Find Reviews by Make:
We see the occasional Colt hatchback in this series— say, this ’84 Plymouth Colt Turbo or this ’88 Dodge Colt hatchback— but the Colt sedan is stop-the-presses rare by Junkyard Find standards. Chrysler called this car the Premier, and it’s full of unusual-for-a-badge-engineered-econobox options.
Of course, we can’t talk about the Colt without watching this Redd Foxx Colt .45 ad, featuring a much earlier version of the car.
Just over 155,000 miles on the clock.
This seat seems to have manual adjustment controls, so what’s the joystick for?
Nine-band equalizers were considered essential to a quality cassette experience in the late 1980s.
Premier!
23 Comments on “Junkyard Find: 1988 Plymouth Colt Premier Sedan...”
Read all comments
I don’t always watch embedded videos, but when I do, it’s of Redd Foxx driving a Plymouth Colt shilling Colt .45
The ‘joystick’ was for adjusting the seat height – it would move through an arc similar to a handbrake, and move the seat cushion up and forward, or down and back. It was a method used on a lot of Mitsubishis, as well as other makes, especially in the 80’s. We never got that model Mitsubishi Mirage (for that is what the Plymouth Colt was) here in Australia, but that styling could only have come from one particular maker and one particular decade… Mitsubishi and the 1980’s!
I knew it was a seat height adjuster! I saw it used that way on [old] Top Gear, in one of their original car reviews from the late 80s.
Oh is that what that is? With all of those levers I was convinced that one was the ejection seat release for when you have to extricate yourself in a hurry from this turd.
My ’93 Saab 900 has the seat height lever like that as well. I’ve seen other period Saabs with them too.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Buick-Skylark-coupe.jpg
I think the ’92 to ’96 Buick Skylark did it pretty well.
I know it’s after Thanksgiving, but I would just like to express how thankful I am that car makers stopped using those flattened, almost skirted, rear wheel openings.
This was most common in Europe, and I have never seen a car make this look good – or have I?
The Audi 5000 had round up front and flat/skirted in the rear. It looked great and was an important design element, IMO. It enhanced solidity.
I believe the last car with skirts would be the 1996 Fleetwood.
My dad has a 1992 Olds 98 Touring Sedan. The skirts I think work on that car also.
Its white with a pinstripe and dark tint. It actually looks pretty good.
I think Chuck Jordan was head of GM design during this period – had a real thing for skirted rear fenders. The generation of 98 you mention had a Nash look to it in my eyes, I never could warm to it.
Nash-like, indeed. Nash’s CEO was told in the late 40’s that large wheel openings increased wind resistance, and thereby higher fuel consumption. He was sold (brainwashed?) on the idea of covering wheels, even FRONT wheels. Skirts work for sofas, why not cars? The result was that Nashes were even less appealing stylistically, and earned a million curses from those who had to change tires or even check air pressure. Yet they clung to the we-know-best / customer preferences-be-damned practice almost to the end. I’m sure it was a contributing factor in Nash’s demise.
What about the 1999-2006 Honda Insight? The car looks even worse when people take them off.
Man, Flat/skirted rears are uugly.
I can’t believe they made them that long! But you win for last skirts :).
The Triumph 2000 saloon wouldn’t be the same without it’s skirts…
Neither would the ’64 Thunderbird…
There’s probably some nonsensical safety legislation which outlawed rear wheel skirts. Maybe too many stupids were injured when they tried changing a wheel and pulled it against the skirt instead of lowering it down, thus knocking the car off the jack/axle stands and on top of them. Just a theory :)
Is that the same badge they used on the Eagle Premier?
Murilee, you can hear the crickets chirping when you open this one…
155K is pretty impressive for an ’88 econobox built from less than perfect parts.
Well, the body is pretty straight, and they were good for 29-33 MPG with the 1.5L, though this one has a Torqueflite auto. There was a 1.6 turbo option, but I didn’t see any markings. Still, it didn’t take much horsepower to move 1700-1800 lbs., especially if you weren’t in a hurry. I’d guess 0-60 would be in the 15 second range. A little old lady’s car, only used it to go to church Sundays?
I think the automatic was something Japanese rather than a Torqueflite. I could be wrong though, as I also think this was earlier than a 1988 model. I worked at a dealer that sold these in the summer of ’89, and we had next generation models that had been on the lot long enough for their state inspection stickers to expire.
In Canada, these cars were sold as the Dodge/Plymouth Colt 100 alongside the redesigned next generation Mirage that was sold as the Colt 200. This began in the 1988 model year and continued right up until about 1991 or so when the older version was finally dropped. So at least in the Great White North, both of these cars were on dealer lots simultaneously.
Thanks!
Mitsu were a welcome improvement on Renault at the pentagon and beneath most peoples radar. I recall folks like Nissan were offering standard 60 bumper and 80 powertrain which Archie’s mopers wouldn’t compete with. Warranty wars were on and I think Colt lost to it.
Whilst walking my favorite local Pick-A-Part Saturday , I spotted a very clean 197? Dodge Colt , 63,000 miles , the near prefect interior and overall lack of dents etc. made it look like an old man’s forgotten car .
Even the FUGLY original hubcaps were still on it .
-Nate