1982 Plymouth Reliant Wagon | Retro Review 

Not enough gauges!!!!!

\sarcasm much

👋😂👍

It looks and sounds like this review was a punishment for him.

Wouldnt you be? A Reliant wagon, with fakewood applique no less..

GM did the same thing with the Malibu/Century/etc cars of the same era. Vent wing windows only back there in the sedans and wagons from 1978 until 1983.

@@TakuroSpirit77 Yep, my grandparents bought a brand-new '78 Malibu, imagine my displeasure as I, being 6 years old at the time, tried to put the rear windows down, I was like "pap-pap there's no crank for the window" lol

@@MS3DALE back in '82 my dad rented a Century for a trip. It actually had power rear vent windows.

Gotta love the lengths Detroit will go to save a buck.

@@themastergamer1437 Then they cried about the Japanese.

lol... with this, you just won the "compare the 80's US and Japanese car industry with one summarizing statement" award!! :)

@@Frenchie100 ironic considering new Mitsubishi’s and their engines aren’t as reliable as they used to in fact now they’re unreliable

Mitsubishi fell hard. I do miss them. I'm never parting with my 1990 Eclipse AWD turbo

It's funny that you mentioned that, considering that the Mitsubishi 2.6L was not as reliable as the 2.2L Chrysler engine was.

@@joskjj3625 In fact you are wrong their engines are much better now

Must have been the "Squire wood tones". 😁😁😁

This is as loaded as they came without moving to a T&C.

When I was a kid my family bought their first ever car with air conditioning in 1985. in those days ac and a am/fm tape deck made it a fully loaded car

It would be around $31,000 in today’s money.

@@robertusa1234 My dad didn't buy a car with A/C and a cassette player until '88 when he bought a Chevy Corsica, it turned out to be damn good car, It lasted 20 years and 248,000 miles!

Nice 😀

Soon it will have a drivers floor

2.6 hemi powered

Yes it is a 2.6L engine!

@Allen P I was there, I saw him laugh out loud

DDM7406 - me as well. Now? Except for the fake wood...I think they look refreshing. But then - I am COMPLETELY sick of jelly bean cars.

@Allen P nah. It wasn’t too loud. Should have gone with a more understated hehe.

@@colinsmith364 I saw him too.

Parts of the K chassis persisted into the 2000s Chrysler minivans.

Yep, @@questioner1596, as did a variation of the Fox (Fairmont/Zephyr) chassis persist into 2004 for the Mustang.

Alot of the K-Cars and their offspring were a big part of my mom's side of the family in the 80s through the 2000s, I grew up around soo many of them and I owned a 1985 Dodge Lancer with the 2.2, it was a very easy car to fix.

the same could be said for the aspen/volare and the ruster/demons....

Yet another reason to hate K cars...they helped Chrysler stay in business in order to keep producing crap and causing endless suffering for consumers to this day

😁😀😅😂🤣

RIGHT? I nearly spit up my soup lol

Weight cutting, fuel efficiency.

My 84 Reliant wagons rear windows would go down like 2/3rds of the way.

GM did the SAME THING on it's mid sized sedans starting in 1978.

Had one also, it never failed me. I traded a gutless BMW 320 i for it, the kids came along. The Dodge was more enjoyable to drive.

you must have been a bad kid..

My current car is a 1985 Dodge Aries wagon. (I just iwish it was burgundy with exterior wood paneling. It would look 100 times better, more presentable and fancier.)

Yeah the 2.6 mitz had a bad habit of overheating and warping the heads. I owned a 86 Dodge Aires le. Comfortable enough I'm over six foot /two hundred pounds. Solid car. Replaced CV boots and a battery. Good litte run around.

@@Snake-ms7sj maybe jimmy hoffa was in there somewhere

Try that today..

With all the features and electronics thrown in.

And the occupants of this 2800lb wagon would also be killed by a slight fender bender. Watch a crash test of an 80s eco box and you’ll see what I mean. Safety was not a priority or even a consideration.

We are a vanishing breed. At this point, I'd at least like to know if it has a transmission fluid dipstick.

The Escort was better... But not by much.

Dealer prep should have found that.

Not your fault, but this was an unpleasant reminder that I am almost 40 as well. Blergh.

They'll roll down sometime in the model year; "we know we dun goofed, but we're using up the parts on hand before fixing things".

@@nlpnt If Iacocca could sell a car with only three tires to save a buck he would.

@ZZ Go ask one. Why do you ask?

Weight reduction. Remember the oil embargo was in the late seventies. Shave weight to meet government fuel efficiency rating. Also lots of wagons didn't get roll down windows till the mid eighties

Great story, so much truth lol

Toyota's what?

And that is the same story repeated millions of times by US auto consumers, which is why the "Big Three" are where they're now, as well as why Toyota is where it is at.

Said it before....Americans didn't abandon the Big-3...they abandoned us!

The 2 6 mitz was notorious for overheating and warping the heads.

Check out my 88 5 speed reliant coupe

I feel like they're making a gradual, but slow comeback. The C8 Corvette, the new Bronco/bronco sport and Maverick, the RAM TRX, GM's triplet SUVs, the F-150 and it's other variants, Cadillac CT4 and CT5 V Black wing, etc. It's just Chrysler as a sub-brand of FCA (or stellantis) that hasn't recovered. One old car that is always on the brink of being discontinued, and two versions of the same minivan with different names and similar base model features. Even Infiniti, which isn't doing so well either, is doing better than Chrysler when it comes to car models. They need more models, even if they're going to be rebadged Jeeps or Peugeots.

@Donovan Lewis Honda doesn’t have an electric vehicle here in the US and they’re doing just fine.

@@damilolaakanni with all due respect - it's been 40 years! That's more than a slow comeback. The U.S. automotive industry NEVER got small(er) cars... as a matter of fact they never got that with trucks for that matter...the average American pick up truck has gotten bigger by 30% over the last 20 years. Those tanks are bigger than my old man's 1960 👈! Ford Sunliner. Sad. Times are a changing... electric is coming and even that is slow. Weight being the evil denominator. Average weight on most ESUV's exceeds 4500 lbs.. Lotta moving mass - tire companies are happy...

@Donovan Lewis I’m not just talking about their EV or Hybrids, I’m talking about the company in general including their ICE vehicles. I’ve tried to look and all I found was a 60% dip in production for August and 34% sales dip in India but overall Q1 profits were in the positive (I couldn’t find anything with Q2). Yes I understand with the chip shortage vehicle manufacturers are suffering, all of them, but Honda seems to be staying afloat when others can’t even bring in vehicles to dealerships (Ford, Daimler, Chevrolet, Toyota, VW, etc).

@Donovan Lewis Ehhhhh. WRONG.

He should have made you walk home.

@@iamgermane Why, in the Netherlands we appreciate that honesty very much, also from our children.

Unless you’re allowed later to go beat the hell out of it in an empty parking lot !!!

@@quad5186 They're not even fun to beat on. Thankfully they're nearly extinct. They aren't missed.

@@stevebot It's like bullying a weaker kid.

It's so neutral, it nullifies itself into a brownish-tan oblivion...

Unless it is a japanese K-car.

Just like my dad's 82 Buick Regal 4 door with the wing windows.

GM a-bodies didnt open either.and chrysler b bodies from the 70s only rolled 1/2 way down.

@Modine Accord, Civic, Mazda3 and 6, Toyota Corolla and Camry....

Inflation and interest rates were brutal back then, hence the high price. And 12% APR was a steal on a car loan back then lol. Then this piece of crap would literally have pieces of it falling off long before the loan was paid off. Its why everybody drove tiny crapboxes back then, nobody could afford anything better.

its so cheap to redo a halfshaft you wouldn't believe it- i'm sure the warranty company is alive and well

when i worked at a nissan store the customers would bring in their cars and say the same thing about their doors binding. the scene was always the same- the door hinges and lock/strikers just slathered with grease and no lube on the DOOR CHECK LINK. that pesky check link. "i didn't know that was there"

"Some classic cars are just regular cars." Mr. Regular

look at all the ones that are still on the road...

@@tommurphy4307 I don't see very many of them. And I live in a no-rust state.

That line took me out😂😂😂💀💀💀

Just about ALL American sedans/wagons from 1977-1986 had "....long, straight, slab sides”. Until the "areo" era at Ford took over, The "K" cars were simply smaller versions of a standard sedan/wagon of it's time. Not a revolutionary look, But absolutely "in style" at the time. Why John had to point out this fact on THIS car is odd. The GM FWD "A" bodies that came out the same year were ALSO square boxes, and likewise mainly had - "uninteresting", egg crate grilles. 🤷‍♂️ as did the 1982 Ford Granada, Mercury Cougar.........And just about every OTHER car.

If they wanted to impress John they'd have made at least one with full gauges. He'll overlook almost anything if he's distracted by lots of little needles bouncing around.

No you wouldn't... But it would definitely give you an appreciation of modern cars.

I got a 5 speed Reliant coupe im restoring

imagine bangin' the gears in that old turd....

Couldn’t possibly agree more. Utter piles of unreliable garbage back then, still are.

My Grandpa had a '78 LeBaron, than an '85 Diplomat SE, both with the 318 motor. These were nice driving, comfortable cars. Compared to the other newer stuff back then, these were nice cars, and would leave the little front drive rattle traps in the,dust going up a mountain

@@Dutillac01 lotta people back then (and today too) still stuck on the stupid idea of brand loyalty and just don't learn. How many years didn't we hear those lies about Honda's and Toyotas being too expensive to repair and won't start in the winter.

You like to live dangerously? Selling a K-car to your manager? Wow.

Task failed successfully. Most of them lasted way longer.

5 years? Jeez, he wasn't very confident... or correct. I still see the occasional K-car buzzing around my area, mostly in the form of old Reliants and LeBarons driven by old ladies making their weekly supermarket runs.

In Mexico there are still many K-Cars on the streets. those "engineers" were a little bad

lots of em made it all the way to KASH-FOR-KLUNKERS

@@araizachristian3920 when they sell them they get top dollar in cuba

if it was lightning and thundering a Caddy Cimarron review would be appropriate

"The car that saved Chrysler".... I don't see how. They have gone bust and have been absorbed more than once since the K-Car. The poor quality of these K-Cars turned people off to the brand, too.

I think the most depressing moment had to be as you signed your name for it.

you could get your mind off of it by filling your tank with gas for $10.

In '82 you were likely to be looking at 7% to 15% interest too. I think it was around this time that Chrysler introduced a revolutionary new idea to new car sales, rebates.

I had the same thought. The headlight glow, and fog combination made it look that way from a distance!

The model after this looked a lot like that

you mean, like, from 10 miles away??

Exactly! They looked worn out from the factory 😂

@@nate678 yup...never understood why they were do saggy. Cheap is one thing, pathetic is another.

Those shocks had to support themselves?

@@skbuydens7717 yep they were living at home with Mom and Dad for too long it was time to go out and make a living for themselves

@@nate678 hehehehe.silly boy😁

its okay- that company is gone- died with or without your $$

The 2.2 came with a 4 speed but the optional 2.6 was automatic only.