth, Dodge or Jeep divisions, with Chrysler Corporation badging, with Plymouth and Dodge having full lineups and even Dodge having their pickup trucks. 

         Eagle was down to just two vehicles the Vision and the Talon. There was no compact, there was no midsize, there was no pickup truck, there's no minivan, there's no SUV. That was it. And the time frame for the Renault contract had finally surpassed 1996, we saw the drop of the Summit cars. This eventually was starting to write on the wall. It was showcasing to us that Chrysler had no future vision for the vision of Eagle vehicles. The vision eventually bowed out in 1997, with the final Eagle car being an Eagle Talon.
 
             The Talon stuck around as Chrysler did not have an entry-level sports car at all. They had the Dodge Viper and the Dodge Stealth by this time, but no entry-level sports car at all. They had the Dodge Viper and the Dodge Stealth by this time, but no entry-level sports car to compete against vehicles like the Nissan 240SX, the Toyota MR2, or a Celica. They needed something. So, the Talon had to stick around for a short amount of time until their deal with Mitsubishi would eventually fall through.
 
              With the demise of the sports car marketplace in the late 90s, the Talon was on life support. It could have lived for another two years. Unfortunately, Chrysler’s deal with Mitsubishi was drawing near to an end and Chrysler was now looking at bringing a brand-new coupe to its product stable the Dodge Avenger and Chrysler Sebring coupes. With this coupe and their addition, talon would have no fighting chance for its future. A redesign of the Eagle Vision was originally introduced. Unfortunately, this product would eventually be remarketed and sold in the future as the brand-new Chrysler 300M. Essentially, without the Eagle Vision's second generation and development, the 300 series would have never returned. Well, it could have, until the Dodge Charger platform came out years later. But the 300M as we saw it in 1997 was essentially the second-generation Eagle Vision, a more sports car appeal and was supposed to come with a dominating V8 engine. Promotional material was created for this product but eventually was thrown out the window and changed for the Chrysler product.
 
            Eagle eventually failed because of their strategy. They lacked a full model lineup. Like we said, they had no van, they had no truck, they had no SUV and, with the demise of the Summit, they had no entry-level products. They were down to a full-size sedan and a sports car. In the end, promotional material also made it hard to distinguish both Eagle products from both Dodge and Plymouth siblings. Everybody saw the Concords and the Intrepid, but the Vision. The front end of it looked like a Concord, the rear end of it looked like an Intrepid. We didn't know where this thing fit into the marketplace.

           From the beginning Chrysler really didn't care about the Eagle brand as all it wanted to do was absorb the Jeep products into their own dealers. A contractual obligation with Renault made it so that they had to sell something in the Jeep dealerships and it couldn't be from Chrysler's initial product offerings. And now, with a tie-in with Mitsubishi, it gave Chrysler something to work with. Eagle did essentially give the automotive marketplace something. It gave us Mitsubishi and Renault products. It introduced us to a few vehicles we'd never seen, but without having its own dedicated niche.
 
           Whereas AMC wanted the Eagle products to live on with all-wheel drive capabilities and move that into their entire product lineup for the future, Chrysler never saw that light at the end of the tunnel. AMC stuck around essentially until 1998 when the Eagle brand died out. Eagle was essentially the end of the line for AMC and it could have been made into an amazing brand within the Chrysler stable. Had Eagle had gone with all-wheel drive capabilities and a V8 engine in the Eagle Vision, it could have set itself apart from both Plymouth Dodge and Chrysler. Sure, it may not have lasted forever, but when Chrysler eventually pulled the plug on the Plymouth nameplate in the early 2000s, eagle could have had a fighting chance to hold its own in a marketplace that was now changing to all-wheel drive contraptions.
 
             Eagle was a product that had a major future. It was 30 years ahead of the crossover game and it gave us products that we didn't even know we needed 30 years ago. Eagle was the brand that AMC was to become. Had AMC been able to stick around, the 90s could have showcased to us that maybe AMC could have become number three and dropped Chrysler down to number four. Without the product offerings from Jeep, Chrysler could have never made it through the 1980s. Without having the Grand Cherokee or even the Cherokee in the early 90s and those product sales. Chrysler Corporation may not be here today without those. All AMC needed was a lifeline to hold its own for another three years until the Brampton plant was done, and they could have made it. They did essentially for another 12 years, but under the Eagle nameplate.
 
               But without a lack of vision from Chrysler Corporation, eagle was doomed from the beginning, with only one mainstay, to being out there essentially to sell vehicles through a contract that Renault had created with the Jeep product lineup. Eagle was only here for a short time. It made a few great cars and gave us some products that we didn't even know we needed for another 20 some years. But in all reality, it did serve a purpose in the automotive world and if you've ever seen an Eagle car or been in an Eagle car, you've noticed that they did have a difference about them compared to other Chrysler products. It really wasn't a Chrysler, it wasn't a Mitsubishi, nor was it a Renault. Eagle was a brand all of its own and its future lies in what AMC could have been so. ​

               Have you, or anyone you've ever known, owned an Eagle branded product? Have you owned a Summit or a Talon? I know a lot of people I've met in my past. The Talon was one of the first sports cars a lot of people had because it was cheap and easy to work on. It was the Honda Civic of the North American marketplace and it pumped out a ton of power through all-wheel drive, something that the other sports cars on the market did not have. Eagle gave us what we really wanted. Unfortunately, Chrysler killed them off before their true colors could really shine through.
 
                So, if you own one, tell us about it. Send us an email, write in the comments, send this out, click the like button and share this podcast with all your Eagle-branded friends, family, well-wishers and hell, even an engineer who you worked with, or even an old boss who owned a previous Eagle product. Tell them about the history of Eagle cars and why it was here. It did serve a purpose and it did have a reason for existing. So, send this podcast out and after that, click the like button at the bottom to follow us for more information and updates from the AutoLooks.net website and AutoLooks podcast.
 
              Big or small, we have them all Car companies from around the globe all on the AutoLooks.net website, and if you haven't been there, stop by check it out. Read some of the reviews, check out some of the ratings, go to the help page and find some new websites. You would never even hear about 3D tuning. You can go back and redesign all kinds of amazing cars from the past and present to make them look like the way you want it. Unfortunately, Fortunately, there's not a lot of cool Eagle products there, because they barely existed. You might miss out on that. You might have to go to the Mitsubishi stable to rebuild products and make it look like the Eagle Talon you always wanted All from the AutoLooks.net website.
 
           The AutoLooks podcast is brought to you by Ecomm Entertainment Group and distributed by Podbean.com. If you'd like to get in touch with us, don't you just send us an email over at email at AutoLooks.net? So, for myself, Everett J., the AutoLooks.net website and Ecomm entertainment group. Strap yourself in for this one fun wild ride that the AutoLooks podcast is going to take you on.

Thank you.
Everett J.
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