Even if it wasn’t a K-car, we went on a (very) slight Mopar Rampage today, so let’s finish it out with some vitamin K.
It should be noted that for some reason, I love virtually any K-based automobile. Now, this love of mine is not of the sort that will probably ever be requited, but there is something that I just can’t resist about these boxy little buggers.
These little cars are very space efficient, and I find their overall simplicity rather appealing in the same way I like the simple Volvo 240*, Ford Fairmont, and the various GM A-body cars like Educator Dan’s beloved Chevy Celebrity. There is something to be said about owning a car whose value doubles at each fill-up; set the whole thing on fire and what have you really lost besides some memories?
Judging by how chromy that wreath is, not to mention the grain of that luxurious, perhaps Corinthian vinyl, the SE must be a pretty special edition of the Aries. Almost Chrysler–like, even.
What a modern font on a modern car! Judging by the old wax buildup, this car was maintained pretty well for a large portion of its life.
Thanks to our pal TheProfessor47 for the photos which he left in our care at the Cohort!
*Do we seriously not have an honest-to-god Curbside Classic of just the Volvo 240? How is that even possible? Did I just overlook it?
I like the K cars too, my favorite is the ’92-’93 New Yorker/Fifth Avenue with the smoother front and rear styling. The last vestige of the Great Brougham Epoch.
And fear not Mr. T, the resident Volvo nut has something in the works…
These things littered the streets around here at one time. Mopar sure was able accomplish a lot with no money.
The Mexican market got a few interesting variations of the K as did the FBI(Black Turbo Aries Wagons how cool is that!).
Really? What were the Mexican Ks?
They had Phantom R/Ts, Turbo III New Yorkers, Magnum Turbo, Turbo II 2.5s and they even got the A604 behind (next to?) the Turbo mills. They were all basically the same as ours but just different enough to be interesting.
Chrysler Mexico even applied the Dart name to a K-car variant. Here a commercial of a 1984 model http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4Sl8M8VMVzI
and a Mexican print advertising from 1986 http://www.flickr.com/photos/hugo90/4193535019/
I too marvel at the simplicity of these cars. It makes me long for the days of being able to get at things under the hood without having to dismantle everything. At the Walter P. Chrysler Museum in Auburn Hills, they have a cutaway of one of these, and the basic engineering of these is great considering what they had to work with.
As an aside, the very first showroom brochure I ever acquired was for the 1984 Aries!
And yes, I still have it 🙂
Everyone always talks about all these great brochures they collected since they were a kid, and now that I’m old I really regret not doing the same at the same age. I spend far, far too much time at http://www.oldcarbrochures.com...
Well, if you think you handle it, and have the $$$, you need to check out http://www.mclellansautomotive.com/ I gave them some of my hard earned money several years ago, and they are the best at what they do!
And…since we are on the topic once again, if I should die (hoping the meds will do their job and I can get back to normal, thereby putting death off for a number of years!), I need to find someone to leave most of my collection to. Doc’s said I prob can’t have kids, and I’m an only child. Told my best friend he had first dibs on them, but I know he won’t take that many…
Dad?
Dad passed late last summer, and I don’t think Mom has much of a need for them 😛
You missed the joke, Dad!
Hey! It’s past my bedtime, so cut me some slack!!!
Tomorrow I’ll be back on top of my game, and ready to let sarcasm and other assorted wittiness loose, so watch out 😛
Back in the day, these didn’t appeal to me as much as the Daytona and even the Charger 2.2. Oh, and also the Shelby Chargers. But that is certainly a pretty sharp, clean, Aries SE K-car. So practical and a reasonable size.
But what I’ve wanted for a rather long time is a Rampage, like the posting below. One in above average condition or one recently restored.
The right tail light on this car is from a Plymouth Reliant.
Wow, I didn’t even notice they were different! I think I was too busy being overwhelmed by all the craftsmanship.
You know what would have annoyed me about these suckers?
Fuel door on the passenger side. What’s that all about? These cars were designed, engineered, and built in America. Put the gas door on the drivers side of an AMERICAN car.
(And yes I consider the location of the fuel door before buying an automobile.)
My 2003 Mazda Protege has the fuel door on the driver’s side, as did both of my Hondas, I know the Civic’s was on the driver’s side, and I think the 88 Accord had it on the same side as well.
The thing with the Mazda is I’ve gotten out of the habit of the filler door being accessed via remote since the truck’s door was not and thus get out, shut the driver’s door, only to remember I have to release the damned thing so open the door, reach in and pull the lever before I can fill up…
The origin of the passenger side fuel door I think dates back to curbside pumps, it seems to me that most cars have it that way in their home market, at least after they moved away from rear-mounted fuelling.
There isn’t much that could ever get my very exited about a K car. First of all, they were never a good value, especially when they were first introduced. An equivalent K was GM B body money, a car that was actually a good driving car. Having driven several K cars, none of them was especially good to drive. The later 2.5 litre models were acceptable in their way but nothing to write home about. A GM A body was infinitely better in comparison.
In 1985 my girlfriend’s mom bought a loaded Chrysler Lebaron ES 5 door with turbo. The car had every toy you could imagine, even leather and went out the door north of $17,000, a lot of money at the time. I drove the car a lot and it was absolute junk; the fit and finish were atrocious, the materials crap and the car just plain drove bad. Soon after, my dad bought an ’86 Jetta GL Turbo Diesel which was heads and above a better car for very similar money. Hell even my stripper Jetta gas two door was a far better automobile.
I always saw the K line as the height of cynicism; if it has an American brand, people will buy it no matter how bad it is. That concept ran our soon after the K car.
I feel the same as far as when the car was -new-, but my attraction to the K -now- has to do with my being a cheap bastard and liking oddball, otherwise disliked stuff.
My K-car jones wasn’t as bad when I was driving a Camry, but now that I’m driving a Lincoln again, a little car with an engine up front not behind 5 feet of fake length and something above 20 mpg sounds pretty delicious, especially when you figure virtually free parts and ownership costs.
I know, I’m weird.
Now I know better than to argue with a Canucklehead, but Aries to A body isn’t apples to apples. I don’t have the numbers but an Ur-K is closer in size and trim to a Grand Am or Tempo.
I drove Gramma’s 91 Dynasty in the late 90s. More comfortable seats and more sensible controls than any Celebrity (I duck as EducatorDan throws a Goodwrench at me) and pretty quick with the 3.3, no trouble until an old lady in a Marquis totaled it while parked.
No argument about the cynicism that kept these things around so long, or that Accords, etc. blew away all these Avismobiles.
No wrenches thrown here. GM A and Chrysler K have much in common. Cheap reliable and rusted like an SOB in most climates. Oh and certain versions stayed in production for far too long.
These cars always made me think they were one of automotivedom’s ultimate compromises with their blocky, big car 1970s styling that didnt fit in any way, shape or form on such a small platform. They were ugly cars then and ugly now; too chopped in the front and rear, in the same way as the 85 DeVille.
I have no problem with them being economical, useful and fairly reliable for the day; it’s just the shameless attempt at faux luxury mixed with the ugly design. “if you can find a better car…buy it (Honda Accord). The Citation did a better job of looking honest and simple, and the Skylark/Omega better adapted the big car styling.
You put your finger on it: these were the prototypes of the 1985 Cadillacs. Same boxy proportions, trying to re-create the feeling of a bigger car on the inside, with the outside shrunk in the laundry. And the results were similarly unfortunate, especially in the two-door variants.
Have a major soft spot for these. We bought an ’81, two-door, new in 1981. Ordered it from the factory with cloth seats, AM/FM radio, and the light package. Came standard with the 4-speed manual and the 2.2L engine. We kept that car around for over 14 years (1995) and got rid of it when the floorpans began to rust severely. In retrospect, we wish we had just replaced the floorpans even though it was a trade-in (albeit small) on a ’96 Grand Caravan that lasted just as long.
Yeah, we did have a few problems with the car. The solenoid was located in a spot that meant the car didn’t like big puddles splashing up into the engine during/after rainstorms. Had a problem with the distributor cap that was repaired. Also, the cat converters had to replaced while on vacation about 10 years after we bought the car. It had two of them. Then there was the oddity of it shutting off the engine going down the Rockies on vacation. It had a carburetor, and chugged up the mountains to 11,000 feet. Not too bad, but on the way down, it decided it had had enough and shut the engine off. As it lacked power steering and power brakes (why do you need them on a car that light?), my father put it in neutral and coasted down the Rockies.
Learned to drive on that car and always preferred it to any automatic transmission out there.
Wow, no power brakes, that must make it a candidate for the “last car with…” list?
There is something kind of geeky about these cars back when they were new. Their basic boxy design won’t win awards, but they have an honesty about them since they eschew gimmicks and other doo, dads, including inside, unless you get the vinyl landau topped 2 door like this one.
These early ones I tend to like best over the rounded front that came later and I guess it’s because it’s a part of my memory from being in HS back in the very early 80’s when these came out.
This one’s paint may well have been taken care of, judging by the paint, though no longer shiny. That may WELL have been a build up of wax, perhaps not fully buffed on the last waxing or it’s been so long since it’s been waxed the paint is now dull and beginning to chalk, which some will do, forming a hazy, white chalky appearance that probably can be buffed out but it may well be a signal that the paint is too far gone to restore without a respray.
Otherwise, this one looks very clean indeed and I bet it still runs well too.
Put the gas door on the drivers side of an AMERICAN car…
Funny, I prefer mine on the passenger side. Maybe I’ve been trained by a long litany of Japanese and euro cars….
Not all Japanese cars had their filler necks on the passenger side, Honda used to put them on the driver’s side. My ’83 Civic had it there, I believe my 88 Accord had it there too and my current car, a 2003 Mazda Protege has it also on the driver’s side.
Perhaps I am the only one who believes that we would save countless hours per year if we standardized the location. No more jockeying around gas pumps if everyone knew where to expect the fuel door and we could smoothly pull into gas stations one after the other.
Even if it didn’t save time, it’s just something that should be got right – the fill door goes on the drivers side.
No, it should be in the rear, under the tag, that way it does not matter what side your on!
…as long as it’s not behind the plate so you pull the plate down to access it, and the plate eventually gets gas-stained along the bottom. (This “feature” was big in the late 1960’s.)
Just so long as you didn’t get hit from behind.
“I dunno, he just came out of nowhere and hit me in the ass” (Lights cigarette and tosses match) ” So we get out to compare insurance – hey, what’s that smell?”
KA-BOOM!
My ’66 BUg had the ultimate solution to the filler problem, I raised the hood! The VW engineers, smart people that they are, designed the American version so the tank filler was on the left side, while the British was on the right, with absolutely no other change than one part number. NO change to the bodywork at all. Just don’t rear end someone else and light that cig!
I like to swing out the left tail light like on my 57.
I think a mix works – mind you our gas stations have pump islands that you pull up to on either side (ie car pumps car car pumps car), gives a good mix for efficiency. Makes having a small car good to as the hose will reach over if necessary
I’ve had Honda products from a ’79 Accord to an ’08 Acura TSX, and they all have the filler neck on the drivers’ side. They also all have the traditional Honda remote release next to the base of the drivers’ seat along with the trunk/hatch release (except for the ’79 which has a locking cap instead). The ’79 has a JDM blanking plate by the passenger seat for same, which makes me wonder where the filler neck was on JDM cars. Maybe it was on the same side (which would be passenger side in Japan for right-hand drive). I’m sure a quick Google search would find that answer.
Chrysler presents the 1981 K-Car, with styling brought to you by: Every 5-year old with a Crayola Crayon.
I appreciate something about these too, although I’m not sure what it is. It’s certainly not my personal experiences with them – many summer trips to Brooklyn spent in awful Belt Parkway traffic in the non-airconditioned vinyl upholstery of a neighbor’s Reliant Wagon. Then, when I was in high school one of my friends had a very nice aero-Lebaron convertible that he quickly turned into a piece of shit with tack on Pep Boys crap. That was one of the absolute worst driving cars I’ve ever gotten behind the wheel of. It had the base four, it weighed a ton and the 5-speed was a joke. Another friend had a very early Aries 2-door sedan with the Mitsubishi motor and an automatic – actually not so bad, though probably more because it was a stripper than the (slightly) increased output. Fairly comfortable too…
On the brighter side, as a youngster one of my babysitters drove a Dodge 600 convertible that I remember fondly – probably more because she was pretty good looking than anything else. My dad also had a New Yorker Turbo for a couple of years that I loved… mostly because it spoke to you, and the phrase “THE DOOR IS A JAR” was hilarious before my vocabulary expanded.
I think what I really love about these is that they are so generic and disposable looking, and I’ve always been enamored with that Chrysler turbo motor – and the potential combination of both appeals to me in some weird way. I would love to drive a turbo-powered Reliant K Mad Max looking shitbox. The Aries/Reliant doesn’t handle well at all, but it’s light and simple enough that it could probably be made respectable with a few tweaks – or just a decent set of rubber. In contrast, I’ve driven a few L-Body Chryslers (which used a lot of the same mechanicals) and found them “very decent” but still inherently crude.
One of my favorite cars was an ’84 K-car turned Plymouth minivan — a Voyager. A big three-row box with front wheel drive so it wouldn’t get stuck in the snow or get battered by side winds on the Interstate. It was the first year, had the small 4, and a stick shift — just what I wanted. It was actually shorter than a VW bug, yet could carry all that stuff.
With 5 kids we could finally belt everybody in. Everything worked. Mileage was pretty good, the AC button had a notch that let you pull it out when climbing a bad hill, thus electrically disengaging the AC compressor and giving you engine power back. We drove it all over the country, box on top with camping gear, sometimes a trailer in back with bikes. I didn’t have rocket power, but it did just fine. The kids tried but couldn’t damage the vinyl seats.
It’s hard to remember what a breakthrough those minivans were. Later on, when people thought SUVs were cool, they were so incredibly less practical.
It sits on a family member’s farm in Iowa, probably overgrown with weeds, victim of a failed transmission I think. From time to time I think of going to its rescue.
What amazes me is how the K-car started out as a Plymouth Reliant and finally died as an Imperial. Same car, same absolute POS! Greatest automotive con ever concieved.
Isn’t that the essence of the American Dream? Started out as an economy Plymouth and end up as an Imperial.
That’s like, really beautiful, man.
(Cue God Bless America) I drove my mom’s Horizon in high school before finding the Imp. Its keys are still on the pentastar fob that came with the Plymouth. (Fireworks around Statue of Liberty…)
That one is in really nice shape. Interesting talk about the location of the gas filler. Never knew about the VW bug – that is neat – you learn something new every day! My 70 Monte Carlo had the license plate filler location – kind of miss that sometimes. I wonder who the first instrument-cluster designer was who said one day, “Hey, why don’t we put a little arrow on the instrument cluster to show which side the gas filler is on?”
Nearly all old GM RWD cars had gas filler behind the licence plate. I think the best spot.
I do get tired of K car bashing, they were right for the times. Not meant to be ‘sexy’ and many Asian cars had same boxy sharp edges too.
Back when I used to travel for work in early 90’s, out of the 3 common “mid size” rental cars: Corsica, Tempo or Spirit/Acclaim, I prefered Mopar EEK’s.. Like a tank and comfortable. Corsicas were rattly and Tempos were sloooooow. BTW, There were no import cars in fleets as today.
In the middle 80s, I worked for the ABC station in Las Vegas, which had six K-Car sedans for news vehicles. For the usual few minutes or an hour going to and from a story, it wasn’t so bad…but I was the government reporter and got sent to cover the first six weeks of the state legislature in Carson City. That meant 450 miles to Carson, six weeks with the K-Car as my only means of transportation and 450 miles back to Vegas.
So I can’t work up a lot of nostalgia for these…I’d rather have been driving most anything else at the time.
Chicagoland: Depends on what city you were in and who you rented from. I was getting imports from Hertz at the L.A. airport as early as 1985. Wild stuff, too…Volvo 740s, Peugeot 505 STIs, Merkur XR4tis and Scorpios…and they were in the same price class as Crown Vics.
I had to look up the dimensions on this to get my head around the proportions and was surprised to see it was a near match for my old 86 Sigma (aka Galant), albeit ~3″ wider and actually a bit shorter in the body due to much longer bumpers. It must be that giant door that is throwing things out, together with the extremely upright greenhouse.
Just to strike the coincidence a bit more, both cars could have the Mitsubishi 2.6! My Sigma was rwd, and a 5sp (both purchase criteria) which is a bit of a difference. I bet the Aries trunk is larger.
Australian RWD Sigmas went untill 87 I had one in NZ for a time the Japanese were still using the Sigma badge on FWD cars the same shitbox that became the Aussie Magna
The K’s were and still are economical to run and relatively cheap to fix. Though I am a Stude GT Hawk owner and fan, we still own my wife’s first convertible, a 1992 Lebaron LX. Pretty good to look at (for a K), still fairly economical (3.0 V6 22-28 MPG) and still goes down the road like a train on rails @ 80 MPH.