Faults:

Typical front end bushings.

Typical trans periodic limp mode (shutting the car off and restarting fixes it for a few months).

A/C pressure switch.

General Comments:

My all time favorite highway cruiser. I'm 42 and get bored of cars after only a year of ownership. I've bought and sold 30 some cars in my adult life. My prior car was 94 Deville, and although it was a nice cruiser, the workmanship was poor. Cheap GM plastic everywhere.

I've had this LHS 2.5 years now, and will own it as long as I can get parts for it. I paid $1400 for it with the intentions of keeping is maybe 6 months, but ended up falling in love with it. It's nearly 23 years old, so it has some quirks... But knock on wood, has never left me stranded in 20k miles. That's not a lot of miles to judge a car by, but remember this car is 23 years old!

The interior is what I love about the car. Like driving a recliner down the road. Leather shows very little wear after 23 years. 10 speaker Infinity stereo sounds excellent, even compared to today's Mark Levinson systems in $100k cars.

Knocking 800 miles out at 80mph, is what Chrysler had in mind for this car. I've crisscrossed the western US without missing a beat.

I will more than likely find another LHS, but use it as a parts car. I almost forgot I just invest bought a brand new car, and the LHS still gets driven more. After driving the new car, the LHS feels like an armored car tank.

Faults:

OK, I just bought a 1994 Chrysler LHS with 102,000 miles on it, and did a lot of research before I purchased it, because it has the famous tranny problem.

Got it diagnosed, and found it is the solenoid (wow, what a surprise). The good thing is it is an annoying but cheap fix (roughly $500).

General Comments:

I purchased the car for $500, so for $1000, I am confident that I got a good deal, and let me explain why. RECALLS!!! Does anybody do research when they purchase cars anymore? Almost all the problems listed are recalls by Chrysler. So other than the solenoid, I have all the problems listed, and will only have to pay for the solenoid, because I took 30 minutes and did some research.

Faults:

Way too many things; more than any other car I've known:

Crankshaft balancer dented; replaced it with new, $200.

Crankshaft sensor must have had recurring problems, which caused the car to stop suddenly at any time on the middle of the road, without any reason. It was removed by the previous owner.

Air conditioning never worked; would have cost at least $250 to repair.

Fan (passenger area ventilation) was unstoppable; the climate control unit must have failed.

Power steering kept on losing oil all the time.

Various oil leaks around the engine and the transaxle.

Automatic transmission died -- typical FWD Chrysler problem. Cost me over $1500 to have it replaced. I should have sold the car to the very first junkyard at this moment, instead of repairing it!

Cruise control - vacuum pipes got loose, fixed quickly.

Fuses, relays, various electronic parts failing all the time.

Crankshaft bearings died -- typical 3.5L engine problem. At that point, I just had enough and traded the car straight away.

General Comments:

I bought my LHS because I had been dreaming about an American cruiser for years. However, this dream then turned into a NIGHTMARE. Here's the lesson I've learnt...

Soon after I bought it, it started to produce serious signs of problems. And as soon as I had one thing repaired, another part failed. No matter how carefully I drove, something always happened. And repairs on this car can get expensive very easily, simply because it's complicated.

Mechanically, this car WAS a pain. Almost every important part is undersized, or prone to errors / failures. The 3.5L engine is known to have constructional problems, even the later models, and parts are not cheap. Crankshaft, bearings, sealings, connecting rods, and of course the army of sensors -- just a few common and recurring problems.

The automatic transaxle is perhaps the WORST part. When it works, it works real fine, shifts smoothly. However it can cause a headache any time, being way too weak to move such a large car with such an engine. And of course it's front-wheel drive, so it's costly and time-consuming to remove the transaxle in case of repairs. Also it can have sudden electronic problems, which will prevent it from upshifting from 2nd gear ("limp-home mode"). No matter how carefully I test-drove the car (twice) before purchasing, the transmission broke into pieces when I tried to back up to a parking place, and had to be completely replaced. And even the replaced transmission switched into "limp-home mode" once or twice.

On the bright side: when the car worked, it was "cool". Traveling - and also driving - was a pleasure, it had enormous space for five adults. The leather seats were very comfortable, and surprisingly, didn't wear out even after 15 years. From the inside, the car was almost flawless. The trunk was also large and had a flat floor, which was very practical. Acceleration was decent with the V6, and it was reasonably quiet inside. It was also a safe car to be in: traction control and ABS were standard, just like the two airbags.

Bottom line: I was lucky to be able to trade this car, for about third the money I've put into it! I really wanted it to be a dream car, so drove and maintained it the best I could... And still, I was literally afraid of using the car lately, since I never knew what would go wrong after the next mile.

Beware of front-wheel drive Chryslers of the '90s. I think will never buy a Chrysler again.