Welcome to Part 2 of this multipart series featuring pictures of select cars from my youth. As with the 1970 Ford F-100 in Part 1, I also saved these Omni pictures from being tossed into the trash. Like with the 1970 Ford, I took these pictures, also.
Today’s 1981 Dodge Omni was purchased new by my parents on a cold January day. It replaced a 1973 Ford Torino and the Omni’s mission in life was to serve as my father’s commuting car, a trip of roughly one hour (or fifty miles) each way.
This Omni was initially a real stretch for my father. Never having been accused of being overly adventuresome, his purchasing a front-drive car in 1981 was highly uncharacteristic of, and highly cutting edge for, him. I vividly remember him talking about the odd sensations of driving a front-drive car, particularly downhill, as he was accustomed to being pushed, not pulled.
Credit for encouragement to vacate his figurative box likely goes to one of the brothers who owns Guetterman Motors, the now Ford (and then Chrysler and Ford) dealer in Cairo, Illinois. Dad bought a bunch of cars from there. Prior to purchase he had his heart set on a base model Ford Fairmont with a three-speed and wound up with this Omni. He did rather enjoy his diminutive Dodge.
As a quick aside, Cairo is the unfortunate poster child for dying and imploding towns. While there are numerous videos on YouTube documenting this tortuous death, I discount most of them. Why? If you can’t say the town name right, you likely bungled something else, so your credibility is suspect. It’s Care-Oh, not Ky-Ro nor Kay-ro.
As another aside, a family roadtrip took us through Cairo, Georgia, last fall. It had me thinking of the “what could have been” for Cairo, Illinois.
I digress.
As this was my father’s commuter car, I spent very little time in it. What I do remember was my father’s fastidiousness is keeping a journal of fuel purchases in this Omni. If I was with him, I was invariably charged with pulling his tablet from the glove compartment and writing down the date, odometer reading, fuel cost, and fuel quantity. Why he didn’t also include time, temperature, and relative humidity are a puzzler.
This is so imprinted on my psyche, I can tell you without hesitation this Omni routinely returned over 30 mpg. It having the 1.7 liter Volkswagen engine and a four-speed manual transaxle likely helped achieve that result.
The only thing my father never liked about this Dodge was the large badge on the passenger side of the dashboard that screamed “OMNI”. It was obvious an exterior badge had been used.
I can also remember the odd stain on the vinyl front passenger seat and floor. At some point, my mother needed some unique dental work. She found a doctor in Memphis, Tennessee, which wasn’t much further away from us than was St. Louis. On the way back, she was drinking an Orange Crush and a goodly part of it somehow wound up on the seat and floor.
My father, having a phobia about not only vehicle maintenance but cleaning vehicles, left the mess there for the duration of his ownership. After a while, the stain transformed into a shade of brown that made one think of something other than orange soda. You can even see a second stain of some variety in the above picture on the passenger side headrest.
During their 110,000 miles of ownership, I remember there being zero problems with this Omni. The only issue was the broken piece of the grille on the passenger side; my dad leaned against it and heard a snap. These pictures also show what appears to be rust forming on the tailgate lip, but that can happen with never being washed. Or maybe it’s an accumulation of funkiness.
I drove this Omni a time or two, but only around the property. It went away in 1986 for a year old Ford LTD Crown Victoria.
Memorable rides in this Omni can be found here.
This car in Europe was called the Tablot Horizon, one of the best small-midsize sedans.
A capable car, with good mechanics and low fuel consumption.
Yes, and before that it was the Simca Horizon, although there were quite significant differences between the European and US versions under the skin.
Of course, Paul.
In Europe, it had 1.4- and 1.6-liter gasoline engines and a 1.9-liter diesel engine made by PSA.
Talbot, along with the Chrysler Europe division, was bought by Peugeot in the late 1970s until its complete demise in the early 1990s.
The Omnirizon twins seemed so revolutionary for a domestic brand FWD, 5 door hatchback, etc – even though by European standards (or Honda Civic) it wasn’t exactly novel. I think the VW engine was a 1.7, not 1.6.
Yes, a 1.7. Text amended now.
My experience driving one of these for almost a year in the early 1980s was that it was generally a pretty pleasant experience. At the time I owned an increasingly unreliable Buick LeSabre and the little Omni was just get in and go reliable. Nothing too fancy, but it started, stopped, and got around town just fine which was more than I came to find with the Buick. The fact that the Omni had floors that prevented you from seeing the road go by under the car was just gravy.
I too appreciated the VW engine. And so this is in fact what drove me into the VW dealer to look at Rabbits when my friend (who’d loaned me her Omni while she was out of the country) asked for her car back and I realized that there was no going back to the Buick.
I always thought that the Omni was sort of like a Rabbit/Golf that needed to go to Weight Watchers. It was just kind of “puffy” compared to the Rabbit. Plus, the interior was definitely a downgrade from the more utilitarian VW (something that I’m guessing wasn’t exactly a problem for the Omni’s target market).
I think there was a “puffiness” hierarchy of German Rabbit, Westmoreland Rabbit, and Omni/Horizon. The ranking depended on your automotive values.
A friend of my parents had a virtually identical Omni, though with high-back seats. She was sort of a hard-luck person who was always having financial difficulties, and bought the car used. She had a similar aversion to car care and cleaning – and the Omni just kept running. I rode in that car a few times, and remembered those high-back seats were might comfortable.
My father also kept a journal of fuel purchases around this era – and he’d figure out his mileage using a slide rule as soon as he was done pumping gas.
Oh, and thanks for the correct pronunciation of Cairo – I’d always thought it was KAY-ro. That pronunciation is probably damaging to your ears.
I always liked the Omni/Horizon twins, despite having little experience driving one of them – I’m thinking of a late-production model off a rental car lot in Miami, of all places. Passenger experience was limited to a high school friend who regularly drove his mother’s 024 coupe to school and I often got a ride home from him.
I admired the space efficient design, reasonable ride and handling compromise, and found the front seats to be comfortable and the rear seats much more spacious than almost anything else in its class. I much preferred the Omni/Horizon to the original K-cars, which seemed kind of crude in comparison, though later derivatives were much improved.
Thanks for the primer on the local pronounciation of Cairo – having grown up in the Chicago suburbs, I was always under the impression that the name of Illinois’ southern-most town was pronounced “Kay-ro”.
“The only thing my father never liked about this Dodge was the large badge on the passenger side of the dashboard that screamed “OMNI”. It was obvious an exterior badge had been used.”
I’ve never really thought about it before, but what’s the point of a badge INSIDE the car? You already know what it is.
Definitely an affectation. When you’ve paid extra for a Lincoln or Caddy, you want to be constantly reminded of your wealth and good taste in vehicle choice, inside or out. It’s similar to how, to this day, some high-end models get a plaque with the buyer’s name.
But, yeah, with a Vega or Pinto? Not so much.
My Dad bought a new ’80 Omni, his was the 2 door coupe. It was his first domestic 2nd car, as he’d always had imported cars serving in this role previously. I think it was also his midlife crisis car, the closest thing to a sporty car he was to own.
It was his first of two Dodges in a row…his first car was a ’56 Plymouth Plaza, he never owned a Chrysler.
I almost bought one of these as well, in 1981, but instead I found a ’78 Scirocco which I had to have despite being pretty pricey (inflation was pretty high in late 70’s to early 80’s).
Well, the fate of his Omni was similar to my Scirocco…bought up North, both lacked air conditioning, and in the meantime we’d moved to central Texas. Actually dealt with it for 4 years, traffic was no where near as bad as now, and mostly you could count on the breeze with windows open, but eventually we gave in, he replaced the Omni with an ’86 Dodge 600 (with AC of course) while I sold the Scirocco myself and bought an ’86 GTi
I remember these, I’m surprised no one mentioned the oscillating steering that could be induced but never seemed to occur normally .
Cute and cheerful .
-Nate
Isn’t that why Consumer Reports blacklisted this car? I know opinions vary widely on CR, but do you recall exactly what happened?
From Wikipedia:
Shortly after their introduction, Consumer Reports tested the Omni and Horizon and reported that it lost control in hard maneuvering. As front-wheel-drive cars were still considered a new idea in the American automotive industry, the allegation received extensive mainstream coverage, including a piece in Time magazine. Other automotive media reported no problems and said the Consumer Reports test did not approximate real-world driving conditions. In response to the Consumer Reports article, Chrysler modified the car to add a steering damper and a lighter-weight steering wheel.
IIRC, CR attached outriggers to the car, then would fling the steering wheel at highway speed. to simulate an emergency maneuver The short car would rise up on two wheels and only stop from flipping over because of the outriggers.
TBH, I think it did more damage to CR’s reputation than it did to Chrysler.
Interesting that in its entire thirteen year model run, Chrysler never offered modern and aerodynamic exterior rear view mirrors. All four door Horizons and Omnis had old-fashioned post-syle exterior mirrors. Aero mirrors would have freshened the looks of the four door Horizon/Omni, if adopted at some point.
As the Horizon TC3 and Omni O24, always had aero mirrors.
I think I always looked at the Omnirizon twins as sort of an American version of a Golf that wasn’t as good. Kind of like Gummy Bears you might find at the drugstore instead of the real thing Haribo Goldbären. Similar look if slightly larger, similar colors, but the flavor and consistency just wasn’t the same… Perhaps it has to do with which the first significant exposure was to.
However, when viewed through the prism of seeing one whilst thinking of picking up a 3speed Fairmont, well, that changes things, and all of a sudden I’m completely on board as well. I wonder if your dealer had an ’81 Escort on hand at the time although this probably is the better driver, certainly the VW engine is better than the Escort’s was.
It’s amazing how everyone is usually down on Chrysler quality, yet the Omni tends to get (at least here) VERY high marks. Even with the VW engine that’s usually in cars that also tend to have everyone down on them.
It’s interesting also that this one was replaced by the more or less polar opposite even though it seemed to be well-liked (as opposed to something that could do more than just the same people transportation task, i.e. a truck or van).