It’s round about lunchtime, which means time to rummage down the back of the couch of time, to seek out another piece of historic automotive lint. Welcome to The Carchive!

Having just finished mopping up after the carnival that was US Van Week last time around, we’re keeping it low-key today. We’re sticking around in the US; Auburn Hills, Michigan to be precise. Roll back nineteen actual years to when Dodge had just updated their Intrepid.

“Intrepid is an American car that can hold its own in any company on any kind of road”

My first intrepid encounter was while on vacation with my family in ’95, in Florida, of course, like all unimaginative English families do. I feel it necessary to declare this, to put things into context. You see, both my Father and 14 yr-old me were immediately very impressed by the Dodge at first sight.

Our rental-car for that trip was a Ford Contour. Resplendent in Mediocrity Beige, it was a GL model with the 2.0 litre engine, auto box and no tachometer. It seemed to be basically a de-contented Mondeo, a car we were all too familiar with from back home. Compared to our Hertz-mobile, the Dodge Intrepids that we kept seeing seemed worlds apart.

Not least because it was enormous. The Intrepid; pitched as a midsize car, was 5.1 metres long; Mercedes S-Class territory, and a clear foot longer than the Contour. And it was an aggressive looking sombitch too. But what impressed me most was possibly caused by what the brochure would inevitably go spouting on about as soon as I opened it.

“In the background of the photo below is the Portofino concept car, one of the three Intrepid progenitors”

Portofino, Millenium and Optima did the rounds on the international motor show circuit to whet the appetite of journalists and the buying public alike. Portofino was possibly the most memorable of the three, a kind of spiritual successor to the Lamborghini Marzal concept. But bear in mind that the concept had been around since 1987 and was five years old by the time Intrepid went on sale.

“With Intrepid they were fused into the purest amalgam of design and engineering; a molten flow of sheet metal and space age electronics that push dramatically the parameters of automotive innovation”.

Of course, in reality, precious little of either of the concepts really translated to the production model, at least not this generation; the 2007 year brought the cab further forward, and styling was futured-up a notch or two. This time around the concept-car influence was mainly seen in the treatment of some of the minute details, such as the light clusters and flush glazing.

A bigger achievement, though, was in how different the Intrepid (and its other LH-Platform brethren) was from the myriad K-car derivatives that went before. This car seemed to be, at long last, a thoroughly modern Chrysler.

It’s notable how the second page talks about the importance that Chrysler pledged to place on the quality of the customer experience. Indeed, it’s written here that their aim was “to bring you the most memorable and positive experience attainable each time we’re allowed the privilege of serving you.”

Now, I find this fascinating. Did Dodge achieve the great renaissance in customer service that they were  allegedly gunning for? Seriously, a this is a request to all you who bought a new ’95 Intrepid. I’d love to know whether Dodge generally did make a big leap forward in this respect or was it all just bluff and bluster?

“Intrepid’s road competence combines an agile responsiveness to driver control input, with superb braking capabilities and surplus horsepower for passing and blending into traffic from freeway on-ramps”

The Intrepid was fully independently suspended and ought to have been a reasonable steer, coming with a choice of spring rates depending on whether the Performance Handling Group was ticked on the order sheet. I suspect the last word in razor-sharp reflexes would have been an exaggerated claim, though; none of the wheel choices offered a sidewall of less than 60% aspect ratio.

“It begins with more interior volume than any midsize sedan- more sheer room. It continues with masterful design- ergonomic engineering- of all the things that make driving a car not only instinctual, but enjoyable”

Six passengers could be carried at a stretch, but the poor sap who ends up in the front really won’t have wanted to spend much time there; the middle-seat backrest being made up of the two front seat armrests combined and stowed vertically. But we get the feeling that Dodge really wanted you to order the front buckets instead. Everything seemed well put together and equipment was, or could be, plentiful, depending on how much cash was ponied up.

Incidentally, it appears that package 22B came with hand-cranked keep-fit windows. Awesome!

Power was V-6 only, the two available mills varying only a little in capacity but a fair bit in number of valves and horsepower spat out. 161 could be mustered by the 3.3, but the 24v 3.5 could offer 214. Torque figures are published without definition of the units of measurement used;  let’s assume it’s ib-ft; 181 and 221 were the respective outputs.

Transmission was automatic-only, and the engine was mounted North-South, which was an unusual choice but echoed the Renault / Eagle Premier parentage of these machines.

The LH platform and all those cab-forward models that sprang from it gave way to the LX-based Chrysler 300 and a merry band of other models, Charger, Magnum etc. A reversion to rear-wheel-drive pleased the enthusiasts and was inevitable after the big DaimlerChrysler tie-up. A lot of good came from that, for sure.

But it is sad that the concept-car inspired dalliances with futuristic thinking seem to have been a short-lived phase. I’ve heard it mentioned that scrapyard Intrepids are ten-a-penny, and that the LH-platform cars, including Concorde and LHS, are fast dying out. And the easily impressed 14-year old inside me reckons this is all rather a pity.

(Disclaimer: Images are of original manufacturer publicity materials, photographed by me. Copyright remains property of Chrysler, or FIAT, or somebody. So, being that the 300C is sold in Europe as the Lancia Thema, I don’t suppose there’s any chance of an 8.32 model with a 458 engine? Oof!)