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The Eagle Premier is a full-size luxury car that was developed by American Motors Corporation (AMC) during the 1980s through its partnership with Renault. Chrysler Corporation bought the rights to the Premier when it acquired Renault's outstanding shares in AMC in 1987, and began selling the car under the new Eagle marque. The four-door sedan was manufactured from September 1987 (for the 1988 model year) until December 1991 (for the 1992 model year). A rebadged variant was also marketed as the Dodge Monaco from 1990 to 1992. ==Design== In 1982 American Motors and Renault, a major shareholder in AMC since 1979, began work on a new full-size front-drive passenger car, code named X-58, for introduction in late-1986. A companion two-door coupe, code named X-59, was to debut for the 1988 model year. These two body styles were to be the first full-size cars sold by AMC since the 1978 Matador, a position in their model range traditionally occupied by the Nash and AMC Ambassador models since the 1930s, that positioned the automaker with a broader product offer in the marketplace.〔〔 Rather than engineer a completely new chassis for the Premier the then-new Renault 25's monocoque underpinnings were used as a basis and adapted for the new product. Using the Renault 25 chassis the suspension was derived from the Renault Medallion (Renault 21). The suspension featured a four-wheel independent system with MacPherson struts at the front wheels and two torsion bars at each rear wheel, with stabilizer bars in both front and rear. The exterior by Giorgietto Giugiaro's Italdesign was picked over other concepts generated by AMC's own styling department and other independent firms. The Premier's body's drag coefficient of 0.31 is slightly lower than the 1986 Ford Taurus that was well known for its aerodynamic shape. The Premier's body was finished using a baked enamel clearcoat for all the available colors. The body was covered by a 7-year, warranty. The car's trunk capacity was also large, offering of cargo space. The Eagle also featured new technology to improve luminous efficiency of its headlamp system, afford greater styling freedom, and having a rectangular frontal aspect. The 1988 Eagle Premier was one of the first cars featuring Valeo headlamps with nonparabolic, complex-surface reflector headlamps with optic lenses. Stretched in all dimensions, the Premier provided more interior room than any of its contemporaries. The interior was an all-new design by AMC's in-house staff under the direction of Richard A. Teague. It also included features that were considered unique at the time. The instrument panel featured "a heavy dose of electronics", with all driver controls housed within a fingertip distance from the steering wheel. It used an unusual dash mounted gear selector with a thin metal lever at the end of which was a grip handle; instead if the gear selector shifting downward in the traditional fashion, the lever dropped into the dash pod in which it was mounted. The climate controls used an unusual up-down button that cycled through the different heating modes, indicated by an array of lights. All of these controls were housed in a control panel on the right side of the steering column. On the left side of the column another control contained the light and windshield wiper controls. The turn signal control was also electronic returning to its centered position immediately after a driver signaled a turn, and a gong indicated its cancellation after completing a turn.〔 The optional cruise control was built into the leather-wrapped steering wheel. Other features included intermittent wipers, as well as automatic variable-speed that adjusted wiper speed to the amount of water that hit the windshield; with less moisture, the slower they would move, but increasing their action if a passing truck splashed the windshield with a large amount of water. Standard on all Premiers was an electronically tuned stereo sound system. There was a choice of two powertrains. Eschewing the Renault 25's French-built four-cylinder engines, the base Premier ''LX'' trim featured a standard 2.5 L AMC four-cylinder engine. Featuring electronically controlled throttle-body fuel injection, it developed a peak power output of and of torque at 1400 rpm. This engine was coupled to a new electronically controlled four-speed automatic gearbox, developed by ZF Friedrichshafen. Fuel economy for the base model was EPA estimated at in the city and on the highway, giving it a cruising range with the gas tank. Optional in the LX and standard in ''ES'' models was a 3.0 L version of the Peugeot-Renault-Volvo (PRV) V6 engine, fitted with multiple port fuel injection, producing peak power and torque figures of at 50000 rpm and at 35700 rpm. Fuel efficiency of the V6 was rated at for the city and on the highway. Factory acceleration estimates from standstill to 60 miles per hour (96 km/h) were 11.5 seconds with the four-cylinder, and 10 seconds with the six. The Premier's powertrains were covered by a 7-year, warranty, which was longer than offered by any of the competitors at the time. Developed by AMC, which was "the Big Three's little sister ... with almost no resources, and fighting a vastly superior enemy", Bob Lutz, then a Vice President at Chrysler, wrote that the Premier sedan as one of the "impressive succession of new products" that Chrysler gained from acquiring the small automaker. The Eagle Premier replaced the so-called "Liberty car" that Chrysler had been developing as the basis of its future cars for many years, but was experiencing problems with this major project. The Eagle Premier was was described as "a world class car" by automotive journalists, in addition to its international origins with an Italian design and Canadian assembly." "Considered by some the most sophisticated car in Chrysler's lineup", the Eagle Premier offers an "incredible 122 cubic feet of interior room; almost unheard of for a mid-sized passenger car" along with "European handling". The Premier was "final offspring of the AMC-Renault marriage" and the new car entered the marketplace "well endowed in just about every department. It has the most powerful conventional engines in its field, state-of-the-art electronics with a first-ever feature, and is made in the newest assembly plant in the world." 抄文引用元・出典: フリー百科事典『 ウィキペディア（Wikipedia）』 ■ウィキペディアで「Eagle Premier」の詳細全文を読む スポンサード リンク
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