I found it parked at Whole Foods, looking a bit diminished between the Jeep and the Ford. But the Fiat 500 in front of it is making it feel better.
Any Omnis left in your locale?
A full Omni and Horizon CC is here
Curbside Outtake: There’s Still One Dodge Omni Daily Driver Left Here
– Posted on June 13, 2021
I see two or three Omnirizons regularly.
Look how small is next ti the fiesta and it prob has more interior space. This is progress? Yea I know…safety.
At least, Omni had driver’s side airbag and three-point seat belts for rear seat passengers from 1990 on.
1990 only, that was its’ last year.
Must be ice-blue
That’s a much nicer interior than I remember late Omnis having.
My mom had an ‘85 in the same colour with the 2.2 and a 5 speed stick – lots of fun to drive. Unfortunately she put it into a ditch after 2 years but walked away without a scratch. My wife’s niece also had one in the early 2000’s when she first started to drive. I think that was the last one I saw here in Ontario.
I see one minty burgundy one running around here with collector plates on it yet. It gets driven about 10 months out of the year which is saying something to the dedication of the owner to keep it so nice given the harsh Wisconsin winter. One of these days I’ll grab some pics of it.
Long gone from Northwest Indiana, I think.
But they lasted about as long as anything else did in this car-harsh environment. I have some respect for these. They seemed to be simple, functional, affordable, and fairly durable.
I remember that light blue color and its common “paint flaking off” thing. That seemed to go on for awhile with that color. My friend’s ’77 Cordoba had that big time (before a sweet IROC-Z electric blue paint job) and I saw that often through the 80s. But here they rusted away quick without good paint protection, but not as bad as many other and more costly vehicles did.
It has been maybe a decade since I’ve seen an Omni and maybe two and a half decades since they were common.
In ’91 when my wife and I were first going out, she had a beige 80s-something one. It worked well enough, but what a crude, super-basic car it was.
Living in New England, I haven’t seen one for years.
I had one shortly after college – that actually belonged to a friend. She worked for an airline and needed somewhere to keep her car as she was flying most of the time. Ultimately I think I sold it for her.
But honestly, when I drove it, I found it as decent a form of transportation as I did any of the Rabbits or Corollas of the day. I suspect it’d still be fine for going down to the grocery store when necessary…which is probably what that blue one is doing. A little boxy 4-door, quite practical.
Same here in Quebec, I haven’t saw an Omni and its siblings the Horizon/TC3/O24/L-body Charger and the Rampage in years.
That was the car where I got my driving lessons.
Likewise; I took my own driver’s lessons in one exactly this color. Not overly powerful, so the first highway merge was fairly interesting.
I had an ’81 Omni, with the 4 speed, and the 1.7. It was rated at only 63 hp, but it could still get out of it’s own way.
Same here. My mom had an ’86 2.2 auto which was the first car I ever drove.
Crescents, Rego Park, Queens, New York City, fifteen minutes ago.
Here we go, from the home computer, eleven hours later.
Amusing, random story about Omnis: A friend of my wife’s is a contrabasson player (a contrabassoon is a much larger version of a regular bassoon). These are huge instruments, and the case for one is about 5 feet long, and typically required a station wagon or such to transport it (in the era before crossovers/SUVs).
Anyway, this woman drove an Omni years ago, and she said her instrument just barely fit in her car. Pretty impressive utility, especially back then.
I can’t remember when the last was that I’ve seen one.
A friend of mine is a harpist. When she was shopping for a car some 25 odd years ago, the only cars she could find that would hold her harp were a Taurus wagon and a Saab 900. She thought the Saab fit her self image better, so that’s what she drove.
Around Portland OR I still see them on occasion, if not frequently. Tough little cars that seem to last, mechanically at least, better than usual.
My mother had one of these purchased new circa 1981, two tone black and silver with a red pinstripe. She had it for 7 or 8 years and still considers it her favorite car.
Black and silver with a red pinstripe was a good look in the 80s and often looked great on a boxy shaped car or truck.
I recently saw a 90s Taurus repainted in that scheme. It was kind of neat to see it but it didn’t work as well on a roundy shape, IMO.
Used to see a couple of them until a few years ago
These are probably the last, well-built Chrysler products.
None left around these parts of Texas.
All the Big Pickup Trucks probably have run them over and crushed them. It’s possible there are a few left, but they must only come out at night and only do short grocery runs.
There is still a slate gray one around Bellingham. There was a maroon one, but I haven’t seen it for a couple of years.
Iaccoca gets a lot of credit for ‘saving’ Chrysler, but he had a great headstart with the Omnirizon. Without it, ChryCo might have been a goner, even with Lido.
I don’t think I’ve ever seen one. Except the one driven by the pizza delivery boy in Home Alone. (“Eh? They have Horizons over there?”)
I’ve seen plenty of Talbot Horizons, but I probably saw the last one twenty five years ago. They weren’t exactly durable, and once they were five years old they were worth the same as a family sized bag of Doritos.
Speaking of the Talbot Horizon, was there any parts commonality between it and the US Omnirizon?
If so, was there another car that looked identical to a version from the other part of the world that had even ‘less’ parts commonality?
My understanding was that the suspension and most engines were different but otherwise it was fundamentally similar. I’m sure relatively few parts were directly interchangeable.
The one that springs to my mind is the Aussie Ford Falcon which looked like a euro Granada but was a totally different car.
Like many around here, I haven’t seen one in years…yet I can remember the last 2 I saw only for the fact that I had reason to remember them. I graduated high school in 1995, and a classmate’s first car was one of these (in silver), and the mailman where I lived in 1998 (or in this case mail lady) had a burgundy Omni. Both of these were in central Ontario, and I can’t recall seeing one after the late 90s.
I will back up Jeff Sun. There are no Omni/Horizons left in New England. I am also surprised by how small it looks next to the Fiesta. I know we are all getting used to crossovers being the “average” car. But we have cars like MINI. There must be some optical illusion there. The Fiesta can’t be bigger like that.
Can’t remember when I last saw a Chrysler Horizon (as their non-identical twins were here). I do remember a friend of mine having one back in the early/mid-1980s. It did seem a bit tinny, but was still an improvement over the very rusty Morris Marina he had before that.
I’ve seen one tooling around Bay Ridge here in Brooklyn
By the end of the production run, these were really good value. I remember the Omni sold with with a/c and a nice interior for its last couple of years. Not the the most modern car on the market but one with excellent value with long ago sorted out mechanicals. I can’t think of a modern equivalent.
My uncle had a 1988 Plymouth Horizon Expo ( The Canadian Equivalent to America) It was dark burgandy color with matching velour interior had A/C and a factory stereo with cassette player. It was a pretty decent peppy economy car. He had it until it was totaled in 1994 when it was replaced by a Plymouth Acclaim. He still talks this day at 75 that the Horizon was the best car he ever had.
I, too, had to buzz around town in one of these for driving school. Had a big yellow STUDENT DRIVER sign on the roof. I felt like a world-class d-bag for 4 weeks, but it cut my insurance rates dramatically. I also drove a Fiat 500, somewhat more recently, which was a lot more fun, but not much more powerful.
That’s an unusual find-I have not seen an OmniHorizon in years!
The Omnirizon was a car that I totally dismissed in the 1980s and now appreciate much more. It really is the delineation between Old Chrysler and Chrysler of the more modern era. Definitely the right car for the times.
I envision a 1978 Plymouth showroom with a Horizon parked next to a Fury sedan. Talk about old and new. The only problem would be that, while the Fury would likely be sitting there for a while, for the first few years, those Omnirizons were hot sellers with waiting lists for them.
(this is in reply to Rick’s comment, above) I drove a MINI (2002) for nearly 10 years. Each and every day I had that car I marveled at how big it was outside relative to how little space was on the inside. It was like some kind of weird space-time discontinuum.
Well, at least the space part.
I drove two Omnis, an ’81 automatic and the one-great-automotive-buy of my life so far: an ’88 FI 5-speed, the latter 253K miles. Other than normal maintenance, few other problems, endlessly dependable, 38mpg consistently and fun to drive. Its one of the few cars of which I would enjoy another copy. It would have to be an ’88-’90 FI and 5-speed…and rust-free. .
Yes – there are two daily drivers in Springfield, IL.
No mention of the oscillating steering ? .
I tried to find a you tube link but failed .
-Nate
My mom’s first car…same color but it was the Plymouth version (Horizon)
I haven’t seen a Euro Chrysler Horizon on the road for maybe 5-7 years. Occasional sighting at the right car is abut it.