My grandma had this car. She let me drive it when I was a kid. First time driving a stick shift. First time driving anything for that matter. Man how time flies.
I thought these were so cool! In 1997 I was on my way home from adopting a kitten when I saw one of those. I've never had an easy time naming but once I saw the Duster, looked at my kitten, I knew Duster was it! Fond memories :)
@@qmto These were actually very durable cars. The V6's were oil burners as the mileage got high, but both 2.2L 4cyl and 3.0L V6 powertrains were very reliable overall.
@@Stressless2023 they were, but it was due to the thermostat. My mother had the 2.5L in her 1992 Acclaim. It blew the head gasket at 160k. It cracked the head. So she had a new head, head gasket and thermostat put in for $800 and kept driving the car for a couple more years until it was rear ended at 182,000 miles.
I always liked the Sundance Duster. It looked sharp at the time. I love the dark green metallic with the beige interior. It was a little special and more than just your everyday economy car Sundance.
I had a 93 as my first car when I was 15 back in 2003 or 2004. It had a blown head gasket. My dad and I fixed it and my dad drove it every now and then until I got my license a year later. I had so much fun in that thing. I really miss it and wish I could find another one
This was my first car when I turned 16 - a then 2 year old 1993 Duster 2dr 5spd, but with the slow as molasses 2.5L 4cyl making 100hp at the crank. I washed that car at least once a week and scrubbed the body color painted wheels with a toothbrush!
I was 16 and just getting my drivers license when this car came out. I was really into Mustangs then and still am but I actually wanted this new Duster with a 5-speed manual.
My grandma bought a brand new 91 Dodge Shadow ES Turbo sedan. Red, and silver. Fully loaded with the infinity stereo system, 5 speed manual transmission, etc.
Although my mother didn't own a Chrysler (dad did buy an ex-fleet car Dynasty with that same engine though), at 76 she still prides herself on driving her manual equipped Subaru. None of her friends can drive a stick, so she loves that she can.
@@catjudo1 Love to hear that. My grandma is 84 and drives an 09 Chevy Cobalt 2-door that she bought new and she told me once not long ago that she feels like the oldest person on the road driving a coupe lol.
I had a 93 2dr V6 auto when I was 17. Green with tan interior. I loved that car. The 6 was a torque motor off the line but ran out of pep higher in the rpm’s. Had 2 12” MTX Blue Thunders in the hatch for my BASS. Lotta fun in that car!
Had a black 1993 2 door Duster with the 2.5 L 4 cylinder during my first year in grad school. Really wanted a V6 Duster/ Shadow or a Cavalier Z24 with the 3.1, but was still a fun car to drive. Unfortunately it was stolen a year later. Replaced it with a 1997 Geo Prizm LSI. Although I liked the design of the Duster better, the Toyota based Prizm was much more reliable.
Love these little cars! I got one a couple years ago and did an engine swap on it, much better power and performance vs the 2.5 that was in it. :) I will roll a sundance as long as I can! Early 90s Chrysler cars FTW!
Believe me, so do I, and I'm pretty determined to get one myself, I'm doing pretty fantastic with saving cash so far, and I will buy one for 1,900 bucks at least.
I recall thinking these were sharp looking cars with good performance. Looking at it as an economy model, I think it combines economy with sporty car well
i had a '93, 3L 5spd, in wineberry with a grey interior and i ordered mine with abs...little car was a rocket! at the time, the ford escort gt computer shut it off at 116mph, my friend had one, he thought it was fast...i had a LeBra on the front of mine and i lost it at 121mph one night...miss that car!
The Sundance Duster was introduced as a mid- year 1992 model and only lasted till 1994. Replaced by the Neon which didn't offer a V-6. A by-gone Era when you could buy performance in a economy car.
And the original Neon was a much less durable car if I remember correctly. It looked extremely modern and trendy by early-mid 90's standards and I remember many school kids in my class liking them (I was a senior in 94 when the Neon debuted), but I recall them being plagued with quality control issues from the get-go.
And now they are recycled long ago as something else. Maybe they were recycled years ago as some other mediocre Chrysler products like Dodge Status or Dodge Journey.
My aunt had a Sundance in pink liked that car she bought it used in late '97 from Mazda dealership also had relative had Shadow ES 2 door in green she loved that car didn't want nobody to eat inside she recently bought it new.
I had a 94 Shadow ES but with the 2.5 4cyl. Car was a turd, and gutless over 75mph. The 3 spd auto didn't help. But it was trouble free for the 50k miles I owned it.
@@mattgaudio3806 Which motor did it have? I had a '93 Shadow ES with the 3.0L that I bought brand new when I was 17 on a Burger King salary and aside from burning some oil after it was a couple years old I pushed that thing from 8 original miles to roughly 110k miles in 4 years with hardly a mechanical issue, although I do remember the tail light wiring having an issue where they stopped working or something. I remember the paint was starting to flake off the roof and the headliner was falling. Think I only got a thousand bucks when I traded it in lol.
…I remembered a classmate got a brand new dark green Duster coupe w/ auto transmission. He was pretty pleased w/ overall performance except a few minor built quality issues.
I remember these getting a bad rep locally. People said the Mitsubishi 3.0 V6 did not hold up. I fully enjoyed that engine - felt like a V8 to me as I was used to driving 80 hp sleds. But we had an 88 3.0 V6 Voyager that went 200k miles with zero engine issues (or any major ones iirc). Maybe the manual allows for too much revving? I did add some valve seal conditioner once to stop the smoking at idle when fully warmed up.. and it did stop it. But that was at 190k miles.
In 2023 dollars this is just under $24k for what was a solid car with decent performance. Cheap to own, practical. Build quality for the era was...on par. The Hondas and Toyotas of the time that people like to reference were way better in every metric. Performance models were not cheaper and were missing that thing needed for American roads: torque. For the money, this was a cool package. Do we have anything on the market today for $24k that satisfies this niche?
I owned both and rather have the Duster over the Neon. Those first Gen Neons were a mess with leaky window seals (lousy frameless design) and cheap head gaskets. By the time the Duster showed up, the Sundance was a mature product that had much better build quality than the Neon. Much preferred the hidden hatchback on the Duster to the trunk of my Neon as well. That V6 sounded so much better, too.
Before the Duster you could get a Sundance or Shadow with a 2.5 turbo 4-cylinder that was substantially more powerful than the V6 across the entire band. Never saw the point of this car.
I thought that as well or at least valvetrain noise. From a new car? I'll pass. I don't even care if its a press car. If it were Toyota or Honda it wouldn't be like this. Mitsubishi engine? OK. But nowhere as good as Toyota or Honda.
Wish they would've put the Chrysler-built 3.3 in this instead of that Mitsu junk. Chrysler had an agreement with Mitsubishi to use a certain number of these engines, and when the 3.3 came out the need for this engine went away, thus Chrysler came out with this "performance" Duster to fill the engine quota.
I drive one of these one time but not the V6. It was OK but not great. And yeah it did have rattles and squeaks. It was not my car but it was informing to drive it. Transportation built to a price that Toyota could improve on twice and still sell for slightly more.
When john mentioned the notch’s shifter and on again off again clutch, he meant it was miserable to drive. The choppy ride was punishing. This was a terrible choice. All the aunts and moms mentioned that bought one were car ignorant.
And compare to Honda Civic of the time and its easy to see why Detroit got its behind handed to it. They couldn't even take the time to refine the clutch and shifter to work better. Sloppy, cheap, and shoved out the door fast. And it will far apart fast.
Well to be fair, this was essentially a mid-80's economy car that slipped into the 90's only due to Chrysler being nearly broke by then and because sales were somehow still relatively strong, likely due to the "America" trim level price undercutting most competitors at the time. I was one of the "car ignorant" kids who bought one of these brand new at 17 years old in 93 simply due to it looking relatively cool to me and being cheaper than a Chevy Cavalier Z24, and I remember having a mostly positive experience for the 4 years that I abused it lol. Had a Shadow ES with the 3.0L and only paid about 8 grand for it. I guess experiences may vary.
@@Stressless2023 I didn't know how bad they were either, I was brainwashed into thinking that the American cars like this were actually better than the Civics, etc. of the day. The America trim level was indeed more affordable than any other car. I did some research recently and it's in the car reviews (not great news to be sure) that the Tercel of the day rode better, was much easier to drive (clutch/shifter), got slightly better gas mileage, and was slightly faster, sounded better, and more importantly lasted at least 4 times as long. Due to its better handling, steering and suspension, it could be argued that it was safer too.
@@jkeelsnc Exactly. How hard would it be for them to take a 15 year old Civic back then and ask the engineers to make a buttery smooth clutch and shifter that is almost as good as this $50, 15 year old Civic taken from the junkyard that barely runs, but is still easy to drive in traffic. "Gentlemen, this is your benchmark!" I mean, they didn't have to go to a strange foreign country in search of utopia to get such an example of refined shifting/clutching. They didn't have to reach 15 years into the future. A Civic with a blown engine, a rolling pile of rust, that coasted to its final stop in front of one of the Chrysler manager's driveways would have been sufficient for them to examine and wonder how they could copy that smoothness in clutching, shifting, and accelerating.
@@new2000car lol!!!! I do agree. Too much pride is likely the problem. They feel bad having to copy someone else. So they re-invent the wheel and do a bad job of it. Never mind that copying designs is normal practice in Asian societies and then augment and improve from there.
A long dead Chrysler brand. By the 90's it was completely redundant. At one time Plymouth = entry level, Dodge = mid range, Chrysler = Top of the line (closer to Lincoln or Cadillac). By this time in the early 90's they were still stuck in the bucket of mediocrity that they had descended into during the 1970's.
@@jkeelsnc I always thought the Plymouth brand would have survived had they left the PT Cruiser as a Plymouth like it was originally intended until the last minute. That ugly thing was such a sales hit that the Plymouth brand probably would have become a household name again in the 2000's.
Are You Serious?!?!? Chrysler's Plymouth Motor Division arguably made some of the best Sports and Police Cars from the late 50's through the 70's Ever created on This Planet!!!!! 😎
Just give me one with the 225 Slant Six tower of power (and it is anything but because the 225 was super reliable but slow as a turtle) or a 318 for a little more power and I'll be good.
