My dad owned a 92 Plymouth Acclaim. I loved that car. (It was maroon like the one in your video) We got re-a-rended in a low speed accident, and pushed into the car in front of us. The persons car who hit us was a mess. the back of the person infront of us cars was damaged. Our Acclaim had a tail light cracked. THAT made me love that old acclaim. It had carbon problems, stalled out & died a lot near the end of its life. The steering wheel would shake... it was so old. But we had that car in the family from 94 to 06. I "bought" the car from my dad when he got a new car. Learned to drive in that car. It took me to my first job before the body rot was so bad that body filler couldn't help. We gave that car to a charity auction. Hell we named the car "Pete the Plymouth" I miss that old car... It was a tank.
As a kid growing up throughout the '90s I remember how cool the '94 Dodge Ram looked when it hit the streets along with the '97 Dakota. Every other pickup was still boxy till the late '90s and the Viper was unforgettably the coolest. Especially the striped GTS. Everything else from Dodge was just another car.
I remember when that truck came out I was in high school all the "cowboys" wanted the 3500 dually Cummins version and I remember thinking how much it looked like a big commercial type truck back then. Then they had the Dodge Stealth which was pretty rad in its own right even though it was a Mitsubishi 3000GT they did a good job hiding its roots and then the cool kid on the block was the viper, it was amazing and the V10 was just so cool. I think every guy that was into cars in that time frame wanted one. I would say the 1990s is when dodge started coming around to be the company they were going to be through today and now they are regressing back into the company like they were in the 1980s when I was a young kid where they did not have a single car that anyone lusted after just mundane k car junk or in today's case rebadged Italian cars.
The Differences between the Concorde, 300M and LHS were the length and who they were marketed to, the Concorde basically replaced the Newport as the entry level full size model with first gens having a length between 202.8 in for 92-94 and 201.5in for 94-97. Second gen had a length of 209.1in for 98-01. The 300M / Eagle vision were supposed to court the import buying crowd because of the sporter vehicle and it being exported to Europe, with a length of 197.8 in . And finally the LHS/ New Yorker being the top of the line flagship with all options as standard feature plus only being offered with 3.5v6 and the length of 207.4 for 94-97 and 207.7 in for 99-01
Yeah, the whole LH car naming thing was weird. In the early to mid ‘90’s, Chrysler had the Concorde and the LH body New Yorker. The New Yorker became the LHS in 1995 or ‘96. When the redesign came around in 1998, there was the Concorde, LHS and 300M. The Concorde and LHS were identical, except for trim packages and slight differences in the fascia. The 300M had the performance pieces and was shorter (mostly in the trunk area). Around 2000, the LHS was dropped completely and the Concorde was upgraded to fill the top tier.
Dodge's parent company Chrysler was owned by Mercedes in the early 2000s. Then Fiat bought Chrysler in the 2010s and now owned by Stellantis. The future of the Dodge brand is unknown and if they don't do well, Stellantis could cancel the Dodge brand
I agree with you. Just look at Dodge line up right now. The Durango is a good vehicle, but quite old and not competitive, the Charger and Challenger are dying this year and the new Hornet might get some consumers, it’s too little, too late. A new Charger EV is presumably coming, but when?
FIAT didn't buy Chrysler it was a merger. What happened was the US government gave the Italian automaker money to bail out Chrysler. But what no one talks about is that bail stopped FIAT from going belly up as well.
1997 "Merger of Equals" was a screw job to deny shareholders a buyout premium. Iacocca & Kerkorian got about half a billion dollars from Daimler in damages for that shady move.
I’m very sympathetic to Dodge. They’d pulled themselves out of late 1970s and early 1980s bankruptcy. They changed the automotive landscape with both the K cars and the minivan. They dealt with the aftermath of a lot of poor 1970s market projections and product miscues, and they kept fighting to climb out from the shadow (pardon the pun) of the economically salvational universe of K car possibilities and explicit derivatives. They redefined the truck market in the 1990s and made some really interesting products. Nothing but respect.
Yeah, it's such a shame that, when changing leadership, the new guys immediately decided "we need to find someone to merge with while we're on top". I'd love to see an alternate reality where Chrysler never partnered with Daimler.
Dodge was never in a bankruptcy.....not until all of Chrysler declared bankruptcy in 2010......Dodge wasn't ever a stand alone company on it's own after Chrysler Aquired them in the 1920's
@@hlavco Motor Trend's July 2023 edition "Back To The 90's" says it was a "hostile takeover" disguised as a merger. Chrysler was essentially "raped" of its cash and when Mercedes was done with them they threw Chrysler away like trash.🤥😵💫😢
@@hlavco Motor Trend says it was delivered to the public as a merger but it was actually a hostile takeover. Chrysler was flushed with cash and Mercedes sucked 'em dry like a beer can. And yes, Brad!! America LOVES a Comeback story and to root for The Little Guy. Chicago is within like 3 hours of the old Diamond Star Motors plant (now operated by Rivian Trucks); the Belvidere Plant, which Stellantis is trying to close; AND the old AMC/Renault plant in Kenosha, WIS. which unfortunately was demolished. I'm not a big fan of foreign cars but thanx to TH-cam I'm learning the Renaults and the rebadged Mitsu-Chryslers weren't too bad of cars.🧐🕵♂🕵♀
I got the chance to drive a 91 Spirit R/T about 12 years ago. Was amazing how quick that thing was for the time period and it looked about as rental car boring as you could get!
I owned 2 over the years, both were white 91’s. The lotus heads on those engines cracked constantly …. Initially, expensive the repair/ replace till eventually ….. there were no more no heads left. Only xxxxxx cars sold with that engine and 10 years later, no more new replacements left😢. So these are super rare to see as many were sold for scrap due to them not being fixable.
My mom had either a 93 or 95 Spirit and LOVED it. Had it until probably 2002 and I don't remember having a lot of trouble with it. Don't see many of them on the road anymore.
@@alanprather8399 Except you don't, you have to consider that 99% of them were already used to make a tin cans. Not to mention they outsold spirit by 3 times if not more.
My grandfather worked for Chrysler during the 80s and was retired in the 90s. However, we had his family discount. At least one person in my family owned one of the vehicles featured and mentioned here in at least one version at some time. The New Yorker and the Avenger are the only two that stand out as ones someone in my family didn't own. Spirit, Shadow, Charger, Intrepid (gen 1&2), Dodge Caravan, Eagle Premiere and Eagle Summit, Dodge Stratus and maybe something else.
I still own a 1990 Daytona ES V6 with the 5 speed. This was and is still my favorite 80s Chrysler but I really loved about all of them! I so wanted a turbo but at the time the V6 was what I came across. It was a hoot to drive with the 5 speed and remains to this day a fun car. I've owned it for 23 years, second owner, bought it in Fairbanks, Alaska when i lived there. It has 101K miles on it, 44K of those I drove, its been all over, up and down the Alaska highway a couple times, as far south as California and as far north as the Arctic Circle, a great car. The Chrysler turbos were good fun at a good price and had a bunch of variations over the years. I remember being in love with the mid 80s Dodge 600 turbo sedan...a car with a pillow seat interior in red velour your gram would love but powered by a punchy 2.2L turbo! How weird/ cool! All that said, I have owned a 1990 Plymouth Sundance RS (non turbo) new in 1990; a 1985 Chrysler Laser XE turbo that I bought cheap in 2003 with 165K miles on it. It didn't last that much longer but 165K miles on a Laser with all that electronic stuff is respectable.
No joke though, I saw a turbo Spirit run a sub-10 second quarter mile a few years ago. Looked 100% stock on the outside and had an exhaust cutout so it sounded stock until he opened it up.
The Shelby Daytona 2.2T and Spirit R/T were awesome sleepers. My grandma had a LeBaron that talked. "your door is ajar". I loved it as a kid. I think the Daytona got ugly with the facelift. They looked best with the pop up headlights.
I had a turbo Probe GT back in the days with a few things done including increased boost, I've raced a turbo Daytona with peeling paint thinking I'd smoke him...I got dusted..😅, he told me he upgraded his turbo also..
I recall a 90's article in the Chicago Tribunes' Transportation section about how car designers were heading toward making short skinny headlights. They just didn't look right on the Daytona, at all!!
Spirit R/T's & IROC Daytonas' not only had head gasket issues, but the heads themselves cracked. See coolant in the spark plug recess (very common)? Your head is screwed. Good luck with finding a replacement if it can't be patched. Most have been patched before and at a certain point become junk. That is why I have found a few either under a tarp or with transplants back to a SOHC or a 2.4 SRT.
@@paulthomson9014 I dunno about todays' cars, but back in the 80's, it was Very Easy to not completely close your door & not realizing it until you were on the highway hearing the vacuum. Hell, I did it a few times in high school. And whenever I dropped off my friends, they did it regularly!! And after I bought my new car, they'd slam the $#!+ outta my door!! PISSED me Off!!!!! And my mother still sometimes doesn't close the rear hatch door in her Honda all the way. Thank GOD for an open door display in her cluster. So to answer your question, Yes. Didn't you see "The Hitcher" 1986??? That 'Door Ajar' alert on the dash saved C. Thomas Howell's Life!! Haha!!!😎
I had a friend in school when the Dodge Avenger was around in the late 90s. I remember always loving the car and thinking they were better than the Chevy’s my mom always had when I was growing up.
1980s Daytona was a sharp looking car. Even for me.. that only loves European cars. That IROC did 150mph. My girlfriend had a Spirit LE, While I was driving a 1988 Alfa Spider Veloce, her car was faster, but driving in a beautiful convertible, a Boring sedan was.. well economical. Being in college. We had a great time! Great video!
I drove the Dynasty, Stratus, Intrepid, and 300M at various times in the 90's. They were all actually pretty good driving. The 300M was easily the most appealing for long drives at highway speed. I always thought the Avenger was actually pretty cool looking. Like a mini Charger. It would be a good sleeper I think with some upgrades and tuning.
I had an 89 Sprit ES White, great car but the v6 from mitsubishi had head gasket issues and the "ultra drive" 4spd overdrive auto trans had its issues as well.
In a decade that generally stunk stylistically and had a lot of cars that looked a lot cheaper than they were, Dodge really wasn't very bad. It did have some nice-looking cars - sort of plasticky, but not too bad. I think Dodge styling was probably in the upper third of cars being sold. Don't know about reliability and repairs, though.
They were as reliable as any other brands. Nothing was really good then. Sure from the viper. They had some very quick four bangers. Styling was a love hate. I like almost all of the models. They really got daring and were putting show cars into production, and buying Lamborghini. They made a big mistake destroying all of their rear drive platform car building equipment. It took the merger with Mercedes to get back into rear drive cars. They got screwed in the process. Iacocca saved them in the 80's, but stretched them too thin in the 90's. This video points out some good things, but is filled with errors. Not enough time to say more...
@@efrazier0217stuff was amazing in terms of reliability back then. Ford had their 300, 302, 351, and 460 AND THE AMAZING IDI DIESELS + 7.3 PSD... Chevy had the 350s, 4.3s, and 454s... Toyota had the 22re, Honda was Honda... C'mon!
When the mid 90s hit and Chrysler walked away from the versions of the reliable K car platform things went downhill on reliability except the trucks. If you kept up with the proper maintenance they were ultra reliable. I've had a few Mopars from that era and still have a couple to this day. I've got a Shelby Z and 2 Dakotas one with a 3.9 V6 and the other with a 5.9 V8. The Shelby has 150k miles, the V6 Dakota has 330k miles and the Dakota RT has 200k miles. I love Mopars because I also have a rebuilt 79 RAM built for hauling heavy equipment. Then I have a 67 belvedere wagon with a tuned 440 with a pistol grip 4 speed making 1100 bhp
@@bldontmatter5319 if people ever bothered doing the proper maintenance on their vehicles then the dodges were amazing. I've still got my Shelby Z. Plus 2 Dakotas both with over 200k miles and still going strong. But yet to have a GM or Ford go past 150k before the motor grenades
Chrysler's models were price based Concorde -Low price volume model LHS - Mid price luxury model 300M - High end sport/luxury model Before the 300M, the New Yorker was the mid price model and LHS was the high end model
You forgot Eagle Vision between 93 and 98, which was inbetween LHS and Concorde, and you also forgot the New Yorker version of the LHS which was also between the LHS and Concorde in pricing. 300M didn't come out until 1999
Taurus sho, say it like show. I have a 2018 sho and it’s become my favorite car. Room for the kids and the power is great. Looking into an explorer st probably in January-February.
In 95 I needed to get a new car . My parents sent me to see one of their friends at the Toyota dealership . He was trying to get me to buy a bright purple Eagle summit . He kept going on about how great it was , I think they just couldn’t sell it . Thank god I drove away in a 91 Toyota Celica Gt .
They were OK cars for the era. Nothing earth shattering but they were affordable, roomy and got reasonable economy. The company was basically in survival mode and had to get as many models as could be built on one platform out to the public. The trucks were OK. Sturdy and basic with decades of engineering behind them (bullet proof 318's and 360's along with the Cummins diesel.
A friend of mine had a Shelby Daytona in the 90's and it was pretty quick. My other friend had a Plymouth Sundance 2.2 with turbo, and it was quick too but did not handle nearly as good as the Daytona.
Dodges in the 90s were good but nothing tops the lugshurry of passing the grey pupon in a early 80s landow roofed Crysler LaBarron. Plus with a 90hp four banger doing 0-60 in just over 100 seconds its also a sleeper.
It's a shame Chrysler didn't follow through with the Intrepid and it's sister cars. They truly had sharp body designs but it all went south just before the Mercedes partnership and after that it was done.
Actually they did, it's called Charger. The '06 Charger was supposed to be out in '03 and called Intrepid before the merger, they added DCX parts and structure to the LX cars before the release. The Stillborn '07 Imperial was really to replace the New Yorker/LHS also but they stuck with the 300 as the only full-size car.
It was not a "Partnership." It was a veiled takeover that saw Chrysler become a subsidiary of a German company. That's why Daimler had to pay about $500M to Iacocca & Kerkorian (Cerebus) for their slimy trick that they & the then "Heroes of Chrysler" pulled on the shareholders. Chrysler/Mopar has been a foreign company really since '97
@@ljmorris6496 I saw the 2006 Imperial concept at The Chicago Auto Show. Chrysler cancelled the program because they just couldn't get the fuel economy up to where they wanted it.
This episode hit home for me!!! I wanted a Daytona badly back then but wasn’t impressed by the little power it offered! I owned a 94 Intrepid. In my opinion they were better than the 2nd gen models. The second gen had engine issues. Only problem i had was a bolt broke off in my transmission and I had to get it fixed. Aside from that it ran fine up until I got a new car in 07! I’m looking forward to seeing your nxt video!😎👍🏽👍🏽
I enjoy your content and recall many of these cars as I owned a few, including two Colts, which you failed to mention. No one does, and it seems to be completely forgotten as well as ignored although marketed for almost 25 years, and the 89 GT Turbo version won Car and Drivers ten-best for that year. They were solid cars that got me through college and grad school. I wished they would get some recognition.
My girlfriend in high school had an rt intrepid and I had an all black lhs and both cars were really quick and floaty but mine was plagued with electrical issues where the wipers would come on and trunk would pop while car was off and parked I was able to trade it in for a Dodge Dakota rt and never looked back but I miss this era of cars for sure
my brother had a nice non-sporty Dodge Spirit in the early 90's and it was very comfy and i remember always enjoying riding in it. had multiple long trips with my broth in it. it was sort of a bluish purple with grey interior. then later as a teenager i had a 94 plymouth sundance. lasted me through a trip around the us at 18 before it just wouldn't crank anymore.
I had a first gen Avenger new off the lot in that same purple-gray paint. I loved it. My dad worked at the dealership and said they had to move it into the service garage at night before I took delivery because people kept pawing over it.
Yeah I don't know why it was ranked so low here, it was a great car for the time. I wanted one when I graduated college but I got a Dodge Dakota in 95 instead, I think it had the same oil sludge issue in its v6 as the 2.7L Intrepid.
My mom had a Dodge spirit when I a kid and i had a 1998 Dodge Avenger ES in high school. Freakin loved that Avenger and to this day i still love the style of it.
My second car was a '00 Intrepid w/ the dreaded 2.7 lol Put duals on it & had a nice sound system. It started overheating and i had to part with it. If i had the mechanical experience i have now, i wouldve kept it & swapped in the 3.2 or 3.5. Loved that car
My boss had one of those as a work car (there were many in the fleet.)Sitting in the back seat in the FL sun I nearly cooked. That greenhouse back window was larger than the roof.
The 2.7 had a major flaw, it required high grade synthetic oil. Had a mechanic buddy who worked on enough of them that he found the same flaw. He got a used intrepid with a blowed 2.7 for dirt cheap. He rebuilt the car and ran synthetic oil from the beginning. He had that car till he traded it in for a new car in 2017
I owned a 91 Spirit. It was red with a red interior. It had the 2.5 liter engine. It was slow, but was otherwise a good car. My parents had a 92 Dynasty in black cherry with the 3 liter 6. The Dynasty was a comfortable riding car.The only problem was needing the transmission replaced at 45,000 miles. The thing I remember most about it was that it had a good sounding radio.
The main problem with the dynasty was the electronic valve body in the transmission. We had one and the transmission was always acting up and blowing fuses. The mechanic we went to put in the transmission with the upgraded valve body from the minivan and we never had another problem with the transmission until the 3.3 grenaded at 175k miles when the cam snapped and it wasn't worth a new engine
I owned a '91 Dodge Spirit. It was old (198,638 miles when I bought it) and was a 2.5 "4". It was NOTHING compared to 60s-73 MoPars, but ALWAYS "did the job"! This made it PRETTY DAMNED GOOD in my "book"!
What people didn't realize that all the performance parts for the 2.2 would fit on the 2.5 since they share heads, intake, exhaust it's just the 2.5 is a slightly taller block. I modified a 2.5 for my friends shadow making it a badass little car. I had a Shelby Z that I put a modified 2.2 turbo class 4 in. We Dyno'd it at 400 bhp at the front wheels. It was a Ferrari killer
I WISH my ;91 Dodge Spirit (2.5) WOULD HAVE HAD ANY "SPIRIT"! It ALWAYS carted my ass, but I NEVER could enter ANY freeway traffic with this poor old SLUG of a car! The V-6 wasn't better, either!@@hellhound1389
I bought a '97 Concorde after driving my dad's Intrepid ES and loving it, and honestly, it was a very good car for me. Lots of room, super comfortable, remarkably competent in the snow, and the 3.5 V6 had great low end torque for the time. Bought it off lease and drove it for a decade with no serious issues until the very end. Traded it in on a Charger R/T - not so lucky on that one.
I had a 95 Sebring coupe. V6 auto. The auto let it down a little, caravan transmission. Had a transmission dude rebuild it like he did for caravans that would tow a camper, couldn’t hurt it after that. That was a great highway car. Variable steering rack. It was an eclipse with head room!
I'm kind of nostalgic for "The New Dodge" (mid 90s to about 2001), as well as the tail end of the DaimlerChrysler era in the late 2000s. That Plymouth Reliant at 0:45 was the first car I actually remember my dad driving when I was little, but I think the story goes that he was still driving his Dodge Ram the day he took my mom to the hospital to have me delivered. Then he obviously had to switch to something with rear seats.
I had a fetish for those K cars, I must have owned close to 20 of them. I would always inter- change the parts on them, and I never had a major problem with any of them, except for my inability to understand when a car needs an oil change and a tuneup.
Funny our 1999 Dodge Dakota Sport went over 350,000 miles with the same motor and transmission. It was used and abused daily. We had a family run Farm Supply and Hardware store. Usually hauled 3/4 of ton or more roughly 6-8 times a day. I like to see the new ones hold up to that kind of abuse
I've got a 99 Dakota with the 3.9 V6 that has 330k miles and a 00 Dakota RT with the 5.9 that has 200k miles. Both are still on the same engines and transmissions . Yet to see a Ford do that
They made three different CSX's over the course of 3 years and they were all cool. You showed the Red but there was also a white with grey two tone and black with grey two tone.
I started my career as an auto technician at a Chrysler/Plymouth/Toyota dealership in 1991. The quality of the Chrysler vehicles was terrible back then. They are still the worst of the three domestics imo. I fix other peoples broken vehicles for a living. Chrysler products are a gold mine for me! The 3.6 liter V6 they use in almost everything is a good boat anchor after 100k. Timing issues, lifter failures, oil cooler leaks, and electrical gremlins are the norm. I drive Toyotas for a reason.
Chryslers are hit or miss. In the 80's/90's they had emerging technology coming out, and had to work the bugs out. Plus people always trashed American cars. Geo's always had more problems than Toyota, even though they come out of the same assembly line. And personally, I stopped working on Japanese cars a long time ago. I got so sick and tired of hearing " how can this car have so many problems, it's Japanese!?"
You can say Dodge aucked. But i remember my friends parents bought a new Dynasty and man was that a nice car at the time. He used to get to drive it on the weekend. I always liked it.
Was definitely a dark time for Dodge . These days the Challenger & Charger are gorgeous , muscular looking & muscular driving & well built beasts . Back then , all the Chrysler group cars had that cab forward jellybean look of the Ford Taurus , & were built dreadfully plasticky cheap & were super unreliable (the ubiquitous V6 used throughout their range was renown for blowing head gaskets)
@@OsbornTramain The Viper had the same interior as the Dodge Neon 🤮 . V10s were maybe 1% of Chrysler group’s sales . Everything else sold was what I described above
My Dad had a 98 Intrepid and I had a '01 Intrepid ES.. both suffered catastrophic engine failure on the 2.7L V6. I LOVED driving those things, comfy, powerful and surprisingly nimble for a big car, but dear god they were unreliable lemons. I had two of them, a 94 base model (from 98-2005) and the above mentioned 01 (from 2005-11), as problematic as they were, I miss both.
back in 2002 I bought a 1991 New Yorker with 90,000 miles on it for $1000 and it was such an amazing car, I had it for almost 3 years before I wrecked it (I had a reckless youth) and it never once left me on the side of the road. It was the most luxurious model available for the model, double padded leather seats, digital dash, sun roof, heated seats with memory position, Infinity stereo tons of room in it too. God I miss that car!!!
My Dad also had a 92 Plymouth Acclaim with the 3.0L V6 from Mitsubishi - which would become my brothers first car. Got so many speeding tickets with it he lost his license for a few months. Eventually when he moved away for school the car got stolen, he got it back but it had been taken for a joyride, driven over concrete steps, whole underside was damaged, ended up selling it to his ExGF for 500$. Had that car from 93-2000.
Love your videos. So much nostalgia and love for mid cars of my youth. I'm a 90s car trivia nerd. I used to read the auto trader like kids red comics when i was young. Made a website on geocities about ford probe GT. First car was a 91 Tbird lx , second a 95 monte carlo Z 34 and third was a 91 integra. Keep these videos coming.
Concorde was originally the upscale Chrysler counterpart to the Intrepid and Eagle Vision. LHS was a 5 seater version of the LH based 6 seater New Yorker but eventually they dropped the New Yorker from the lineup (ending what was at the time the longest running nameplate in auto history). 300M was introduced in 99 as a more European-styled Performance Luxury model replacing the Eagle Vision, while LHS was much softer and floatier like a traditional American luxury car. Eventually LHS was merged with the Concorde as it's top level "Limited" trim. I've driven both the 2nd Gen Intrepid and Concorde, the Intrepid was a much tighter stiffer car you could throw around corners quite well and was decent performance-wise, Concorde drove like a very comfortable couch, very floaty and soft suspension and ride. I also had a 1st Gen Intrepid and while it was fun, the handling on 2nd Gen was a big upgrade.
As an owner of many extended K (EEK) cars. They had a great advantage for someone like me that would get parts from the pull-a-part salvage yards as most all the (Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth) cars had interchangeable parts. BTW the Dodge Spirit RT was available from 1989-1995
Way back my Jeep got totaled and the settlement was enough to buy a ... used Dodge Spirit. I'd never owned a four door, or a car with a trunk. Velour seats, of course. Ya know what? I really liked it. Comfortable ride (once I replaced the non-working shocks it came with), adequate acceleration, fine brakes (that saved my bacon a few times), room for EVERYTHING. A surprisingly, and unexpectedly, nice car.
In 84 my folks ordered a new chrysler, a stretched k car called the E Class. I talked them into selecting the voice alerr option which was 66 dollars. It was a cool feature. At first it had 11 alerts, and around 86 or 87 the number of alerts was 24.
I had a Dodge Dynasty as a fleet car. It was reliable and had a roomy trunk. I miss that car it never failed to work & and you were never fatigued at the end of the day. Wish a new varent was hear.
Charger and 300 is the variant,those are reliable and get better gas mileage...The 3.6 can get 35 mpg hwy...I got 33mpg with the 5.7 hemi cruising 60 mph..
There were a few shinning lights in the 90s for Dodge. I had a Shelby Z that we put a modified 2.2 turbo class 4 and 5 speed. That thing was a monster. It was Dyno'd at around 400 bhp at the front wheels. It was a Ferrari killer
I own an intrepid with a 2.7 and is my daily driver I just stay in top of the oil change and use only synthetic oil recently I did check the engine inside and is incredibly clean
Congratulations finally someone that does the proper maintenance. My mechanic friend always said the problem with the 2.7 is cheapskates not using synthetic oil
The last Dodge that I will ever spend my money on was a 1990 Dodge Dynasty. It went back to the dealer 3 times for transmission problems. The dealer supposedly replaced it under warranty. Thankfully, I soon traded in for a Subaru.
You mentioned the 90s Avenger being odd it shared drivetrains with the Eclipses and its clones. The Avenger mechanically was pretty much a Eclispe. It even used the same doors ( always thought they looked a little short on the Avenger because of this). Great channel BTW!
Earliest version Diamond Star models were "H' platform for Mitsubishi Eclipse, Plymouth laser, Eagle Talon from 1989 (1990 model) to 1994. Diamonstar plant built 4 door Mitsubishi Mirage for a couple years on the 'C41' platform. It was a tin can and a major PIA to build. In the mid 90's, all models were on the 'F' platform. Eclipse was F24 and F28 (convertible); Avenger and Chrysler Sebring 2 door was FJ22 and Gallant was F41. 1999-2000 brought the 'ST' platform. F platform engines for the Chrylser/Dodge badged models was the Mexican built MOPAR 2 liter (junk) and the V6's were Mitsubishi. Eclipse 4 cylinder engines could be either MOPAR or Mitsubishi (turbo) and could be had with V6.
The Monaco and the others on that platform seem to be modeled from the Audi 5000. Then, with the "cab forward" cars, they most definitely did copy Audi with the longitudinally mounted FWD based platform. Those cars, most Audis and most Subarus, use that same long mounted FWD based setup. Those are weird since the engine is in front of the front hub, just look under the hood at where the strut towers are mounted in relation to the motor. Nose heavy and a lot of understeer, though Subaru is the better setup.
Currently I own a 1996 Dodge Stratus, 4-door, 2.4 with automatic, that has just over 106,160 original miles. The interior is almost like new (the driver's seat and floor show some wear). The single lady before us as well as my late wife and I didn't put many miles on it. I see no reason to get rid of it. It's low maintenance, decent mileage and has plenty of 'zip' for me. I had a 1985 Lebaron with a 2.2. Slightly underpowered for a sedan. But I got it cheap. I've liked the look of Lebaron and Dodge 600 convertibles from the mid 1980s. I thought the somewhat boxy style worked nicely for convertibles.
I've only ridden in a few Dodge vehicles. The Intrepid had a smooth ride as did the Neon but that's about it. I wouldn't mind having a cab forward car as a beater.
I bought a new base model Pontiac Fiero with alloy wheels and a rear rack in 1986, and drove it most of the way through the 90s. I seriously considered the Daytona, but at the time didn't need a back seat, and couldn't deal with the front wheel drive. The second generation Intrepid was a great looking car, ruined by front wheel drive.
In 1984, I took my Chevy truck drag racing. The engine started knocking, so I parked it. My brother was there with a 84 Plymouth Breeze rental. I borrowed it and won Street ET.
I thought the 1991/92 Pontiac Grand Am GT and 1991 Dodge Spirit ES (and the R/T of cos) were cool cars but the consumers never gave them a chance to shine. My friend had a 91 white Dodge Spirit ES with a Mitsubishi V6. That white was white as paper and it was so distinctive and stood out from the crowd. The car wasn't quick off the line due to its weight. It slightly slower than my Acura Integra RS (4 door) but it drove like a dream because of the V6 - I can never say the same for the Integra because it felt light and weak once the pedal was stepped on.
It was hard to tell where Dodge fit in the Mopar lineup in the 60s-90s. Sometimes it seemed like the value/family vehicle (plus trucks) brand, but other times that was Plymouth’s role-which was confusing since Plymouths were sold by Chrysler dealers, who sometimes also sold the Imperial marque (through the 1975 MY) and after Imperial was gone, did offer Chrysler’s flagship(s). Dodge also seemed to play the performance role with Chargers, Challengers and high-HP Darts, but other times it seemed that Plymouth was Chrysler’s performance brand. I had a ‘93 Shadow. My only complaint was a persistent rattle in the rear shelf between the back seat the rear window. The easiest solution would have been to take the shelf out, since it was removable.
In the mid 90's you could scoop these things up for 300-500 all day. Ive owned 2 Lebarons, dynasty, acclaim and numerous Aries vehicles. The NA 2.2/2.5 I4's were the worst vehicles I've ever owned in my life. I don't think I owned a single one that didn't experience some for head/gasket failure. I've owned a 77 Aspen with a 225/6 and a 93 Lebaron landau with a 3.3 v6 and those are both cars I loved and regret selling/trading. My mother had a LHS. Cant speak mechanically on it but it floated like a yacht and had some surprising acceleration for a car of its size.
The K-cars are super underrated imo, like the turbo ones were some of the most powerful FWD machines from that time, and they had excellent suspension geometry for limiting torque steer. Truly ahead of their time, but their core audience of muscle car boomers hated it, so everyone thinks these cars suck, when they were actually WAY ahead of their time. Only in recent years have automakers been cramming turbos in everything, but Chrysler has been doing it since the '80s.
a funny fact here in argentina on the 90s the federal police (policia federal) bought several dodge spirit and convert them to patrol cars marked and unmarked. nowdays is really hard to find one in good shape. weird enough some dodge shadows sedans also entered the country, also really hard to find one in good shape.
The Dodge shadow came in different engine trims with a naturally aspirated 2.2L, the 2.2L turbo, the 2.5L naturally aspirated (which mine has), the 2.5L turbo and a 3.0L V6 in 1994
I had two Daytonas in my early car days. Besides the fact they weren't very reliable for me, I do have fond memories of the cars. I do remember my '91 ES and I think it was probably the 3rd coolest looking car in the high school parking lot, albeit nowhere near fast with it's 100hp 2.5L.
as a broke person that got his license in 2001, most of my cars were the K-Car variants, drove my moms 88 new yorker, then had a 91 spirit, then an 89 spirit, then a 90 dynasty, then an 85 lebaron, then 92 spirit, then an 89 acclaim, and a 92 acclaim, (almost all cars were near end of life, but most still ran and drove before i got rid of them, headgasket, thrown rod, blown a604, blown gasket and warped head, car accident, caught fire daily (had to throw snow balls at engine after stopping), and blown motor after sending through a flooded highway onramp most of my issues were self induced, and if i drove most of them like i do today they would have probably lasted longer, loved how easy they were to work on. - basically cheap, reliable, comfortable, and safe transportation. then i got stuck driving a lot of fords and chevys just due to price and avalaibility, those were always a having issues or was a complete pain to work on. Although now i drive a 2013 honda and i love it as its still all those things, easy to work on, cheap and reliable.
My dad owned a 92 Plymouth Acclaim. I loved that car. (It was maroon like the one in your video) We got re-a-rended in a low speed accident, and pushed into the car in front of us. The persons car who hit us was a mess. the back of the person infront of us cars was damaged. Our Acclaim had a tail light cracked. THAT made me love that old acclaim. It had carbon problems, stalled out & died a lot near the end of its life. The steering wheel would shake... it was so old. But we had that car in the family from 94 to 06.
I "bought" the car from my dad when he got a new car. Learned to drive in that car. It took me to my first job before the body rot was so bad that body filler couldn't help. We gave that car to a charity auction. Hell we named the car "Pete the Plymouth" I miss that old car... It was a tank.
Dodge was dope in the 90's
As a kid growing up throughout the '90s I remember how cool the '94 Dodge Ram looked when it hit the streets along with the '97 Dakota. Every other pickup was still boxy till the late '90s and the Viper was unforgettably the coolest. Especially the striped GTS. Everything else from Dodge was just another car.
I remember when that truck came out I was in high school all the "cowboys" wanted the 3500 dually Cummins version and I remember thinking how much it looked like a big commercial type truck back then.
Then they had the Dodge Stealth which was pretty rad in its own right even though it was a Mitsubishi 3000GT they did a good job hiding its roots and then the cool kid on the block was the viper, it was amazing and the V10 was just so cool. I think every guy that was into cars in that time frame wanted one. I would say the 1990s is when dodge started coming around to be the company they were going to be through today and now they are regressing back into the company like they were in the 1980s when I was a young kid where they did not have a single car that anyone lusted after just mundane k car junk or in today's case rebadged Italian cars.
Well the Stealth (3000GT) didn't look that bad just wasn't as good as the viper
Stratus, Avenger, etc. All painfully boring cars
Yeah and then some kids got hit in the head, so they grew up and bought them
Yep, my Dad bought a 98 Ram sport when it came out. Such a good looking truck with that front end.
The Differences between the Concorde, 300M and LHS were the length and who they were marketed to, the Concorde basically replaced the Newport as the entry level full size model with first gens having a length between 202.8 in for 92-94 and 201.5in for 94-97. Second gen had a length of 209.1in for 98-01. The 300M / Eagle vision were supposed to court the import buying crowd because of the sporter vehicle and it being exported to Europe, with a length of 197.8 in . And finally the LHS/ New Yorker being the top of the line flagship with all options as standard feature plus only being offered with 3.5v6 and the length of 207.4 for 94-97 and 207.7 in for 99-01
Thank you for this!
Yeah, the whole LH car naming thing was weird. In the early to mid ‘90’s, Chrysler had the Concorde and the LH body New Yorker. The New Yorker became the LHS in 1995 or ‘96. When the redesign came around in 1998, there was the Concorde, LHS and 300M. The Concorde and LHS were identical, except for trim packages and slight differences in the fascia. The 300M had the performance pieces and was shorter (mostly in the trunk area). Around 2000, the LHS was dropped completely and the Concorde was upgraded to fill the top tier.
300M didn't get introduced until 1999, it was the planned Eagle Vision and rebadged at the last second as a Chrysler rather than an Eagle.
Dodge's parent company Chrysler was owned by Mercedes in the early 2000s. Then Fiat bought Chrysler in the 2010s and now owned by Stellantis. The future of the Dodge brand is unknown and if they don't do well, Stellantis could cancel the Dodge brand
I agree with you. Just look at Dodge line up right now. The Durango is a good vehicle, but quite old and not competitive, the Charger and Challenger are dying this year and the new Hornet might get some consumers, it’s too little, too late. A new Charger EV is presumably coming, but when?
FIAT didn't buy Chrysler it was a merger. What happened was the US government gave the Italian automaker money to bail out Chrysler. But what no one talks about is that bail stopped FIAT from going belly up as well.
1997 "Merger of Equals" was a screw job to deny shareholders a buyout premium. Iacocca & Kerkorian got about half a billion dollars from Daimler in damages for that shady move.
fwd garbage
Now Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep is no longer American made its Italian made cause its owned by an Italian car manufacturer.
I’m very sympathetic to Dodge. They’d pulled themselves out of late 1970s and early 1980s bankruptcy. They changed the automotive landscape with both the K cars and the minivan. They dealt with the aftermath of a lot of poor 1970s market projections and product miscues, and they kept fighting to climb out from the shadow (pardon the pun) of the economically salvational universe of K car possibilities and explicit derivatives. They redefined the truck market in the 1990s and made some really interesting products. Nothing but respect.
Yeah, it's such a shame that, when changing leadership, the new guys immediately decided "we need to find someone to merge with while we're on top". I'd love to see an alternate reality where Chrysler never partnered with Daimler.
Dodge was never in a bankruptcy.....not until all of Chrysler declared bankruptcy in 2010......Dodge wasn't ever a stand alone company on it's own after Chrysler Aquired them in the 1920's
@@hlavcothey were never in top....
@@hlavco Motor Trend's July 2023 edition "Back To The 90's" says it was a "hostile takeover" disguised as a merger. Chrysler was essentially "raped" of its cash and when Mercedes was done with them they threw Chrysler away like trash.🤥😵💫😢
@@hlavco Motor Trend says it was delivered to the public as a merger but it was actually a hostile takeover. Chrysler was flushed with cash and Mercedes sucked 'em dry like a beer can. And yes, Brad!! America LOVES a Comeback story and to root for The Little Guy. Chicago is within like 3 hours of the old Diamond Star Motors plant (now operated by Rivian Trucks); the Belvidere Plant, which Stellantis is trying to close; AND the old AMC/Renault plant in Kenosha, WIS. which unfortunately was demolished. I'm not a big fan of foreign cars but thanx to TH-cam I'm learning the Renaults and the rebadged Mitsu-Chryslers weren't too bad of cars.🧐🕵♂🕵♀
I got the chance to drive a 91 Spirit R/T about 12 years ago. Was amazing how quick that thing was for the time period and it looked about as rental car boring as you could get!
Yes super powerful but boring looking, my mom had one, very quick car. It could slam you backwards into your seat easily.
I owned 2 over the years, both were white 91’s. The lotus heads on those engines cracked constantly …. Initially, expensive the repair/ replace till eventually ….. there were no more no heads left. Only xxxxxx cars sold with that engine and 10 years later, no more new replacements left😢. So these are super rare to see as many were sold for scrap due to them not being fixable.
I drove the Plymouth Acclaim many times back then. It had a good solid ride and it was comfortable. I also liked the looks of it.
I love the Speak and Spell “Your keys are in the ignition K E Y spells key.”
Love the 80s motion graphics background
Dodge Dynasty LE, - Linda Evans Edition
My mom had either a 93 or 95 Spirit and LOVED it. Had it until probably 2002 and I don't remember having a lot of trouble with it. Don't see many of them on the road anymore.
yet you see plenty of hondas and toyotas of that vintage, also ford fing rangers (Mazda design).
@@alanprather8399 Except you don't, you have to consider that 99% of them were already used to make a tin cans. Not to mention they outsold spirit by 3 times if not more.
The Dodge Stealth alone is reason enough that Dodge DID NOT suck in the 90s
My grandfather worked for Chrysler during the 80s and was retired in the 90s. However, we had his family discount. At least one person in my family owned one of the vehicles featured and mentioned here in at least one version at some time. The New Yorker and the Avenger are the only two that stand out as ones someone in my family didn't own. Spirit, Shadow, Charger, Intrepid (gen 1&2), Dodge Caravan, Eagle Premiere and Eagle Summit, Dodge Stratus and maybe something else.
Thanks for sharing that man😁
I still own a 1990 Daytona ES V6 with the 5 speed. This was and is still my favorite 80s Chrysler but I really loved about all of them! I so wanted a turbo but at the time the V6 was what I came across. It was a hoot to drive with the 5 speed and remains to this day a fun car. I've owned it for 23 years, second owner, bought it in Fairbanks, Alaska when i lived there. It has 101K miles on it, 44K of those I drove, its been all over, up and down the Alaska highway a couple times, as far south as California and as far north as the Arctic Circle, a great car. The Chrysler turbos were good fun at a good price and had a bunch of variations over the years. I remember being in love with the mid 80s Dodge 600 turbo sedan...a car with a pillow seat interior in red velour your gram would love but powered by a punchy 2.2L turbo! How weird/ cool! All that said, I have owned a 1990 Plymouth Sundance RS (non turbo) new in 1990; a 1985 Chrysler Laser XE turbo that I bought cheap in 2003 with 165K miles on it. It didn't last that much longer but 165K miles on a Laser with all that electronic stuff is respectable.
Holy shi- man thank you for sharing this. I enjoyed the read
Id rather that , than one of the faceless challenger/ chargers of today.
No joke though, I saw a turbo Spirit run a sub-10 second quarter mile a few years ago. Looked 100% stock on the outside and had an exhaust cutout so it sounded stock until he opened it up.
The Shelby Daytona 2.2T and Spirit R/T were awesome sleepers. My grandma had a LeBaron that talked. "your door is ajar". I loved it as a kid. I think the Daytona got ugly with the facelift. They looked best with the pop up headlights.
I had a turbo Probe GT back in the days with a few things done including increased boost, I've raced a turbo Daytona with peeling paint thinking I'd smoke him...I got dusted..😅, he told me he upgraded his turbo also..
I recall a 90's article in the Chicago Tribunes' Transportation section about how car designers were heading toward making short skinny headlights. They just didn't look right on the Daytona, at all!!
Spirit R/T's & IROC Daytonas' not only had head gasket issues, but the heads themselves cracked. See coolant in the spark plug recess (very common)? Your head is screwed. Good luck with finding a replacement if it can't be patched. Most have been patched before and at a certain point become junk. That is why I have found a few either under a tarp or with transplants back to a SOHC or a 2.4 SRT.
Do you really need a computer voice to tell you that your door is ajar? Surely the big hole in the side of your car would give you a clue ?
@@paulthomson9014 I dunno about todays' cars, but back in the 80's, it was Very Easy to not completely close your door & not realizing it until you were on the highway hearing the vacuum. Hell, I did it a few times in high school. And whenever I dropped off my friends, they did it regularly!! And after I bought my new car, they'd slam the $#!+ outta my door!! PISSED me Off!!!!! And my mother still sometimes doesn't close the rear hatch door in her Honda all the way. Thank GOD for an open door display in her cluster. So to answer your question, Yes. Didn't you see "The Hitcher" 1986??? That 'Door Ajar' alert on the dash saved C. Thomas Howell's Life!! Haha!!!😎
Tom Bosley…..AKA Mr. Cunningham on Happy Days….voiceover for the Dodge Monaco commercial!
Do a video on the 4 door 1977-79 Mercury Cougar and LTD2 models.
My dad got a spirit es turbo in teal. It was awesome. He only had it for 1 year. From what I've learned of it that was a good thing!
LOL!! I Hope it was a GREAT YEAR!!!!!😁😎😎
I had a friend in school when the Dodge Avenger was around in the late 90s. I remember always loving the car and thinking they were better than the Chevy’s my mom always had when I was growing up.
1980s Daytona was a sharp looking car. Even for me.. that only loves European cars. That IROC did 150mph. My girlfriend had a Spirit LE, While I was driving a 1988 Alfa Spider Veloce, her car was faster, but driving in a beautiful convertible, a Boring sedan was.. well economical. Being in college. We had a great time! Great video!
I appreciate this comment and thank you man!
The Shadow Shelby was a beast of a little car
My mom absolutely loved her dodge spirit. I was too young to remember if they were decent cars but for the time they were at least good looking
I drove the Dynasty, Stratus, Intrepid, and 300M at various times in the 90's. They were all actually pretty good driving. The 300M was easily the most appealing for long drives at highway speed.
I always thought the Avenger was actually pretty cool looking. Like a mini Charger. It would be a good sleeper I think with some upgrades and tuning.
I had an 89 Sprit ES White, great car but the v6 from mitsubishi had head gasket issues and the "ultra drive" 4spd overdrive auto trans had its issues as well.
I loved riding in my uncle's Eagle Premiere
In a decade that generally stunk stylistically and had a lot of cars that looked a lot cheaper than they were, Dodge really wasn't very bad. It did have some nice-looking cars - sort of plasticky, but not too bad. I think Dodge styling was probably in the upper third of cars being sold. Don't know about reliability and repairs, though.
Chrysler products sucked for reliability back in those days, but they kind of "pioneered" some neat stuff
They were as reliable as any other brands. Nothing was really good then. Sure from the viper. They had some very quick four bangers. Styling was a love hate. I like almost all of the models. They really got daring and were putting show cars into production, and buying Lamborghini. They made a big mistake destroying all of their rear drive platform car building equipment. It took the merger with Mercedes to get back into rear drive cars. They got screwed in the process. Iacocca saved them in the 80's, but stretched them too thin in the 90's. This video points out some good things, but is filled with errors. Not enough time to say more...
@@efrazier0217stuff was amazing in terms of reliability back then. Ford had their 300, 302, 351, and 460 AND THE AMAZING IDI DIESELS + 7.3 PSD... Chevy had the 350s, 4.3s, and 454s... Toyota had the 22re, Honda was Honda... C'mon!
When the mid 90s hit and Chrysler walked away from the versions of the reliable K car platform things went downhill on reliability except the trucks. If you kept up with the proper maintenance they were ultra reliable. I've had a few Mopars from that era and still have a couple to this day. I've got a Shelby Z and 2 Dakotas one with a 3.9 V6 and the other with a 5.9 V8. The Shelby has 150k miles, the V6 Dakota has 330k miles and the Dakota RT has 200k miles. I love Mopars because I also have a rebuilt 79 RAM built for hauling heavy equipment. Then I have a 67 belvedere wagon with a tuned 440 with a pistol grip 4 speed making 1100 bhp
@@bldontmatter5319 if people ever bothered doing the proper maintenance on their vehicles then the dodges were amazing. I've still got my Shelby Z. Plus 2 Dakotas both with over 200k miles and still going strong. But yet to have a GM or Ford go past 150k before the motor grenades
Chrysler's models were price based
Concorde -Low price volume model
LHS - Mid price luxury model
300M - High end sport/luxury model
Before the 300M, the New Yorker was the mid price model and LHS was the high end model
appreciate it man!
And the 300M was shorter
They were known as Chrysler's LAST HOPE SEDANS L.H.S.
SHES TRADING HER MG FOR A WHITE CHRYSLER LEBARON
You forgot Eagle Vision between 93 and 98, which was inbetween LHS and Concorde, and you also forgot the New Yorker version of the LHS which was also between the LHS and Concorde in pricing. 300M didn't come out until 1999
Taurus sho, say it like show. I have a 2018 sho and it’s become my favorite car. Room for the kids and the power is great. Looking into an explorer st probably in January-February.
Can say it however
In 95 I needed to get a new car . My parents sent me to see one of their friends at the Toyota dealership . He was trying to get me to buy a bright purple Eagle summit . He kept going on about how great it was , I think they just couldn’t sell it . Thank god I drove away in a 91 Toyota Celica Gt .
Would love to see the Stratus again.
They were OK cars for the era. Nothing earth shattering but they were affordable, roomy and got reasonable economy. The company was basically in survival mode and had to get as many models as could be built on one platform out to the public. The trucks were OK. Sturdy and basic with decades of engineering behind them (bullet proof 318's and 360's along with the Cummins diesel.
Those 318 LA engines I think the best small block ever made. Super dependable and long lasting.
A friend of mine had a Shelby Daytona in the 90's and it was pretty quick. My other friend had a Plymouth Sundance 2.2 with turbo, and it was quick too but did not handle nearly as good as the Daytona.
Dodges in the 90s were good but nothing tops the lugshurry of passing the grey pupon in a early 80s landow roofed Crysler LaBarron. Plus with a 90hp four banger doing 0-60 in just over 100 seconds its also a sleeper.
Great content. I like seeing these videos on the history of car companies!
Glad you like them!
It's a shame Chrysler didn't follow through with the Intrepid and it's sister cars. They truly had sharp body designs but it all went south just before the Mercedes partnership and after that it was done.
Actually they did, it's called Charger. The '06 Charger was supposed to be out in '03 and called Intrepid before the merger, they added DCX parts and structure to the LX cars before the release.
The Stillborn '07 Imperial was really to replace the New Yorker/LHS also but they stuck with the 300 as the only full-size car.
It was not a "Partnership." It was a veiled takeover that saw Chrysler become a subsidiary of a German company. That's why Daimler had to pay about $500M to Iacocca & Kerkorian (Cerebus) for their slimy trick that they & the then "Heroes of Chrysler" pulled on the shareholders. Chrysler/Mopar has been a foreign company really since '97
@@ljmorris6496 I saw the 2006 Imperial concept at The Chicago Auto Show. Chrysler cancelled the program because they just couldn't get the fuel economy up to where they wanted it.
This episode hit home for me!!! I wanted a Daytona badly back then but wasn’t impressed by the little power it offered! I owned a 94 Intrepid. In my opinion they were better than the 2nd gen models. The second gen had engine issues. Only problem i had was a bolt broke off in my transmission and I had to get it fixed. Aside from that it ran fine up until I got a new car in 07! I’m looking forward to seeing your nxt video!😎👍🏽👍🏽
Thank you so much for the support!
I’ve never heard of the Spirit RT. Crazy performance in that. Too bad they didn’t know how to market it.
I enjoy your content and recall many of these cars as I owned a few, including two Colts, which you failed to mention. No one does, and it seems to be completely forgotten as well as ignored although marketed for almost 25 years, and the 89 GT Turbo version won Car and Drivers ten-best for that year. They were solid cars that got me through college and grad school. I wished they would get some recognition.
My girlfriend in high school had an rt intrepid and I had an all black lhs and both cars were really quick and floaty but mine was plagued with electrical issues where the wipers would come on and trunk would pop while car was off and parked I was able to trade it in for a Dodge Dakota rt and never looked back but I miss this era of cars for sure
My dad loved his Daytona and always tells me about it but I've literally never in my life seen one anywhere
I put 700 miles on a weekend rental early Daytona. Pretty good car.
my brother had a nice non-sporty Dodge Spirit in the early 90's and it was very comfy and i remember always enjoying riding in it. had multiple long trips with my broth in it. it was sort of a bluish purple with grey interior. then later as a teenager i had a 94 plymouth sundance. lasted me through a trip around the us at 18 before it just wouldn't crank anymore.
I had a first gen Avenger new off the lot in that same purple-gray paint. I loved it. My dad worked at the dealership and said they had to move it into the service garage at night before I took delivery because people kept pawing over it.
Yeah I don't know why it was ranked so low here, it was a great car for the time. I wanted one when I graduated college but I got a Dodge Dakota in 95 instead, I think it had the same oil sludge issue in its v6 as the 2.7L Intrepid.
My mom had a Dodge spirit when I a kid and i had a 1998 Dodge Avenger ES in high school. Freakin loved that Avenger and to this day i still love the style of it.
My second car was a '00 Intrepid w/ the dreaded 2.7 lol Put duals on it & had a nice sound system. It started overheating and i had to part with it. If i had the mechanical experience i have now, i wouldve kept it & swapped in the 3.2 or 3.5. Loved that car
My boss had one of those as a work car (there were many in the fleet.)Sitting in the back seat in the FL sun I nearly cooked. That greenhouse back window was larger than the roof.
The 2.7 had a major flaw, it required high grade synthetic oil. Had a mechanic buddy who worked on enough of them that he found the same flaw. He got a used intrepid with a blowed 2.7 for dirt cheap. He rebuilt the car and ran synthetic oil from the beginning. He had that car till he traded it in for a new car in 2017
Spent my childhood in the back of a Dynasty
I owned a 91 Spirit. It was red with a red interior. It had the 2.5 liter engine. It was slow, but was otherwise a good car. My parents had a 92 Dynasty in black cherry with the 3 liter 6. The Dynasty was a comfortable riding car.The only problem was needing the transmission replaced at 45,000 miles. The thing I remember most about it was that it had a good sounding radio.
Good stuff man!
The main problem with the dynasty was the electronic valve body in the transmission. We had one and the transmission was always acting up and blowing fuses. The mechanic we went to put in the transmission with the upgraded valve body from the minivan and we never had another problem with the transmission until the 3.3 grenaded at 175k miles when the cam snapped and it wasn't worth a new engine
I owned a '91 Dodge Spirit. It was old (198,638 miles when I bought it) and was a 2.5 "4". It was NOTHING compared to 60s-73 MoPars, but ALWAYS "did the job"! This made it PRETTY DAMNED GOOD in my "book"!
What people didn't realize that all the performance parts for the 2.2 would fit on the 2.5 since they share heads, intake, exhaust it's just the 2.5 is a slightly taller block. I modified a 2.5 for my friends shadow making it a badass little car. I had a Shelby Z that I put a modified 2.2 turbo class 4 in. We Dyno'd it at 400 bhp at the front wheels. It was a Ferrari killer
I WISH my ;91 Dodge Spirit (2.5) WOULD HAVE HAD ANY "SPIRIT"! It ALWAYS carted my ass, but I NEVER could enter ANY freeway traffic with this poor old SLUG of a car! The V-6 wasn't better, either!@@hellhound1389
@@hellhound1389 Stupid question since I know little about cars. Wouldn't 400 horses tear the TorqueFlite tranny apart??🧐
I bought a '97 Concorde after driving my dad's Intrepid ES and loving it, and honestly, it was a very good car for me. Lots of room, super comfortable, remarkably competent in the snow, and the 3.5 V6 had great low end torque for the time. Bought it off lease and drove it for a decade with no serious issues until the very end. Traded it in on a Charger R/T - not so lucky on that one.
Glad i found the channel,great video man i had a 1991 dodge stealth RT
I really appreciate that man
@@GreenHawkDriveNo problem,i subscribed
I had a 95 Sebring coupe. V6 auto. The auto let it down a little, caravan transmission. Had a transmission dude rebuild it like he did for caravans that would tow a camper, couldn’t hurt it after that. That was a great highway car. Variable steering rack. It was an eclipse with head room!
I'm kind of nostalgic for "The New Dodge" (mid 90s to about 2001), as well as the tail end of the DaimlerChrysler era in the late 2000s.
That Plymouth Reliant at 0:45 was the first car I actually remember my dad driving when I was little, but I think the story goes that he was still driving his Dodge Ram the day he took my mom to the hospital to have me delivered. Then he obviously had to switch to something with rear seats.
Thank you for sharing that story man!
I had a fetish for those K cars, I must have owned close to 20 of them. I would always inter- change the parts on them, and I never had a major problem with any of them, except for my inability to understand when a car needs an oil change and a tuneup.
I owned a number of the LH cars with the 3.5 and they are all at least "A" tier. All were superb and subtly different. My favorite is the LHS.
300M was a little shorter than the Concorde and the 300 had the autostick transmission. Both cars had the same 3.5L high output motor. Good stuff GH!
Funny our 1999 Dodge Dakota Sport went over 350,000 miles with the same motor and transmission. It was used and abused daily. We had a family run Farm Supply and Hardware store. Usually hauled 3/4 of ton or more roughly 6-8 times a day. I like to see the new ones hold up to that kind of abuse
I've got a 99 Dakota with the 3.9 V6 that has 330k miles and a 00 Dakota RT with the 5.9 that has 200k miles. Both are still on the same engines and transmissions . Yet to see a Ford do that
They made three different CSX's over the course of 3 years and they were all cool. You showed the Red but there was also a white with grey two tone and black with grey two tone.
Thank you man, I appreciate the info😅
It's wild that the grey/blue CSX was a Thrifty rental car exclusive. I would've loved to taken one on a road trip back in the day.
I started my career as an auto technician at a Chrysler/Plymouth/Toyota dealership in 1991. The quality of the Chrysler vehicles was terrible back then. They are still the worst of the three domestics imo. I fix other peoples broken vehicles for a living. Chrysler products are a gold mine for me! The 3.6 liter V6 they use in almost everything is a good boat anchor after 100k. Timing issues, lifter failures, oil cooler leaks, and electrical gremlins are the norm. I drive Toyotas for a reason.
Chryslers are hit or miss. In the 80's/90's they had emerging technology coming out, and had to work the bugs out. Plus people always trashed American cars. Geo's always had more problems than Toyota, even though they come out of the same assembly line. And personally, I stopped working on Japanese cars a long time ago. I got so sick and tired of hearing " how can this car have so many problems, it's Japanese!?"
MOPAR has always had the lowest build quality of the big three. Even the famous muscle cars of the 70s, were rust buckets.
Nothing changed, they still suck and worst of the US big 3 lol
You can say Dodge aucked. But i remember my friends parents bought a new Dynasty and man was that a nice car at the time. He used to get to drive it on the weekend. I always liked it.
Was definitely a dark time for Dodge . These days the Challenger & Charger are gorgeous , muscular looking & muscular driving & well built beasts . Back then , all the Chrysler group cars had that cab forward jellybean look of the Ford Taurus , & were built dreadfully plasticky cheap & were super unreliable (the ubiquitous V6 used throughout their range was renown for blowing head gaskets)
I don't think the Hemi powered Trucks and the V10 Viper as being a dark time for Dodge????
@@OsbornTramain The Viper had the same interior as the Dodge Neon 🤮 . V10s were maybe 1% of Chrysler group’s sales . Everything else sold was what I described above
My Dad had a 98 Intrepid and I had a '01 Intrepid ES.. both suffered catastrophic engine failure on the 2.7L V6. I LOVED driving those things, comfy, powerful and surprisingly nimble for a big car, but dear god they were unreliable lemons. I had two of them, a 94 base model (from 98-2005) and the above mentioned 01 (from 2005-11), as problematic as they were, I miss both.
Dodge in the 90s was pretty damn awsome. Variety and style. Dodge is boring to me now. The commercials were so much better then.
back in 2002 I bought a 1991 New Yorker with 90,000 miles on it for $1000 and it was such an amazing car, I had it for almost 3 years before I wrecked it (I had a reckless youth) and it never once left me on the side of the road. It was the most luxurious model available for the model, double padded leather seats, digital dash, sun roof, heated seats with memory position, Infinity stereo tons of room in it too. God I miss that car!!!
My Dad also had a 92 Plymouth Acclaim with the 3.0L V6 from Mitsubishi - which would become my brothers first car. Got so many speeding tickets with it he lost his license for a few months. Eventually when he moved away for school the car got stolen, he got it back but it had been taken for a joyride, driven over concrete steps, whole underside was damaged, ended up selling it to his ExGF for 500$. Had that car from 93-2000.
Love your videos. So much nostalgia and love for mid cars of my youth. I'm a 90s car trivia nerd. I used to read the auto trader like kids red comics when i was young. Made a website on geocities about ford probe GT. First car was a 91 Tbird lx , second a 95 monte carlo Z 34 and third was a 91 integra. Keep these videos coming.
Thank you!
Dodge was much better in the 90s compared to the garbage they make now.
Still rather have these than those modern nightmares
Suprised the dodge stealth didn't make the list, then again it is just a re badged mitsubishi 3000gt
Concorde was originally the upscale Chrysler counterpart to the Intrepid and Eagle Vision. LHS was a 5 seater version of the LH based 6 seater New Yorker but eventually they dropped the New Yorker from the lineup (ending what was at the time the longest running nameplate in auto history). 300M was introduced in 99 as a more European-styled Performance Luxury model replacing the Eagle Vision, while LHS was much softer and floatier like a traditional American luxury car. Eventually LHS was merged with the Concorde as it's top level "Limited" trim.
I've driven both the 2nd Gen Intrepid and Concorde, the Intrepid was a much tighter stiffer car you could throw around corners quite well and was decent performance-wise, Concorde drove like a very comfortable couch, very floaty and soft suspension and ride. I also had a 1st Gen Intrepid and while it was fun, the handling on 2nd Gen was a big upgrade.
As an owner of many extended K (EEK) cars. They had a great advantage for someone like me that would get parts from the pull-a-part salvage yards as most all the (Chrysler, Dodge and Plymouth) cars had interchangeable parts. BTW the Dodge Spirit RT was available from 1989-1995
Way back my Jeep got totaled and the settlement was enough to buy a ... used Dodge Spirit. I'd never owned a four door, or a car with a trunk. Velour seats, of course. Ya know what? I really liked it. Comfortable ride (once I replaced the non-working shocks it came with), adequate acceleration, fine brakes (that saved my bacon a few times), room for EVERYTHING. A surprisingly, and unexpectedly, nice car.
In 84 my folks ordered a new chrysler, a stretched k car called the E Class. I talked them into selecting the voice alerr option which was 66 dollars. It was a cool feature. At first it had 11 alerts, and around 86 or 87 the number of alerts was 24.
Great music on all this channel's videos! Good job!
@@paulmayerpiano Thank you!
I had a Dodge Dynasty as a fleet car. It was reliable and had a roomy trunk. I miss that car it never failed to work & and you were never fatigued at the end of the day. Wish a new varent was hear.
Charger and 300 is the variant,those are reliable and get better gas mileage...The 3.6 can get 35 mpg hwy...I got 33mpg with the 5.7 hemi cruising 60 mph..
I would SO buy an affordable, comfy, square car like that.
We had a camshaft snap in our dynasty 3.3 V6
Very thoughtful and entertaining sir.
Thank you man, I appreciate it!
Yup I love my dads 91 Shelby. We put a lot of work into it but I think it’s one of the cleanest ones left.
hands down my favorite generation of dodge/chrysler, idk what it is about it, but there's just so much charm to the cars
There were a few shinning lights in the 90s for Dodge. I had a Shelby Z that we put a modified 2.2 turbo class 4 and 5 speed. That thing was a monster. It was Dyno'd at around 400 bhp at the front wheels. It was a Ferrari killer
I own an intrepid with a 2.7 and is my daily driver I just stay in top of the oil change and use only synthetic oil recently I did check the engine inside and is incredibly clean
Congratulations finally someone that does the proper maintenance. My mechanic friend always said the problem with the 2.7 is cheapskates not using synthetic oil
The last Dodge that I will ever spend my money on was a 1990 Dodge Dynasty. It went back to the dealer 3 times for transmission problems. The dealer supposedly replaced it under warranty. Thankfully, I soon traded in for a Subaru.
Ahhh, the Daytona Shelby! What a fantastic car! I'd love to have one again!
You mentioned the 90s Avenger being odd it shared drivetrains with the Eclipses and its clones. The Avenger mechanically was pretty much a Eclispe. It even used the same doors ( always thought they looked a little short on the Avenger because of this). Great channel BTW!
Thank you for bringing that to my attention. Also appreciate that man!
It was more akin to the galant Sedan...less know that!
@ENVOYous-1 Yeah the Avenger was a little bigger than the Eclipses. They were all Galant based though. I think the Avenger had the Galants wheelbase.
Earliest version Diamond Star models were "H' platform for Mitsubishi Eclipse, Plymouth laser, Eagle Talon from 1989 (1990 model) to 1994. Diamonstar plant built 4 door Mitsubishi Mirage for a couple years on the 'C41' platform. It was a tin can and a major PIA to build. In the mid 90's, all models were on the 'F' platform. Eclipse was F24 and F28 (convertible); Avenger and Chrysler Sebring 2 door was FJ22 and Gallant was F41. 1999-2000 brought the 'ST' platform. F platform engines for the Chrylser/Dodge badged models was the Mexican built MOPAR 2 liter (junk) and the V6's were Mitsubishi. Eclipse 4 cylinder engines could be either MOPAR or Mitsubishi (turbo) and could be had with V6.
@@hotpuppy1 that means you just needed a few parts and a welder to make a AWD avenger?
The Monaco and the others on that platform seem to be modeled from the Audi 5000. Then, with the "cab forward" cars, they most definitely did copy Audi with the longitudinally mounted FWD based platform. Those cars, most Audis and most Subarus, use that same long mounted FWD based setup. Those are weird since the engine is in front of the front hub, just look under the hood at where the strut towers are mounted in relation to the motor. Nose heavy and a lot of understeer, though Subaru is the better setup.
Currently I own a 1996 Dodge Stratus, 4-door, 2.4 with automatic, that has just over 106,160 original miles. The interior is almost like new (the driver's seat and floor show some wear). The single lady before us as well as my late wife and I didn't put many miles on it. I see no reason to get rid of it. It's low maintenance, decent mileage and has plenty of 'zip' for me.
I had a 1985 Lebaron with a 2.2. Slightly underpowered for a sedan. But I got it cheap.
I've liked the look of Lebaron and Dodge 600 convertibles from the mid 1980s. I thought the somewhat boxy style worked nicely for convertibles.
Used to own a Dodge Aries in the late 90's. Lol.
And???... Liked it?? No liked it??
@@landonbenford8369 yes I liked it a lot, was a fun car to drive. Picked it up for $150, it needed a timing belt.
First Intrepid was the best looking one. And its variants.
I've only ridden in a few Dodge vehicles. The Intrepid had a smooth ride as did the Neon but that's about it. I wouldn't mind having a cab forward car as a beater.
I bought a new base model Pontiac Fiero with alloy wheels and a rear rack in 1986, and drove it most of the way through the 90s. I seriously considered the Daytona, but at the time didn't need a back seat, and couldn't deal with the front wheel drive. The second generation Intrepid was a great looking car, ruined by front wheel drive.
Front wheel drive is good on small cars but the intrepid was a fat whale and should've been RWD
In 1984, I took my Chevy truck drag racing. The engine started knocking, so I parked it. My brother was there with a 84 Plymouth Breeze rental. I borrowed it and won Street ET.
I thought the 1991/92 Pontiac Grand Am GT and 1991 Dodge Spirit ES (and the R/T of cos) were cool cars but the consumers never gave them a chance to shine. My friend had a 91 white Dodge Spirit ES with a Mitsubishi V6. That white was white as paper and it was so distinctive and stood out from the crowd. The car wasn't quick off the line due to its weight. It slightly slower than my Acura Integra RS (4 door) but it drove like a dream because of the V6 - I can never say the same for the Integra because it felt light and weak once the pedal was stepped on.
It was hard to tell where Dodge fit in the Mopar lineup in the 60s-90s. Sometimes it seemed like the value/family vehicle (plus trucks) brand, but other times that was Plymouth’s role-which was confusing since Plymouths were sold by Chrysler dealers, who sometimes also sold the Imperial marque (through the 1975 MY) and after Imperial was gone, did offer Chrysler’s flagship(s). Dodge also seemed to play the performance role with Chargers, Challengers and high-HP Darts, but other times it seemed that Plymouth was Chrysler’s performance brand.
I had a ‘93 Shadow. My only complaint was a persistent rattle in the rear shelf between the back seat the rear window. The easiest solution would have been to take the shelf out, since it was removable.
In the mid 90's you could scoop these things up for 300-500 all day.
Ive owned 2 Lebarons, dynasty, acclaim and numerous Aries vehicles. The NA 2.2/2.5 I4's were the worst vehicles I've ever owned in my life. I don't think I owned a single one that didn't experience some for head/gasket failure.
I've owned a 77 Aspen with a 225/6 and a 93 Lebaron landau with a 3.3 v6 and those are both cars I loved and regret selling/trading.
My mother had a LHS. Cant speak mechanically on it but it floated like a yacht and had some surprising acceleration for a car of its size.
Back in the 90's my buddy had a Dodge Rampage.
The K-cars are super underrated imo, like the turbo ones were some of the most powerful FWD machines from that time, and they had excellent suspension geometry for limiting torque steer. Truly ahead of their time, but their core audience of muscle car boomers hated it, so everyone thinks these cars suck, when they were actually WAY ahead of their time. Only in recent years have automakers been cramming turbos in everything, but Chrysler has been doing it since the '80s.
My 93 Dakota still runs perfect. No problem with early 90's Dodge trucks.
😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Whats the condition of the paint?
a funny fact here in argentina on the 90s the federal police (policia federal) bought several dodge spirit and convert them to patrol cars marked and unmarked. nowdays is really hard to find one in good shape. weird enough some dodge shadows sedans also entered the country, also really hard to find one in good shape.
The Dodge shadow came in different engine trims with a naturally aspirated 2.2L, the 2.2L turbo, the 2.5L naturally aspirated (which mine has), the 2.5L turbo and a 3.0L V6 in 1994
Just found your channel. Great video. I like the Daytona. At that time I drove a 280ZX and didn’t want to trade
Thank you!
I had two Daytonas in my early car days. Besides the fact they weren't very reliable for me, I do have fond memories of the cars. I do remember my '91 ES and I think it was probably the 3rd coolest looking car in the high school parking lot, albeit nowhere near fast with it's 100hp 2.5L.
Actually, Dodge was MUCH BETTER from the '50s-90s than these OVERPRICED GARBAGE HAULERS NOW!
as a broke person that got his license in 2001, most of my cars were the K-Car variants, drove my moms 88 new yorker, then had a 91 spirit, then an 89 spirit, then a 90 dynasty, then an 85 lebaron, then 92 spirit, then an 89 acclaim, and a 92 acclaim, (almost all cars were near end of life, but most still ran and drove before i got rid of them, headgasket, thrown rod, blown a604, blown gasket and warped head, car accident, caught fire daily (had to throw snow balls at engine after stopping), and blown motor after sending through a flooded highway onramp
most of my issues were self induced, and if i drove most of them like i do today they would have probably lasted longer, loved how easy they were to work on. - basically cheap, reliable, comfortable, and safe transportation.
then i got stuck driving a lot of fords and chevys just due to price and avalaibility, those were always a having issues or was a complete pain to work on. Although now i drive a 2013 honda and i love it as its still all those things, easy to work on, cheap and reliable.