This brings back memories for me! My family owned 2 4 door Plymouth Reliants, a 1984 & a 1985. Both were silver, 2.2 liter engine, 4 speed manual transmission, red vinyl bench seats, AM radio, no options. My brother got the 85 in the late 90s, drove it for a decade, and sent it to the wreckers at 600,000 km. Mom hated the 84, said it had a bad transmission and didn't shift well. She blamed the car for crashing into a ditch, and when my Dad came along she cussed him out for taking the 85 to work that day. The neighbors sure got a show that day! 🤣
Didn’t shift well? Sounds like par for the course. Those K-car manual transmissions were not the nicest things in the world. Certainly not nearly as nice as a Honda or Toyota manual transmission. But if you mastered driving a manual transmission on a K, you could drive ANY manual transmission car.
Wow. My dad had a 1983 Dodge Aries wagon with 5-speed manual. He had to custom order it with the manual, all the ones on the lot were automatic. You have a true unicorn.
In mexico is the other way, you know when a Dodge k used to be american because the automatic transmission 4 and 5 speeds are common, automatic transmission got imposed in the dodge spirit but until this day the neon and attitude are mostly sold on manual.
We had the 83 wagon automatic tho with the 2.2. Coming from a 77 AMC Matador wagon it was a huge step down. Vinyl seats when we had had cloth! We were spoiled. A neighbor had the reliant wagon with 2.6 and it pulled much better than our 2.2 slug. Anyways two years later we got the caravan with 2.6 and automatic although we test drive a stick caravan on the lot. Great memories growing up in the 80s. Thanks mom and dad!
I had an '81 in high school, four door in gray 4 speed. Then I found another '81 4 speed in green a couple years later, four door. I had to buy it. The bent shifter was awesome, 3rd gear was way out there! Thanks for sharing.
Squeaks and rattles. All part of the experience of owning a k car. The car everyone loves to hate. They sold a ton of them. And now they are almost all gone. Now I love cars like this one, just because they are so unloved. My favorite configuration is the Aries/Reliant wagon with the optional twin front cloth seats, without the console and the automatic, with the more rounded body style, and optional heavy duty rear springs. My favorite color for these was the metallic ice cube light blue they had. The wagon was a really good roomy little very light weight car. Then the minivan Caravan/Voyager came out and it was game over for these little wagons. Every now and then, one of these K cars shows up on Marketplace and Craigslist. But there are fewer and fewer of them now.
I filmed this with a iPhone, and I used a windshield mount phone holder. I didn’t realize that the phone had rattled in the holder, until I watched the video. At the time, I didn’t want to reshoot it, so just used this footage.
@@flashg67Oh so that rattling sound was from your iPhone, not the shocks in your car? I had an ‘87 Plymouth reliant wagon that had a very irritating rattle in the shock absorbers. When I had the shocks replaced, then the rattling went away. It also had “piston slap”, making the 2.2 gas engine sound like a diesel.
@@nonelost1non of our K cars ever squeaked or rattled and they were new. But as they aged and racked up miles they still didn’t do any of that. A lot of the vitriol surrounding these cars was purely biased. Most of that bias comes from people who just hated Chrysler’s and all that nonsense. There are really bad vehicles built in history and these weren’t one of them! A k car could get quite expensive loaded at the time as well, so the notion they were all cheap to buy was kinda mythical! By 1989 they were a very pleasant all around driver.
@Channel-cm7yc Well, let’s face it, they weren’t the nicest cars out there. My parents had a couple of these things growing up. And they left LOTS to be desired. I still remember when my mom finally got rid of her 1984 Reliant and got a 1987 Accord LXi. At the time, stepping into that Accord from the Reliant felt like taking an instant trip from the 70s to the 21st century.
I remember that huge lever VERY well. My dad actually had a red Reliant sedan with a four speed manual. Eventually, my brother got it as his first car. I still remember that deep thump that it made when you shifted gears.
I was car shopping in the 1980s and drove one of these. The shifting was truck like; an odd feeling for a relatively small car. Simple and reliable car with unique styling. There are usually 1 or 2 on Craigslist, even now. They really stand out, now, because styling has so many curves.
I have been driving my 89 K car since 2003. Someone ran it out of oil. I rebuilt the engine in the driveway and am about to hit 180,000 miles on the overhaul. It had 116,000 miles on it when I got it. It's the last good car Chrysler built. I maintain it and plan to drive it until harmageddon.
My parents had an 82 Aries wagon w/ the 4spd. I loved that car as a kid. It was gray, had the silver dog-dish style hubcaps, and the powder blue cloth bench seats. Full of fake wood grain dash paneling, and square gauges. It also had the worst buzzer, as many 80's cars did, when you'd open the door with the key in the ignition haha. My folks bought it in 86, we had it for 15 years! It was SO comfortable, those seats were like a soft couch. #bringbackcomfyseats
I bought a 1984 Aries coupe in college with the 4 speed, a/c and AM radio and tinted glass. Drove it for 100K+ miles, sold it to an employee who drove it another 100K miles. Great little car and I loved that bench seat with the stick shift! You brought back memories for me.
Very nice cars, my mom had an 83 Plymouth reliant automatic, still miss that car - had to be tuned by ear, wouldn't run correct if set exactly to specs - had to be set slightly out of spec - she quit driving at about 160,000 miles, still running strong with original engine and trans -
A 1985 has to be rare. That's got to be one of the last bench seat/floor shift cars. Back in High School, a friend of mine also had a 4-door Aries, but his was a 5-speed. It was also a buckets/console car.
Excellent video! Perfect on the clutch! Growing up, I loved these cars and would would've gone for the manual transmission, but the automatic transmission worked well for me anyway. Thanks again for sharing this (got married, had kids, and ended up trading it in for a turbo Gen1 Caravan, amazing vehicle as I embarrassed many cars at the red/green lights)!
In a small intermediate such as this Dodge Aries Estate, what they really should have done is mounted the gear shifter on the steering column, even though it is a manual transmission. This was really common in cars, trucks and vans of all sizes up until the 1980s.
This was how the Dodge Dart was. And yes, the strippers with the bench seat should have had the shift lever on the tree. Bench seats with a floor shifter only really work in a truck.
I've heard you could buy these stripped like a 60s car. Like no power brakes or power steering. No ac of course and an AM only radio. Don't know if there was any total radio delete option. Good heater and a manual trans is all a guy really needs. Can always add a radio under the dash next to an aftermarket oil gauge.
I believe the silver K Car sedan was the choice of medium size company Controllers everywhere. I knew a Controller who owned one. He traded his diesel Rabbit for it.
When I owned my 88 Aries once in awhile I'd run across one at the local U-Pull-It while looking for parts. The 3 speed autos were obviously combined with a low final drive ratio for highway mileage but that really killed off the line acceleration. I imagine the car would have felt much different with a 5 speed, too bad it wasn't an available option with the 2.5L my car was equipped with.
@@tomdell9836 My 89 Reliant 2.5 had pretty good off the line performance and my current 88 2.2 Reliant isn't bad either. I did gut the airbox,15 degree timing, more plug gap and a few Tbi spacers. Most 3 speeds had a 3.02 gear ratio I'd assume the 2.78 ones were more laggy off the line. And heavy cars were probably much worse vans,Lebaron gts,Daytona's etc....
Is that the stock shifter because I had a 1985 Plymouth Reliant with a 5 spd which looked way different. I assume it's because mine was a 4 door sedan with bucket seats.
Strange it has trouble with hills. My 82 carb Reliant with a auto was plenty fast. Maybe you need to Advance the ign timing, gut the airbox,tweak the carb and delete the air pump and cat on that.
A couple of weeks after I shot this video, I discovered the aluminum plate between the carburetor and the intake was broken (vacuum leak) I had the guy I knew who’s and incredibly talented machinist and welder, repair it and the car runs much better now. The car is running a Weber 32/36 now which helped it a bunch.
It's certainly not the engine which suffers from ''rev hang'' (1985) but rather your microphone.We are here after all to hear the engine rev up and down, but that doesn't happen because of the cut-out of your microphone.
It doesn’t appear to be. Even when driving around 65-70 mph on the open highway, the engine feels like it’s spinning 😵💫 pretty hard. I don’t have a tachometer, so it’s hard to tell for sure.
Owned a '81 4 speed Reliant wagan, and a '87 5 speed Voyager van; they both sucked. The '81 wagon never had heat, which is tough in Eastern Canada. The '87 Voyager dropped valve guides. Cheap, painful transportation. '85 T&C wagon with the 2.6 Mitsubishi powerpalnt; ultimate crap!!! Went back to Japanese cars, life got better
I love seeing a manual trans and that huge shifter in what's an otherwise ordinary family car. Thanks for sharing!
This brings back memories for me! My family owned 2 4 door Plymouth Reliants, a 1984 & a 1985. Both were silver, 2.2 liter engine, 4 speed manual transmission, red vinyl bench seats, AM radio, no options. My brother got the 85 in the late 90s, drove it for a decade, and sent it to the wreckers at 600,000 km. Mom hated the 84, said it had a bad transmission and didn't shift well. She blamed the car for crashing into a ditch, and when my Dad came along she cussed him out for taking the 85 to work that day. The neighbors sure got a show that day! 🤣
Didn’t shift well? Sounds like par for the course. Those K-car manual transmissions were not the nicest things in the world. Certainly not nearly as nice as a Honda or Toyota manual transmission. But if you mastered driving a manual transmission on a K, you could drive ANY manual transmission car.
Wow. My dad had a 1983 Dodge Aries wagon with 5-speed manual. He had to custom order it with the manual, all the ones on the lot were automatic. You have a true unicorn.
In mexico is the other way, you know when a Dodge k used to be american because the automatic transmission 4 and 5 speeds are common, automatic transmission got imposed in the dodge spirit but until this day the neon and attitude are mostly sold on manual.
I had an '83 Aries wagon with the manual transmission also. Silver with red vinyl interior. Was a good economical car.
We had the 83 wagon automatic tho with the 2.2. Coming from a 77 AMC Matador wagon it was a huge step down. Vinyl seats when we had had cloth! We were spoiled. A neighbor had the reliant wagon with 2.6 and it pulled much better than our 2.2 slug. Anyways two years later we got the caravan with 2.6 and automatic although we test drive a stick caravan on the lot. Great memories growing up in the 80s.
Thanks mom and dad!
I had an '81 in high school, four door in gray 4 speed. Then I found another '81 4 speed in green a couple years later, four door. I had to buy it. The bent shifter was awesome, 3rd gear was way out there! Thanks for sharing.
Squeaks and rattles. All part of the experience of owning a k car. The car everyone loves to hate. They sold a ton of them. And now they are almost all gone. Now I love cars like this one, just because they are so unloved. My favorite configuration is the Aries/Reliant wagon with the optional twin front cloth seats, without the console and the automatic, with the more rounded body style, and optional heavy duty rear springs. My favorite color for these was the metallic ice cube light blue they had.
The wagon was a really good roomy little very light weight car. Then the minivan Caravan/Voyager came out and it was game over for these little wagons.
Every now and then, one of these K cars shows up on Marketplace and Craigslist. But there are fewer and fewer of them now.
I filmed this with a iPhone, and I used a windshield mount phone holder. I didn’t realize that the phone had rattled in the holder, until I watched the video. At the time, I didn’t want to reshoot it, so just used this footage.
@@flashg67Oh so that rattling sound was from your iPhone, not the shocks in your car? I had an ‘87 Plymouth reliant wagon that had a very irritating rattle in the shock absorbers. When I had the shocks replaced, then the rattling went away. It also had “piston slap”, making the 2.2 gas engine sound like a diesel.
@@nonelost1non of our K cars ever squeaked or rattled and they were new. But as they aged and racked up miles they still didn’t do any of that. A lot of the vitriol surrounding these cars was purely biased. Most of that bias comes from people who just hated Chrysler’s and all that nonsense. There are really bad vehicles built in history and these weren’t one of them! A k car could get quite expensive loaded at the time as well, so the notion they were all cheap to buy was kinda mythical! By 1989 they were a very pleasant all around driver.
@Channel-cm7yc Well, let’s face it, they weren’t the nicest cars out there. My parents had a couple of these things growing up. And they left LOTS to be desired. I still remember when my mom finally got rid of her 1984 Reliant and got a 1987 Accord LXi. At the time, stepping into that Accord from the Reliant felt like taking an instant trip from the 70s to the 21st century.
I remember that huge lever VERY well. My dad actually had a red Reliant sedan with a four speed manual. Eventually, my brother got it as his first car. I still remember that deep thump that it made when you shifted gears.
I would like to own one of these. They were comfortable, simple and cheap to run. 4 speed makes it even more of a gem. Thanks.
3:53 "There's a few squeaks and rattles"
Sums up the K car perfectly!
Love the manual transmission. Fantastic find!
I had one in Monterrey Mexico in my youth but it was a 1984 model.
You so have one of my dream cars!
Used to have a 4 door 81 with a four speed. seafoam green. Great car saved Chrysler’s bacon
I was car shopping in the 1980s and drove one of these. The shifting was truck like; an odd feeling for a relatively small car. Simple and reliable car with unique styling. There are usually 1 or 2 on Craigslist, even now. They really stand out, now, because styling has so many curves.
I have been driving my 89 K car since 2003. Someone ran it out of oil. I rebuilt the engine in the driveway and am about to hit 180,000 miles on the overhaul. It had 116,000 miles on it when I got it. It's the last good car Chrysler built. I maintain it and plan to drive it until harmageddon.
My parents had an 82 Aries wagon w/ the 4spd. I loved that car as a kid. It was gray, had the silver dog-dish style hubcaps, and the powder blue cloth bench seats. Full of fake wood grain dash paneling, and square gauges. It also had the worst buzzer, as many 80's cars did, when you'd open the door with the key in the ignition haha. My folks bought it in 86, we had it for 15 years! It was SO comfortable, those seats were like a soft couch. #bringbackcomfyseats
I bought a 1984 Aries coupe in college with the 4 speed, a/c and AM radio and tinted glass. Drove it for 100K+ miles, sold it to an employee who drove it another 100K miles. Great little car and I loved that bench seat with the stick shift! You brought back memories for me.
I wish this wagon would have had A/C, I’m in NC and I don’t drive much during the summer months.
I had an 1981 Aries wagon with an automatic, I love & miss that little car!
Honestly I only had one problem in the 5 years I owned & drove it.
Very nice cars, my mom had an 83 Plymouth reliant automatic, still miss that car - had to be tuned by ear, wouldn't run correct if set exactly to specs - had to be set slightly out of spec - she quit driving at about 160,000 miles, still running strong with original engine and trans -
That brings back memories! My 1981 Plymouth Reliant was a 4 speed, plus it was the same color as yours!
A Dodge Aries wagon with a stick is still more fun to drive than a Corvette with an automatic. Fact.
A primitive type of ABS, too. Helps in the winter.
Awesome car! I also have an 85 Aries 4 speed but mine is a two door.... Enjoy her!
Love the car and the 4 speed /////////////////////////////////
A 1985 has to be rare. That's got to be one of the last bench seat/floor shift cars. Back in High School, a friend of mine also had a 4-door Aries, but his was a 5-speed. It was also a buckets/console car.
This car fits him
Excellent video! Perfect on the clutch! Growing up, I loved these cars and would would've gone for the manual transmission, but the automatic transmission worked well for me anyway. Thanks again for sharing this (got married, had kids, and ended up trading it in for a turbo Gen1 Caravan, amazing vehicle as I embarrassed many cars at the red/green lights)!
My ex wife and I bought a new 1989 plymouth with a manual trans. I believe it was a 5-speed. She had it for 14 years.
Cool ride, without the manual shift it would have long ago been crushed and recycled into rusty Ram pickups
Parts for that 4 speed manual are hard to find. It was marginal when new
so cool. an almost forgotten aspect of driving
Well done!
I always thought all the manuals were 5 speed, I didn't think there was a 4 speed available. I would love to have either one. Good little cars.
They offered the 4 speed from 1981-85. They did have an optional 5 speed manual, but from 1986-89 they were all 5 speeds if you wanted a stick shift.
It's cool that you have a manual transmission K Car and a wagon at that.
My grandparents had a Ford Granada with OD four speed. Only one I have seen.
Cool video ! These are rare not many manual K cars .
Awesome! I wonder how many were made with manual transmissions. There was a 5 speed available as well from what I read.
Those cars were so gutless! The only thing worse was that tiny engine in the caravans....can't keep up in traffic or up a hill!
In a small intermediate such as this Dodge Aries Estate, what they really should have done is mounted the gear shifter on the steering column, even though it is a manual transmission. This was really common in cars, trucks and vans of all sizes up until the 1980s.
This was how the Dodge Dart was. And yes, the strippers with the bench seat should have had the shift lever on the tree. Bench seats with a floor shifter only really work in a truck.
I'd love to see a review done on this on the Regular Car Reviews channel.
I've heard you could buy these stripped like a 60s car. Like no power brakes or power steering. No ac of course and an AM only radio. Don't know if there was any total radio delete option. Good heater and a manual trans is all a guy really needs. Can always add a radio under the dash next to an aftermarket oil gauge.
Chrysler needs to bring that steering wheel back
I believe the silver K Car sedan was the choice of medium size company Controllers everywhere. I knew a Controller who owned one. He traded his diesel Rabbit for it.
I had chance to purchase a Aries with a straight drive transmission.. but I missed out ..
Had a 89 2dr blue with 5 speed manny that i ordered from dodge
I have never seen or knew the Aries Reliant K cars have 4 speeds.
Trivia-The 2.6 Mitsubishi motor was only available with the automatic so if you wanted a stick you had to get the 2.2 or later the 2.5.
Standard shift on the Aries and Reliant was discontinued after the 1986 model year do to poor sales
Owned over 50 K cars never seen a manual. Only manual Shadows, Spirits, lebarons,Omnis and Daytona's in my area.
When I owned my 88 Aries once in awhile I'd run across one at the local U-Pull-It while looking for parts. The 3 speed autos were obviously combined with a low final drive ratio for highway mileage but that really killed off the line acceleration. I imagine the car would have felt much different with a 5 speed, too bad it wasn't an available option with the 2.5L my car was equipped with.
@@tomdell9836 My 89 Reliant 2.5 had pretty good off the line performance and my current 88 2.2 Reliant isn't bad either. I did gut the airbox,15 degree timing, more plug gap and a few Tbi spacers. Most 3 speeds had a 3.02 gear ratio I'd assume the 2.78 ones were more laggy off the line. And heavy cars were probably much worse vans,Lebaron gts,Daytona's etc....
Is that the stock shifter because I had a 1985 Plymouth Reliant with a 5 spd which looked way different. I assume it's because mine was a 4 door sedan with bucket seats.
The 4 speed cars used this “Bus Style” shifter, so they could keep the front bench seat.
Every k-car I’ve ever seen has been automatic! I wonder what percentage had a stick?
That is a good, I’ve tried looking it up, but there really isn’t a good source of info out there.
Strange it has trouble with hills. My 82 carb Reliant with a auto was plenty fast. Maybe you need to Advance the ign timing, gut the airbox,tweak the carb and delete the air pump and cat on that.
A couple of weeks after I shot this video, I discovered the aluminum plate between the carburetor and the intake was broken (vacuum leak) I had the guy I knew who’s and incredibly talented machinist and welder, repair it and the car runs much better now. The car is running a Weber 32/36 now which helped it a bunch.
@@flashg67 Yeah any type of vacuum leak is gonna kill power.
It's certainly not the engine which suffers from ''rev hang'' (1985) but rather your microphone.We are here after all to hear the engine rev up and down, but that doesn't happen because of the cut-out of your microphone.
Is 4th overdrive on this car?
It doesn’t appear to be. Even when driving around 65-70 mph on the open highway, the engine feels like it’s spinning 😵💫 pretty hard. I don’t have a tachometer, so it’s hard to tell for sure.
must be a built in security feature. new age car thieves cant drive a stick.
I found a unicorn that was a 07 Toyota camry manual 5 speed years ago
I actually have the ultimate unicorn - a 2006 manual four door Accord with a V6.
Those headrests of US-cars are all more likely to be designed as shoulder pads... ridiculous...
HOW DARE THIS SPACE MILLENIAL DESECRATE THIS LAST RARE CLASSIC WAGON FOLKS 😂
ThAT WOULD SUCK KIN THE SUMMER HEAT NO FACTORY A/C. I THOUGHT THAT WAS CANADIAN ONLY MODELS
I don’t drive it much in the summer.
Owned a '81 4 speed Reliant wagan, and a '87 5 speed Voyager van; they both sucked. The '81 wagon never had heat, which is tough in Eastern Canada. The '87 Voyager dropped valve guides. Cheap, painful transportation. '85 T&C wagon with the 2.6 Mitsubishi powerpalnt; ultimate crap!!! Went back to Japanese cars, life got better
This car is the reason Elon created Tesla
😂😂😂
Although this is a funny thought, this car was discontinued LONG before Tesla even existed.