Chrysler Enters a K Hole
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 29 ก.ย. 2024
- If you love the modern Dodge Hellcat, you must bow with respect to the 1982 Plymouth Reliant-K sedan in this video. Steve describes what made the K-Cars so popular and how they truly kept “The New Chrysler Corporation” alive to fight another day
Steve when My father retired after 46 years with the city of Danbury ct. He bought a 1984 k car, He loved it ,After rising 10 kids his first new car, He wax that car every week, Drove it 10 years, Just had to share that.
10 kids? Your poor parents lol
Awesome story Brian people had pride on what they had worked hard for
My sisters first car (used in 96). Only thing I really remember about it is that it broke down on the freeway in the fast lane.
Don't ask me why she was in the fast lane in a dodge Aires lol
Very ambitous!
Ikr. Painfully slow vehicle
Steve I have a 1982 two door Reliant that was My fathers first car, when I was 17 My father give it to me ando I have it since then, I went to the hischool in it and I have a lot of fun with it, It's a great car 👍😁. Thanks For your show ! !!
I had an 86 k car with the front bucket seats but column shift. I loved that little car.
My parents bought an Aries new in ‘84…..still have it and still use it….great car
Steve, truly, one of your most informative videos yet - love it!
In your lifetime of personal accomplishments to be proud of - this video should rank up there. Who else but you could make a video of a trashed brown K car and get 25k views in the first 24 hours? Well done as always!
I had a K wagon back in the day it was a very good car as long as you took care of it and maintained , it never let me down.
I had a mint 82 Reliant K 2dr 4speed stripper car radio delete only driver side mirror no carpet and I loved it
“You may not like it but, you gotta love it”
To quote an auto instructor I had long ago "I've made a lot of money off these cars".
I made considerable money fixing those junkers in my spare time working out of my home garage.
I had 2 of them. My father said they were re-badged Soviet Trabants. (He drove a '69 440 New Yorker at the time, and despised "shit boxes", lol)
If I had a million dollars, well I'd buy you a K-Car - a nice Reliant automobile! 🙂
I was gonna make the same comment if someone else didn’t get there first. !
Blues Travelers!
The K cars sold in Mexico never had the Mitsubishi engines. Every one of them had the 2.2L or the 2.2L turbo engine. A few cars were sold with the DOHC engine but they are rare.
Some even had ford escort engines in them my friends Aries k wagon had that option
I had one of those things. Lol. Short lived. Brother and I took a Omni 024 nose panel and stuck it on it and jacked it up in rear stuck a rear spoiler on it. We called it the super turd . Black 2 door with a 4 speed that was back in late 80's
I had a 4 speed I car
I currently own a 1985 Dodge Aries Wagon with a 2.2 liter Engine and a 4 speed manual transmission. It was definitely a rescue, because I had bought it with a cracked head, and a whole bunch of other issues from neglect. I got rid of the electronic feedback carburetor for a Weber, which helped it a lot. You are so right about this car helping Chrysler get back on it’s feet. I also have a 2013 Dodge Challenger R/T that wouldn’t exist if it hadn’t been for this K-Car wagon. The K-car wagon has actually been a hit at local Cruise-in’s and Cars and Coffee Events over the years, and I hear alot of stories from people who had them when they were growing up. I think more then anything, I enjoy the “Underdog” nature of this wagon. I actually have a road trip planned for it in Mid-October because I have it entered in Concourse D’ Lemons at the Chattanooga Motorcar Festival. I’ve been working on getting it ready for it’s adventure.
I had a 1981 4 door sedan grey very basic loved it wish I still had it today. Head gasket blown on it after 2 years I own it. Should have kept all the older trucks and cars I had some where on some land. Now I am 40 years old. Way better reliable cars back then than today.
I think 1985 was the last year for the small (10mm) head bolts and I think in 1986 the 2.2 liter went to the turbo engine's larger (11mm) head bolts and turbo head gasket that solved a lot head leaking problems with 2.2 liter. Might have been 87 for for non-turbo engines, but I think it was 86. 85 had the small head bolts and old head gasket.
the 4 speed makes it worthy
@@frankfurther3828 The automatics are iffy.
Any writeups on that Weber swap? My 84 Turismo's carb isn't happy!
A long time ago a buddy of mine had one of these, an '82 Reliant. He routinely drove it from Maine to Florida and back, hardly did any maintenance on it, and owned it for years. Definitely earned my respect.
I had a 1987 Reliant LE as a first car. It was a tank driving through the snow nothing could stop it, took it out in many snowstorms where the roads weren't plowed and it would go right through 2 feet of fresh powder. Severely underpowered especially when you have 3 other teenage friends in the car. The northeast winters killed the floorboards pretty quickly because of the road salt. It was a 3 speed automatic with no overdrive.
My '84 Skylark was like that, too, it would go anywhere in the snow.
I think any car made would go right through 2 feet of fresh powder
@@danamuise4117 Now try it with a flat left rear tire you can't change because a lugnut is rounded off
My first car was a 2 door k car. That thing really was a tank. I stopped driving it when the body started to break in 1/2 from the rust. It if wasn't for the rust I bet I would be still driving it. And as sick as it is. I like the simple but usable styling of them. And I even towed with my k car. Always was up for every task. Good memories
The underpower probably helped in the snow
Many families in my hometown owe their livelihood to the K car. Chrysler was and is a major employer in Windsor Ont Canada. Without the K car and Chrysler that town would be much much different today. God bless Lee Iacocca saviour of the middle class in Windsor. Brilliant man and marketing genius.
I bet every second car in Windsor was a K car in the 80's. I was visiting family there a few weeks ago and I saw a mint late 80's Aries. Wanted to stop and check it out.
I remember when he died, I was sad and prideful.
They sure built an utter pile of junk!
@@povertyspec9651 liar. Chrysler Corp. is Thee Best..I Got My 1st. Dodge Truck a 1973 D100 in Spring 1988. And i have Never Been Sorry to this Day. Sept.4th. 22 11.25 am Since then, I've had MANY Chrysler products. To this Day i've got a 1997 Dodge Ram 1500 V6 5 speed, Rust Free 25,000 original miles as my summer driver. Chrysler products have NEVER left me stranded unlike A POS FORD!
I have family members that worked for Chrysler Assembly in Windsor my grandfather worked there forever until his retirement he worked all over from the Big Van plant on Pillette Road to the Chrysler Cordoba and Minivan plant on Chrysler Centre he worked all over my uncle worked there too in the Minivan Assembly and the Chrysler Pacifica
Love the variety of vehicles. A thorough history lesson.
During the same period, Chrysler also sold off the one asset they had that was in profit - Chrysler Australia Limited.
Mitsubishi, who Chrysler did a lot of technology sharing with at the time, bought C.A.L., and turned it in to Mitsubishi Motors Australia Limited, with the last of the Down Under Valiants being sold with a "Chrysler, by Mitsubishi" badge on the rear.
The K-cars with 2.2 liter engines had American engines, but the optional 2.6 liter engine was made by Mitsubishi and had a timing chain, instead of a belt that required replacement. When the chain became worn, it made a lot of noise though.
@@jimjungle1397 We had the same 2.6 engine here in the rwd Sigma and fwd Magna. A customer once told me it was also in the Canter light truck with different cam, and when dropped in to a Sigma, that variant had enough torque to just about lift the front tyres from the ground on a hard launch.
@@PiDsPagePrototypes And the turbo version too.
@@carlbentley80 Yep,Sigma Scorpion. There was one in Brisbane repowered with a 340 LA.
@@jimjungle1397 Didn't the 2.6 have the "silent shaft" to cancel second-order vibration? It must have been less shaky than the 2.2 once it warmed up, but I remember reading that it was a little rough when cold.
They built them here in Windsor Ontario. The press was assembled for the first car rolling off the line…. It wouldn’t start.
Takes me right back, that, Steve! Dad had a 2.2 auto Reliant that colour, bought new in 1982 - the only one time in his life he ever bought a new car. He ran us off the road in it once - not badly but enough to need a tow. It was undamaged and carried on down to New York State. Odd that you mention comparative interior space - I had a rental Aspen at the same time Dad had this and it seemed way bigger inside. Maybe just because it was easier to get in and out but to be fair we rode 6 up in the Reliant plenty of times. Don't know if it is faulty memory but I seem to recall those rear door glasses didn't have an opening facility on them. I thought it was a runty little car back then but hell I would have one now instead of all the modern blobs.
God bless the Square Automobile!
Had an aspen with a slant. Bulletproof motor. Id get 26 on the hwy with that thing.
Yeah the '81 I had the rear window didn't roll down. Always felt like I was in the back of a cop car .
@@eldonerc2524 They changed that for 1982. The 1981 model year got so many complaints that they costed out the rear roll down windows that Chrysler changed it in a hurry for 1982.
@@klwthe3rd Poor old Dad must have been suckered with an '81 then! To be fair it was January 1982 he picked it up....
@@trevorchambers1812 Might have been a 1982 model then..instead of a 1981 if it was picked up on January 1982.
I've got an 86 GLHS #329 I understand the FWD Mopar. Fun platform.
Like you say Steve, " these were the best cars for the time".....I'm a Mopar guy too and as much as I like to drive my '70 Duster I can't ignore the superior handling/braking and over all performance from my '86 GLH Turbo. Yes a GLH Turbo and I consider it a high performance car. If there is any lessons to learn from these cars is that a vehicles mass makes a big impact on Gas mileage and I think todays cars are way too heavy but thats just me. Thanks Steve, I like these videos alot!
Probably GREAT in better climates, but a RUST BUCKET THROWAWAY RIDE in Northern Mn.!
I had one of the slant-6 Dodge Aspens that these things replaced. It was probably less exciting to drive than one of these K-cars!
I worked rebuilding engines for a while at the end of the 90's, those 2.2 fours were our bread and butter! I have no idea how many of those things I took apart! They only burn oil when they are running! HAHA!
And only leak when they stop.
I love the K car. Saw the first plymouth reliant, a white in the winter of 1980. Fell in love. Owned two , a green 81 and white 89. The 89 had the most comfortable bucket seats ever! Had for 14 years. Great episode.
I moved to Detroit in 1977. Chrysler was in bad shape and in that city you could just feel it. Iacocca left Ford and saved Chrysler with these which was nothing less than a miracle. One of the great ressurection stories of Motown.
Same goes for Windsor Ontario,the mini van was a God send,the auto pac hit us hard and our city was going down hill since 1965,uncle Lee’s magic wagon saved our city.I remember dodge main closing in Detroit in 1980,those wear dark days for all of us Americans and Canadians.
We can laugh a 84hp, but in the early 50s, the 1st gen hemi made about 185 GROSS hp out of 331 cubes (about 5.4L). So, 84 NET hp from a 2.2L..is, well, better than the earlier Hemis. Muscle cars are great and all, but I'd rather live in a world without smog and with quiet vehicles. haha Also, minivans are amazing. It doesn't mean you gave up, it just means you want the most useful street vehicles. It really is optimized utility at it's peak.
It was a car that a blue collar family on a budget could afford.
When I was in Chicago at the beginning of the new millennium, there were still a few of these cars running. For its visual resemblance to the Mercedes W123, I called this car the poor man's Mercedes ====just like a Lada 2107 in Europe 🙂Don't know why but anytime I was lookin at the K-platform car my first thought was: MERCEDES. That grille? Headlights? Turn signals?
I've been in a non-automotive "K hole", and it's quite an amazing experience...
Hell yeah, dude
I liked the K car and rented one while vacationing in Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Actually between 1981-1989 2 million K cars were built. 972,216 Dodge Aries K and 1,132,843 Plymouth Reliant K's were built🙂
Thanks for the actual numbers! Thats estonishing!
I never understood the hate for K cars. I had a Horizon and still have an Omni. Friends had K car variants. I bought one for an exchange teacher and he sold it for more than I paid for it after adding 10,000 miles in a year of travel (and having a car him in Washington D.C....we popped out the dent and replaced the tail light in about 15 minutes for $10). Those new products/platforms were planned and related to the Simca/European Chrysler models. Renault built the Espace from the same basic plan that led to the Voyager/Caravan. They were sort of the successor to the Valiant/Dart that the Aspen/Volare weren't.
If oil prices had continued to remain high throughout the '80s, these K-cars would have a hero halo sticker on them. My K turned out to be the best car I ever owned and made me a Chrysler loyalist for for three decades, until President TeleprompterHead handed the company over to Fiat in 2009/2010.
Well the K-car is an Omnirizon derivarive, which would be impossible to produce without Chrysler Europe's new car - Simca Horizon.
simca horizon, tappets you could hear a mile away
I had the "ultimate" version of the K-Car in my shop recently, a 1989 LeBaron Turbo GTC, actually a sweet car. It's amazing how much diversity they've managed to make with a single platform.
Or even more ultimate the "TC by Maserati". The ultimate lipstick on a pig. LOL.
Which engine did it have? The single over head cam or the double?
Had an '81 Chrysler K-car wagon... 2.6L. SOHC Hemi... broke in half when junkyard tried to tow it away...
Chrysler got their money's worth!
34 mpg in '81...not even a hybrid.....seems like we've gone backwards mileage wise
4:02 How can a brand new K-Car be in the junkyard? It only has 407 miles on it.
This is my wheelhouse! Like you Steve I’m a fan of many different cars but as odd as it sounds the K platform (and it’s close cousins such as the AA, G, P, L etc) has a special place in my heart. I learned to drive on an 87 reliant. I then had my first experience with a turbo 2.2 in an 87 Daytona Pacifica (that’s the T1 engine, 146hp). As the years rolled on I’ve had stage 2 and stage 3 Chrysler turbo engine cars (they’re referred to as T2 and T3 engines) such as the 89 Daytona Shelby (T2) and the 91 Dodge Spirit RT (T3). Currently in the stable is a largely original 87 Shelby CSX and an 87 Reliant two door. The reliant is in mid modification to have the T3 engine out of the Spirit RT swapped into it for what might be one of the ultimate sleepers lol. The T3 engine for those not familiar is a Chrysler 2.2 but with a 16 valve Lotus head, larger turbo, intercooled, making a stock (and for 1991 very impressive) 224hp and 7000rpm redline. I have videos on my channel for those curious
What's your channel?
I had a friend in college that had a zero rust white spirit RT with red interior.
I had no clue what it was until he showed me. WOW! That was a cool car. He also had a an 88 starion ESIR and a 92 steath RT TT AWD. He let me drive the starion and the stealth but the spirit was his baby.
@@mikem3695 if you click my username it’ll take you to my channel. The CSX video is no longer on there for some reason I just noticed. I’ll have to reupload it
@@onefortheroad2291 Thank you. I was confused because I did a YT search of your name and some Australian couple came up.
I had an 88 Lancer 2.2 turbo. I liked the car in most respects (nothing like a 4-door hatchback for carrying stuff around) but it made me swear off turbochargers forever, at least turbochargers without an intercooler. On cold days it ran like a raped ape but in hot weather old ladies on bicycles would beat me away from stop signs. I'm sure they've made advances in turbo technology since then, but considering that my wife's Hyundai makes more power from a 2.0 liter engine without a turbo, I'd rather avoid them.
From 81 to 89 they actually sold 2.1 million aries and reliant k cars! Simple, reliable and successful.
I am one of the few people to ever drive a K-car on the German Autobahn. Drove the base commander around in the USAF! K-car with a 2.2 liter motor that did about 85 mph so I stayed in the right lane :)
My grandfather had one of these. It carried 5 of us all the way from PA to Disney World. Front bench seat, and I'm gonna guess it had the 2.2L.
The Original Minivans when they cam out in late 1983 shared many parts with the K car including the 2.2 liter 4 banger My grandfather was there and was one of the guys that put together the very first Minivans in Windsor Ontario. My uncle still has a first year Minivan with a 2.2 and a 4 speed manual trans it's sort of rare today but that's how you could get them back in the day before they started going with a V6 and it's own platform
I drive a 1986 Dodge 600 convertible. I park it in September and pull it out in June and it just keeps going.
Heh. Theres still an 83 k car in my neighborhood. Still a daily driver. Tried to buy it, but the brother doesn't want to sell. Says he's just maintained it since 83 and it's never let him down. Has 230k on it.
My wife used K cars on her mail route for many many years. We would run them about 300,000 miles and give ‘em to one of the grand kids. They were great easy to work on cars. Could change front brake pads while she ate a sandwich at lunch.
407.7 miles on the odometer, lol. Looking at the condition of this K there's a small possibility that it is. Some little old ladies car that only drove to church on Sunday......😳😎
Some of us like K cars too, love the woodie wagon, had a 95 Lebaron convertible. I think the first generation convertible is a fun car today, simple and reliable.
"They sold like hotcakes." Yeah, to rental agencies and government motorpools. Otherwise they would have been a total flop.
My aunt worked for postal service as a route/mail deliveries, she bought a Dodge Aries new and used it as her mail route car, she says she wished she had bought a couple of them new and put them in storage for future use, she loved that car because it never let her down or gave her any problems other than normal maintenance. I had a dodge omni with 2.2/manual transmission, drove that for many years with no issues other than a broken clutch cable. My friend's mother had a chrysler lebaron with 2.5 turbo, we spent many saturday nights terrorizing the local mustangs and camaros in La Crosse. The friend also had the blue/silver shelby charger that he had built with weber carbs, headers/cam swap and later a ported/polished head. the local mustangs/camaros got wise to this shelby pretty quickly, it was a beast then.
Great video, love your knowledge and I'm also a Mopar guy. I remember staring out 1973 Dodge Polar 440 in the WNY Winters, used to have to pump the gas pedal and listen to the unique Chrysler starter.
If I had a million dollars, Id buy a K car, a nice Reliant automobile
K car, sounds like something you'd buy at K Mart. LOL.
I ❤️ you K-car! If not for you, my modern badass Hemi would have never existed! 🤘
Drove one in 80’s as a response vehicle drove the wheels off of it, once on my shift the previous driver did not put oil in it drove it 20 miles no oil it froze up, next day their it was full of oil and running you couldn’t kill that car it had 300,000 plus miles when retired, !,
Man as a kid I worked on thousands of these things ! guy down the street from me his brother had one just like this one with a stick trans . Head gaskets timing belts water pumps. As you say the dark days these turds prepare me for today’s terrible cars. Unfortunately I’m still a master A tech sure do miss the older stuff
Having owned a K car, they were great. Not everyone cares about driving like a 21 year old.
My father had an 83 Dodge 400,brown like that one. I drove it to prom 👍
These cars could get 41 mpg with a manual...and they came with a manual. Rare but available at the time.
They were not ugly they were just scaled down full sized models of then full size cars or 2/3 valiant mt friend had one as a company car and it was roomy
My dad bought one in 85’ it was super reliable and overall a great car. 2.2 motor was excellent
I had a couple Great cars 2.6 Mitsubishi 1 even with a stick wish still had 1
had that same color in an 82 Aries, it had a Mitsubishi engine that ran the balls, at a set of lights you could get the left tire to squeal, it didn't make you go any faster, but, drove it for about 4 years and would have gone further, but ran over a man hole cover that was loose and blew the left strut tower out, still got me home though
I was not a fan of the K car but after owning one they are a great little A to B car if you need car to drive long distance or to work and are not worried about passing everyone the car is a great car with the 2.2 and the 2.5 liter engines they were real reliable and they were comfortable too you can say what you want about them but they were a Great Cheap Reliable transportation and I would drive one today if I had one
Won't worry about 1989 Shelby k car with the turbo 2.2?
Back in the 80s these cars were everywhere! It's like the kia's of today, lol
My step-dad bought an 83 reliant bran new, drove it till 92 when he traded it in, to get a gran am.
Anyone else marvel at the size of the turn signal indicators on the dashboard?
. What is going to save them now .
the darkest times in the history of the automobile industry of America
Steve magnante can you please make videos of the old motor trend magazines
My uncle had one of these who speak in French with a metallic voice.
Lol. i still have a 81 dodge and a 86 plymouth wagon.
Steve, my first car when i was 17 (1988) was an 82 Dodge 400 with a 2.2 I got off the original owner. It was a 2 dr with factory air. It was a great little car, and I kept it for 3 years and sold it to a father buying it for his daughter and got most of my money back. Really reliable and the air blew ice cold. 🧊. Good memories. Great vids.., keep them coming.
my brother had a yellow one and we called it the Golden banana after a gentleman's club. Ha ha
Love the giant fuel gauge. I always thought these were a great design, although Mopar build quality was poor in those days. It was a great idea to build a small, efficient car that looked like a large American sedan, rather than trying to achieve some bizarre styling goal (which didn’t work for AMC). This was an extremely versatile platform, with two-doors, four-doors, wagons, convertibles, sporty coupes, and eventually the seminal minivan.
I remember these being product-placed in the film “The Verdict.” Seeing Paul Newman in one was probably worth a lot to Chrysler.
It was a good design but yeah, the quality was absent.
"build quality was bad in those days"...
I guess some things never change.
I thought it was “Absence of Malice” in which he drove a K car wagon? Never saw “The Verdict”, so maybe both.
When I see a K-car, I can't help but recall the movie Planes, Trains and Automobiles. Dare I say, the best use of a K-car EVER!!!
That wasn’t a k car ,,,, is was a Lebaron convertible
@@JonnyMudMower It's okay, they can buff that right out...
@@JonnyMudMower was my understanding the LeBaron was Chrysler's version of the K-car. If wrong, thank you for the education.
@@waynetaylor8082 The Lebaron was based on the K car design. It was Chrysler's version so yes.
Thank you
they were so easy to work on compared the complex pieces of garbage made today
WE had an '86 Aries station wagon. It was just the car we needed at the time.
30 to 35 mpg back then was great nowadays we wish we can get close
I had a (not so) Reliant built in 1982. What a junker!!!!!!!!! It broke a crank key in the middle of a busy intersection in Puyallup,Wash. and left us stranded. It was so gutless that it wouldn't take me and my family up a steep hill in Edmunds,Wash.
My dad had an 81 Aries k the first year for these cars and it was definitely a bad trip everytime you turned a corner it would stall and take 5 to 7 minutes to get it going again the holley carburetor the car had was constantly flooding my dad had it to the dealership 6 times in the first year of ownership than parted with it and traded it for a 1982 pontiac 6000 se with a 2.8 litre 173ci v6 a much better car
Not a bad vehicle just a product of the times
I would love to find a 2.6 HEMI K-car and restore it, just to put the window sticker on the top of the front windshield that says "Ya, its Got A HEMI"!
Ahh my first car. 85 Reliant se with the HEMI mitsu 2.6 that I got in 2000 and saved it from the junkyard. It gave me 3 relatively reliable years of motoring. It couldnt pass emissions (drove with R sticker never got busted), it was a gas guzzler (15-21 mpg depending on the wearher) cuz it ran rich and the minuki carb was a black box. It dominated in the snow though! Best car Ive ever driven in the snow to this day! In the end it was done in by the nylon timing chain guides which the mitsu 2.6 was infamous for. Good memories but yea I wouldnt want to be driving it today.
Funny I remember reading that article on the I5 drive back in 1981 when I had subscribed to MT.My aunt and uncle had an 81' Reliant wagon and an 86' Reliant wagon and loved both of them.Moved on to a front drive New Yorker in 1990 and grabbed a 1994 Lebaron sedan as a 2nd car.All K based cars and other than a new transmission at 150000 miles on the New Yorker they never had a problem
As far as the loans go.The government guaranteed the loans.They made a nice commission when Chrysler paid the loans back early.
A friend of mine had a silver 4 door 2.2 turbo reliant.
He proceeded to take the badges off and continued to embarrass 5.oooohhhs and crapmaros daily
Did he do a swap? I have a 2 door reliant with a T3 turbo engine swap and it’s a beast. As far as I know no Reliant or Aries came with the turbo engine stock
Chrysler called them their universal car..that it was.everybody got one.
Long live the 225. Thanks Steve
My Father owned a few iterations of this car.
What year did the Omni come out? That would have been a better comparrison to the VW, Honda and Ford.
1978 and it ran through the 1990 model year.
I put a lot of miles on a Dodge 600 and a Reliant wagon - i enjoyed them (please don't hate me. I liked my Pinto too)
Pintos are the best.
My driver-training-school car was an early (1982?) Aries 2 door sedan, absolute base model 4 speed manual. The clutch and gear gearchange were awful compared to the 1978 Honda Civic that our family owned at the time. But, the K cars were everywhere back then. Practical, reasonably efficient, cheap to buy.
Ha, I was 9 yrs ahead of you.We had that ugly 74 Matador!lol thank God I don't think I ever seen one on the road!
I learned to drive in an Omni and Horizon!
my 81 dodge 2dsedan had one of the mentioned 4speeds....err 2 speeds. bought it with a "bad" trans. shift linkage worn out and half broken. would shift out of gear and go into reverse from inside the car but wouldn't go into any forward gears. from underneath it I put it in second gear and drove it everyday for a couple months. no tachometer but it really screamed at 55 in second gear. little slow off the line but it worked. motor finally let go and I had to walk 10 miles. came back to get it the next day and some bastard had stole it.
Back in the early 1990s, I bought a (if I recall correctly) 1986 Chrysler LeBaron 2 door as a cheap, winter beater with a heater. I think I paid a little over $1000 for it and figured I'd get my use out of it if it got me through until spring. That beater ended up staying around for nearly 3 years with just a set of tires, a rebuilt alternator and regular maintenance being my only investments. It was one of the best winter beaters I ever bought. It actually was a pretty nice car too. Rust ended up killing it eventually.
I had a 85 dodge k and enjoyed it. The floor shift in a 4 door seemed odd at first. I traded it and missed it. Like you , I prefer mopar.
They made more of the 4 speeds in 1981-1984. By 1985 most were the optional 3 speed automatics. And if you did see on with the manual transmission it was in the base K car, not the SE or LE models.
Thanks Steve! Like you I'm a big Mopar fan and Lee Iacoccoa was the top business man in my book.
My first car... inherited it running on 2.5 cylinders (zero compression in one, and half in another) Rebuilt the engine, put on some over-sized Tiger Paw tires I bought used, and got several years out of it, winter and summer. Eventually went to the wreckers when the front subframe cradle rusted in half... for the second time. :) Was a good car though... lots of memories.