Retro Review: 1982 Plymouth Horizon TC3 Miser
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 20 ก.ค. 2024
- 34 city, 51 highway! EPA regulations may have been a bit over-optimistic, but the Plymouth Horizon Miser certainly had lower fuel costs than other cars of the era. It was just one of several stripped-out high-mileage compacts created in response to America's second fuel crisis.
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Love the old car reviews. I remember being so thrilled on the weekends when this show would come on as a kid since they talked about cars - and unlike today you didn't have access to everything you ever wanted to know being instantly available. I'd go sit in the magazine section and read car mags when my mom grocery shopped, but outside of that, this was the only place you'd see and hear about cars (when I say kid I'm talking pre-teen so my friends didn't care about cars yet).
Rod Munch i did that too! good god that brings me back. loved the old mags... looking at the pics of the interiors and detailing my first cars to try and look as nice haha
Same!
The theme music they used in the late 1980s-early 1990s makes me feel all nostalgic.
Dude, same here! Then if you got a magazine you'd read it cover to cover what 200 times? You'd even read the page of staff members just to get the most out of it! Not like today where you look online get get your answer and be done with it. There's no appreciation today.
joe b Yeah I'd read it over and over, in fact I'd take it to school and sneak it into the laminating machine so I could preserve the covers. I still have boxes of them laying around, very interesting to read. I however much prefer today where I can find anything out about anything at anytime I want, it's awesome - but as a kid magazines were your lifeblood and if you found a show like Motorweek on, it was just amazing.
I had an '81 024 miser. Ordered it and waited 4 weeks for it to be built. Was in the dealership when Reagan was shot. Still have the window sticker from my first new car. $5,299 base price. Black with Sunroof, console, cargo carpet, clock, R defrost, cloth seats, dual mirrors and a $9 cig lighter. No radio. Only $237 dest charge. $6060 total. $118/mo for 4 years. I put louvers on the back and side windows[from JCPenney Catalogue, not Whitney]and a yellow/red/orange spear stripe down the sides. painted the steel wheels black and got trim rings and hand painted my own white tire letters. Put amber fog lights in the lower air dam. Looked WAY different that this stripper. I could sit inside those headlight buckets Slept in the hatch many times. Used to vapor-lock once a week in the summer. Went through numerous driver door handles, thankfully my Dad worked at Chrysler. Got broadsided by a 73 Caddy, no injuries. After 6 years, an old Delta 88 rear ended me and bent the whole back of the car down onto the wheels and totaled it. Got a 86 Shelby Charger next. It was my Omni '80's. Then came the Shadow Turbo '90's...
I've always loved black wheels with trim rings.
My friend had a '79 Horizon which putting it kindly, was a piece of junk. He would also go thru exterior door handles on a regular basis. I remember one time, the driver's door handle broke off and flew thru the air and landed on a cop car driving down the street. Of course we laughed hysterically and the cop wasn't too pleased lol.
Damn you owned some miserable cars LOL.
Cool 😀
Konrad C bitch.
Some engineer put THAT steering wheel in that car and said, " Yeah, this looks good. Well... time for lunch."
Lord T-Lars I guess they got a discount on a load of surplus steering wheels from a tractor company
Probably would have been easier to steer if you weren't wearing platform boots.
Did you see the way that steering wheel moved when he grabbed it getting into the car? Cheap and flimsy.
Same with the proportioning valve lol
Non Collapsing steering column was the reason for it.The steering wheel had to be able to be able to collapse to absorb the brunt of an impact in a front collision
I forgot how good looking these were. I really like the long hood look and wedge theme. And 40mpg real world? WOW!
My parents had one of these when I was a little kid. It took at least 20 seconds to get to 20 mph on a hill start. The kicker panels rusted through within 2 years -- in Colorado, not a notorious rust zone like the northeast. My dad sometimes claims he took a job at Ford just for the company car hookup because he hated the Horizon so much.
20 sec @ 70mph. Still faster than a pontiac 1000.
Ken Bob I have watched that 1000 review like 4 times because it’s so sad.
The Pontiac 1000 can't even hit 70!
that was actually considered average for an early 80's econocar vehicle.
The pride is back built in America
The bar in those was set SO low, it was almost touching the ground!
What names did they dump before settling on Miser? The Horizon Cheapo, Penny-Pincher, Stripper, Scrooge.
AH Nah, Sipper, likely
From the truck line. D100 Miser.
Toyota once had a Tercel commercial where Ebenezer Scrooge drove the car.
Chrysler always had massive amounts of special models. Even now. I had a 1976 Dodge Dart Spirit of 76 Dart Lite once. It was two special packages in a bundle. Had a Dodge Omni 024 Miser. And now many different 2019 Dodge Chargers can you buy now? Mopars had gauges too. Always.
I would have thought the "Jack Benny Signature Edition" would have added a touch of class.
Take it from me. With the standard 2.2L engine, the Horizon-Omni was a hoot, even with an automatic. The ground clearance was so high I took mine off road. I could do my own oil changes without jacking up the car. I used to look forward to heavy snow days just to see how many inches of unplowed snow I could get through. My friends used to say things like, "this thing is a tank" because it could go almost anywhere but a lake. It started reliably all the way down to -20 F, despite being carbureted.
Many things to love about this pre-Iacocca product.
I had an ‘84 Charger 2.2 5 speed. I remember it being a pretty quick car for the time. Good mid range and no need to rev, but it ran so rough at high RPM you didn’t want to rev it anyway.
I don't know if I'm going blind or losing my mind (possibly both) but it's not a bad looking car. Braking seems like fun too! :D
It kinda has the styling shape of an amc muscle car from the 70s
Well. It’s hideous but I think it’s because of the wheels and tires. They just had crap 13 or 14 inch tires back then. I know because I grew up with those cars. I miss the simplicity.
Those pills you are popping are really screwing up your brain!
Mr Regular's gonna cream his jeans!
*****
Yes it's mine, no its not for sale.
Exactly what I was thinking
BROWN.
World War BROWN.
"How does it drive? I don't care."
Drive it until the wheels fall off? I dunno, I feel like 2 months is a pretty short amount of time to drive a car..
Just a decade ago, I was driving a 325,000 mile '81 Horizon. It was an ungodly pile of scrap but it worked. The wiring harness caught fire, twice. The front exterior door handles didn't work. The emergency brake sorta worked. But the wheels, they stay bolted on just fine. Everything else fell apart around it. XD
Matthew VandenBerg I think your confused, the wiring harness didn't 'catch fire' that was the emergency heating feature. The door handles 'falling off' was the best anti theft feature available.
King of The Castle hardly. I had one 12 years after it was built and everything worked just fine. Not one issue until a full size van ran a stop sign and hit me hard enough to send me into a stone wall. It still ran fine but began to have issues afterwards. I then just beat the snot out of it until it died. Took quite a bit abuse beforehand. Junked it after the auto trans gave up, but no auto likes full throttle neutral drops for long.
One look at that hood flexing when he opened it, told me right away why it only weighs 2300 lbs, LOL!
When i was in jr high, a teacher had a honda prelude he constantly bragged about the "quality" of. It was a year or two old, and i pointed out the fact the rockers and quarter panels were becoming more and more religious by the day. He didn't believe me, and went out and stuck his finger through the rocker panel. 30 years ago, and i still remember the foul language!
My first new car, an 81. It absolutely got that kind of mileage. Front seats had no recline feature and were uncomfortable. A surprise coming out of a 71 Corolla. The car handled snow like a champ tho, central Ohio winters ftw
My uncle had a 1978 in orange, fully optioned and looked exactly like the catalog car. In 1983 I recall going with him to a junkyard to get a front bumper skin and there were 20-30 of them lined up. By 1986, you would go weeks without seeing one.
My first new car was a 1980 Dodge Omni 024, metallic blue with a white pinstripe. Carb mount was plastic and kept leaking..finally recalled for metal one, also starting losing elcectrical power one night...made it home, opened hood to see the alternator had snapped off the mount and was still running but sparking like crazy... loved the car but engine and build quality left a lot to be desired. rarely see these cars around anymore. It pains me to say what i traded in for it: 1972 Chevelle Malbu.
Thank you for remembering the regular common cars!
Ah, the early 80's... Remember when 0-60 times became 0-50 mph times? And yes, cars did get 40-50 mpg because they weighed 1900-2300 lbs and tuned for low hp and high economy.
I am quite addicted to watching these MW Retro Reviews!
At first, one of them appeared in my related vids, but after I started watching, and continuously being surprised at how similar the UK and US market of the 1980s and 1990s was at the time when it came to some Japanese and Korean cars, I almost literally cannot stop. To the extent I've now moved onto the America-only ones, like this!
This was my first car, cheap but reliable. The 2.2 liter engine 1982 model was idiot proof.
Buy 1982, they finally started to work some of the kinks out of them. During the first couple of years of production, they were notoriously bad.
Amazing! 51mpg! America, we've come so far in 2017!
Brad Dietz turns out people would rather have 40 mpg with 150+ horsepower power options leather sound deadening and a decent sound system.
can you imagine a modern 1.5L that gets 50mpg in a car like this?
2015 Honda fit could get the same mileage if you drove it at steady 45 to 55 mph such as how they tested the cars back then.
That in a car like this? Do you have a death wish?
DrewLSsix
No, people want big pickups and suvs they have tons of bullshit in them and get the gas mileage of a 76 Chrysler New Yorker.
We have stepped back in time to the 70s,and had the wool pulled over our eyes that we want these big behemoths.
What the hell happened?
Oh well I’ll keep driving my vw diesels they get over 40 average all the time.
Mileage is so good , I don’t even bother tracking it.
@@MrTheHillfolk . Rare to hear an American say that . Here in Qc we like small car but we don’t have the interesting little model available elsewhere in the world because we share the American market who only want big shit pickup & Suv who brings us even further back in time , like the fifty's when cars were high . So much energy lost by the engineer who insists on trying to pull the maximum mpg from front grill resembling pallissades .
Notice the speedo/odo at 2:15. From 1978 to 1987 the US government mandated that new car speedometers read no higher than 85mph, with the 55mph speed limit highlighted. Before about 1985, American odometers had 5 digits, while German & Japanese cars had 6 digit odometers at least since 1980. Detroit didn't want Americans to keep their cars too long and to trade them in sooner. In 1986, American cars began sporting the 6 digit odometers we have today. Notice also that they didn't mention how much (or little) horsepower the car had.
Wasn't that when St. Joan of Claybrook was heading the Dept. of Transportation, under Carter, and was trying to save us from ourselves? I'd be curious to know the history of that particular piece of gov't social engineering.
European manufacturers had six-digit odometers because they were measuring km, I think. They just needed to re-calibrate for the American market.
One reason the US went with six digits was that as cars started lasting longer, DMVs around the nation wanted the exact reading on paperwork, rather than having to check the box that said 'the true reading exceeds the mechanical capabilities'.
I had a 1979 Dodge Omni 024 with air conditioning and 4 speaker stereo.
Had had the same engine as this Horizon 1.7 liters 4 cylinder VW engine that put out a whopping 65 horsepower with a top speed of 80 MPH at 4500 screaming RPM's.
Any speed over 70 miles per hour and the engine was screaming.
German and japanese cars had six digit odometers because in their home countries the measure kilometers and not miles
Subaru still had 5 digit odometers at the end of the 1980's. And my Renault Encore had a 6 digit. I did put 134,000 relatively trouble free miles on it before I bagged 10 point buck one night. Yes, it was kind of neat burrying the speedometer needle at the stopper at 85 m.p.h. Ha ha, the 55 mark was in red numerals and circled in white! Some cars started showing speedometers up to 100 m.p.h. for the 1986 model year.
@@gtpcruiser02 the VW 1.7 will happily run 200,000+ miles like that. Seriously...the 1.6/1.7/1.8 2-valve VW engines are coarse as hell but incredibly tough.
Loved my L body. What a fun car to drive. I had a Charger 2.2 and a Shelby Charger Turbo. Even raced one with the SCCA!
Shelby Chargers (and Daytona Turbos) were smokin' fast .. for the time
@@analystzorncasteel3047 They're very tunable. Chrysler left a lot on the table with those little motors.
@0:45 that exposed gas cap! LOL I remember I had to buy a locking one for my Turismo.
Gotta love the cheap quality of the hood at 4:53! Reminds me of when John was about to rip the hood off the Cadillac Cimarron!
Now you know why the thing only weighs 2300lbs.
I just got one of these things a few months ago. I’m rebuilding the motor in it. I got the 1979 VW engine in mine and the car is MINT I’m so excited to be able to drive it
back in '82 the company my dad worked for bought a fleet of these for their salespeople to drive. Dad put over 150,000 in 4 years with no major problems. Not bad for a basic stripped down Chrysler Product.
It was 1989 and I was 17 years old. A friend's dad had just GIVEN me a beige 1980 Dodge Omni O24. The sporty hatchback with its big, wide doors, wedge-like shape, and rear window louvers made my 1981 Toyota Tercel look comical in comparison. It started up fine and I took it out for a quick spin, before heading home. The body was in fair shape, no dents, clean, but had a few rust spots. Being only 5'8", I found the interior to be cavernous, the seats felt like it made for a person twice my size and weight. The controls were all well placed and in fine working order, however, the bucket shaped, three spoke, plastic steering wheel was cracked, and just felt awful. The ride was good, but the car felt heavy, compared to my Tercel, and so was the steering. There was no way that 63 horses were still dwelling beneath the hood.
Upon inspection, I see that my friend's father was not exaggerating. The engine had been beaten to hell and back. My very first car was a 1979 Volkswagen Rabbit that was handed down from my parents. It was a heavy and slow ride, and a catastrophic transmission failure would put an end to that run. After hearing Lee Iacocca drag on and on about American cars built in America with American parts, imagine my surprise, to see an old familiar friend in the shape of a 1.7 L inline 4 cylinder, with the Audi and Volkswagen emblems on it, underneath the hood, covered in a thick layer of grease and grime. It would take several months and a lot of parts replacements to get the engine back in tune and cleaned. I was still in highschool, living with my parents, and had a part time job, so why the hell not? The O24 was not faster than my Tercel, which produced almost the same amount of horses in a much lighter body with a 5-speed. It also had a problem with stalling at some of the most inopportune moments.
Well, as it turned out, it needed a new carburetor, and that was beyond what I was willing to sink into it. I ended up selling the Omni O24 to a friend, who's father was more than glad to rebuild the carburetor, since was already familiar with them, having owned a Dodge Omni and a Plymouth Horizon. Years later, I found out from that friend, that they drove it for another 5 years before they gave up on it. Not bad for a disposable econobox.
Keep in mind that the highway MPG figures in this era are based on the federal law 55 mph.
YES!
I had a Horizon. The wheels fell off pretty quick. Then I got a 1982 Civic CVCC, much better gas mileage and the door handles didn't break off, lol.
My grandfather had one and he used to drive it for gas mileage too, he always skipped from second to fourth
Wish I was born back in these days life looked a lot simpler
We lost our innocence after the 9/11 attack. It changed EVERYTHING, for the worse!
There's no such thing as a more simpler time, no never.
I agree
The Miser was carbureted, not fuel injection. Incredible mileage for that.
The f**king thing didn't weigh anything!
I love that they call it a miser
The Chrysler Corporation made a Miser package for several vehicles which were specially designed to be high MPG and low in price
I remember the MIser trucks and vans. 225 Slant 6 with a 4 speed manual transmission. I believe they were rated at 19 City, 26 Hwy. Nice name BTW
The prefix of miserly... and miserable!
Miser means it's basically base model
@@whackamolechamp David made The miser packages available to the Dodge trucks as well
I remember this car from college. My girlfriend had one of those dark red ones, and we took it on the highway for a few hours. No cruise control, of course. My leg was in so much pain. I still get an ache in my right thigh when I see one.
Did you marry her?
Should have let your GF drive..
What a beloved automobile. Plymouth was a fantastic car. Great memories. Thumbs up 👍
...this is actually pretty damn impressive! (apart from the braking anomaly)
I love the look of this thing. Wish they weren't nearly extinct now. Even if it is kind of a K-platform crapcan, that lovely styling deserves to be appreciated.
It's actually an L-Platform, which means much of the design under the skin came from Simca in France.
Oh, whoops.
Dan McCarthy Not sure if being based on a Simca makes it a less or worse kind of crapcan, but I think it's safe to say a Simca-based platform is in any case a sign of crappiness.
I remember my grandfather having a whole bunch of these and omnis and horizons in his junkyard.
My parents bought one brand new in 1982. When my dad sold it it had ,301,000 miles on it....never had the cylinder head off
In late 1976 I bought Ford's version of a super economy car, the Pinto MPG (Ford also sold a Mustang MPG). Apparently, the MPG models were regular cars but with an appearance package that consisted of special styled steel wheels with whitewall tires, bodyside tape stripes, with the " engineering " part limited to extra long rear axle ratios.
I didn't buy my car for the fuel mileage but I bought it envisioning an eventual V8 swap. But even so, fuel mileage was dismal. I forget what the EPA numbers were, but that car got a consistent 22 MPG no matter what I did. And as bad as that was, the economy rear axle ratio made that car VERY slow to 60.
In 1982 I had no idea this Miser model existed, but since I was living in Texas at the time, a lack of air conditioning would not have swung me to a Plymouth instead of the Pontiac 2000 I did buy in 1982.
I had one of these back in the day,it was pretty decent transportation and very reliable
ooh miser ...a car built just for me!!
Well at least no one will accuse Chrysler to do any software engineering to fake this car's emissions.
Ohhhhh you went there!! =D
Actually, Fiat-Chrysler are under investigation right now for doing the same thing VW did.
Dan McCarthy emissions smissions i still like Chrysler that got the hellcat 😏😏
Dan McCarthy emissions smissions i still like Chrysler they got the hellcat 😏😏
Why do i feel like this car was lethal to the environment, like a trabant?
Why does the front drivers side fender look hit in the second brake test?
My older cousin had one of these in the 80's and I remember thinking that they looked cool. I was a stupid child. I'm also glad that we didn't die in an emergency braking situation.
Ugly as hell, I agree. I'm surprised a lot of people like the design.
My aunt had one of these. It lived with the mechanic for most of its life. Almost everything on the car broke or failed at one point and most did so early on in its life.
Garage Queen?
Please bring back this simple mechanically driven cars with no fancey computers
PLEASE! DON'T!!
@@TheOzthewiz if modern cars didn't have all this bullshit they put in them cars would be doing 60mpg
This series is so unbiased towards US cars it deserved an award from the American car industry...😂
3:50 "extremely predictable" ..i swear i can see the driver shart his pants with unexpected oversteer
Good handling for the early 1980s
Yeah as he was also saying understeer lol Guess it did both
I had the '85 Dodge Omni sedan --- same platform --- and it would spin out without touching the brakes, just throttle-lift oversteer on damp pavement. It was just plain SCARY!
Drive it until the wheels fall off. 😁
Didnt take long you would just keep puttin them on back then . Much simpler time
When they do how do I get home?
it's funny to look back at these .. I was only 3 😂👍
Got to love those breaking tests.
I had an 86 duster/turismo (same renamed). had 2.2 auto. ran good. styling was much improved over this one. never had issues with the brakes. kinda wish I hadn't beaten the thing to death and junked it. not an speck of rust on it. good luck finding one in the shape today
At 4:54 that hood looks quite flimsy when he opened it haha!
My aunt had an 80 TC3 with the 1.7 and 4 speed. It was a terrible car that she finally gave up on after just 3 yrs. The outside door handles broke off, the rear hatch leaked water profusely, and the rear tail lights leaked water into them causing the bulbs to break, blow fuses, and sockets to short out. She had ungodly trouble with the carburetor, as well as the mentioned shifter and linkage. I remember that the shifter easily had 2 inches of side to side motion while in gear, when she got rid of it. The steering wheel placement was terrible, as it was non adjustable and was large, while 1 sat down low and far back from it, making it feel as though 1 was driving an old truck. With about 65hp on tap, it was also dangerously slow and with 3 of us kids in the car, she had complained often that the only way to keep that thing at 60+ was to have her foot planted.
Adam Trombino 😄
Detroit to Owings Mills, MD is 525 miles, not out of the question, but a long way on one tank. The Miser must have been on fumes on arrival.
Love these! I owned one and wish I still had it
If it wasn't for the C-Piller, this looks abit like the Opel/Vauxhall Manta B LOL.
So much snow in the early 80s! Foot tall gearshift, 51mpg hwy w/o a hybrid, deathtrap safety features, what’s not to love?
I guess the Ford EXP was the answer to this car, or vice versa. Super advanced styling for it's time with that plastic front clip like the modern cars that were to follow even today. Both look beautiful and weird and rare today.
EXP was just a dressed escort.
Your point? The TC3 is the "dressed" Horizon...
Wow! My parents had the Omni variant of this car back in the early 90's in this same color. So weird to look at it now.
My dad briefly had a Horizon TC3 as his first car in the late 80s/early 90s. He traded it for a 1990 Nissan Truck. To this day, I've never seen one in person. I've come across the occasional 4-door Horizon in the wild, but I've never seen a TC3.
The salt on those roads is already eating that car as they film. I just hate driving my car through that winter crap.
Cool looking little car.
This looked like a used car as a new car 😋
Lol. Yes.
Chrysler had built in rattles and squeaks and rust as they rolled off the assembly line. This is the achilles heel of Chrysler (now Stellantas) products since the late '50s. Their power trains are solid though!
That Plymouth driver has been sitting in the passing lane for a while
Chris Prisciandaro Priuses can pass in Canada, is the fun thing. Haul into it (specifically on the 2014 Prius V) and you get from 55 to 80mph quickly.
The most dangerous car I ever owned! Absolutely scary ride in the rain! Rear always swayed back and forth.
In France this was sold as: "Le Shit-Box"..
I thought is was Le poo poo
You're confusing this with the Renault 5.
Lol...
Barack Smith lol thats hilarious. in Mexico it was known as "Le Mierrrrda" hahaha. gota roll them rrrs
Actually the Renault 5 was a good car, the Le Car was shit, and this turd was a "Poubelle sans poignée"
That 1.7L vw drivetrain was actually decent one
Introducing The Spin The Horizon Board Game
.My first car was an '81 Omni Miser. A lot of the ergonomic issues you complained about back then wasn't a problem with the slightly taller 4 door body - there was a bit more rear headroom and I think the front seats were a bit higher so the driver's position in relation to the wheel and pedals was better.
I wonder how many of these still exist in passable condition.
My dad had an 86 horizon. Replaced the carburetor thrice, each door handle twice, the headliner, the camshaft, the trunk lock, and the brakes all in 18 months. He said fuel economy was great but the brakes were scary.
I had a 1981 O24 Miser and could drive from Chicago to Steubenville, Ohio on 1 tank of gas. But it started having rust spots after only a year. That car could climb the hills in Ohio where my 1974 Cougar had trouble even with it's 351 engine.
My uncle had one of these for a beater work car back in the early 90s. I thought it was a cool little car.
TC3's were a rare sight always ignored on the back-lots of Chrysler dealerships.
I had a 1981 Dodge Omni 024 with the 2.2L 4 cyl, 4 speed manual. It was great, until it rained....idiot engineers forgot to cover the distributor cap from the water splash into the engine compartment. They fixed this by 1982. I only put 14000 miles on that 81 Omni 024....in a little over a year and replaced it with a 1985 Dodge Lancer, same 2.2L 4 cyl engine...but bigger ride. Watching/listening to these old reviews....really makes it like they told John Davis "just speak the lines"....and once he was freed from that...Motorweek took off. Been watching since 1981.
My uncle had one of these. I liked it.
My friend the "Del Smell" had an Omni 024. Yie, yaboy!
They were slugs. You took your life in your hands trying to pull out of a parking lot.
Plus,in the cold east coast it only took a couple of three years for the underbody to rust out from street salt..dangerously.
Opening the hood looks like the snake pit scene from Raiders of the Lost Arc. 05:00
I had a 1985 Plymouth Tursimo same car mine was two tone Blue/White 2.2L engine Auto PS/PB A/C Factory Cruise Control Rear defrost cloth seats AM/FM Quartz Lock with cassette paid 1000.00 for it in 1993.It got 38 highway and 25 city
This is why I laugh when people say, wow! I just got 32mpg with my new hatchback!
Yeah, but I bet THEY would laugh when you told them about the 20second 1/4 mile...
I had an 81 with a rear spoiler. Blew the 1.7 up and ended up putting a 1.8 in it out of a volkswagon rabbit. Direct fit. The force feedback carb was always troublesome though. It would of been a great car with fuel injection.
have you guy done the 90s bronco yet?
A German engine that could be easily worked on by the owner. Times have changed, not always for the better.
Aah the 80s
Fun times!
My first car was an 81 Omni 024- the Dodge version of this. It was funny because it had both the Dodge and Plymouth logos on it 024 & TC3. It had the VW/Audi/Peugot engine and A/C that didn't work. The fuel pump failed, the alternator failed, the ignition coil failed, the emergency brake broke. Needless to say, it was a heap of junk, but what do you expect for a first car?
OR, ANY Chrysler Product. In 2019 you would have the SAME experience!
gotta love Chrysler just stick any engine in there it will do!!!
82 was the last year for the 1.7.1983 and up used a 1.6 4 cyl from Peugeot as the base engine but most were being equipped with the 2.2.87' and newer all were 2.2's@David Malinovsky
Tick tick tick tick lifters in those engines
Mazda sold a 'Mizer' version of the RX-3/808 body in the late '70s here in the states. It was also a 'stripper' with a low output piston engine and little trim. I'm surprised that they didn't try to sue Chrysler for the 'miser' name, but they probably had enough on their plate at the time. And my auto correct suggests 'misery' and 'miserable' when I type in 'miser'
Probably a good description of both cars.
Hey that's going to make me a good little commuter car I'm going to buy one when they come out
you want to see epa optimism look up their 81 jeep cj-7 review
With a vw motor i wonder how accurate that 51 mpg was.
Im an optimist, but man, that name. The MISER. Thats just a woeful name.
Optimism leads me to believe that this car would be great as a rally/cross car :D
I kinda like the styling of this car, but the front is a bit off. I think pop up headlight would had made this car better looking in the pre aerodynamic headlight era.
Went to quad lights in 84
I miss the days of cheap basic brand new vehicles. Today you need a 2nd mortgage.
I thought the low end acceleration for this gas sipping car was actually good, the quarter mile acceleration however was only fair since this car doesn't have much top end power.
I had a car based on this car called a "Shelby Turbo Charger 2.2L" That was pretty fast and fun as hell.
(just put up a short vid w/ pics of it on my chan)
hehe. Yeah it was 1991, I was just out of high school. I saw it at a little used car dealership on the way to work one day. All I knew is that I wanted it. Haha. Bought it for $3000 and it has 60k miles on it. It was an '86 in really nice condition. Was Silver with Blue stripe. I loved that car!! I was the coolest kid around for a while. :-)
Loved those. Wanted one so bad when I was young.
Al? Is that you?
Hey I just made a short vid with all the pics (4) I ever took of this
car. Newest vid on my channel if you want to see my old Shelby. Told you
it was in great condition! :-)
Those are still awesome and highly sought after. I had the Chrysler laser XT turbo. Flash red and talking computer
I had a optioned out TC3. It had better tires than this one so the back end behaved itself better than this one under braking. Not a bad little car except for a clutch that was hard to keep adjusted and a starter that went bad.
I was wondering why I had never seen one of these before UNTIL he said that it was a VW. I was 3 in 82 and by the time I got interested in cars (5) they were long gone.
I have always wondered what was inside that green duffle bag...hmmmmm. 🤔
I find it interesting that it has a VW engine. That'd be the best part of the vehicle and also probably why it had a well laid out engine bay. They also mentioned that it was not all that small but said the curb weight was 2300 lbs. That's light.