Chrysler Imperial Crown review: a collector's curiosity, not a used-car purchase
2.8/5motorssouq Editorial Team
This is not a car to cross-shop against anything else on motorssouq. It is a collector piece: a genuinely well-engineered mid-1960s American flagship with unibody construction years before most rivals adopted it, a smooth 413 V8, and styling that still draws a crowd at a Manama classic-car meet. Buy one only with your eyes fully open to zero factory support, zero safety equipment by modern standards, and a parts hunt that will mean shipping from North American specialists. As transport for Bahrain roads today, it makes no sense; as a garage centrepiece, it is genuinely special.
Pros
- Unibody construction was genuinely advanced engineering for a full-size American car of its era
- Smooth, powerful 413 V8 and a well-regarded TorqueFlite automatic
- Striking 1960s design that still turns heads at Bahrain classic-car meets
- Extremely rare on this market — a true collector's piece rather than a commodity
Cons
- Zero factory support, zero dealer network, zero local parts supply chain
- No airbags, ABS or stability control by any modern safety standard
- Air conditioning and cooling systems were never engineered for Gulf summers
- Parts sourcing means shipping from North American classic-car specialists
By the mid-1960s Imperial had been Chrysler's standalone luxury marque for a decade, positioned directly against Cadillac and Lincoln. The 1964 redesign gave the Crown series unibody construction — an engineering choice ahead of most full-size American rivals of the period, who kept body-on-frame well into the 1970s — riding on a substantial wheelbase with a 413-cubic-inch V8 sending power through a TorqueFlite automatic that Chrysler engineers were rightly proud of.
None of that engineering history changes what owning one in Bahrain means today. This is not a car anyone imported for daily use; every example here arrived through a collector's personal effort, almost certainly shipped from the United States. There is no factory warranty, no dealer network, and no local supply chain for anything beyond the most generic mechanical wear parts.
What "Bahrain-ready" means for a car like this
Sixty-year-old American iron with no air conditioning redesign for Gulf heat, drum or early disc brakes by modern standards, and none of the airbags, ABS or stability control any 2020s buyer takes for granted. Running one here means accepting it as an occasional, carefully-driven piece rather than a car you take on the causeway to Saudi Arabia in August. Anyone seriously considering one should already have a relationship with a classic-car specialist and realistic expectations about what "keeping it on the road" costs in a market with essentially zero local parts support.