Once the Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon, front-wheel-drive econoboxes that began life as Chrysler Europe designs, proved to be strong sellers in North America, Lee Iacocca and his poker buddies decided that a pickup based on the Omnirizon platform would be a fine idea. The result was the Dodge Rampage and its Plymouth-badged sibling, the Scamp. I found one of those cartrucks in a Denver-area wrecking yard a while back. (Read More…)

Police in Rapid City, South Dakota arrested a man they say stole a bulldozer and dozed electrical poles, rammed a pickup and damaged a building Sunday.

Authorities said 21-year-old Justin Thornley stole a bulldozer from a construction site and demolished a house before ramming other objects.

According to the Rapid City Journal, officers needed beanbags fired from a shotgun, a Taser and pepper spray to arrest Thornley.  (Read More…)

Even as the K-cars became a huge success, Chrysler didn’t give up on the Simca-derived Omnirizon platform. In fact, the 2.2/2.5 engine helped extend the Omnirizon’s life until the 1990s. We’ve seen a fair number of Omnirizon-based Junkyard Finds, including this ’78 Horizon, this ’84 Turismo, this ’85 Shelby Charger, this ’86 Omni, and this this Shelby-ized ’86 Omni GLH, and now I’ve managed to find one of the rarest of all: the pickup-truck Omnirizon! (Read More…)

42-year-old Toshiaki Hikiji, who says he was fired by Mazda as a temporary worker, allegedly hit 11 Mazda employees with a Mazda Familia at Mazda’s plant in Hiroshima, Japan. Hiroshima Police says he managed to kill one. (Read More…)

The passenger car-based mini pickup niche is as old as as the Crosley Roadside, if not older yet. It’s also a highly ephemeral one, that seems to repeatedly draw car makers to it like moths to the flame. And the results are about the same: here today; gone tomorrow.  (Read More…)