Great Video. Very informative. My first brand new car was a 1985 Turismo. Got the Duster Package with the 2.2, 5-speed stick and upgraded stereo. After it died, I put the center console in my 1987 Horizon. Fit perfectly and I needed the cup holders. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.
@@michaelatkins9780 Actually David Freiburger was IN FAVOR of more Roadkill's Junkyard Gold. It was the arrival of Decision Makers from the merger with Velocity Channel that snuffed my little junkyard show in favor of "scripted reality" stuff. Long Live RU-vid!!!! Thanks for watching and writing. -Steve Magnante
@@SteveMagnante Bean Counter's 😡 Some people spend 40 thousand dollars on a newer truck?? Some spend 40 thousand on a 1970s and early truck ..... One's transportation to a point on a map ??? One's an adventure to a destination ☺️ you have to decide what you want??? Happy motoring 🤠✌️ Keep up the great episodes 👌👏👏👏
Yupper!! What a blast of a car when I was a kid, 1979 Plymouth Horizon TC-3!!! HUT WAIT ✋️!!! A VOLKSWAGEN RABBIT ENGINE FROM THE FACTORY 😮. yes sir!! With a 5-speed stick transmission. And when my father finally sold it, it had over 500k miles on it!!! Then came the Dodge Omni GLH. Another great handling car, and fun to drive!!! Thanks Steve for another great video!!
Looked at these back in '85. Test drove and scrutinized a lot of cars. Checked out the fit and finish, and it was a no-brainer. Bought a new Toyota Celica. Glad I did.
My Grandmother bought a brand new Omni in 1983. I had the “pleasure” of driving it several years later. That carbureted 2.2 could barely get out of its own way. I mean it was GUTLESS. I worked as a mechanic years ago and did many a head gasket job on these along with timing belts.
I loved junkyard gold and I liked your model car show to. I recently found you here and love it steve. My brother had one of those challengers with the Mitsubishi engine, totol pile, always had issues. I like when you bring out the model kits , Im assuming they're all yours. Ive been building model car kits since the mid 70s
Very fond memories of these cars, had 2 of them, both '84s. Charger and Turismo. Almost nothing interchanges with the K cars (and variants) beyond the long block and transmissions, from the mounts out they are different. My personal experience with this was having parted out a Daytona Shelby and putting all the go-fast bits into the Turismo... lots of cutting, welding, improvising. The factory service manuals for any given thing had 2 sketches, one labeled "E, G, H, J, K, P body" and the other "L body". It was lightweight, fast and a death trap of a car but we survived until the tin worm got her. This segment is completely gone now unfortunately - 2 door economical runaround type car with sporting pretensions but super practical (the hatch was huge with seats folded down). That particular Turismo is a Frankenstein car. The 2-door L's went quad headlight in '84, but it has an 86+ hatch (with CHMSL). Guessing the hatch was swapped, as I did the same myself at one point so I wouldn't give myself tetanus lifting it up.
I worked for a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership in 1979. The Horizons and TC-3s would literally sell right off the truck! They weren't bad little cars. Fairly peppy, tight and handled pretty well. Also the four door Horizon was very roomy on the inside. Front wheel drive meant they handled snow real well here in New Hampshire. ( back in the day when the only people driving SUVs were farmers! ) The only engine available in '79 was the VW 1.7. My parents bought a base model to replace their "65 Belvedere (that I still own) that they drove for many years. As a matter of fact my wife and I would borrow the Horizon whenever we went to Boston and wanted a car that was good on gas to putter around in traffic. It got around 38 miles to the gallon; again it was a stripper model. Great video as always Steve and keep referencing scale model cars. As a young boy in the sixties, I learned all about cars by building models. Thanks!
I wish you would have linked to the front wheel drive French Chryslers you mentioned. I looked in play list but over 400 videos couldn't find a reference. I take exception to front wheel drive Chrysler not having Rabbit DNA. When I first married in the 80's due to poverty. We had several Rabbits then Omnis/ Horizons finally a 86 Charger. I wrenched on all and found the Chrysler products just 20% larger copies. Junk yard crawl always brings a memory and a smile as we are the same age and saw the same cars
Great videos Keep it up! And like you took out the old Motor Trend. I used to go to my local library to read those motor trends. Also cool dog in seat in the back ground.
I was born in 1972 so I grew up with these cars, so i didn't hate them like you do. Plus with little weight the small engines beat any old charger with a slant 6 in a straight line and theough the twisties, now would i have loved a v8...of course but these little things could move decently for the slow 80's times!
Steve, I really enjoy your videos however, at times I find myself looking at cars in the background as well and thinking…I hope he does a video on that one too !
Hey! Love this channel! My first car was a Plymouth TC-3 horizon! That giant back window. Ugh. I bought louvers for that window is was enormous! But the car was good. 5-speed and it was loaded. But traded it for a RS Camaro.👍
Hello Steve ! Beings you an I are of the same model year I always thought we where ripped off by Detroit. I agree, cars in the our youth where depressing! I guess that’s why I went to the pickup truck side. I do appreciate the conversation that these cars are what I call a crap sandwich.... the crap from the middle. To bring us back to some factory performance cars we enjoy now. ( Loved my 1985 Fox body Mustang 5.0 liter 5 speed convertible) , BUT at least a 20 something young person could actually afford a new car and a new car often back then, these days, buying a performance car now is like buying a house ! Your excellent show makes me realize I owned way to many cars in my life !
I had an Omni O24 in the mid 1980s. It was an efficient commuter and fun with the stick shift. I had a welder put tabs on the front to attach a tow bar and towed it behind my Class C camper. Unfortunately I rolled them in a blizzard in Utah. The camper was destroyed but the Omni looked pretty good when I inspected it sitting on its side in the soft snow. But when we pushed it over onto it's wheels it was so bent that one rear tire was up off the ground. That car went straight to the junk yard.
Bought a used O24 as my first car, black with gold wheels, sunroof and the rear spoiler, not a bad looking little car but it was a real lemon. The future is all the past.
I am about your age Steve. Back in the early 80's I had a black 73 340 Challenger. In the late 80's I got married and wound up with a black 85 2.2 Turismo. Oh how the times had changed 😪
The 2.2, 2.5’s had forged cranks and rods, and the turbo cars had forged pistons. They’re no 426 Hemi but they are tough engines that you can make a bunch of power out of
I was 16-17 when I got hired to move these cars to the mall for a weekend sale. I grew up in SW Michigan, and they were the turbo version with 5 speeds. As kids, we drove them like they were stolen. We thought they were pretty bad ass. I do remember the manager tell us to watch our speed because the speedo/odometers weren’t hooked up! Which years later I learned a lot of dealers got in trouble for. Thanks for the memory jogger Steve!
Correct, the "L" body actually saved Chrysler by giving them a small car offering through the 1979 gas crisis and keeping them "solvent" (albeit with taxpayer help) until the K car could make them profitable. Not entirely correct on the Rabbit and L body cars---they both used the VW designed and built 1.7L engine for a time. Correct, wrong car at the wrong time and the wrong distribution system. Chrysler used a "push" distribution system which as noted previously led to weird combinations of trim, engine, and body color being pushed out to dealers to sell, rather than a "pull" system of "you spec it, we build it". This led to Chrysler having months of unsold inventory which sapped cash flow. One of the first things Mr. Iacocca did was get rid of that system. That's correct, they are both "Sperlich Specials" in that Hal Sperlich who came from Ford with Mr. Iacocca used the K car platform to spin off many variants. While boring as you state, this was what was needed at Chrysler at the time. Correct on the VIN for the win: 1B3 for US made Dodge, B for manual seat belts, 74 for Dodge Charger, C for 2.2L four cylinder with two barrel, 0 is a check digit, F for the 1985 model year, D for Belvidere, IL assembly and the rest is the production sequence. The Belvidere plant operated from 1965 until February 2023 and is on indefinite shutdown as of this writing. The used car dealer that sold it at one time, Leon L. Sirum still operates at 295 Deerfield Street in Greenfield, MA. Correct, the "CHMSL" as it's called in the industry (Center High Mount Stop Light) was a requirement for all cars from 1986 onward (although some 1985 cars had them).
@@googleusergp Not required on light trucks, SUVs and vans until 1994 model years. AMC Eagles were classified by EPA as "multipurpose vehicles" and not passenger cars and did not have stop lamps, per the U.S. DOT FMVSS.
Hey Steve. In High School 1978 we had our version of a Scatpack on the El Camino Real in Santa Clara Cal. We had a pack of Dodge Darts. All 340's cruzin in a pack of 5 or 6 on Friday Nights. Our parking lot where we staged was a Flower shop, so we would say "meet you at the Flower shop"
Had an 87 Charger like that, 5 speed 2.2. Made just a few mods with the help of the engine man in the dealership I worked at, I could outrun a turbo car with my na motor. It was a fun little car at the time, brings back memories.
I still have my 1985 Shelby Charger and 1987 Charger GLHS. Both cars have been very dependable. If you keep up with maintenance, they will last forever.
I tried looking for these and the Omni counterparts in the early 90s. All were ragged out and the owners/abusers were asking way too much for the condition.
I had an blue/silver '84 Shelby Charger (non-turbo). I used to joke that when I turned the air conditioner off I was engaging turbo mode. Joking aside, the car was extremely light and nimble. I can run 16 sec 1/4 miles all day long.
My sister got a 79 024 for her graduation present. I think it was $6,000 I loved that car it was great on fuel. In 89 my mother-in-law had a 79 glhs that thing was pretty quick for a 4 banger. It had the nastiest torque steer I ever experienced in a vehicle
One thing most people don’t know about the little 2.2 motors is if you put high octane fuel in them they come alive. 94 octane and they are faster than most sport cars in the small car market at the time. If you go crazy and put 111 octane in them even a K car will give a 5.0 fox body Misty’s run for it’s money going up steep mountain highways. If you doubt it. Try it. You can also liven up a Chevy 2.8 V6 this way. Not quite as much as the 2.2 though. I don’t recommend putting 111 octane in a k car very often though. We also put 10w-40 oil in both the 2.2 and 2.8 before we went crazy on the octane to try and give a bit more protection. These were our daily drivers away back in the late 90’s and early 2000’s.
Loved my dad's 024 1.1 and Charger. 1.3? I owned a small charger, sun roof and on highway got 45 mph at 60 ...my current Challenger is the size of 3 of these and 6 times the engine....
My family in the 80s was riddled with these. Our family reunion looked like a Dodge/plymouth/chrysler dealership. I do remember turning off the AC so we could pass a car on the highway.
I had a Turismo. It was a sharp little car and pretty decent until it got about 75,000 miles at which point it pretty much just laid down in the middle of the road and said, "Uh, uh. That's it. I ain't goin' no further." That was the last American-made car I owned.
I bought a new 85 charger 2.2 5speed manual, white, red interior and had the black stripes and decal on the hood and factory spoilers, it came new with goodyear gt tires too! It was a awesome little car! Great gas mileage and I put over 300,000 miles on it only had to replace the timing belt once and put new CV joints in it, couldn't ask for a better car!
I bought a 82 Rampage new. 2.2L, 4 speed. Black with little red pin stripe. 65-75 mph in second gear of the light. Very quick off the light. Sports car dudes had to pass me balls out so a pick-up wouldn’t beat them. Fun stuff.
4 Headlights came starting with the 1984 facelift.Except for the Shelby Charger which ran the 2 light style until the end.Also the sport model Charger 2.2 came out in mid 1981 model year..4 speed stick only.
I’ve been lucky enough to own two 024’s. The first had a blown engine. I swapped a 1.6 Rabbit engine into it. The second was a 2.2 and it tried to kill me twice. Once by losing electrics at 65 mph. And finally by losing brakes at 65 mph on the same road. Despite that I miss those cars.
"Bad Memories" sums it up! My first car in college, a Plymouth TC3. It wasn't college that put me in debt, it was trying to keep the TC3 running that did! Aluminum head, underpowered, weak overall, doors that would and would not open when they wanted to....but a good looking body for what was out there. Thanks for the "Bad Memories" Steve and Shane, Glad to see you made it up the hill to these building blocks in Chrysler's story!
My home town police department acquired a handful of the L-bodies circa 1980-81 for use as unmarked traffic law enforcement. Not sure if the acquisition had anything to do with an attempt by other city departments to force the police to replace their aging fleet of six cylinder Volaris with K-cars because folks in the water and other municipal agencies liked them better. Anyway, obviously not pursuit material like the big block powered Satellites they’d had in the fleet only a few short years before. A friend in high school made the mistake of passing one on a four lane thoroughfare in his jacked up, glass packed, Dodge Demon one day (broad daylight) and was extremely surprised at the red light that lit up on the dash of the little Plymouth. I don’t remember how long that program lasted as the L-bodies were popular and the “police” versions were so “off the dealer lot” that they were undistinguished from the civilian owned cars. I just know that I was fortunate not to get pulled over. I doubt that they even had any special police upgrades. They would have only been pulling a Motorola radio, maybe a handheld radio and flashlight charger, and a bubble dash light - no big alternator burdening light bars. The older radios did pull a lot of juice so maybe there was an alternator upgrade. Who knows. A footnote in the history of the L-body.
Back in 77 and 78 on my way to work at a chevy dealer , I would be in traffic with a short bus in front of me every morning. I couldn't escape this thing. In the right rear window I had to watch this wacko pulling his lips apart. Big huge tongue slapping around and givin me the bird too. The funny thing is he looked like steve. For 2 years this happened. Anytime I see steve I remember this sad souls face
my friend had the black\silver charger with the turbo. it would get up and go prity good. he had it for about 30 yrs. and another friend had the dodge daytona . bright orange ish red. lee did a good job reviving this company.
My sister had a Turismo. She wrecked it, dad and I fixed it. Then Mom drove it for years. She knew she had to check the gas, but fill the antifreeze. LOL. Head gasket was bad for a decade.
When first married I had a Ram charger 4X4, I was driving work truck and wife was driving Ram to university. She loathed driving that big thing! Traded it on Plymouth horizon, decent car the only real problem was it went through two sets of CV axles in five or six years. After that it was Dodge caravans, two of them hauling kids and stuff !!!!!
i know a lady that traded a triple dark green 73 charger se for a 79 024 . She was ridiculed for years ,............realizing it was a huge mistake became quite bitter , and never bought another Chrysler product ..............
Oh! Yep remember these! But those dodge omini's glh sticks in mind//// impressive( goes like hell) In shelbys hands of course( a little sleeper of a car! - Thanks Steve!
I had the '79 Omni 024 with the VW 1.7l gas engine with a 4-speed... That was a bullet-proof car I bought for $50 in '90 needing a choke pull-off. Never did find the redline! Kept pulling until my gearhead ear said shift. Beyond 9k rpm, easily.
Could have gotten an '87 a few years back supposedly from Arizona. But, didn't feel like I could afford it. Poor thing ended up sitting out in several Iowa winters before it disappeared. Damn shame.
The Philadelphia police actually used the square Omni 2.2's as inner city units because they were actually better than the bigger St Regis and Lebaron/Diplomat M bodies in the narrow streets.
Like you said Steve those where the dark times of the automotive industry, specially for the American car companies. But the Shelby edition cars where pretty peppy and quick! I remember getting smoked by one of those back in 1989! I had a New Cavalier z24 at the time, and thought I could take you!! The guy a Dodge Omni Shelby GLH-S! And he smoked me!! I couldn’t even catch him! He was gone! 👋😂👍
