…then it’s time to close the gate to the shop, and hop in your Dodge Rampage for the drive home.
I came across this scene a couple of days ago on our walk, reveling in the fact that it was already well after five and there was still daylight. Well, not much of it, which helps explain why these shots are a bit fuzzy. But whenever I come across a scene like this, I can’t help but wonder if this Rampage was bought new 30 years ago? It certainly seems plausible. One way to find out: Hi there!
A brief chat revealed that this Rampage was bought just six months ago, when the owner decided he wanted a compact but reasonably comfortable-riding truck. It’s not like there’s something comparable available new, so he found this and is quite happy with it. What’s not to like? With the durable Chrysler 2.2 “Slant Four”, performance is certainly adequate given the Rampage’s 2,400 lb weight. And traction on our occasionally snowy or icy days doesn’t require lugging around a couple of hundred pounds of sandbags in the bed. What’s not to like indeed?
Time to go–supper is waiting.
Sweet. And it looks almost new.
I got to work a lot on this platform while in high school – it was what the Plymouth Troubleshooting Contest used in their state and national competitions back in 1984.
Nice! I guess I forgot the Rampage got the new nose in ’84. These “uniside” compact trucks from the early ’80s were really great. My Uncle Don (he of the 460 V8-powered Starsky & Hutch) bought a metallic copper ’82 VW Pickup nearly new and along with his trusty ’76 CJ5, drove it for twenty years. As a kid I thought the VW was the coolest truck ever; these Mopar trucklettes were much less frequently seen at the time.
This will not surprise anyone, but I always liked these. As I recall, they did not sell well at all.
No…they didn’t. It was the age of Bigfoot and the Tall Truck; and this and the VW Pickup didn’t fit the mold.
I wanted one, too. No way I could afford it…until I snagged a semi-good State job in the fall of 1984. That was just WEEKS after the last ones had been eagerly kicked off the lots.
The engine doesn’t sound impressive against the payload…but the Japanese mini-trucks of the time weren’t that much more powerful; and the LUV had a 1400-lb payload rating.
I wanted one…still do; but it’s too old to be anything but a Classic Cruise-In ride. Just one more I missed…although I had a girlfriend with a TC3 and my old man had an Omni, so I know about what the package was. Competent but unremarkable.
One of the Chrysler execs told Car and Driver, “once all the pool cleaners had theirs, the market for them was dead,” or words to that effect. Same thing as happened to the El Caminos and Rancheros previously.
Me, too-I always wanted one.
Obviously the right size for the job. Chrysler were but a memory here when that was made so it never came here pity, utes are very popular.
We all have the same disorder, I wanted one of these so bad when they were new. Seemed like the perfect parts chasing vehicle to me when I was 14.
Now not so much, how would I seat 3 other people, pull a camper trailer and carry 4X8 sheets of plywood?
Time marches on, nice to see it has been kind to this Rampage.
I want it!
Even with all the unpleasant memories of the ’84 Dodge Charger 2.2 automatic I purchased new still lingering in my memory, I’d give this little hauler a try.
How appropriate for today, given Tom Klockau’s Plymouth Horizon TC3 entry. I’ve only ever seen one of these in person; someone owned one in the town I grew up in and I used to pass by it sometimes parked on the street. They were cool vehicles.
I recall really liking these back in the day … was there a Shelby GLH or Turbo version offered?
Nice little truck. I always thought a truck like this would be nice to have for very light hauling. Reminds me a little like the Ford Model T and A versions, albeit newer.
Neat sporty truck.
I live in an urban part of Canada where pickup trucks are in almost every driveway but unlike the brilliant Rampage, drive like trucks and guzzle fuel like a private jet.
The Rampage was far ahead of it’s time and I never understood why Chrysler stopped making them. Fiat has an equivalent in production and hopefully will start selling it here as a new Rampage.
They stopped making them because they couldn’t sell them.
It is neat, but I’d stop short of calling it “brilliant”. FWD is not great for heavy loads or towing, and it has no ground clearance. Pretty limited market for something like that. Remember this was back in a time when most people who bought trucks really did need trucks.
For something like this to succeed today in the US it would need a back seat. Regular cab trucks are a pretty rare sight these days. When you add that back seat you either get something like the Subaru Baja with an almost useless box or something that’s so long it negates much of the appeal.
“For something like this to succeed today in the US it would need a back seat. Regular cab trucks are a pretty rare sight these days. When you add that back seat you either get something like the Subaru Baja with an almost useless box or something that’s so long it negates much of the appeal.”
Almost useless box….you just described almost every “truck” sold today! So if a 4dr Rampage was sold today it would be a best seller! Oh but wait, it would also have to be a 4WD with 20″ wheels and bedsides so high you can’t even see in the bed!
Uh, no. The Baja had a 41″ bed and was only capable of towing 2,000 pounds. It was also all wheel drive with fairly big wheels. And it was a flop. Probably because it offered little practical hauling advantage over an Outback wagon.
FWIW, I have an admittedly rather small box on my crew cab that nonetheless extends to about 8′ with the tailgate down and literally hauled my basement home. All the lumber, drywall, etc, thousands of pounds worth at a time. Yeah, the sides are high, but the depth means more can fit under the tonneau cover. It can haul a 4-wheeler or snowmobile in the back. Two dirt bikes. 4×8 sheets of plywood. You get the picture. About 10 times as useful for hauling real items in real life than the Subaru in my estimation, and sales numbers reflecting an even greater ratio.
Thing is, a lot of people say they would love a truck like the Rampage or Baja but when it comes down to it they don’t buy them because they don’t make for great trucks. That’s not to say they can’t be useful or practical for a certain segment of buyers, just that that market is limited.
These things are pretty neat. I looked up a bit more info. 1,145 pound payload is pretty impressive, although it probably wouldn’t seem so impressive driving with that much weight in it. The box is only 3″ shorter than my F-150 crew cab. All-Par and Wikipedia seem to disagree on the EPA rating, but looks like mileage was anywhere from 29 to 47 mpg hwy. Owners have reported 40+.
Much more capable and practical than I assumed. At least on paper.
The EPA changed the way they compute MPG figures a few years back, the revised numbers for an ’84 Rampage 5-speed are 20city / 29hwy. What exactly they changed I’m not sure, but going from 47 to 29 is kinda crazy. 47mpg anything is also totally unrealistic for a vehicle like this, but I could believe 40 if driven very carefully.
When they switched over to the new method, I remember reading that it was supposed to more accurately reflect “real world driving scenarios” like driving with the A/C on. That could be why lots of small cars from the 80’s took a huge drop in the new ratings. Even though the 2.2l four is very capable of motivating the extremely light Dodge Rampage adequately, it has to give up a lot of that 96 horsepower to run it’s older, inefficient A/C compressor. This is just a theory, of course, but if that’s the case it’s kinda stupid logic… most of these probably didn’t even have air conditioning!
I think it’s safe to assume this is a mid-30’s MPG car/truck running empty and without the (highly optional) A/C blowing.
Although it seems like a stretch, I can believe 40+, being back in the days of 55 MPH and weighing slightly less than my wife’s old Civic.
A friend of mine in high school had a Rampage (I think maybe an ’82 or ’83), and though it didn’t exactly qualify as a cool ride at the time (circa 1990), it seemed to hold up surprisingly well against all manner of bored-teenagers-in-semi-rural-area abuse. I agree with the limited ground clearance comment made earlier. We managed to bottom it out pretty severely more than once while driving around off-road with multiple passengers riding in the bed.
I test drove one of these many years ago. It did have air and an automatic. It was not very memorable. I had two young children at the time and knew I could not fit two car seats in there.
Love these. A neighbor up the street from my Dad has one. I had a 87 Omni 2.2 w/5Speed and my Dad had a 84 Horizon with same powertrain. Both had AC but always seemed to have plenty of power. No major problems with either. Both would get up to 42 Hwy if you kept your foot out of it. Liked the look of the Rampage much better than the VW Rabbit p/u and would love to find a good one. Would take care of most of my hauling needs. I could put a hitch on my Roadmaster Wagon for the trailering jobs.
Ford/Chevy sold little FWD P/U Couriers and Tornadoes from South of the Border until last year……Chevy still does (?) So the formula is/was still valid. VW Safeiro is still being made.
To this day I can’t look at one of these and not think about how little there was to the rear suspension. It’s just a beam, two leaf springs and two shocks bolted to the unibody. The whole thing weighed 25 lbs. tops.
At least in the back of an old RWD American sedan you had a diff and usually frame rails to look at. Maybe some coil springs and if you got really lucky a rear stabilizer bar.
I know this is a shallow comment but I always felt like this wasn’t a complete car. Hard to explain.
I liked them ok but had just started a torrid love affair with Datsun. 81 king cab with three speed auto. I would guess it was a much better truck but don’t know enough about the rampage to make an intelligent comparison.
These are also forever linked in my mind with the “Rampage” arcade game. Every time I see a picture of one I want to punch a hole in a building and eat a helicopter.
Out of the few FWD-based trucks/utes that were available in North America, which one was your favorite?
The Volkswagen had diesel power going for it and some folks claim they were very sturdy, plus they’re part of a vast (and sometimes obnoxious) enthusiast following to this day. They’re pretty much plug-and-play with all other VW stuff from that era and are probably a very fun toy in that respect. I’ve seen tons of interesting and attractively modified “Caddies” over the years.
Personally, I think the Rampage/Scamp was the best looking out of all of them – and I’m a big fan of all the L-body vehicles. In all likelihood, it was probably the best handling and quickest of the bunch out of the box. FWD Mopars have a pretty interesting, though much smaller, enthusiast scene as well. I’ve always thought of the Turbo Dodge crowd as redneck mad scientists – in a good way.
In my book, however, nothing tops the Subaru BRAT. I’m a sucker for anything horizontally opposed, and anything 4WD. Add in the over-the-top 1980’s kitsch like T-tops, wild decals, white wagon wheels, jump seats and being categorically a member of the “quirky era” of Japanese design and it’s not even a competition. As much as I love the other two, I’d take an El Kimono over either of them any day.
Such a great-looking little cartruck. It’s unfortunate these were not more appreciated in their time, but great to see one still being used and enjoyed. I think the quad-headlight nose was the best looking of all the front ends over the lifespan of the Omnirizon coupes and pickups.
As JPC and others have said, I’ve always liked these. Couldn’t really afford a new vehicle when they were new, but I’ve definitely wanted one ever since. The MoparNationals, held not far from where I live, usually has one or more every year. Have actually taken time to look at a few at used car lots in the past 15-20 years. And, searching AutoTrader.com around 1998-2000, I found a number of nice ones, with the nicest being all the way out in California.
Considering how rarely the majority of pickup owners haul large items in the bed, it’s surprising the demand for small pickups has seemingly drastically declined as even the Ford ranger disappeared about a year ago. And, I too, have hopes of Fiat bringing us a small pickup.
The problem with modern small trucks is they became so bloated and expensive they didn’t make as much sense as they used to.
A new Tacoma double cab 4×4 starts at $28,000. EPA 16/21. That’s a lot of money and not very good mileage for something that size. Not exactly apples to apples, but In real life driving I only lost about 1 MPG going from a 4Runner to an F-150 crew and the initial cost was the same. I gained so much in space and capability I don’t see myself ever going back to something smaller, at least not something on the market today. Small trucks have been stagnant for a long time while new full size trucks are offering better comfort, resale, capability and in some cases even better economy at an often similar price. For small trucks to succeed again they will have to improve a lot.
An ex-owner here, waiting 14 weeks early in 1984 for mine and I probably got one of the last ones (heard later they needed production line space for those new minivan things).
5.5 years of driving h*** I’l never get back; the perfect intermarriage of brilliant concept and horrid execution. This was the perfect vehicle for a young, new homeowner running to the lumberyard or hardware store frequently: looked good, handled well enough, decent MPG. Alas, interior door latch broke on the way home from he dealership the night we picked it up, tach went wonky but they refused to replace it because waiting 6 months for a forthcoming repair circuit board was cheaper for them, car did not start on the the first attempt the entire time I owned it, vibrated all the time despite countless dealer trips. Good riddance!
Back in ’90 or so, someone drove a carbon copy of the above pictured truck across the scales of my father’s AL scrapyard. Same color..everything. He probably paid about $75 for it. It was not in bad shape & was an automatic. We kept it “up-front” to avoid crushing it but I never had much interest in it….being brown and an automatic was probably the reason…or maybe it was the ’78 Regal with inline six parked next to it was just so much cooler.
Thankfully we ended up selling it to some local guy without a title for like $150 or so. I saw it on and off a couple years afterward…poking around town.
It’s a shame GM didn’t build these…I’d probably have a yardful of Truckaliers/El Cavalinos/Sunbirderos….
Hmmm, a Cimarron-based trucklet would be cool….
There a quite a few of them still around on Craigslist.
Dang I miss my old El Camino
I own one,..exact same year and color as yours.
Found it sitting in the desert in the far northwest corner of Arizona where I bought it from it’s Mormon polygamist owner. Spent two weeks blowing sand out of it with a blow gun and stripping out the original 2.2 and auto trans., rear bumper, passenger seat, tailgate and various interior parts to lighten it up. Then transplanted the modified 380 hp 2.5 Turbo motor & auto trans. from my 89 Turbo Caravan into it.
Best 1/4 mile E.T. and speed so far (with drag radials & terrible 2:30 60foot times) is 12:17 @ 118mph. It’s a light weight thin metal cheesy truck but that combined with good looks & big power is great fun.
Looking at the way new truck/van hybrids could be applied to this. Taking a Daytona that is a 4 seat version of this and stretching it to give it a longer box instead of a trunk. Wid ning the rear track to make it look more like a Lamborghini with the rear wheels flaring out would give more room in the box. Getting back to the hybrid aspect, a lot of new stuff have the rear seats fold down and the back roof fold in so the box ends up extending in and over the rear seats. The car is a long box 2 seater or turns inst a short box 4 seater. This would also benefit from having an electric motor driving a rear axle while it is powered by a battery that is always getting power from the gas engine that is part of the fwd car. This would give it speedy acceleration especially with a turbo and the electric motor powering the back making it an AWD, would give it lots of torque for towing and payload. If people want to complain it’s too low… it’s a sports car! When do you need it to go over bumps that will bottom it out? Ok for you that must have something higher for when hauling stuff, use air ride suspension. It will allow it to deal with more payload and can raise up when on the worksite driving slow but when it gets into the road and driving fast, it needs to lower down for great handling and helps the gas mileage as well. I think a new version of the rampage with what I suggested would give the ability to drive the family around, then turn into a long box when at work, get great gas mileage while increasing the payload towing and speed over the original. And it would have the raised ride height when on the construction site while having the lower sports car handling when going fast on the streets. What more would you want? All of the things I mentioned are being used in vehicles right now. Why can’t someone put together a kickass new rampage that deserves the name?