Foden Alpha has posted shots of a pristine Dodge Colt wagon, sporting wood no less. These relatively large RWD Colts were a Mitsubishi Galant, of course, but these wagons were never very common here. This one was found in British Columbia; perhaps they were more common there. I did find one, a non-woody, here a few years back, and my more detailed write-up is here. But let’s take in this gem from a different era.
Here’s an ad for this car. “The Big New Small Wagon from Chrysler”. Makes a nice somewhat smaller alternative to the Volare and Aspen wagons. The Astron 2.0 and 2.6 Silent-Shaft engines were on tap.
I rather liked these wagons; they were very cleanly styled for the times, although I would have had mine without the fake wood.
Not common in the US, and it seemed that the ones you did see were either white with this wood package or a metallic red with and without the wood….no other colors. Manual transmissions were also either unavailable or very rare.
This is one of those cars that when it was new it wasn’t what I (and apparently others) were looking for in a car. Now? It might appeal to me, but only with a manual transmission.
And brown? With a diesel?
Only if you agree to buy it new.
Mitsubishi didn’t knock themselves out offering a wide range of colors. Two interior colors with one color outside each, with and without the woodgrain package (which included cloth inserts).
http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/colorAndTrim/1978/78_Colt_Challenger_0007.jpg
http://www.hamtramck-historical.com/images/dealerships/colorAndTrim/1979/79_Colt_Challenger_0011.jpg
For 1980 the woodgrain option was dropped leaving only two colors; silver/red vinyl and gold/tan vinyl
http://www.oldcarbrochures.org/index.php/NA/Dodge/1980_Dodge/1980-Dodge-Imports-Brochure/1980-Dodge-Imports-12
These were nice little wagons and I like them esp. with the wood. The interiors looked well-finished too.
It’s very seemed to the Ford Belina, even the belt line looks the same, now I know how would be a Belina with 4 doors.
I only saw these at Auto Shows, and learned more in the CC “Colt Chronicles” series, which was well written.
https://www.curbsideclassic.com/curbside-classics-asian/cc-colt-chronicles-part-4-1978-1981-dodge-colt-station-wagon-mitsubishi-galant-looking-for-a-dart-wagon-let-me-show-you-this/
I remember these in the UK too, though not with ‘wood’ (well, not that I can recall). The Colt name was gradually superseded by Mitsubishi, but the Galants managed to keep quite distinctive styling until fairly recently.
When we were commenting on the Volare wagon the other day, I knew there was a similar wagon that I was forgetting.
Here it is.
I had two a 79 in faded metallic blue sans wood 2.0 five speed, it had done 420,000 kms when I got it plenty of rust drove well though burned oil only ever fouled no 3 plug but digested many front brake pads and there are three differing types I discovered from trawling wrecking yards, I drove that thing from Donnybrook in western Australia to Sydney the long way then back to Townsville then down to northern Victoria where it ended its life in a wrecking yard, not bad for a $500 car,
The second one I bought in NZ for a car to use during a six month stay it was a 86 with the high roof 2.6 engine five speed box and a mere 210,000 kms on it, the car had previously been run on LPG then converted back to petrol and the full size tank refitted it blew a frost plug and otherwise was trouble free, it got good gas mileage 30+ per gallon and was a comfortable reliable car, I did overhaul the carb when I bought it which improved the way it ran but that and a frost plug are hardly big jobs,
One of Mitsubishis better efforts their replacement in Australia was the Magna a modified Japanese FWD Sigma and while technically advanced for an Australian car were not particularly good.
I always liked the clean styling of this generation of Mitsubishi’s across the board. In a lot of ways a precursor to where Honda would go by the end of the 80s.
When I was in college, I would frequently see a JDM Galant sedan on the street, complete with fender-mounted side mirrors. Not sure how it made it all the way to central Jersey.
Always found it amusing how the Colt name was used in North America and the UK.
I hadn’t seen a Sigma (as we called them) for years and then I found one outside my apartment! I keep meaning to write it up.
Then the other week, I saw two. All were in mint condition. Meanwhile I see Coronas all over the damn place still…
We used to call them the ‘Stigma’.
But they must have been good cars, they were everywhere.
Remember the Accord was a three color wonder for the first couple of years. Silver, Blue, or Gold. Didn’t slow sales down any.
The first year the Accord sedan was offered in the US, 1979, there were only two exterior color choices (silver or red) and one interior (red).
I really loved the clean styling of these and always thought it was a huge waste it wasn’t used anywhere else on Chrysler’s captive imports from Mitsubishi.
“sporting wood”
Sounds like me when I look at pictures of cars.
What a beautiful design. Totally forgot about them.
We had those as Mitsubishi Galant…
front
The 2.6/5sp was a good combination in these, although I don’t know how badly the US emissions setup affected things. I would sometimes drive mine for economy, changing up at 1700 rpm and it would pull easily, good low rpm torque.
I gotta ’80 dodge wagon and I call it a woody (surf city here we come)
It’s looking kinda cherry for a rebadg’d Mitsubishi (surf city here we come)
She has a two point six and a rear window
And she’ll get me where I wanna gooooo…..
These Colt wagons shared the Lancer platform with the Challenger coupe and were none too common back in the day, and it’s a bit of a mystery that Mitsubishi didn’t bother importing other four-door models in the range.
CC Effect: We had an appointment a couple of hours away on last Wednesday (18 July). While driving there an ’81 Sigma wagon went past in the opposite direction, resplendent in factory bronze, slightly lowered on the factory wheels, with dark tints on the windows. First one I’ve seen on the road in a while, and it looked to be in excellent condition.
We actually have a Sigma wagon one in the family too – as I mentioned on Paul’s detailed write-up, my cousin still has, in storage, the ’83 Sigma Super Estate my Aunt and Uncle bought in 1984.