When was the last time you saw a Plymouth Laser, or any Plymouth for that matter? This ‘92 Laser RS is a nice looking car – don’t you agree? It’s exactly like the one I owned, in the very same Raspberry Red color, except mine was a 1990 model.
In the late 1990s, my wife and I were driving cars we planned to keep for a while, which meant there was no longer any need for me to scan the classified ads, as was my daily habit. Thinking of my next car had been a years-long addiction, and my withdrawal symptoms were severe.
That is when our eldest daughter came to me with an interesting proposition. Our three daughters went to high school in another town because our’s is too small for a high school of its own, and the school bus schedule limited their options for extracurricular activities. Daughter #1 had just received her driver’s license. She pointed out that if she had her own car, she’d have more time for schoolwork, and she could cart her sisters around so I didn’t have to. I was easily convinced by this compelling argument.
The Plymouth Laser that I found in the classifieds was a 2+2 sports coupe built in Normal, Illinois, by Diamond-Star Motors, a joint-venture between Mitsubishi and Chrysler. The Laser was a twin (or a triplet?) of the Mitsubishi Eclipse and the Eagle Talon. The most potent of these coupes had turbo-charged engines and all-wheel-drive; however I bought a tamer version for my daughter, one with a 135 HP 2.0L DOHC four and an automatic transmission.
The cost of insurance is an important consideration when you’ve a teenage driver in the house. The Laser’s premiums were not excessive; perhaps the actuaries supposed that anything named “Plymouth” must necessarily be an old person’s car. A used Laser was also the least expensive of the Diamond-Star triplets, all of which offered engineering and reliability comparable to Honda and Toyota at a considerable discount.
Our raspberry coupe handled well, and its four-wheel disc brakes ensured it stopped well too. One of the Laser’s safety features was its motorized seatbelts. Most people don’t like these, but I did, as this was my daughter’s car, and there were certain of her classmates I wanted securely fastened as far from her as possible while the car was in motion.
I don’t remember the new driver getting into trouble with her first car, except for one time when I noticed a puddle of oil on the driveway. I looked underneath the Laser and saw that its oil pan was dented. “Whatever happened?” I inquired.
“It may have hit a rock,” was the reply. I found my daughter’s sentence structure most interesting. She didn’t say, “There was a large rock in the road that I couldn’t avoid,” which would have been a reasonable explanation given the prevalence of unpaved roads in our town. No, she implied it was the oil pan that all by itself went looking for a rock to hit. I repaired the leak anyway.
The Laser was the first car I owned for which I remember relying on on-line forums for technical advice. There was an active Diamond-Star Motors owners group that was very helpful, although like most user forums, it listed all the many things that could conceivably go wrong, which was worrisome. Nevertheless, we might have kept the Laser longer if not for a phone call from my father.
The Legacy Years
My father called to tell me his friend was selling his fairly-new 1995 Subaru Legacy. My father had always liked Subarus, this one was five years newer than the Laser, and Dad thought its all-wheel drive would make it safer in wintertime. This particular Legacy was “taupe” in color, an inconspicuous gray-brown that would have made it a perfect getaway car for a bank robber. Also it was a 4-door sedan. A gray-brown sedan – my daughters must have been the envy of all their friends.
The Subaru was a Legacy LS model, which meant it was more luxurious inside than we were used to, with genuine fake-wood trim and power windows and sunroof. The 2.2L engine provided 135HP, the same as the Laser’s four.
Although the car wasn’t remarkably quick, one of my daughters got stopped for speeding past the police station. What was she thinking??? The sergeant knew me — we live in a very small town — and he insisted that my daughter go to the district courthouse. The judge chewed her out, but let her off with a warning and no points on her license. Twenty-five years have passed since then, and my daughter has never again been stopped for speeding. That I know of.
If you’ve ever lived with three teenage girls, you will know that life at home is not always harmonious. Each of my daughters thought she was always right and her sisters always wrong. For a while there was masking tape on the floor in the very middle of the bedroom two of the girls shared, a line that must not be crossed.
All this changed once I bought the girls a car, for then a sensible hierarchy was established at last. You see, there were never more than two of my daughters in high school at the same time. The older one had the car keys, therefore the younger one must do whatever her sister told her to do — make her breakfast, for example — or else she could take the school bus.
My middle daughter reminds me that when she was the driver she planted cucumber seeds in a plastic tray she kept in the Subaru’s glove compartment, and assigned to her younger sister the job of watering the seedlings. She says I put a stop to this enterprise when I discovered what they were doing. This proves that I am not a complete pushover when it comes to raising daughters — I can put my foot down from time to time.
When the Legacy LS sedan was about ten years old, my mother gave her granddaughters her 1997 Legacy GT wagon, which had a 2.5L four and an additional 20HP. I believe the girls drove one Subaru or the other for ten or eleven years, enough time for all to graduate from college and go out into the real world.
Related CC Reading
Curbside Classic: 1993 Plymouth Laser – Candle In The Water, Drifting Helplessly (by Brendan Saur)
I always liked these Diamond Star coupes. The people we bought our current house owned one of them, and I remember thinking at the time how I could be interested in one if the right car came along at the right time. But that time never came, and now it has been years since I have seen one.
I had a base 1990 Plymouth Laser as an everyday driver for just shy of two years in the mid 1990s. It had the 1.8L SOHC I4 and an automatic. First off, you’re lucky only two of your daughters went to high school at one time. The idea of a third person wedging themselves into the Laser’s tiny rear seat is ridiculous and painful.
I recall my little Laser was a fun car to drive, rather like a little go-kart rather than a passenger car. Even with the smallest diameter tires it stayed planted in the turns and curves. The prior owner installed an aftermarket pop-up sunroof so on warm days I could open it and get cool air through the interior if I wanted to skip using the A/C. Being used I had some problems that needed fixing (torn CV boot, plastic door handle broke, headlights stuck up) but all in all it was a good car.
Which I replaced with a lemon 🍋 of a Plymouth Sundance Duster. 🙄
As for women and the passive voice: Yup, things just happen to her. My Mrs. recently misjudged the garage door opening and ran our new Hyundai into the door jamb. The reason? “The garage is too narrow!” The same garage we’ve pulled cars into and out of for seven plus years now and she’s been pulling the new car into since March. Luckily some polishing compound and elbow grease removed the paint streaks.
Magic Eraser is a gift from God. Ask me how I know.
Oh, I like the Laser but would like it even better with a manual. Can’t recall ever seeing one. Kind of like the 85 Dodge Daytona I saw for sale with a manual. Again rare but also too close.
It’s probably just me, but the orientation of the instrument cluster in these seemed a lot like that of an airplane, which was big in the late sixties (big Fords, mostly). The whole cockpit style thing was okay, I guess, but in the Laser, well, it just seemed like the dash was too high (even though it really wasn’t), especially with the HVAC and radio controls in a flat plane off to the right.
And then there are those motorized mouse shoulder belts to avoid airbags. They weren’t so great in small Fords, and they’re no better here, either.
Growing cucumber seeds in your Scoobies glove box. Lol!!! That’s a new one for me and can’t help wonder why. Did your daughter ever say why she tried growing them? Obviously kids are kids and we all did goofy things growing up but that one is a bit of a head scratcher.
Middle Daughter noticed how hot the car would be at the end of each school day, like a greenhouse, and thus decided to use the free solar energy to our advantage. The makeshift planter we wedged into the open glove compartment had drainage, a drip tray, and we even figured out how to turn off the glovebox light to keep the car battery intact. We had some good growth before Dad noticed and shutdown our little cucumber farm!
When I met with wife for the 1st time in 1987, she drove a black 1986 Chrysler Laser that she nicknamed Kitty Kat (a play on the KITT from the Knightrider TV show). Her car was much better than my 1987 Hyundai Excel, a car with 67 hp and was too small for my 6’2″ frame (all I could afford at the time after my divorce). She kept the car until 1992 when we traded it in for a Mazda MPV minivan. She loved her Laser and didn’t want to give up. I eventually made it up to her when I bought her dream car, a Bentley Bentayga.
I’m confused as to why HYUNDAI is cast into the cam cover, I thought they used Mitsubishi engines, I’m sure I will be missing something obvious, but I know not what.
It looks like a nice little car and I like the instrument panel.
You’ve a good eye! When I posted the photo I thought it said 16 VALVE not HYUNDAI – I didn’t look too closely. Yes, Mitsubishi did sell their Sirius 4G63 2.0L engine to Hyundai for use in the Sonata and other models. The owner of the ’92 Laser must have replaced their engine or at the very least the valve cover.
I have fond memories of a ’95 Legacy wagon that I drove as a young man. I wrote it up for CC a few years back: https://www.curbsideclassic.com/cars-of-a-lifetime/coal-1995-subaru-legacy-wagon-sunshine/
Great that you kept these cars in the family and that they helped see your daughters through their development into independence.
I remember back in ’94 going with my then girlfriend, soon to be ex-girlfriend, to look at a new Laser. They had one on the lot in teal green (like every car lot did in ’94). By that time, they lost the cool pop-up lights and had the aero fixed units. It was the base model with the SOHC motor and automatic. I think it made around 100-110 hp. Being a light car, It had decent if not quick acceleration. With a/c and power options it came to around 13-14 grand with a relatively low payment. Unfortunately, she couldn’t get approved, and I wisely chose not to sign for her.
In the end it was probably for the best. My friend’s sister had an Eclipse a few years older, and I recall the interior disintegrating and a lot of warranty work not long after purchasing.
Well, my Dad bought a new 1980 Dodge Omni (the 2 door coupe) about a decade earlier. Closest thing to a mid-life crisis car I guess…the Omni led me to buying a used 1978 VW Scirocco (still my sentimental favorite car, sentimental since I know 44 year older me wouldn’t take to it as 22 year old me did). The clutch cable broke with less than 1k miles on the car but otherwise it was reliable as long as he had it…which wasn’t long, because he bought it up in Vermont, and within 2 years moved to central Texas. It didn’t have air conditioning, and my Dad didn’t bother to add it. Same fate met my Scirocco, plus a little body rust and a paint color that though attractive got eaten alive in the Texas sun (had it painted twice in the 3 years I had it in Texas…yes, I moved to central Texas too, a year after my Dad).
As only brother and interested in cars, I was elected to help my 2 younger sisters shop for cars once they got to driving age. Neither drove manual, and were very picky about what car they wanted. It was tough shopping since small cars were often bought in lieu of larger ones for the higher gas mileage, so most had a lot of miles on them despite them only being a few years old. Add to that still manual transmissions were still more popular on smaller cars (that soon changed, but after my shopping duties ceased as they got older). Anyhow, they also of course wanted air conditioning and preferred a “regular” coupe (with non-sloping backlite) and the available cars that fit their requirements wasn’t large.
These were too new to consider, plus they only had hatchbacks so my Sisters wouldn’t consider one. They ended up with Nissan 200SX then 240SXs, having owned qty-4 between them (surviving sister still has the ’97 she bought new). These were closer to what I would probably choose for me, but I wasn’t often in the car buying “window” since I hold onto cars for awhile (didn’t so much then, but overcorrected as I got older. Multiple offerings come and go in between my buying cycles, so unfortunately I never get to consider them unless buying used (which I’ve done but for certain reason). Anyhow, I remember trying to get my sister to consider cars like an Isuzu I-Mark or Impulse, which they ruled out of hand.
I had a friend that owned 2 Mitsubishi cars, actually the same model sold as different makes, a Plymouth Sapporo and a Dodge Challenger, I really liked the Dodge (the Plymouth predated my meeting him), but never bought one myself. One of these would have been fun to get, but I replaced the Scirocco with a GTi (still in the VW fold) which took me to my current car, also a VW (guess I’m a hard case). But I enjoyed the variety of different cars available at that time, especially in 1986 when I spent the most time I ever have (and probably ever will) looking at different cars, taking advantange of the options till settling on what works for me, the clones of which I still buy and would like to continue to do so in the future.