Yesterday was rainy in Vancouver—no foolin’!—and while waiting for the lights to change on Commercial at Broadway I spotted this very tidy Plymouth Horizon TC3. Actually “tidy” isn’t adequate; this looks like a Ziploc example with very low kilometres. The muffler is silvery, the trim’s all as present and straight as Chrysler were able to manage at that time, and the interior, what I could see of it, didn’t look trashed, thrashed, or tattered.
There is no UNLEADED GASOLINE ONLY label near the (original) gas cap, and likely never was; the first few years of Canadian-spec K-cars had no catalytic converters and took leaded gasoline; the same probably applies to these L-bodies.
The plastichrome is still fully present on the Plymouth logo on each taillamp—difficult to make out clearly in these pics, it’s this one:
Anyone know what year Plymouth stopped using this logo? I think it wasn’t long after this car was built. Which would’ve been between the ’79 (first for this bodystyle) and ’82 (last this wasn’t called the Turismo) ’80 (last for amber rear turn signals) model years. But this what is known as the “Swiss cheese” wheel, for obvious reasons, is said to have been first available on ’84 models. I guess these were an aftermarket swap onto this car, to accommodate tires larger than the original steel wheels could take.
The note from the tailpipe was original, too: a hissmuffled 4-cylinder cat’s purr with enough splutter and chuff to remind us that for many years, even well into the EFI era, Chrysler didn’t give much a fig about idle quality in gear; their engine mounts were soft enough to keep most of the shakes out of the body, and only by raising the hood or listening at the tailpipe could the roughness be detected.
I passed the car when the lights went green, and in my rearview mirror noted non-halogen sealed beam headlamps, probably the originals.
Tom Klockau’s substantial CC on these cars is here.
(Amber rear turn signals on a domestic car?! Saints preserve us; fetch me my clutchin’ pearls! No wonder Americans worried about Communists at that time.)
Nice find. Another car that was once everywhere you looked and then,seeing this, you can’t remember the last time you saw one.
Amazing condition. I haven’t seen a decent one in Southern Ontario in years. Great picture too.
I haven’t seen one in Winnipeg in a long while.
My grandmother bought me a black 1984 Plymouth Turismo new for $7,500. On the positive side the body style was quite attractive and the engine had what they used to call “pep”. On the negative side, though the interior was nice in burgundy cloth interior, the dashboard with rpm gauge, there were pesky leaks. It could hardly rain, and water would be leaking from the ceiling. Really, though, I enjoyed the car for what it was and remember my ownership of it with fondness.
Yes, the Swiss cheese wheels were a popular swap.
Nice find. It’s been a while since I last saw one here.
Early car memory: Somewhere between ages 1-5 the neighbors across the street had a yellow TC3, and that was the first “sporty” car I was aware of!
Nice looking cars, the concave shape of the taillights is something I never really noticed before, and up close gives a nice curvy flair to an otherwise origami design. This one really pops for some reason. The later ones with the blocked off side glass kind of ruined it.
Haven’t seen one in years!
Great find Daniel. I guess the lenses immediately inward of the brake lenses are the turn lights? The amber lenses are not illuminated?
I recall a neighbour owning either an 024 (or a TC3?), in this same shade of burgundy. What was notable about that neighbour, was his height. He had to be at least 6’3″, and he managed to appear to fit comfortably. I know these did have lower seating than the four door Horizons.
I don’t know what model year Chrysler dumped the script ‘Horizon’ font on the exterior badges, but that one element dates the car more than anything else.
No, the turn signal on each side is the amber compartment above the colourless reversing lamp. Kind of dumb that they’re so far inboard; that’s one of a fair number of bad ideas not prohibited by North American car lighting regulations.
Thanks Daniel. I was confused at first, and edited my comment accordingly. I was surprised how deep they were, unnecessarily making it harder for them to be seen by successive cars behind. Like the Chev Malibu wagon’s rear lights in the bumper. Then I wondered if those were just reflectors.
I remember being excited as a kid when the Omni/Horizon were about to be launched. And I was quite let down by the tame (lame?) advertising by Chrysler. Not sure if it was because they had a limited ad budget. But compared to the GM X car advertising, starting well before they were launched, the L Car’s advertising was pretty forgettable IMO. In fact, it was the Consumer Reports negative review regarding the alleged steering issues, that seemed to overshadow their marketing. I just found their ad campaign underwhelming. Given how significant these cars were.
It was the gimmicky GM advertising that GM used, that everyone remembered. Where for example, they showed a Citation without rear wheels, pulling a trailer. Chrysler should have been running those sorts of ads, proving the virtues of front wheel drive. GMs pre-launch ads worked for sales!
Thankfully, Chrysler finally got their advertising mojo up a bit more with the K cars. They had to.
Citation without rear wheels, pulling a trailer…weird!
How to keep the rear wheels from locking up in braking?
I think the amber rear signals only lasted through 1980 or so, The amber lenses were changed to clear (for this style) or red (for the Dodge style) and I guess were dead areas with the turn signals reverting to being combined with the brake lights.
Plymouth had a bit of a fling with amber rear indicators from about ’77 (Fury) to ’78 (Volaré) to ’79 (Horizon & TC3), but I think it petered out after that and subsequent redesigns reverted to red.
I never found them especially noticeable at the time, but that additional bumper rub strip along the bottom of the rear bumper is rather unattractive. I guess the designers preferred that second rub strip to traditional ‘bumperettes’.
The regs were weakened not long later by Reagan’s NHTSA, but these were designed and built at the peak of U.S. bumper rule stringency: if I recall correctly it was an 8-km/h impact requirement, front and rear, straight-on and angled, with some minor amount of permanent deformation permitted and zero damage to lights or any other safety-related systems.
5 MPH. And I think the deregulation predated Reagan since it took effect very early in the ’80s even though not every car changed visibly right away.
No, it really was the Reagan Administration. There’s good (and supported) chronology in Wikipedia’s article on the subject.
(Shirley, you weren’t trying to “correct” 8 km/h to 5 mph…were you?)
I think we have all come to know Daniel as a genuine gentleman in his writing, as as well as being very thorough in his attention to detail and accuracy.
As Daniel was writing to a fellow Canadian, I appreciated he was going out of his way being polite, quoting 8 km/h. 🙂 If an American reader at quick glance may have thought it was in error.
I quite like those beefy wheels and tires on this TC3. They give it presence, the original car never had.
You take that back! I am not! No fair! »stamp«
I agree with you; those wheels go nicely on that car.
Took a test drive in an 80 TC3 one dark winter evening. Not a bad proposition at all. The VW engine pulled it along pretty well and the manual shifter did what it was supposed to do without argument. One oddity: upon returning to the dealer, I couldn’t get the key out of the ignition. Went in the showroom and told the salesman about it. He said you had to push a button on the underside of the steering column to release the key. Never had that complication in any other manual trans car I drove over the years.
A handful of L bodies show up at the Gilmore’s Mopar show most years. Mostly Rampages. Saw this TC3 in 15.
My dad’s ’85 Mustang GT 5-speed had the same setup with a button on the steering column you had to push to remove the key.
Not quite the same as a TC3, but my Father bought a new ’80 Dodge Omni 024 from Goss Dodge…he was gifting his ’76 Subaru GL to my sister, and this was its replacement…one of the only “flashy” cars that he was to own, guess it was kind of a mid-life crisis cars (funny, I think I’ve passed the age for that, and other than my ’78 Scirocco (which I owned at age 23, which I think is too young for mid-life crisis) I’ve never felt the need for a mid-life crisis car…guess I’m happy with what I drive).
I bought my Scirocco after he bought the Omni, and yes they are similar type cars…..I almost bought an Omni before I got the Scirocco, but changed my mind for some reason (maybe didn’t want to be just like Dad?)…I really enjoyed the Scirocco, though I still pine for one now, I realize it is a younger persons car that suited me at age 23 but wouldn’t be the same at my age now.
It didn’t come with a sunroof, but Dad had one of those aftermarket ones added that had a handle to open it…I didn’t like it as it looked cheezy to me and also reduced headroom (not that I’m all that tall but you need all you can get in these cars). Fortunately for me I’m built with longer legs and shorter torso for my height so I fit in both cars well.
It came with AM/FM radio; I added a cassette player as a Father’s Day gift…it had the standard transmission which had some sort of linkage problem early on; my Dad couldn’t shift out of gear and resulted in the car being towed to the dealer…otherwise it was reliable. It had a similar engine to my Scirocco, but was still carburated whereas my Scirocco had CIS fuel injection.
Unfortunately for him, it didn’t have air conditioning, and in the meantime they moved from the Northeast to central Texas. He kept the car for about 7 years (pretty long for him) but traded it on another Dodge, but this time went back to regular family car, as it was a Dodge 600 sedan..this time with air conditioning. He bought it the last year you could still deduct interest from an auto loan on your federal income tax return. The 600 didn’t last long, as it was totaled by my sister who’d borrowed it while getting her car serviced, and was replaced by a string of Mercury Sables…after having a Plymouth as his first new car, my Father was never to buy another MOPAR vehicle.
Always liked these! Great find of an attractive car. Can’t remember when I had last seen an early one.
Outside of the four lug nut Shelby wheels (from the 83 model), that thing looks like a time capsule… What a fantastic find!
Very great find!
“Anyone know what year Plymouth stopped using this logo?”. I think 1980-81 were the last years for the ‘rocketship’ Plymouth emblem. The ’81 Reliant used a modified version with the rocket in a Pentastar shape, and then went to the Pentastar itself in ’82. I suspect the ’81 Gran Fury and Caravelle (Canada) were the last cars to use the original emblem.
I recall reading that during the darkest days of Chrysler it was an Iacocca decision to put that pentastar in a prominent place on everything the company made so as to make the company’s products as visible as possible to Joe Consumer. Thus the demise of separate PlyDodChry logos for several years.
I had a hard crush on these when they were new. That color looks an awful lot like the Baron Red that my mother tried to order on a new 1980 Omni. During an era of high inflation and multiple price increases the car kept mysteriously not arriving at the dealer. After about 3 times she declined to renegotiate the price and bought a 2 tone blue Horizon off the lot at another dealer.
Huh! I had either forgot or never known that Plymouth-rocketship-in-pentagon variant.
The rocket-in-a-pentastar ornament seems like it might have been a transitional thing, prepping consumers for all Chrysler products to get the pentastar emblem.
Pretty much gone from my area, yet I have seen 2 or 3 Rampage/Scamps on my area’s Craigslists.
As was alluded to in another comment: these can be a bit of a tight fit for anyone 6 foot or taller. So not a great car for me, which is/was too bad as these appeared to be at least as good a car as my 1982 J2000 fastback. (They couldn’t have been any worse.)
The individual Plymouth and Dodge emblems (Dodge = ‘fratzog’) were another casualty of Iacocca’s reign. He decreed that all Chrysler products use Chrysler’s pentastar corporate identification. Plymouth had been losing ground ever since Dodge got the low-priced Dart in 1960 which directly encroached into Plymouth’s market, and when the divisions both lost their own identifying emblems, it pretty much ensured Plymouth’s ultimate demise. For a while, there was the half-hearted Mayflower ship emblem, but it just wasn’t the same as the old Plymouth ‘spear’.
While it’s true Iacocca did some great things while at Chrysler, one of them was ‘not’ the way he handled Plymouth, ignoring it into oblivion. The only way to tell a Plymouth from a Dodge from 1980 forward was Plymouth’s egg-crate grilles and mylar ‘PLYMOUTH’ stickers.
And in what has to be considered one of the final nails, is how one of the last cars under Iacocca, the Neon, didn’t even have a distinctive grille. The only way to tell a Plymouth Neon from a Dodge were the stickers. Otherwise, they were exactly the same, with the exact same equipment, options, and prices.
If he hadn’t been such a success with products like the K-car and minivan, I dare say that Iacocca could easily have gone down in automotive history as Chrysler’s version of GM’s Roger Smith.
“If he hadn’t been such a success with products like the K-car and minivan, I dare say that Iacocca could easily have gone down in automotive history as Chrysler’s version of GM’s Roger Smith.”
I would argue that he recognized early that the old GM world of multiple brand names was a dead end. Plymouth could go away without impacting dealer franchises and Chrysler was a stronger brand. With a single dealer channel for all of the “tradional” American brands, FCA has the most product flexibility of anyone out there today.
Too bad, then, that FCA seems intent on totally not using that flexibility. Or is it that they are using it to completely not introduce any new products.
I’ve always had a soft spot in my heart for these. And the four-door Omnirizons too. I’d still have one if I could find one not all chewed up.
I am going to ID this one as a 1980. That looks an awful lot like Baron Red, a really, really dark non-metallic maroon that was a 1980-81 Chryco color. Also the 81 Tc3 ditched the amber in the taillights, going to white inboard lenses one on top of the other, and without the Plymouth logo.
I donno. Could be 1980 Baron Red, but I think it looks closer to 1979 Chianti Red.
You could tell idle issues in an Omnirizon from the interior too…the steering wheel in my dad’s ’78 Omni would wiggle and bounce around alarmingly when the car was idling in “drive”…the motor mounts killed most of the vibration, but what was left came right up the steering column. Only MoPar my dad has owned yet, and he’s 82 years old.
Chrysler was ahead of the game with FWD, turbos, five speed transmissions, and four cylinder engines. Maybe their execution left something to be desired at the beginning. I don’t think that the overall American market was ready to accept all that unless it came from Japan. Chrysler developed those four cylinders with 16 valve heads and inter cooled turbos that were real runners. Even the simpler GLH models had a lot of “pep”. I’ve considered getting a Dodge Daytona from this era.
Great catch; these seem pretty much extinct in our area. I always thought the styling was pretty appealing, at least until Chrysler botched the redesign with that giant solid C-pillar. In my opinion, anyway. Looking back, it’s a little surprising that they didn’t add a vinyl roof and opera lamp option as well.
OMG! My first new car was a 1979 Plymouth Horizon TC3! It was beautiful. Bright orange with a matte black lower. It had a perfect paint job, and the fit and finish was top notch. I was 20. I’m 6’2″, and I had tons of room in the driver’s seat. I had the VW 1.7L engine with a blistering 71HP. It only weighed a little over 2100 lbs., and with the 4-speed stick, it really wasn’t that bad for the malaise era. It got terrific gas mileage. I had it back to the dealer 5 times in the first month, however, for shit literally falling off! The shift linkage fell off, both side windows fell down into the door, the struts that held the hatch up both fell off, and that’s it. Once I got that stuff fixed (they had TSBs for every one of those), It was fine. You never forget your first new car. The sticker, loaded, was $5700. Oh, memories……..
I LOVED these as a kid. I think I even had a plastic model that I built from a kit. Hours were spent debating whether I preferred the O24 or TC3, like there were some huge styling differences.
My one gripe was there was no rear wiper for that giant glass hatch, especially since the dowdy 5-door had one. Rear wipers are a big deal when you are 11.
Was crushed when they later ruined the design by blocking off the side windows and wiping out the cool curvy taillights. No matter how many wings, scoops and decals they slapped on them, they never looked as cohesive as the original, glassy versions.
Wow, this thing is so clean you could eat off it. I see these on the list of craig from time to time in the Northwest…and theres a strange cel of clean Scampages (pickup variant) that seem to be surviving intact up here.
I like these a lot, always have. The styling is a product of its time but it looks good now. Unlike JohnC above me, I’m ok with the glassy variant but prefer the thicker sail panels.
Good-looking little cars, but (at least in my area) never seen anymore. I can’t recall the last time I saw one of these original models; maybe not at all since moving to Richmond in ’12 Though I’ve spotted a couple of their Rampage brethren and at least one of the refreshed, and less attractive, Charger/Turismo variants.
This one does appear to be in time capsule condition. Hopefully it’s a “keeper” for the current owner and will be turning heads for years to come.
This is me and my car! Love that you took a photo of it. I’m about to gift it to my uncle 🙂