The K-Car single-handedly saved Chriysler in the 80s, and went on to underpin almost everything they did for 14 years! Do you remember the K-car? Have a good (or bad) story to share of your memories?
I don't have a K car story, but a K car derivative story. My dad owned a 93 2.5 turbo II J body Lebaron coupe that was 10 years ahead of its time in Mexico. I was fascinated by its technology back then and got into cars due to this car and my dad. Today, I'm about to buy a 93 Lebaron coupe to restore it like my dad's old car...
Since I grew up in the 80's I have a lot of first hand experience with K cars. I learned to drive in a Plymouth Caravelle in Drivers Ed and at the time my parents owned a Reliant. Later that got traded in for an Aries and over the years they also owned a Shadow and Caravan. My first car was a turbocharged Dodge Lancer, my brother's was a Shadow and my sister owned a Spirit. Other friends and relatives also drove K cars. For the most part they were simple cars with comfortable interiors that were easy to drive. They were a great value and had decent reliability as long as the odometer didn't get too close to 100k.
The only thing that saved Chrysler was the government buying hundreds of thousands of these rolling nightmares and forcing military personnel to endure using those crap boxes. God they were terrible.
A friend of mine had a Plymouth Reliant,.actually it was his mom's car. Plain Jane and small but did its job with no complaints and served her well till she bought another K platform car Dodge Shadow. My friend is 6 foot seven and had no problems driving the car. He said he had plenty of room. Not bad for a car that today would look miniscule compared to the vehicles of today.
I spent 45 years working for Chrysler Corporation dealers service and parts departments, starting in 1969. In the late 70s we didn't know if we were going to have a product to sell the next year. The change in the company when Iacocca took over was like night and day. If you had worked for a Chrysler dealer and left for a few years returning in the early 80s you would have thought it was a different company. The K Car platform was fairly easy to service and the advantage to sharing across several models was that when working on the powertrain they were pretty much all the same. As the engineers said they had several bodes all on the same platform. I was fortunate enough to meet Iacocca several times. I have a award that he presented to me for superior customer satisfaction when I had the highest fix it right score in my zone for 5 years running.
That is awesome, I think Iaccoca was a legend in the car industry. I would have loved to have met him and picked his brain. That speech to Congress was awesome, saving your job.
When Warranty Actually cared enough to Acnowlege and Properly Pay The Techs. Now they Treat Us like Assholes,Warranty Times are a joke and they do every thing thay can to deny dealer warranty repair claims.
@@boisegameshowguythey’ve not done anything since Eaton and then Daimler took over. Eaton was the one who took Chrysler back down this road in the first place.
The only way Jimmy Carter was going to allow Chrysler to get the loan was if the entire board of directors was replaced. Carter agreed to give the loan on one condition, Chrysler had to have new management. In the seventies, it was old men who were set in their ways who didn't want to change with the times.
My uncle was a fairly wealthy aerospace executive on the west coast. In 1992, he bought a 4-year-old K car at an auction as his primary and only driver. He was a big and tall guy so it must have been funny for people to see him getting in and out of that small car. But anyways he kept it until the year 2005. It was a 1988 model and it was being driven for 17 years total. He ended up getting rid of it after the head gasket blew. He always said it was a good little car. The next car he bought was a used Chevrolet Impala.
Chrysler did NOT get those loans from the government, however, the federal government guaranteed the loans as a co-signer and they were paid back in FULL and EARLY!
That is correct. What Chrysler got from the Federal government were loan “guarantees” not loans. Banks provided the funding. The government would only have to pay the banks if Chrysler defaulted on the loans...which they didn't. It cost the government absolutely nothing!
I was a recently hired designer for Chrysler and was assigned to work on the interior of the K Car. I was there when Sperlich and Iacocca joined the company. Sperlich was a great product guy with lots of great ideas. He loved to come into the design studios and check out the sketch proposals that filled the walls. He was the key person who inspired the K Car platform and all its derivatives. It was a surprise and caused a bit of confusion when Iacocca brought in Bob Lutz who took away some of Sperlich's responsibilities. Lutz became primarily responsible for the truck side of the business which led to the revolutionary design changes to the Dodge Truck lineup, and sales jumped dramatically. Another surprising development was when Lutz later took responsibility for all products and Hal Sperlich left the company. It was hard to believe, but Iacocca didn't let personal relationships keep him from making tough decisions. Lutz was instrumental in introducing products like the LH cars and Viper along with the second generation minivans. Believe me when I say those were the good days! Chrysler was getting one design award after another and sales were solid. But all good things must end and eventually Chrysler was taken over by Daimler-Benz!
I have fond memories of the 1983 (or ‘84) Dodge Aries wagon we had when I was a kid. Those blue velour bench seats were so comfortable! It was a base model with 4-on-the-floor. As a kid I remember riding home from church in the front middle seat, getting to “shift” the gears with my Dad’s massive hand over mine on the shifter. It was the perfect car for our family because it was only a few years old and was very well maintained when they purchased it; we ended up having it for 15 years! There’s so many great memories in that car. They’re certainly not “classics” but because of the nostalgia, I will always miss that Gray Dodge Aries with the powder blue interior.
familycarshow, I had the exact same car. It has the 4 cylinder "Iron Duke" motor. Great car. I sold it and to this day, I go to bed with tears in my eyes (well maybe not, but it makes the story more powerful)....
We had a 1982 Plymouth Reliant Wagon. It had the Mitsubishi 2.6 and 3 speed auto. It was my parents first new car in 10 years, and the first with AC and an FM radio. We loved the car and I would eventually have handed down to me. It was retired at 447k kms (yes, with an engine rebuild and tranny). I went everywhere in that car. It took me and my friends everywhere too. It was a POS but it had a ton of space and it was very comfy, and started up even when it was really cold.
My parents bought a Plymouth Voyager back when it was on the K-platform. It was a pretty decent van until the transmission died. Fortunately it was still under warranty, so they got it fixed and then sold it right after.
I had a K Car. My parents gave me the 1981 Plymouth Reliant. A four door sedan (family car) when they bought a new one in 1984. I drove it until 1994 (when I bought a Plymouth Neon). The car was a dog on hills (like a VW bus). I took good care of, even as a high schooler and college kid. It finally became unsafe to drive when I moved to California, and also it could not take the faster freeways in California (the rust from the New York State wiinters finally ate up the unibody). I had that car through the end of high school. It went to college with me. Grad school, came with me when I moved to California. It handled excellent in the northeast winters on the ice and snow. Chrysler products back then: you had to do the maitenance EXACTLY as the owners manual said. Change the oil every 3000 miles. Get the salt off the undercarriage from the winter. Flush the radiator........stuff like that. It was a good car, and holds some very happy memories. I wish I had one one now. They are just about GONE. I remember a time (late 1980's) when they seemed to be EVERYWHERE on the roads. Great video!!! Iaccoa (RIP). It was a good car. No, not flashy but it did its job. Really miss it now. Must have had almost 300K miles by the time I bought the Neon in 1994.
Dear sir, I’m 50 years old and have grown up in the Chrysler K car era. My father worked at Chrysler and built them from 1981 to 1988. H( he worked at the Newark, Delaware assembly plant) I have owned them and most of my family has owned them from new. I currently own 4, they are my toys. I show them at car shows and by doing so they draw a lot of attention. I you are interested in learning more I can assist in that from personal experience.
Dude. I was around when K-Cars were new. They were of marginal build quality , substandard durability, fair reliability, and seriously substandard styling. You don't wish you could have one. They were entirely forgettable and would not be remembered but for the fact that they saved Chrysler from death and they spun off the even more deficient minivans. .
More than 3-1/2 million K-cars were sold in its original form through 1989, the k spinoffs continued until 1995. The later varients had few problems. The '81 Ks were a bit light because Chrysler was still scared of bankruptcy, but running changes improved them. Chrysler nameplate versions have become a nostalgia collector car. Compared to the GM X-car or the Ford Tempo, the K-car has its fans today.
But the formula remains something that's missing today, a basic car with minimal gizmos that is comfortable and reliable reliable enough to be driven around with less emphasis on weird styling and fake luxury and more on basic (but not tiny) transportation. There used to be even very large cars that used to this formula like the Biscayne that basically was like a civilian police car but you still got the size and comfort of a large car. Like an accountant's car. These cars used to exist in every make, often based on other cars in their company's but stripped down to the basics so that the average person could still buy a good-sized car with reasonable comfort but was willing to crank their own windows and do without fabric seats, cruise, etc. Not every car has to be outfitted like a luxury car or an expensive sports car. It adds so much money to the cost. There are so few cars being made at all today, but I do think that a car with the basic formula of the k car with of course more modern safety features that are required but with just the essential items that most people need and little else would be a huge seller. Kind of like a Volkswagen for the 21st century, or indeed, a K-car for the 21st century. Just give me air conditioning and automatic, and I can crank my own windows and lock my own doors, close my own trunk, don't need over 200 horsepower, and don't need a computer in order to change radio stations or turn on the defroster. I have other cars for those luxury needs but there'd certainly is a market segment for a bare-bones basic but reliable and reasonably comfortable utility car for basic transportation.
@@Jack_Stafford Tesla's are plain, the interiors are austere with hard plastic. I agree with what you said about the basic car. My Valiants were popular in their day, the Reliant was focused at the same buyer. it will be difficult to restore the less popular late model car when most have gone to the scrapyard, but a Falcon or Nova, or even a BMW e30 from the '80s will be relatively easy to restore.
@@timothykeith1367 agreed, I didn't mean pla8n as in a design aesthetic, I mean plaon as in cheap durable and easy to care for as a second or third car. And without being a penalty box. We also had a Nova and other less expensive cars while the family car was normally a Caprice, Buick, Mercury or other large comfortable car for road trips, with all the gizmos. But for doing errands or driving to work in bad weather when you don't want to take the nice car out I think there is definitely a place for a very basic although still midsize type car that is just a workhorse for when you don't want to use your pickup or luxury car. Or as a beginning car to hand down to a teenager that is bound to get into a few fender-benders lol If Ford had continued to make the Crown Victoria Police model, offered it with their very adequate 3.8 V6, giving it crank windows and just the basic things, that would have fit the bill perfectly for a car that could do just about everything but still be very inexpensive to buy and maintain. Call it the Fairlane and limit it to just a handful of colors and one neutral interior color and let all the accountants retirees taxi companies and people wanting a cheap 2nd car have a decent-sized option that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
First car I drove was a Dodge Aries (1984) it was a navy blue with light blue interior, sunroof, top of the line (for that time) stereo, durable as hell, my mom got a new 1990 Civic and handed me the keys. Boy, was I proud, 16 years old with a shiny, flawless, roomy car, if not fast it was adequate, I get the feeling you'd have loved it as I did. Besides being easily servicable it was more than affordable to operate. Then, of course, I got bit by the horsepower bug and sold it. If I could get it back as it was, I'd do so without a second thought
I know this might anger people by saying this but Donald Trump always reminded me of a more flamboyant Lee Iacoca. I am an admirer of Iacoca because of how he could sell. I mean, look at the guy. Amazing skillset and when he came in everything was a mess. He knew what he had to do to fix it, unlike Donald Trump he didn't have a bunch of backstabbing politicians ready to screw him at every turn. Trump as a business man thought hey I'll just make deals and they'll want to work with me because I am me. Yeah, Washington doesn't work that way. Ironically that was life for Lee Iacoca at Ford. Even a good idea won't be heard if the people that are listening refuse to listen. That was Henry. The best thing he ever did for Chrysler was to fire Lee Iacoca. The only thing that would have put a better spin on his story was if he refused to fire Hal then got fired himself. From my understanding it was going to happen anyway. Might as well go out with a bang. That's the story of America right there.
The K-car was the competitor to the Chevy Citation when it came out . In comparison the Citation was a more costly piece of crap , and a couple of years later the Ford Tempo was not much better than the Chevy . All things considered and Chrysler was the leader in the compact car market and in 1984 the Caravan like the 65 Mustang created a new class of vehicle and owned the market . The two door Le Barron sold well as it was a personal luxury car on the cheap that got good mileage . In 1987 I got my mom a 84 New Yorker and she loved that car for its easy to drive compact dimensions , and well equipped with luxury features .The only issue I had with that car was the electronic carburetor causing drive ability issues on the 2.6 Mitsubishi engine and rebuilds were stupid expensive . A little research indicated one of the three solenoids attached to the carb was not actuating , so a little testing found a open coil on one of the solenoids . At NAPA I got a new solenoid for $ 27.00 and the car ran great . All in all this was a great line of cars at the right time .
My parents had a Plymouth Reliant station wagon with a stick shift and a Plymouth Acclaim. Funny Part about the Acclaim. My great grandmother also had one. Her keys would start our car but, wouldn't work on the door locks. Our keys would unlock her car but, wouldn't start it. In later years we had a 1998 Plymouth Voyager expresso
Our 1988 K wagon lasted 22 years. We gave it to needy relatives and then to a neighbor, who happily drove it until some clown ripped off the front bumper assembly by hooking the front bumper. I loved the 51" tailgate width, which made hauling plywood and drywall easy -- just hang it over the rear bumper and tie down the tailgate.
@@wescam2958 Several of the K derivatives, including the minivans and the Spirit/Acclaim, extended the success for a few more years past 1988, when K-car production ended, except for limited wind-down sales of coupes and sedans (no more wagons regrettably) in 1989. You are correct that Chrysler was unable to grow beyond that, and rapidly got passed by foreign and domestic competition. The first 4-speed automatic was a disaster, as were the transverse-mounted V-6 engine and the turbocharged 4-cylinder. I never had any problems with my basic 2.5L engines and old-fashioned 3-speed automatics, but acceleration was poor by modern standards.
I had a k car, can't remember which one it was specifically, but my favorite rigs were the late L platform cars . The injection was ok, parts were cheap, the cars were really cheap used. I carried pizzas in a college town in the late 90's and used 2.2, 5 speed L cars and ran the living poop out of them. They hade great visibility, were tough, the drive train was bulletproof, and were pretty safe. I got rear ended twice, t boned on the passenger side once, and slid into a bridge abutment once on the drivers door. Never got a scratch. After they were wrecked and stripped for parts, you could cut the firewall out and strip the seats out and they made good goat sheds. I've still got fond memories of the Ls and Ks.
Goat sheds.... that is absolutely NOT where I thought this would go! Thanks for the memories! Oh, one of my wife's co-workers takes old-style computer monitors, guts them, and uses them for his chickens.
The K -Car was the ultimate utilitarian car. Up in Ontario Canada, In the early 1980's, my retired neighbour bought one. It was a Dodge Aires, and I think it still had a bench seat. Remarkably for such a cheap car you could fit 6 passengers in the car in a pinch. It had a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder engine with a 3 speed transmission. Shortly after that I bought a Plymouth Sundance for my wife, which was a derivative of the K Car platform but offered buckets seats, a hatchback and better styling. We were so impressed with the car, I later purchased a Dodge Shadow with the optional 2.5 liter Mitsubishi engine and it was pretty fast for a K-Car type vehicle! Other friends bought The Dodge Omni, The New Yorker, another Shadow, and many more. In those days we had huge mortgages and these cars offered reliable transportation on a tight budget. I drove my Shadow for almost 15 years. Those days are gone but still fondly remembered. Today I drive a 2021 C8 Corvette, that in my humble opinion is more stylish than the Dodge Aires, but taste is subjective I suppose....Great Video! Cheers
This is what Dodge and Ram need. An affordable, comfortable, basic, reliable daily driver that doesn't cost you a fortune at the pump. Don't need super car performance but enough to keep up with traffic. I know people who drove those for years and were never left stranded for anything other than a battery that failed early. Working from home most days all I need is A/C for comfort, backup camera for safety and gets me where I'm going when I turn the key.
I worked the wholesale parts Dept for a CPD dealer from 85 to 89. One of my body shop customers had the contract for a local car rental company in Atlanta Ga. I swear they must have given out a case of beer with every rental! Every week he would be ordering at least one full front clip. Facia, grill,headlight doors, bumper reinforcement, core support, fenders, hood, inner aprons, trim, etc. After several months I had the PNs memorized! I would still double check but I never needed to correct my order pad. It was crazy. This was the 2nd gen K cars with the more aero front end styling.
I own a 1984 LeBaron Convertible with the 2.2L Turbo. Its a beautiful and well kept car with only 52k miles. Recently i also got my hands on a Rare Chrysler Executive Limousine. Needs a bit of work but runs well.
I'm way too young to have a k car story from the 80s or 90s, but i do still have one lol. My mom bought a 1986 dodge 600 es turbo convertible around 2012 just because it was cheap on Craigslist. I learned how to drive in that car, then it blew the head gasket and it was left abandoned for nearly 10 years. Now i have the car myself and I'm working on resoring it
i have a 1981 Reliant Hemi Wagon... one of 85 left... It is really a marginal car, but very useful and it gets up to 45 MPG. It has survived, because no one ever wanted to drive it back in the day. Oddly, when I take it out, I can't go anywhere without turning heads and listening to everyone's K car stories. For a very mundane car, it's amazingly well received now.
My family owned two K-car variants in the late 1980's and 1990's--I would call them below average cars, overall. Three things saved Chrysler from oblivion coming from the K-car and loan guarantees up to today. First, as noted, was the K-car-based minivan. Second, the Dodge truck line was saved by the 1989 introduction of the Cummins diesel engine to the Dodge heavy duty pickups. At that time, the Dodge pickup was essentially a 1972 design with a junk body, but truck buyers would put up with that to get the Cummins diesel engine. Third, was Chrysler's acquisition of the Jeep brand, along with the AMC-designed Jeep Cherokee. Without all three of those things, Chrysler as a company would have been a museum piece three times over. Today, Ram trucks and Jeep are all that keep Chrysler, such as it is, in business.
I bought a 1987 LeBaron Turbo-4 (J-Body) new, drove the hell out of it, and gave it to my daughter in ‘91. She was harder on it than I was. It was a comfortable, dependable car, and one I look back on fondly. I also shopped Japanese cars when I bought this, and what made up my mind was that the LeBaron was considerably more comfortable than comparable Japanese models.
Sometime after these cars were introduced, K-Mart had a promotion where they were giving some of these cars away. As a drawing. Our local K-Marts had one on display in front of their stores with a box where you could fill out your name etc.
I live two miles from the former K-Mart headquarters. Empty for 20 years now... no one willing to buy it and no one who can afford to tear it down to reuse the land. Six miles north, the former Chrysler Corporation headquarters soldiers on, now as the Chrysler Division of euro auto conglomerate Stellantis. Imperfect as they were, K cars were one of several Hail Mary long shots that kept the organization alive to fight another day. The local economy is certainly thankful for that!
The Minivan is what saved Chrysler. Even to this day it’s their saving grace. If you want an minivan from an American company Chrysler is your only option. I’ve rented Chrysler Pacificas before band they are nice.
@@dillonh321 yes I know. My father had a 1986 Dodge Caravan. Today the Toyota Sienna is the most reliable minivan on the market and Chrysler is the only American automaker that makes a minivan but Chrysler is not known for their reliablity
@@davinp Is that the Chrysler division of Stellantis you referring to? The European conglomerate run by French managers, that builds minivans in Ontario, Canada? Toyota and Honda have built their minivans in the US for decades and probably have as much investment in the US as Stelantis. Be careful, its global out there!
In 1993 we a bought a nerw dodge caravan. 6 cylinder and 3 speed automatic, dark blue and blue interior. Never had a problem except when the interior trim panels would come lose. Had to have a Philips screwdriver in the glovebox.
90s child here, K based products were everywhereeeee. My grandfather had a mid 80s Lebaron with the vinyl landau roof and fully digital instrument cluster, and fake spoke wheel covers! Peak 1980s. I rode in Sundance/Shadows, Spirits and Acclaims of friends, and while they were never amazing, they were comfortable and reliable from memory. When the next generation of cars came mid 90s they were immediately obsolete though, but good memories!
Had 3. An '82 2-door, an '87 4-door and an '87 wagon. I went from RWD to the '82 with all season tires. Unstoppable in the snow! (Not bad off-road either.). The 2.2 was reliable and on the rare occasion that did manage to break something, it was easy enough to work on. I buy another if I could find one. I have a '95 LeBaron convertible in my garage waiting for spring.
Good video. A couple of notes: Chrysler paid off their loans 7 years early (1983). The note was due in 1990. Also, the $1.5 billion was a loan guarantee. The actual loans came from various banks with the government acting as the guarantor in the event that Chrysler went under.
You make a persuasive argument and I think that you are right. The platform saved the company and spawned dozens of pretty decent models. My uncle had a K-car and it was economical to drive and gave him 12-13 years of reliable, comfortable service.
I actually thought many times that a rebooted K Car would be an awesome idea. A basic bar, good economy and a bench seat? It's aesthetic back then was "This car is safe. It's what you're used to. It's what you know and want." Today, to our eyes it says "Utilitarian" and "I've got things to do and don't have the time to waste trying to impress you." I want a car that doesn't stop working if a light bulb burn out on the dash...
K car saved our ass in a snowstorm in 1982 leaving Rochester ny headed to North Attleboro Massachusetts the front wheel drive most likely helped out alot.We were pushing snow with it as soon as we got off our exit.I was a kid and remembered several car and trucks in the ditch.It was intense but fun.Such a quite car and I could lay down on the floor board in the back since there was hardly any hump!That was my bed.
I've owned two, and possibly three K cars. The first was an '81 Reliant four door sedan - reliable, inexpensive, simple. The second was an '87 Aries LX four door sedan - still reliable, inexpensive and simple, but a bit more plush and more stylish. Neither were fantastic, but neither were bad. They were simply nice small cars. I also had an '98 Sebring JX convertible, which I think might have had K car underpinnings - very nicely styled, but only average quality. It was ok. The Chrysler that I really loved was the '94 Chrysler LHS. Such a beautiful roofline and the rest of the car was so tastefully understated I thought it rivaled the '61 Lincoln for understated elegance. Proved to not have the top-notch quality that I would have expected, but ultimately a very good car. I miss Chrysler Corp. of the past. I wouldn't touch one now.
I own at the moment a 85 Chrysler Laser XE , 85 Dodge Daytona Z and a 92 Dodge Daytona es. There all great cars easy to work on and part are not to hard to find. My dad had a 87 dodge aries he drove the hell out of that car never had any trouble with it. I love them all
I was a salesman at a Lincoln/Mercury/Dodge dealership in '86. By that time, most of Dodge sales were the Omni, Caravan, and trucks. This was the year Dakota came out. I did sell some Aries and Lancers, but the Lancer was overpriced. The Daytona was a decent seller. We had the RWD Diplomat, with the 318, etc. At that time, GM and Ford had cars with v-8 engines, and v-6. In '86, there were no v-6 offerings in the Dodge line, except the Dakota, which had a v-6 version of the 318. In trucks you could go with a slant 6, a 318, and the 360. We didn't stock diesels, but I believe they were available. All in all, comparing the fwd 4cylinder cars out there, Dodge did compete. They also had the Mitsubishi colts, and the D-50 small pickup.
My first company car was a 2 door Plymouth Reliant SE 2d door with a vinyl roof plus the larger Mitsubishi 4 cylinder engine. It was great road car, my fellow colleagues could not believe how smooth it was on the highway plus had very comfortable front seats. Drove this car for 2 yrs / over 50K miles. My next company car was a Chevy Celebrity, the Plymouth Reliant had a much better/smoother engine and the quality was on par for the cars at the time.
I had to gas up my Mustang every day and forget about the gas needed to drive to Boston. To my surprise, the Ares took me to Boston with gas to spare. I even drove all over the city and didn't have to worry about a gas station. What memories!
I had the Dodge 400 (1983) and it had the 4 cylinder (Iron Duke) motor. Cloth interior and very nice (as nice as my 1973 Cadillac Coupe Deville). That Dodge Omni should have looked into the AMC Gremlin mirror, it would have seen that it would fail. My Dodge 400 was one car (I have owned over 40 of them) that I would buy again in a minute. I liked that car a lot.
In 2001 I bought a 1988 K-car from a retiring doctor, it had 200,000 miles on it. Having to drive into NYC often from Long Island it was a great car. I had to junk when I skidded on a snowy day and a huge rock bent the rear axle.
Owned Aries and Caravan. The were the BiC pens of cars. Low price reliable, not a Mont Blanc or Cross pen, but wrote very well, and when used up were discarded like a BiC pen. Great value
In 1985 I bought an 84 Reliant. It was the first time I had driven a front wheel drive car and although it certainly wasn't anything special, I do remember how surprisingly well it drove through snow.
Great video and history. I had a lot of experience with the K car platform and had no issues at all with this product. I had a 1984 Plymouth Reliant K that I drove back and forth across the country multiple times with no issues at all. It was comfortable and for me truly reliable. I was also in the Air Force as a Security Police man and some of our police cars were 85-89 Plymouth Reliants with a 2.5 liter and actual police package and we pounded the heck out of them and they held up well. Later I had a 84 Chrysler Laser Turbo and a 1984 Dodge Caravan both based on the K car platform and both amazing cars once again. The K car saved Chrysler as you share and really was better than most of its domestic competition of that time. Also would share that I bought a new 1988 Plymouth Horizon with same 2.2 that K cars had and to be fair it was bullet proof so I would have to say it too was a decent car, probably better than you share. We had this car in my family for 12 years with no major issues at all. Thanks for your great work and thank you for your videos that I so enjoy as a car nut.
I remember the Imperial/Cordoba commercials and possibly the beginning of "creative" marketing when they used took a brand name for leather and had Ricardo Montalban introduce the world to Corithian Leather. I can remember people talking about how much better it was and then on one of the late night shows Montalban admitted it was just a marketing ploy. Ole Lee had some genius marketing teams in the 80s.
My brother had a Reliant in the mid 80's and it would go through brake rotors like crazy. They would easily warp and constantly had to be turned or replaced. It also went through CV boots. The engine and transmission seemed pretty reliable, other things, not so much.
In 1986, as one of my first jobs away from Fast Food after High School, I got a job working Mobile Security at Universal Studios. We had mostly Dodge Omnis that pretty much had all of the options and I loved those cars! We also had a couple K Cars which none of us eveer wanted to drive because they were so cramped for room on the inside. The Omnis actually had more room and as far as I could tell were better appointed and far better looking cars. Wish I had an Omni today!!
I had an Omni, inherited it when my Dad passed. Yes, it had a surprising amount of room, both in the passenger cabin and the cargo bay, it was fully loaded, and I used it for several long-distance trips, but it was far from a perfect ride. I learned to loath the front-wheel-drive because it would go into a throttle-lift tailspin if the road was even slightly damp. It was easy enough to mount a Yakima bicycle carrier to the roof rails, even four single bikes and a tandem (tandem had to go on backwards with the front fork over the back door and the rear wheel over the hood or I couldn't lift the tailgate). I remember the blizzard of '93 and the Omni and a neighbor's Subaru were the only cars moving in the neighborhood. I remember the air conditioning was pretty unreliable, and that as the Omni aged, electrical and body hardware gremlins settled in to the point that I had to crawl in through the liftgate sometimes because the doors wouldn't unlock using the key. The horn started blowing at three o'clock one morning and the inside hood release cable broke while I was trying to get in and disconnect the battery. My question was, how could a car designed so well be built so shabbily?
@@5610winston I have always lived in California so I can't vouch for the Omini in the more trying weather conditions of other states.. Maybe it's safer to say it was better as a Fair Weather Friend like over here!
Owned a few (used) Ks, a new Colt, new Omni and Horizon, a used Spirit, 3 well loved Neons, and I'm still on my third PT Cruiser. I was a Chevy guy, but every time for decades, I needed a car, the best option was from Chrysler. But now, I'm not sure what my next car will be. Nothing from Chrysler attracts me and meets my requirements. I'd buy a new Neon or cloud car if I could, but nothing current fits. I should add that my favorite was a 1st gen Neon. Great car.
My friend I just found your Channel I love the K car I have a 1981 Plymouth Reliant k in pristine condition I am 50 years old and grew up when I was a teenager driving these cars they are phenomenal cars I don't care what anyone says that's when I found this 1981 original I bought it in a heartbeat thank you for your Channel and God bless the K car
The Brampton Ontario plant was either on strike or locked out so often that workers could not get a mortgage . I had a K car and it was very good. I drove a number of mini vans and at that time they were fantastic.
I owned a 1981 Reliant K 2 door. We loved that car, other than with the 4 cylinder engine, it was a little gutless going up hills. It was nice looking and we got a lot of compliments on it. Sadly my wife was involved in a crash and the car was totaled, but it saved her life.
I remember when I was 13 with my father looking at new cars on the Chrysler/ Plymouth lot. He ended up with an 84 Reliant and had it for 9 years mostly trouble free. After that he bought nothing but but Toyota Corollas.
My uncle was a millionaire and a businessman and every morning he drove to work in a Reliant K car he had a Mercedes 4-door beautiful 500 class and he loved his Reliant K car it was as daily driver that's how good a car that car was one day I hope to drive one if I can find one
I recall I was 16 at the time and my friends rented one. For an domestic car it was very high quality. It was relatively quiet, and had no squeaks and rattles when going over rail road tracks. Just dull thuds you would experience in a big car, and similar to what you would experience in a Japanese import. The relative quiet and low road noise was a huge deal for a small domestic car. The fit and finish was on par with Honda and Toyota. Acceleration was halfway decent for a car of the era and handling was very nimble and responsive. At the time it seemed like everyone had some kind of variant.
The first Toyota Camry in 1983 was a similar design to the K car.. I'm sure the Camry was in development before the K was first produced two years earlier. Toyota was thinking much the same as Chrysler.
From 2011 to 2017 I drove a 1995 Chrysler Saratoga (thats the name under which the Chrysler LeBaron Sedan, Dodge Spirit and Plymouth Acclaim where sold in some European Countries) was a very reliable car that made a lot of fun. These Saratogas where nothing but LeBaron Sedans Witwe a Spirit Tail.
I learned to drive in my mom's 1985 Dodge Aries K station wagon. It was plain white but at least my mom had the good taste to not get the fake wood paneling.
My brother bought a new 84 Aries wagon, plain Jane. It had a digital AM radio, which I thought was cool. I figured it would be a piece of junk. I was wrong, he put that roomy, sweet little car through hell and got over 200,000 miles out of it!
The K Car started a trend of cars in the 80s.The front wheeled roomy compact basic car. Engineers at Ford had always been on the cutting edge in design but also kept away from very trendy styles such as fins of the 1950s. The K Car was like the Ford Falcon of 1960. Consumers in the 1950s were looking for smaller more fuel efficient cars. Studebaker came out with the Lark in 59. Ford came out with the Falcon for 60. A basic point a to b car that McNamara wanted Ford to design. The K Car was really the same. You really cant go wrong with that concept.
My dad had an ‘85 Reliant wagon he got used. I don’t remember it having many problems. A stuck parking brake cable, a bad brake booster check valve, nothing really bad. It was okay.
@@AllCarswithJon I’ve taken a look through your list of videos and have already begun “binge watching” I can already tell they’re all going to be worth watching.👍🏽
I have a friend who bought a Reliant wagon, four-speed example, who used it to transport his tandem bicycle. Lots of tandem owners used Dodge minivans, and I usually used a compact pickup for mine (except when it was on the roof rack of my Omni, but scootin that custom-built bile into the back of the reliant using a skateboard as a trolley was a work of art.
I had one of these. It was one of the best cars I ever owned. Had plenty of get up and go, got amazing mileage! 33 MPG, and it rode and steered great. I don't think it even had any sensors on it neither.
I remember the K car well. I owned one for a time. Get to that in a sec. My parents bought a brand new 90 or 91 Sundance sedan just after I started college. Remember it well. It was a K car variant, and from what I recall, was a decent car. I drove it a lot. It was roomy, peppy, stylish, and thought the sedan/hatch was innovative. Anyway, back to my other K car story. About 10 years ago, bought an 88 K car, probably one of the few left in existence, when I was in -between cars and needed something short-term. It lasted me six months and then just up and died leaving me stranded!! Oh well, it was 20 years old by that time.
I bought a 1984 K-Car Reliant wagon in 1993 for $1,000 with supposedly 120K on the clock. I drove it for another 400,000 miles before I sold it for $500. It was simple and easy to work on. It did have several weaknesses that would show up every 100,000 miles or so. The electronically controlled Holly carburetor was fine... until it failed. A Weber conversion carburetor kit fixed that. Head gaskets would blow about every 175,000 miles even with the larger 11mm head bolts that were installed after the first couple of years on the 2.2L engine. You could replace it on a Saturday afternoon in the driveway. The electric in tank fuel pump could be replaced with an external pump for $25 and I carried a spare to boot. The 3 speed automatic was bullet proof but there was a hard to fix design fault. The driver's side CV shaft inboard support was just the spider gear in the differential. With very high mileage the CV joint would wobble from wear in the spider gear and wipe out the oil seal. In short order the transaxle ATF would be leaking badly. I was on the road then and was paid mileage. After expenses the car earned about $5,000 for all the miles I drove. Lastly the car always got 30+ mpg with the A/C running. Had tons of interior room. Was a very comfortable car to drive all day and was good in the snow up to the point where the car high-centered on the snow... about a foot and a half deep. If I could buy a new one I would... and the wagon with the woody side panels was a very nice looking car.. It looked better as a wagon than it did as a sedan.
I think this is really well done. I thought the K car was a good car. I know that in the Fort Lauderdale area where I lived, these were very popular with both the public and several utilities companies. I’m pretty sure my dad looked at one in 1982 but ended up with a Toyota Corolla mainly because he leased space in the shopping mall he managed to the local dealer. The things that you mentioned about Ford not wanting anything to do with smaller front wheel drive cars makes me wonder how they really felt about the Fairmont behind closed doors. Excellent video
The K Car was a product of it's time. It needed more refinement but it was simple and reliable and not bad. It was better than the Citation and other x cars. It wasn't however as good as the Taurus but it was first
I had an 88 Chrysler La Baron with the digital dash. But in 1999 the steering locked while going around a corner. It required too much body work to remove and replace the steering column. So I ended up just getting another car.
Nice video. A Mopar fan here. I've had a Dart, Duster, Demon ('71), a couple Plymouth Scamps ('83 Horizon pickup), a Neon and a couple PT Cruisers. Enjoyed them all. I am concerned where Chrysler is going with the gyrations of the last years...
Very interesting thank you, over here in the UK we consider the mini to be the most influential car totally changed the way companies designed and build a Cars. Or go back to the 1920s the Austin seven this platform give birth to BMW, Jaguar, Nissan, Honda and even the Jeep and probably many more
While the Kcar became the new platform of the 80's for Chrysler, Ford had a versatile platform that fit between the heavy 70's platforms and the later front wheel drive platforms in the Fox rear wheel drive platform. It became the basis for a family line of sedans, coupes, and wagons in Fairmont/Zephyr; then the Mustang/Capri twins, followed by personal luxury coupes in the Thunderbird/Cougar lines; then followed in the slightly upgraded Granada/Cougar twins which evolved into the LTD/Marques twins; and then followed up with the Lincoln Continental and Mark VI and VII cars. Had they also built the Aerostar on it, then it would have been the K-car platform for Ford. This could then have been followed up with a Taurus platform that was just as ubiquitous.
this guy knows what he is talking about, enjoy this very much, his brief history of packard was spot on, i only wish he would do a full episode of said to set some people strait on packard
I owned an '85 Dodge Lancer back in '87. That car was "GREAT",,,,,, right up until 70K miles,,,, got 44mpg on the freeway,,,, and little creature comforts all over. At 70K miles,,,, it started falling apart. Engine oil pan began to leak.... they didn't have a gasket, it was just some silicone sealant... the valve cover began to leak, the power steering hose exploded while driving,,, and then the timing belt broke,,,,, thankfully it wasn't a interference engine........and then the throttle positioning sensor.......wow, headaches , after 70,000 miles!
Chrysler did NOT get a "government loan" in 1979. It received a federal loan GUARANTEE to enable Chrysler to borrow 1.5 billion Dollars from private banks. That's an important difference.
I would agree with you that the K-car was very likely the most influential car in automotive history. With a few exceptions, they were reliable Econo-boxes that the average person could get into for not very much money. That being said, our grandparents owned two Dodge Aries they bought new, and both cars were so unreliable that they took the one back to the dealership within months, and the other they only had for two years before they traded it in for an '87 Olds Cutlass Cierra. Aside from a minor computer issue, the Cutlass was probably the most bulletproof car they'd ever owned. Prior to the Dodge Aries fiasco, Grampa had been a stalwart Dodge devote. Anyway, once Gramma and Grampa went GM, they never looked back. Back in the late 1990's I bought a 1990 Chrysler New Yorker Landau. The ride was magnificent, and it was an amazing freeway driver. Little did I know when I bought it that this era of Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth was riddled with transmission issues. After multiple transmission failures and expensive fixes, I finally had to trade it in. My mechanic at the time told me he saw at least one Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler come into his shop for the exact same thing at least once a week. My personal take on the K-car is that, while it was largely a great entry-level car, it had the propensity to be very temperamental - even FRAGILE. And this isn't even speaking of the fact that earlier versions of the K-car were also known to be plagued with cv joint issues, which could make them a death trap if you weren't paying attention to early warning signs. It was a good car, and it was a bad car. Nevertheless, you still see one on the road from time to time, and that's a sign that Chrysler was doing something right.
Thanks for the comment. Replies have seemed to range between "great car" and "troublesome". I like your word - 'fragile'. For underpinning 14 years worth of Chrysler products, they had issues, but what a leap forward they were. Oh, and the Cutlass Cierra was a boring car, but was unbelievably reliable.
In the late '70s, Chrysler rushed a new car to production that had many quality issues causing them to almost go bankrupt. After being fired from Ford, Lee Iaccoca came in and saved them with the K car platform and the minivan
10:29 having owned over 100 80's cars the K car is right there with Honda Toyota etc in reliability and as of 2022 the only 80's car I can find cheap that still runs...
Great review and video John ! My parents owned a Dodge Aspen sedan way back in the 70s and short part of the 80s , which served us fairly well . The K cars did do a great job getting Chrysler out of the dark days @ the time . My parents almost bought a 1983 Plymouth Reliant wagon but ended up getting a 1983 Pontiac Parisienne wagon .
Thanks for the kind words! I would love to do a review and have a chance to drive today one of those first K-cars. It's easy to pick on them, but they were the right car at the right time and saved a company. How's that Pontiac work out for your family?
I totally agree with you. They were simple efficient vehicles and Spond so many great vehicles. I owned a 91 Dodge Daytona. I had that car for 19 years and put over 250,000 miles on it. Ending up selling the vehicle because it was too small for my family. I loved it it was the best vehicle I’ve ever owned. It was extremely reliable and easy to work on.
I had an ‘88 Reliant and a ‘93 Acclaim, a K derivative. While the Reliant wasn’t exactly built like a bank vault, it was easy to maintain and repair (on the few occasions it needed repair) for 230,000 miles. The Acclaim was very well built and could have competed with the likes of a Honda Accord if there had been some investment on updating the dated K platform. It too went for 230,000 near trouble free miles.
had a 1983 aries. maybe the aries line was good, but we had a total lemon. often wouldn't start. you'd turn the key and it sounded like you'd stepped on a cat's tail. we'd take it in, pay to get it fixed, and it would work for awhile but then we'd have the same problem. we'd be out at the store or wherever and have to get it towed.
The Mitsubishi Eclipse and its sister car the Eagle Talon were good cars. I owned a second-generation 1995 Eagle Talon ESi model. I put 140000 miles and 20 years on that car.
The K-Car single-handedly saved Chriysler in the 80s, and went on to underpin almost everything they did for 14 years! Do you remember the K-car? Have a good (or bad) story to share of your memories?
They certainly did save Chrysler back in the day .
I don't have a K car story, but a K car derivative story. My dad owned a 93 2.5 turbo II J body Lebaron coupe that was 10 years ahead of its time in Mexico. I was fascinated by its technology back then and got into cars due to this car and my dad. Today, I'm about to buy a 93 Lebaron coupe to restore it like my dad's old car...
Since I grew up in the 80's I have a lot of first hand experience with K cars. I learned to drive in a Plymouth Caravelle in Drivers Ed and at the time my parents owned a Reliant. Later that got traded in for an Aries and over the years they also owned a Shadow and Caravan. My first car was a turbocharged Dodge Lancer, my brother's was a Shadow and my sister owned a Spirit. Other friends and relatives also drove K cars. For the most part they were simple cars with comfortable interiors that were easy to drive. They were a great value and had decent reliability as long as the odometer didn't get too close to 100k.
The only thing that saved Chrysler was the government buying hundreds of thousands of these rolling nightmares and forcing military personnel to endure using those crap boxes. God they were terrible.
A friend of mine had a Plymouth Reliant,.actually it was his mom's car. Plain Jane and small but did its job with no complaints and served her well till she bought another K platform car Dodge Shadow. My friend is 6 foot seven and had no problems driving the car. He said he had plenty of room. Not bad for a car that today would look miniscule compared to the vehicles of today.
I spent 45 years working for Chrysler Corporation dealers service and parts departments, starting in 1969. In the late 70s we didn't know if we were going to have a product to sell the next year. The change in the company when Iacocca took over was like night and day. If you had worked for a Chrysler dealer and left for a few years returning in the early 80s you would have thought it was a different company. The K Car platform was fairly easy to service and the advantage to sharing across several models was that when working on the powertrain they were pretty much all the same. As the engineers said they had several bodes all on the same platform. I was fortunate enough to meet Iacocca several times. I have a award that he presented to me for superior customer satisfaction when I had the highest fix it right score in my zone for 5 years running.
Everything I’m sure Stellantis doesn’t do.
@@boisegameshowguy The jury is still out on Stellantis.
That is awesome, I think Iaccoca was a legend in the car industry. I would have loved to have met him and picked his brain. That speech to Congress was awesome, saving your job.
When Warranty Actually cared enough to Acnowlege and Properly Pay The Techs. Now they Treat Us like Assholes,Warranty Times are a joke and they do every thing thay can to deny dealer warranty repair claims.
@@boisegameshowguythey’ve not done anything since Eaton and then Daimler took over. Eaton was the one who took Chrysler back down this road in the first place.
The only way Jimmy Carter was going to allow Chrysler to get the loan was if the entire board of directors was replaced. Carter agreed to give the loan on one condition, Chrysler had to have new management. In the seventies, it was old men who were set in their ways who didn't want to change with the times.
My uncle was a fairly wealthy aerospace executive on the west coast. In 1992, he bought a 4-year-old K car at an auction as his primary and only driver. He was a big and tall guy so it must have been funny for people to see him getting in and out of that small car. But anyways he kept it until the year 2005. It was a 1988 model and it was being driven for 17 years total. He ended up getting rid of it after the head gasket blew. He always said it was a good little car. The next car he bought was a used Chevrolet Impala.
Chrysler did NOT get those loans from the government, however, the federal government guaranteed the loans as a co-signer and they were paid back in FULL and EARLY!
So, govt got loans, chrysler was the paper bitch
That is correct. What Chrysler got from the Federal government were loan “guarantees” not loans. Banks provided the funding. The government would only have to pay the banks if Chrysler defaulted on the loans...which they didn't. It cost the government absolutely nothing!
I was a recently hired designer for Chrysler and was assigned to work on the interior of the K Car. I was there when Sperlich and Iacocca joined the company.
Sperlich was a great product guy with lots of great ideas. He loved to come into the design studios and check out the sketch proposals that filled the walls. He was the key person who inspired the K Car platform and all its derivatives.
It was a surprise and caused a bit of confusion when Iacocca brought in Bob Lutz who took away some of Sperlich's responsibilities. Lutz became primarily responsible for the truck side of the business which led to the revolutionary design changes to the Dodge Truck lineup, and sales jumped dramatically. Another surprising development was when Lutz later took responsibility for all products and Hal Sperlich left the company. It was hard to believe, but Iacocca didn't let personal relationships keep him from making tough decisions. Lutz was instrumental in introducing products like the LH cars and Viper along with the second generation minivans.
Believe me when I say those were the good days! Chrysler was getting one design award after another and sales were solid. But all good things must end and eventually Chrysler was taken over by Daimler-Benz!
In 1994 I bought a five year old '89 Shadow. I drove it for fifteen years. It had all the options and was the most reliable car I ever had.
I have fond memories of the 1983 (or ‘84) Dodge Aries wagon we had when I was a kid. Those blue velour bench seats were so comfortable! It was a base model with 4-on-the-floor. As a kid I remember riding home from church in the front middle seat, getting to “shift” the gears with my Dad’s massive hand over mine on the shifter. It was the perfect car for our family because it was only a few years old and was very well maintained when they purchased it; we ended up having it for 15 years!
There’s so many great memories in that car. They’re certainly not “classics” but because of the nostalgia, I will always miss that Gray Dodge Aries with the powder blue interior.
My Dad had a 1983 Dodge 400. Four doors, dark blue. It was our family's first car with cloth seats instead of vinyl. I loved that car!
familycarshow, I had the exact same car. It has the 4 cylinder "Iron Duke" motor. Great car. I sold it and to this day, I go to bed with tears in my eyes (well maybe not, but it makes the story more powerful)....
We had a 1982 Plymouth Reliant Wagon. It had the Mitsubishi 2.6 and 3 speed auto. It was my parents first new car in 10 years, and the first with AC and an FM radio. We loved the car and I would eventually have handed down to me. It was retired at 447k kms (yes, with an engine rebuild and tranny). I went everywhere in that car. It took me and my friends everywhere too. It was a POS but it had a ton of space and it was very comfy, and started up even when it was really cold.
My parents bought a Plymouth Voyager back when it was on the K-platform. It was a pretty decent van until the transmission died. Fortunately it was still under warranty, so they got it fixed and then sold it right after.
I had a K Car. My parents gave me the 1981 Plymouth Reliant. A four door sedan (family car) when they bought a new one in 1984. I drove it until 1994 (when I bought a Plymouth Neon). The car was a dog on hills (like a VW bus). I took good care of, even as a high schooler and college kid. It finally became unsafe to drive when I moved to California, and also it could not take the faster freeways in California (the rust from the New York State wiinters finally ate up the unibody). I had that car through the end of high school. It went to college with me. Grad school, came with me when I moved to California. It handled excellent in the northeast winters on the ice and snow. Chrysler products back then: you had to do the maitenance EXACTLY as the owners manual said. Change the oil every 3000 miles. Get the salt off the undercarriage from the winter. Flush the radiator........stuff like that. It was a good car, and holds some very happy memories. I wish I had one one now. They are just about GONE. I remember a time (late 1980's) when they seemed to be EVERYWHERE on the roads. Great video!!! Iaccoa (RIP). It was a good car. No, not flashy but it did its job. Really miss it now. Must have had almost 300K miles by the time I bought the Neon in 1994.
I had an Aries wagon and taught two kids to drive with it. We loved it.
I took my drivers' license test in a Dodge Aries in Seattle in 1983.
Dear sir, I’m 50 years old and have grown up in the Chrysler K car era. My father worked at Chrysler and built them from 1981 to 1988. H( he worked at the Newark, Delaware assembly plant)
I have owned them and most of my family has owned them from new.
I currently own 4, they are my toys. I show them at car shows and by doing so they draw a lot of attention.
I you are interested in learning more I can assist in that from personal experience.
Some people I knew worked at Belvidere, Illinois Assembly where they made the Omni/Horizons. Belvidere now makes the Jeep Cherokee.
Dude. I was around when K-Cars were new. They were of marginal build quality , substandard durability, fair reliability, and seriously substandard styling. You don't wish you could have one. They were entirely forgettable and would not be remembered but for the fact that they saved Chrysler from death and they spun off the even more deficient minivans. .
Dude. Some of the K cars had a 2.5L Mitsubishi..way!
More than 3-1/2 million K-cars were sold in its original form through 1989, the k spinoffs continued until 1995. The later varients had few problems. The '81 Ks were a bit light because Chrysler was still scared of bankruptcy, but running changes improved them. Chrysler nameplate versions have become a nostalgia collector car. Compared to the GM X-car or the Ford Tempo, the K-car has its fans today.
But the formula remains something that's missing today, a basic car with minimal gizmos that is comfortable and reliable reliable enough to be driven around with less emphasis on weird styling and fake luxury and more on basic (but not tiny) transportation.
There used to be even very large cars that used to this formula like the Biscayne that basically was like a civilian police car but you still got the size and comfort of a large car.
Like an accountant's car. These cars used to exist in every make, often based on other cars in their company's but stripped down to the basics so that the average person could still buy a good-sized car with reasonable comfort but was willing to crank their own windows and do without fabric seats, cruise, etc.
Not every car has to be outfitted like a luxury car or an expensive sports car.
It adds so much money to the cost.
There are so few cars being made at all today, but I do think that a car with the basic formula of the k car with of course more modern safety features that are required but with just the essential items that most people need and little else would be a huge seller.
Kind of like a Volkswagen for the 21st century, or indeed, a K-car for the 21st century.
Just give me air conditioning and automatic, and I can crank my own windows and lock my own doors, close my own trunk, don't need over 200 horsepower, and don't need a computer in order to change radio stations or turn on the defroster.
I have other cars for those luxury needs but there'd certainly is a market segment for a bare-bones basic but reliable and reasonably comfortable utility car for basic transportation.
@@Jack_Stafford Tesla's are plain, the interiors are austere with hard plastic.
I agree with what you said about the basic car. My Valiants were popular in their day, the Reliant was focused at the same buyer. it will be difficult to restore the less popular late model car when most have gone to the scrapyard, but a Falcon or Nova, or even a BMW e30 from the '80s will be relatively easy to restore.
@@timothykeith1367 agreed, I didn't mean pla8n as in a design aesthetic, I mean plaon as in cheap durable and easy to care for as a second or third car.
And without being a penalty box.
We also had a Nova and other less expensive cars while the family car was normally a Caprice, Buick, Mercury or other large comfortable car for road trips, with all the gizmos.
But for doing errands or driving to work in bad weather when you don't want to take the nice car out I think there is definitely a place for a very basic although still midsize type car that is just a workhorse for when you don't want to use your pickup or luxury car.
Or as a beginning car to hand down to a teenager that is bound to get into a few fender-benders lol
If Ford had continued to make the Crown Victoria Police model, offered it with their very adequate 3.8 V6, giving it crank windows and just the basic things, that would have fit the bill perfectly for a car that could do just about everything but still be very inexpensive to buy and maintain.
Call it the Fairlane and limit it to just a handful of colors and one neutral interior color and let all the accountants retirees taxi companies and people wanting a cheap 2nd car have a decent-sized option that doesn't cost an arm and a leg.
First car I drove was a Dodge Aries (1984) it was a navy blue with light blue interior, sunroof, top of the line (for that time) stereo, durable as hell, my mom got a new 1990 Civic and handed me the keys. Boy, was I proud, 16 years old with a shiny, flawless, roomy car, if not fast it was adequate, I get the feeling you'd have loved it as I did. Besides being easily servicable it was more than affordable to operate. Then, of course, I got bit by the horsepower bug and sold it. If I could get it back as it was, I'd do so without a second thought
I know this might anger people by saying this but Donald Trump always reminded me of a more flamboyant Lee Iacoca. I am an admirer of Iacoca because of how he could sell. I mean, look at the guy. Amazing skillset and when he came in everything was a mess. He knew what he had to do to fix it, unlike Donald Trump he didn't have a bunch of backstabbing politicians ready to screw him at every turn. Trump as a business man thought hey I'll just make deals and they'll want to work with me because I am me. Yeah, Washington doesn't work that way. Ironically that was life for Lee Iacoca at Ford. Even a good idea won't be heard if the people that are listening refuse to listen. That was Henry. The best thing he ever did for Chrysler was to fire Lee Iacoca. The only thing that would have put a better spin on his story was if he refused to fire Hal then got fired himself. From my understanding it was going to happen anyway. Might as well go out with a bang. That's the story of America right there.
The K-car was the competitor to the Chevy Citation when it came out . In comparison the Citation was a more costly piece of crap , and a couple of years later the Ford Tempo was not much better than the Chevy . All things considered and Chrysler was the leader in the compact car market and in 1984 the Caravan like the 65 Mustang created a new class of vehicle and owned the market . The two door Le Barron sold well as it was a personal luxury car on the cheap that got good mileage . In 1987 I got my mom a 84 New Yorker and she loved that car for its easy to drive compact dimensions , and well equipped with luxury features .The only issue I had with that car was the electronic carburetor causing drive ability issues on the 2.6 Mitsubishi engine and rebuilds were stupid expensive . A little research indicated one of the three solenoids attached to the carb was not actuating , so a little testing found a open coil on one of the solenoids . At NAPA I got a new solenoid for $ 27.00 and the car ran great . All in all this was a great line of cars at the right time .
My parents had a Plymouth Reliant station wagon with a stick shift and a Plymouth Acclaim. Funny Part about the Acclaim. My great grandmother also had one. Her keys would start our car but, wouldn't work on the door locks. Our keys would unlock her car but, wouldn't start it. In later years we had a 1998 Plymouth Voyager expresso
My aunt owned a Dodge Aries, she had it for 17 years before she had to get a new car. She said it paid for itself 3 times over lol
Our 1988 K wagon lasted 22 years. We gave it to needy relatives and then to a neighbor, who happily drove it until some clown ripped off the front bumper assembly by hooking the front bumper. I loved the 51" tailgate width, which made hauling plywood and drywall easy -- just hang it over the rear bumper and tie down the tailgate.
@@wescam2958 True, but she bought a Hyundai after that and it was a piece of crap so she got a Camry lol
@@wescam2958 Several of the K derivatives, including the minivans and the Spirit/Acclaim, extended the success for a few more years past 1988, when K-car production ended, except for limited wind-down sales of coupes and sedans (no more wagons regrettably) in 1989. You are correct that Chrysler was unable to grow beyond that, and rapidly got passed by foreign and domestic competition. The first 4-speed automatic was a disaster, as were the transverse-mounted V-6 engine and the turbocharged 4-cylinder. I never had any problems with my basic 2.5L engines and old-fashioned 3-speed automatics, but acceleration was poor by modern standards.
@@wescam2958 She keeps saying it’s the last car she’s ever going to buy and if she does buy another one it’s going to be another Camry 🤣
I had a k car, can't remember which one it was specifically, but my favorite rigs were the late L platform cars . The injection was ok, parts were cheap, the cars were really cheap used. I carried pizzas in a college town in the late 90's and used 2.2, 5 speed L cars and ran the living poop out of them. They hade great visibility, were tough, the drive train was bulletproof, and were pretty safe. I got rear ended twice, t boned on the passenger side once, and slid into a bridge abutment once on the drivers door. Never got a scratch. After they were wrecked and stripped for parts, you could cut the firewall out and strip the seats out and they made good goat sheds. I've still got fond memories of the Ls and Ks.
Goat sheds.... that is absolutely NOT where I thought this would go!
Thanks for the memories!
Oh, one of my wife's co-workers takes old-style computer monitors, guts them, and uses them for his chickens.
The K -Car was the ultimate utilitarian car. Up in Ontario Canada, In the early 1980's, my retired neighbour bought one. It was a Dodge Aires, and I think it still had a bench seat. Remarkably for such a cheap car you could fit 6 passengers in the car in a pinch. It had a 2.2 liter 4 cylinder engine with a 3 speed transmission. Shortly after that I bought a Plymouth Sundance for my wife, which was a derivative of the K Car platform but offered buckets seats, a hatchback and better styling. We were so impressed with the car, I later purchased a Dodge Shadow with the optional 2.5 liter Mitsubishi engine and it was pretty fast for a K-Car type vehicle! Other friends bought The Dodge Omni, The New Yorker, another Shadow, and many more. In those days we had huge mortgages and these cars offered reliable transportation on a tight budget. I drove my Shadow for almost 15 years. Those days are gone but still fondly remembered. Today I drive a 2021 C8 Corvette, that in my humble opinion is more stylish than the Dodge Aires, but taste is subjective I suppose....Great Video! Cheers
Thanks for the comment. It was fun to read how your life went from a Sundance (always thought they were good looking) to a C8!
Fascinating story, even though they weren't the best designed cars.
This is what Dodge and Ram need. An affordable, comfortable, basic, reliable daily driver that doesn't cost you a fortune at the pump. Don't need super car performance but enough to keep up with traffic. I know people who drove those for years and were never left stranded for anything other than a battery that failed early. Working from home most days all I need is A/C for comfort, backup camera for safety and gets me where I'm going when I turn the key.
I worked the wholesale parts Dept for a CPD dealer from 85 to 89. One of my body shop customers had the contract for a local car rental company in Atlanta Ga. I swear they must have given out a case of beer with every rental! Every week he would be ordering at least one full front clip. Facia, grill,headlight doors, bumper reinforcement, core support, fenders, hood, inner aprons, trim, etc. After several months I had the PNs memorized! I would still double check but I never needed to correct my order pad. It was crazy. This was the 2nd gen K cars with the more aero front end styling.
Case of beer with every K-Car rental! Sounds like a Jeff Foxworthy skit!
I own a 1984 LeBaron Convertible with the 2.2L Turbo.
Its a beautiful and well kept car with only 52k miles.
Recently i also got my hands on a Rare Chrysler Executive Limousine.
Needs a bit of work but runs well.
I'm way too young to have a k car story from the 80s or 90s, but i do still have one lol. My mom bought a 1986 dodge 600 es turbo convertible around 2012 just because it was cheap on Craigslist. I learned how to drive in that car, then it blew the head gasket and it was left abandoned for nearly 10 years. Now i have the car myself and I'm working on resoring it
i have a 1981 Reliant Hemi Wagon... one of 85 left... It is really a marginal car, but very useful and it gets up to 45 MPG. It has survived, because no one ever wanted to drive it back in the day. Oddly, when I take it out, I can't go anywhere without turning heads and listening to everyone's K car stories. For a very mundane car, it's amazingly well received now.
My family owned two K-car variants in the late 1980's and 1990's--I would call them below average cars, overall. Three things saved Chrysler from oblivion coming from the K-car and loan guarantees up to today. First, as noted, was the K-car-based minivan. Second, the Dodge truck line was saved by the 1989 introduction of the Cummins diesel engine to the Dodge heavy duty pickups. At that time, the Dodge pickup was essentially a 1972 design with a junk body, but truck buyers would put up with that to get the Cummins diesel engine. Third, was Chrysler's acquisition of the Jeep brand, along with the AMC-designed Jeep Cherokee. Without all three of those things, Chrysler as a company would have been a museum piece three times over. Today, Ram trucks and Jeep are all that keep Chrysler, such as it is, in business.
All great points. Thanks!
You make some very nice and enjoyable car videos. I had the 88 Dodge Aries, and If I could, I'd like to have one again.
Thanks 👍
I bought a 1987 LeBaron Turbo-4 (J-Body) new, drove the hell out of it, and gave it to my daughter in ‘91. She was harder on it than I was. It was a comfortable, dependable car, and one I look back on fondly.
I also shopped Japanese cars when I bought this, and what made up my mind was that the LeBaron was considerably more comfortable than comparable Japanese models.
Sometime after these cars were introduced, K-Mart had a promotion where they were giving some of these cars away. As a drawing. Our local K-Marts had one on display in front of their stores with a box where you could fill out your name etc.
I live two miles from the former K-Mart headquarters. Empty for 20 years now... no one willing to buy it and no one who can afford to tear it down to reuse the land.
Six miles north, the former Chrysler Corporation headquarters soldiers on, now as the Chrysler Division of euro auto conglomerate Stellantis.
Imperfect as they were, K cars were one of several Hail Mary long shots that kept the organization alive to fight another day. The local economy is certainly thankful for that!
While Lea Iaccoca was working at Ford, he had the idea for the minivan, but Ford wasn't interested in it and so he took his minivan plans to Chrysler
The Minivan is what saved Chrysler. Even to this day it’s their saving grace. If you want an minivan from an American company Chrysler is your only option. I’ve rented Chrysler Pacificas before band they are nice.
@@dillonh321 yes I know. My father had a 1986 Dodge Caravan. Today the Toyota Sienna is the most reliable minivan on the market and Chrysler is the only American automaker that makes a minivan but Chrysler is not known for their reliablity
@@davinp Is that the Chrysler division of Stellantis you referring to? The European conglomerate run by French managers, that builds minivans in Ontario, Canada? Toyota and Honda have built their minivans in the US for decades and probably have as much investment in the US as Stelantis. Be careful, its global out there!
@@billyjoejimbob56 MAN! AIN'T THAT THE TRUTH!
In 1993 we a bought a nerw dodge caravan. 6 cylinder and 3 speed automatic, dark blue and blue interior. Never had a problem except when the interior trim panels would come lose. Had to have a Philips screwdriver in the glovebox.
90s child here, K based products were everywhereeeee. My grandfather had a mid 80s Lebaron with the vinyl landau roof and fully digital instrument cluster, and fake spoke wheel covers! Peak 1980s. I rode in Sundance/Shadows, Spirits and Acclaims of friends, and while they were never amazing, they were comfortable and reliable from memory. When the next generation of cars came mid 90s they were immediately obsolete though, but good memories!
Had 3. An '82 2-door, an '87 4-door and an '87 wagon. I went from RWD to the '82 with all season tires. Unstoppable in the snow! (Not bad off-road either.). The 2.2 was reliable and on the rare occasion that did manage to break something, it was easy enough to work on. I buy another if I could find one. I have a '95 LeBaron convertible in my garage waiting for spring.
Good video. A couple of notes:
Chrysler paid off their loans 7 years early (1983). The note was due in 1990.
Also, the $1.5 billion was a loan guarantee. The actual loans came from various banks with the government acting as the guarantor in the event that Chrysler went under.
You make a persuasive argument and I think that you are right. The platform saved the company and spawned dozens of pretty decent models. My uncle had a K-car and it was economical to drive and gave him 12-13 years of reliable, comfortable service.
The K car platform is the one platform that spanned the most models in car history
I actually thought many times that a rebooted K Car would be an awesome idea. A basic bar, good economy and a bench seat? It's aesthetic back then was "This car is safe. It's what you're used to. It's what you know and want." Today, to our eyes it says "Utilitarian" and "I've got things to do and don't have the time to waste trying to impress you." I want a car that doesn't stop working if a light bulb burn out on the dash...
K car saved our ass in a snowstorm in 1982 leaving Rochester ny headed to North Attleboro Massachusetts the front wheel drive most likely helped out alot.We were pushing snow with it as soon as we got off our exit.I was a kid and remembered several car and trucks in the ditch.It was intense but fun.Such a quite car and I could lay down on the floor board in the back since there was hardly any hump!That was my bed.
I've owned two, and possibly three K cars. The first was an '81 Reliant four door sedan - reliable, inexpensive, simple. The second was an '87 Aries LX four door sedan - still reliable, inexpensive and simple, but a bit more plush and more stylish. Neither were fantastic, but neither were bad. They were simply nice small cars. I also had an '98 Sebring JX convertible, which I think might have had K car underpinnings - very nicely styled, but only average quality. It was ok. The Chrysler that I really loved was the '94 Chrysler LHS. Such a beautiful roofline and the rest of the car was so tastefully understated I thought it rivaled the '61 Lincoln for understated elegance. Proved to not have the top-notch quality that I would have expected, but ultimately a very good car. I miss Chrysler Corp. of the past. I wouldn't touch one now.
Go for the last Chrysler 300 before they're all gone.
I own at the moment a 85 Chrysler Laser XE , 85 Dodge Daytona Z and a 92 Dodge Daytona es. There all great cars easy to work on and part are not to hard to find. My dad had a 87 dodge aries he drove the hell out of that car never had any trouble with it. I love them all
I was a salesman at a Lincoln/Mercury/Dodge dealership in '86. By that time, most of Dodge sales were the Omni, Caravan, and trucks. This was the year Dakota came out. I did sell some Aries and Lancers, but the Lancer was overpriced. The Daytona was a decent seller. We had the RWD Diplomat, with the 318, etc. At that time, GM and Ford had cars with v-8 engines, and v-6. In '86, there were no v-6 offerings in the Dodge line, except the Dakota, which had a v-6 version of the 318. In trucks you could go with a slant 6, a 318, and the 360. We didn't stock diesels, but I believe they were available. All in all, comparing the fwd 4cylinder cars out there, Dodge did compete. They also had the Mitsubishi colts, and the D-50 small pickup.
My first company car was a 2 door Plymouth Reliant SE 2d door with a vinyl roof plus the larger Mitsubishi 4 cylinder engine. It was great road car, my fellow colleagues could not believe how smooth it was on the highway plus had very comfortable front seats. Drove this car for 2 yrs / over 50K miles. My next company car was a Chevy Celebrity, the Plymouth Reliant had a much better/smoother engine and the quality was on par for the cars at the time.
I had to gas up my Mustang every day and forget about the gas needed to drive to Boston. To my surprise, the Ares took me to Boston with gas to spare. I even drove all over the city and didn't have to worry about a gas station. What memories!
I had the Dodge 400 (1983) and it had the 4 cylinder (Iron Duke) motor. Cloth interior and very nice (as nice as my 1973 Cadillac Coupe Deville). That Dodge Omni should have looked into the AMC Gremlin mirror, it would have seen that it would fail. My Dodge 400 was one car (I have owned over 40 of them) that I would buy again in a minute. I liked that car a lot.
I had a Reliant an Aries 2 Caravans and 2 Plymouth Acclaim's.
Loved them all.
First car I had in 2009 in high school was a 86 Plymouth reliant wagon loved that car now days I own a 80 cordoba and 89 dodge d100
In 2001 I bought a 1988 K-car from a retiring doctor, it had 200,000 miles on it. Having to drive into NYC often from Long Island it was a great car. I had to junk when I skidded on a snowy day and a huge rock bent the rear axle.
Owned Aries and Caravan. The were the BiC pens of cars. Low price reliable, not a Mont Blanc or Cross pen, but wrote very well, and when used up were discarded like a BiC pen. Great value
Nice analogy.
In 1985 I bought an 84 Reliant. It was the first time I had driven a front wheel drive car and although it certainly wasn't anything special, I do remember how surprisingly well it drove through snow.
Great video and history. I had a lot of experience with the K car platform and had no issues at all with this product. I had a 1984 Plymouth Reliant K that I drove back and forth across the country multiple times with no issues at all. It was comfortable and for me truly reliable. I was also in the Air Force as a Security Police man and some of our police cars were 85-89 Plymouth Reliants with a 2.5 liter and actual police package and we pounded the heck out of them and they held up well. Later I had a 84 Chrysler Laser Turbo and a 1984 Dodge Caravan both based on the K car platform and both amazing cars once again. The K car saved Chrysler as you share and really was better than most of its domestic competition of that time. Also would share that I bought a new 1988 Plymouth Horizon with same 2.2 that K cars had and to be fair it was bullet proof so I would have to say it too was a decent car, probably better than you share. We had this car in my family for 12 years with no major issues at all. Thanks for your great work and thank you for your videos that I so enjoy as a car nut.
Hey, I appreciate it and you being here!
I remember the Imperial/Cordoba commercials and possibly the beginning of "creative" marketing when they used took a brand name for leather and had Ricardo Montalban introduce the world to Corithian Leather. I can remember people talking about how much better it was and then on one of the late night shows Montalban admitted it was just a marketing ploy. Ole Lee had some genius marketing teams in the 80s.
Had a 92 Caravan when my kids were little. Loved it!
My brother had a Reliant in the mid 80's and it would go through brake rotors like crazy. They would easily warp and constantly had to be turned or replaced. It also went through CV boots. The engine and transmission seemed pretty reliable, other things, not so much.
Interestings. I've always heard complains about blowing head gaskets, but it's fascinating to hear of other issues.
In 1986, as one of my first jobs away from Fast Food after High School, I got a job working Mobile Security at Universal Studios. We had mostly Dodge Omnis that pretty much had all of the options and I loved those cars! We also had a couple K Cars which none of us eveer wanted to drive because they were so cramped for room on the inside. The Omnis actually had more room and as far as I could tell were better appointed and far better looking cars. Wish I had an Omni today!!
I had an Omni, inherited it when my Dad passed.
Yes, it had a surprising amount of room, both in the passenger cabin and the cargo bay, it was fully loaded, and I used it for several long-distance trips, but it was far from a perfect ride. I learned to loath the front-wheel-drive because it would go into a throttle-lift tailspin if the road was even slightly damp.
It was easy enough to mount a Yakima bicycle carrier to the roof rails, even four single bikes and a tandem (tandem had to go on backwards with the front fork over the back door and the rear wheel over the hood or I couldn't lift the tailgate).
I remember the blizzard of '93 and the Omni and a neighbor's Subaru were the only cars moving in the neighborhood.
I remember the air conditioning was pretty unreliable, and that as the Omni aged, electrical and body hardware gremlins settled in to the point that I had to crawl in through the liftgate sometimes because the doors wouldn't unlock using the key. The horn started blowing at three o'clock one morning and the inside hood release cable broke while I was trying to get in and disconnect the battery.
My question was, how could a car designed so well be built so shabbily?
@@5610winston I have always lived in California so I can't vouch for the Omini in the more trying weather conditions of other states.. Maybe it's safer to say it was better as a Fair Weather Friend like over here!
Owned a few (used) Ks, a new Colt, new Omni and Horizon, a used Spirit, 3 well loved Neons, and I'm still on my third PT Cruiser. I was a Chevy guy, but every time for decades, I needed a car, the best option was from Chrysler. But now, I'm not sure what my next car will be. Nothing from Chrysler attracts me and meets my requirements. I'd buy a new Neon or cloud car if I could, but nothing current fits. I should add that my favorite was a 1st gen Neon. Great car.
My friend I just found your Channel I love the K car I have a 1981 Plymouth Reliant k in pristine condition I am 50 years old and grew up when I was a teenager driving these cars they are phenomenal cars I don't care what anyone says that's when I found this 1981 original I bought it in a heartbeat thank you for your Channel and God bless the K car
The Brampton Ontario plant was either on strike or locked out so often that workers could not get a mortgage . I had a K car and it was very good. I drove a number of mini vans and at that time they were fantastic.
That's interesting, thanks!
I just found your channel today. And I really like it . This is my 3rd or 5th video I have watched today lol
I love automotive history
Welcome aboard!
I owned a 1981 Reliant K 2 door. We loved that car, other than with the 4 cylinder engine, it was a little gutless going up hills. It was nice looking and we got a lot of compliments on it. Sadly my wife was involved in a crash and the car was totaled, but it saved her life.
We had a Reliant Kay wagon with a 2.5 L Mitsubishi engine and it had a lot more zip than the 2.2 L that I previously owned in a Horisont TC three
I remember when I was 13 with my father looking at new cars on the Chrysler/ Plymouth lot. He ended up with an 84 Reliant and had it for 9 years mostly trouble free. After that he bought nothing but but Toyota Corollas.
My uncle was a millionaire and a businessman and every morning he drove to work in a Reliant K car he had a Mercedes 4-door beautiful 500 class and he loved his Reliant K car it was as daily driver that's how good a car that car was one day I hope to drive one if I can find one
I had an OMNI and it was great!!! Best rain/snow driver ever. Put 600k miles on it.
I recall I was 16 at the time and my friends rented one. For an domestic car it was very high quality. It was relatively quiet, and had no squeaks and rattles when going over rail road tracks. Just dull thuds you would experience in a big car, and similar to what you would experience in a Japanese import. The relative quiet and low road noise was a huge deal for a small domestic car. The fit and finish was on par with Honda and Toyota. Acceleration was halfway decent for a car of the era and handling was very nimble and responsive. At the time it seemed like everyone had some kind of variant.
The first Toyota Camry in 1983 was a similar design to the K car.. I'm sure the Camry was in development before the K was first produced two years earlier. Toyota was thinking much the same as Chrysler.
From 2011 to 2017 I drove a 1995 Chrysler Saratoga (thats the name under which the Chrysler LeBaron Sedan, Dodge Spirit and Plymouth Acclaim where sold in some European Countries) was a very reliable car that made a lot of fun. These Saratogas where nothing but LeBaron Sedans Witwe a Spirit Tail.
I learned to drive in my mom's 1985 Dodge Aries K station wagon. It was plain white but at least my mom had the good taste to not get the fake wood paneling.
The wood was sweet
My brother bought a new 84 Aries wagon, plain Jane. It had a digital AM radio, which I thought was cool. I figured it would be a piece of junk. I was wrong, he put that roomy, sweet little car through hell and got over 200,000 miles out of it!
I had one of these in Germany when I was a driver for a Commander, it was reliable and the engine was powerful enuf for the autobahn 1984 85
The 1982 Dodge Aries and the 1982 Plymouth Reliant came in an A38 package. 1982 to 1987. Great tactical K Car.
The K Car started a trend of cars in the 80s.The front wheeled roomy compact basic car. Engineers at Ford had always been on the cutting edge in design but also kept away from very trendy styles such as fins of the 1950s. The K Car was like the Ford Falcon of 1960. Consumers in the 1950s were looking for smaller more fuel efficient cars. Studebaker came out with the Lark in 59. Ford came out with the Falcon for 60. A basic point a to b car that McNamara wanted Ford to design. The K Car was really the same. You really cant go wrong with that concept.
My dad had an ‘85 Reliant wagon he got used. I don’t remember it having many problems. A stuck parking brake cable, a bad brake booster check valve, nothing really bad. It was okay.
You’ve got great delivery. You deserve more subscribers!
Wow, thank you!
@@AllCarswithJon
I’ve taken a look through your list of videos and have already begun “binge watching”
I can already tell they’re all going to be worth watching.👍🏽
I have a friend who bought a Reliant wagon, four-speed example, who used it to transport his tandem bicycle. Lots of tandem owners used Dodge minivans, and I usually used a compact pickup for mine (except when it was on the roof rack of my Omni, but scootin that custom-built bile into the back of the reliant using a skateboard as a trolley was a work of art.
I had one of these. It was one of the best cars I ever owned. Had plenty of get up and go, got amazing mileage! 33 MPG, and it rode and steered great. I don't think it even had any sensors on it neither.
I remember the K car well. I owned one for a time. Get to that in a sec. My parents bought a brand new 90 or 91 Sundance sedan just after I started college. Remember it well. It was a K car variant, and from what I recall, was a decent car. I drove it a lot. It was roomy, peppy, stylish, and thought the sedan/hatch was innovative. Anyway, back to my other K car story. About 10 years ago, bought an 88 K car, probably one of the few left in existence, when I was in -between cars and needed something short-term. It lasted me six months and then just up and died leaving me stranded!! Oh well, it was 20 years old by that time.
Thanks for the comment and sharing a memory!
I bought a 1984 K-Car Reliant wagon in 1993 for $1,000 with supposedly 120K on the clock. I drove it for another 400,000 miles before I sold it for $500. It was simple and easy to work on. It did have several weaknesses that would show up every 100,000 miles or so. The electronically controlled Holly carburetor was fine... until it failed. A Weber conversion carburetor kit fixed that. Head gaskets would blow about every 175,000 miles even with the larger 11mm head bolts that were installed after the first couple of years on the 2.2L engine. You could replace it on a Saturday afternoon in the driveway. The electric in tank fuel pump could be replaced with an external pump for $25 and I carried a spare to boot. The 3 speed automatic was bullet proof but there was a hard to fix design fault. The driver's side CV shaft inboard support was just the spider gear in the differential. With very high mileage the CV joint would wobble from wear in the spider gear and wipe out the oil seal. In short order the transaxle ATF would be leaking badly.
I was on the road then and was paid mileage. After expenses the car earned about $5,000 for all the miles I drove.
Lastly the car always got 30+ mpg with the A/C running. Had tons of interior room. Was a very comfortable car to drive all day and was good in the snow up to the point where the car high-centered on the snow... about a foot and a half deep.
If I could buy a new one I would... and the wagon with the woody side panels was a very nice looking car.. It looked better as a wagon than it did as a sedan.
Yeah, I'd like a K wagon
I agree the wagons looked better than the sedans.
I think this is really well done.
I thought the K car was a good car. I know that in the Fort Lauderdale area where I lived, these were very popular with both the public and several utilities companies.
I’m pretty sure my dad looked at one in 1982 but ended up with a Toyota Corolla mainly because he leased space in the shopping mall he managed to the local dealer.
The things that you mentioned about Ford not wanting anything to do with smaller front wheel drive cars makes me wonder how they really felt about the Fairmont behind closed doors.
Excellent video
I had an 86 New Yorker, It was a great little car, It would talk to you and remind you to fasten your safety belt.
The K Car was a product of it's time. It needed more refinement but it was simple and reliable and not bad. It was better than the Citation and other x cars. It wasn't however as good as the Taurus but it was first
I think just about anything would be better than the GM Citation and its variants.
I had an 88 Chrysler La Baron with the digital dash. But in 1999 the steering locked while going around a corner. It required too much body work to remove and replace the steering column. So I ended up just getting another car.
My folks had a 88 Grand Voyager for 11 years and almost 500k Km's. Miss that thing.
Nice video. A Mopar fan here. I've had a Dart, Duster, Demon ('71), a couple Plymouth Scamps ('83 Horizon pickup), a Neon and a couple PT Cruisers. Enjoyed them all. I am concerned where Chrysler is going with the gyrations of the last years...
So basically my mother use to own a K car variant. She had a 1993 Dodge Dynasty. She kept that car until it broke down. It was very reliable.
Very interesting thank you, over here in the UK we consider the mini to be the most influential car totally changed the way companies designed and build a Cars. Or go back to the 1920s the Austin seven this platform give birth to BMW, Jaguar, Nissan, Honda and even the Jeep and probably many more
While the Kcar became the new platform of the 80's for Chrysler, Ford had a versatile platform that fit between the heavy 70's platforms and the later front wheel drive platforms in the Fox rear wheel drive platform. It became the basis for a family line of sedans, coupes, and wagons in Fairmont/Zephyr; then the Mustang/Capri twins, followed by personal luxury coupes in the Thunderbird/Cougar lines; then followed in the slightly upgraded Granada/Cougar twins which evolved into the LTD/Marques twins; and then followed up with the Lincoln Continental and Mark VI and VII cars. Had they also built the Aerostar on it, then it would have been the K-car platform for Ford. This could then have been followed up with a Taurus platform that was just as ubiquitous.
My father in law has an 85 k car convertible with about 20 000 miles. Even the original light blue paint. Comes out once a year. Mint and original.
my lil brother had a few K-cars after grad High School in 2008 he still got 2 Plymouth Reliant 1 2dr and 1 4dr he had a total of 8 K-Cars in the past.
Awesome!
this guy knows what he is talking about, enjoy this very much, his brief history of packard was spot on, i only wish he would do a full episode of said to set some people strait on packard
I owned an '85 Dodge Lancer back in '87. That car was "GREAT",,,,,, right up until 70K miles,,,, got 44mpg on the freeway,,,, and little creature comforts all over. At 70K miles,,,, it started falling apart. Engine oil pan began to leak.... they didn't have a gasket, it was just some silicone sealant... the valve cover began to leak, the power steering hose exploded while driving,,, and then the timing belt broke,,,,, thankfully it wasn't a interference engine........and then the throttle positioning sensor.......wow, headaches , after 70,000 miles!
Chrysler did NOT get a "government loan" in 1979. It received a federal loan GUARANTEE to enable Chrysler to borrow 1.5 billion Dollars from private banks. That's an important difference.
I would agree with you that the K-car was very likely the most influential car in automotive history. With a few exceptions, they were reliable Econo-boxes that the average person could get into for not very much money. That being said, our grandparents owned two Dodge Aries they bought new, and both cars were so unreliable that they took the one back to the dealership within months, and the other they only had for two years before they traded it in for an '87 Olds Cutlass Cierra. Aside from a minor computer issue, the Cutlass was probably the most bulletproof car they'd ever owned. Prior to the Dodge Aries fiasco, Grampa had been a stalwart Dodge devote. Anyway, once Gramma and Grampa went GM, they never looked back. Back in the late 1990's I bought a 1990 Chrysler New Yorker Landau. The ride was magnificent, and it was an amazing freeway driver. Little did I know when I bought it that this era of Dodge/Chrysler/Plymouth was riddled with transmission issues. After multiple transmission failures and expensive fixes, I finally had to trade it in. My mechanic at the time told me he saw at least one Dodge/Plymouth/Chrysler come into his shop for the exact same thing at least once a week. My personal take on the K-car is that, while it was largely a great entry-level car, it had the propensity to be very temperamental - even FRAGILE. And this isn't even speaking of the fact that earlier versions of the K-car were also known to be plagued with cv joint issues, which could make them a death trap if you weren't paying attention to early warning signs. It was a good car, and it was a bad car. Nevertheless, you still see one on the road from time to time, and that's a sign that Chrysler was doing something right.
Thanks for the comment. Replies have seemed to range between "great car" and "troublesome". I like your word - 'fragile'. For underpinning 14 years worth of Chrysler products, they had issues, but what a leap forward they were. Oh, and the Cutlass Cierra was a boring car, but was unbelievably reliable.
@@AllCarswithJon I will not argue with any of that! 😊
In the late '70s, Chrysler rushed a new car to production that had many quality issues causing them to almost go bankrupt. After being fired from Ford, Lee Iaccoca came in and saved them with the K car platform and the minivan
10:29 having owned over 100 80's cars the K car is right there with Honda Toyota etc in reliability and as of 2022 the only 80's car I can find cheap that still runs...
Great review and video John ! My parents owned a Dodge Aspen sedan way back in the 70s and short part of the 80s , which served us fairly well . The K cars did do a great job getting Chrysler out of the dark days @ the time . My parents almost bought a 1983 Plymouth Reliant wagon but ended up getting a 1983 Pontiac Parisienne wagon .
Thanks for the kind words! I would love to do a review and have a chance to drive today one of those first K-cars. It's easy to pick on them, but they were the right car at the right time and saved a company.
How's that Pontiac work out for your family?
I totally agree with you. They were simple efficient vehicles and Spond so many great vehicles. I owned a 91 Dodge Daytona. I had that car for 19 years and put over 250,000 miles on it. Ending up selling the vehicle because it was too small for my family. I loved it it was the best vehicle I’ve ever owned. It was extremely reliable and easy to work on.
Thanks for sharing
I had an ‘88 Reliant and a ‘93 Acclaim, a K derivative. While the Reliant wasn’t exactly built like a bank vault, it was easy to maintain and repair (on the few occasions it needed repair) for 230,000 miles. The Acclaim was very well built and could have competed with the likes of a Honda Accord if there had been some investment on updating the dated K platform. It too went for 230,000 near trouble free miles.
My mom drive a Dynasty for about ten years.
had a 1983 aries. maybe the aries line was good, but we had a total lemon. often wouldn't start. you'd turn the key and it sounded like you'd stepped on a cat's tail. we'd take it in, pay to get it fixed, and it would work for awhile but then we'd have the same problem. we'd be out at the store or wherever and have to get it towed.
The Mitsubishi Eclipse and its sister car the Eagle Talon were good cars. I owned a second-generation 1995 Eagle Talon ESi model. I put 140000 miles and 20 years on that car.