Canceled?! Whaddya mean we're cancelled?!

I still have my 1985 Shelby Charger and 1987 Charger GLHS. Both cars have been very dependable. If you keep up with maintenance, they will last forever.

My family in the 80s was riddled with these. Our family reunion looked like a Dodge/plymouth/chrysler dealership. I do remember turning off the AC so we could pass a car on the highway.

I worked for a Chrysler/Plymouth dealership in 1979. The Horizons and TC-3s would literally sell right off the truck! They weren't bad little cars. Fairly peppy, tight and handled pretty well. Also the four door Horizon was very roomy on the inside. Front wheel drive meant they handled snow real well here in New Hampshire. ( back in the day when the only people driving SUVs were farmers! ) The only engine available in '79 was the VW 1.7. My parents bought a base model to replace their "65 Belvedere (that I still own) that they drove for many years. As a matter of fact my wife and I would borrow the Horizon whenever we went to Boston and wanted a car that was good on gas to putter around in traffic. It got around 38 miles to the gallon; again it was a stripper model. Great video as always Steve and keep referencing scale model cars. As a young boy in the sixties, I learned all about cars by building models. Thanks!

I was 16-17 when I got hired to move these cars to the mall for a weekend sale. I grew up in SW Michigan, and they were the turbo version with 5 speeds. As kids, we drove them like they were stolen. We thought they were pretty bad ass. I do remember the manager tell us to watch our speed because the speedo/odometers weren’t hooked up! Which years later I learned a lot of dealers got in trouble for. Thanks for the memory jogger Steve!

The most fun I've had behind the wheel of a car has been in my '87 GLHS. I will own it until the day I die.

"Bad Memories" sums it up! My first car in college, a Plymouth TC3. It wasn't college that put me in debt, it was trying to keep the TC3 running that did! Aluminum head, underpowered, weak overall, doors that would and would not open when they wanted to....but a good looking body for what was out there. Thanks for the "Bad Memories" Steve and Shane, Glad to see you made it up the hill to these building blocks in Chrysler's story!

Well said as always Steve ! The kids today dont know the pain we suffered watching cars like these roll off the assembly lines ha !HA!! Thanks again

Hey Steve. In High School 1978 we had our version of a Scatpack on the El Camino Real in Santa Clara Cal. We had a pack of Dodge Darts. All 340's cruzin in a pack of 5 or 6 on Friday Nights. Our parking lot where we staged was a Flower shop, so we would say "meet you at the Flower shop"

Chrysler's first all metric car. I had alot of fun stomping on GM F bodys back in the day with my GLH Turbo.

My mom had one of those little turbo chrysler, I remember it was pretty quick (once the turbo kicked in) and handled pretty well back in the day!

These segments are always fun and informative. Thanks for all you do, Steve.

My sister had a Turismo. She wrecked it, dad and I fixed it. Then Mom drove it for years. She knew she had to check the gas, but fill the antifreeze. LOL. Head gasket was bad for a decade.

Steve, how about a couple of videos on those class 8 trucks?

My Dad had a '79 Horizon. It was dark blue with light blue interior. 4 speed. No radio. No A/C. I still have nightmares about going on long rides in the summer heat in that thing. It was a complete death trap too when I realized how thin and chintzy all the sheet metal was.

I bought a 82 Rampage new. 2.2L, 4 speed. Black with little red pin stripe. 65-75 mph in second gear of the light. Very quick off the light. Sports car dudes had to pass me balls out so a pick-up wouldn’t beat them. Fun stuff.

Steve, thank you for the contact on your channel. It’s very educational and I get a lot out of every episode.

When I was 16, I traded a set of chrome wheels to a friend of my brother for a 1984 Omni that had a broken crankshaft gear. After I replaced the gear and fired it up, I soon found out that the 2.2 with the 4-speed would perform incredible burnouts. The car was gold, and my high school colors were purple and gold so I painted the grille purple an tried to convince the school counselor that the burnouts were enticing school spirit. After about 6 months the crank gear fell off again and it was parked. That car is long gone but I still have an '87 Turismo in my collection.

The Shelby cars from this era were really impressive. It’s hard to believe but a GLH beat a GT 350 around the track, handily. Thank you as always for these videos - Chuck

I was in the Service Management team at a large Chrysler, Plymouth,Dodge, and Jeep dealership in the mid to late 80's. I saw a continual abundance of these cars coming through the doors during this time. Lots of complaints were about those meager powered 4 cyl engines and ignition issues, but by far the biggest problems had to do with the junk A/C system and that notorious, trouble prone compressor. When they went out, they locked up, and shut the car down. Every day I had at least 2 come in on a hook for this problem.

I bought a new 85 charger 2.2 5speed manual, white, red interior and had the black stripes and decal on the hood and factory spoilers, it came new with goodyear gt tires too! It was a awesome little car! Great gas mileage and I put over 300,000 miles on it only had to replace the timing belt once and put new CV joints in it, couldn't ask for a better car!

I had an Omni O24 in the mid 1980s. It was an efficient commuter and fun with the stick shift. I had a welder put tabs on the front to attach a tow bar and towed it behind my Class C camper. Unfortunately I rolled them in a blizzard in Utah. The camper was destroyed but the Omni looked pretty good when I inspected it sitting on its side in the soft snow. But when we pushed it over onto it's wheels it was so bent that one rear tire was up off the ground. That car went straight to the junk yard.

I daily my 84 Turismo in the nice weather. Love it!! Great on gas and gets tons of looks. The nose on that 85 was correct btw!

my friend had the black\silver charger with the turbo. it would get up and go prity good. he had it for about 30 yrs. and another friend had the dodge daytona . bright orange ish red. lee did a good job reviving this company.

I had a black and silver '85 Dodge Shelby Charger 5 speed. Fun car, wish I still had it.

When first married I had a Ram charger 4X4, I was driving work truck and wife was driving Ram to university. She loathed driving that big thing! Traded it on Plymouth horizon, decent car the only real problem was it went through two sets of CV axles in five or six years. After that it was Dodge caravans, two of them hauling kids and stuff !!!!!

Oh! Yep remember these! But those dodge omini's glh sticks in mind//// impressive( goes like hell) In shelbys hands of course( a little sleeper of a car! - Thanks Steve!

I have a 93 New Yorker, 86 LeBaron Town and Country, and 87 Horizon all in my driveway 😂. BTW Steve, that cabover next to that long nose Freightliner is begging for junkyard crawl attention!!!!

I hope you do a video on that cabover semi that's sitting in the background. It most assuredly has a story to tell. 🚛 📯

Those were difficult times back then,and we made it through

In the early 90's my Mother had a Turismo, but it looked like the Charger, it had the four headlights, was gold with a black hood. I think it was in a fender-bender before my mom had it, looking back on it knowing what I know now and somebody might have just put a Charger nose on it. It would be cool to have that car today, lol even the Relient K and the Plymouth Voyager. Even to this day she drives the Dodge Carvan I think my mom made our family a Mopar family because I by Plymouths and Dodges now and just about every car when I was kid was a Plymouth, Dodge or Chrysler.

Bought a used O24 as my first car, black with gold wheels, sunroof and the rear spoiler, not a bad looking little car but it was a real lemon. The future is all the past.

Had a Horizon and an Omni when I was a teen. The Horizon was great little car. Always reliable, never let us down. The Omni was a total pos that would break down the moment someone sneezed. Funny in that they were the same damn car except for the name tag. Weird. Had a K to. It was an ok car. Still wouldn't mind a closer look at that Freight Shaker looming the background there Steve. Looks to be a beauty.

My Grandmother bought a brand new Omni in 1983. I had the “pleasure” of driving it several years later. That carbureted 2.2 could barely get out of its own way. I mean it was GUTLESS. I worked as a mechanic years ago and did many a head gasket job on these along with timing belts.

Thank you for giving them credit for getting us back to the era of muscle cars.

I remember a family in my neighborhood who had 3 of the plymouth turismos. I like these a lot

Hard to believe the Turismo / O24’s were SHORTER than the Horizon / Omni’s……..????? In my wife’s family, all of the “princesses” got new cars when they turned 16 - which in this case turned out to be a Plymouth Horizon, a Hyundai Excel, and a Ford Escort. Depressing I know, but all the girls cared about was that the color was pretty and George Michael sounded good on the radio…….😂 Taking Friday and Monday off to make an impromptu long weekend before heading back out on the road for work next week - hope to get some good “garage time” in and maybe even get one of my baby’s out for a little backroad cruise if the weather cooperates…….☀

Yupper!! What a blast of a car when I was a kid, 1979 Plymouth Horizon TC-3!!! HUT WAIT ✋️!!! A VOLKSWAGEN RABBIT ENGINE FROM THE FACTORY 😮. yes sir!! With a 5-speed stick transmission. And when my father finally sold it, it had over 500k miles on it!!! Then came the Dodge Omni GLH. Another great handling car, and fun to drive!!! Thanks Steve for another great video!!

Looked at these back in '85. Test drove and scrutinized a lot of cars. Checked out the fit and finish, and it was a no-brainer. Bought a new Toyota Celica. Glad I did.

The omnis and horizons were like the rabbits but the chargers and turismos were similarly like the scirocco. Same platform from both manufacturers, just a different unibody. And both the sciroccos and the turismo/charger got a hotter engine toward the end of their runs (turbo and the 16v)

I've got an 86 GLHS #329 and enjoy it much. Always enjoy when you cover the L-Body line. Thanks!!!

Back in 77 and 78 on my way to work at a chevy dealer , I would be in traffic with a short bus in front of me every morning. I couldn't escape this thing. In the right rear window I had to watch this wacko pulling his lips apart. Big huge tongue slapping around and givin me the bird too. The funny thing is he looked like steve. For 2 years this happened. Anytime I see steve I remember this sad souls face

The little Shelby Daytona turbo could plant you in a seat pretty satisfactorily in a rolling punch.😁

I seen a lot of drag racers turn these into really nice cars, something you may want to do with your model Steve.

A friend had a mid 80's Daytona with a turbo back in the day.

loved my omni glh, great car!

My home town police department acquired a handful of the L-bodies circa 1980-81 for use as unmarked traffic law enforcement. Not sure if the acquisition had anything to do with an attempt by other city departments to force the police to replace their aging fleet of six cylinder Volaris with K-cars because folks in the water and other municipal agencies liked them better. Anyway, obviously not pursuit material like the big block powered Satellites they’d had in the fleet only a few short years before. A friend in high school made the mistake of passing one on a four lane thoroughfare in his jacked up, glass packed, Dodge Demon one day (broad daylight) and was extremely surprised at the red light that lit up on the dash of the little Plymouth. I don’t remember how long that program lasted as the L-bodies were popular and the “police” versions were so “off the dealer lot” that they were undistinguished from the civilian owned cars. I just know that I was fortunate not to get pulled over. I doubt that they even had any special police upgrades. They would have only been pulling a Motorola radio, maybe a handheld radio and flashlight charger, and a bubble dash light - no big alternator burdening light bars. The older radios did pull a lot of juice so maybe there was an alternator upgrade. Who knows. A footnote in the history of the L-body.

I love that you cover all these oddball cars and trucks, these cars, the toro flow, etc. etc. keep up the great work Steve!

I'm a Mopar guy and had a 69' Charger R/T in years past. I remember also in the 80's when these came out I thought it was a sin to put the Charger name on these FWD cars but I've softened some with age and I actually quite like them now, especially the Shelby versions.

Man I really miss my 87Shelby Charger. 18 yrs old and bought it brand new. Had a blast beating Montee ss's, Z24's and LG4 f-bodys.

Great Video. Very informative. My first brand new car was a 1985 Turismo. Got the Duster Package with the 2.2, 5-speed stick and upgraded stereo. After it died, I put the center console in my 1987 Horizon. Fit perfectly and I needed the cup holders. Thanks for the trip down memory lane.

my first car was a 1987 dodge charger, AKA the black Porsha, it was good in the snow did awesome reverse donuts and gas millage wasn't bad either. lost of fun times in that car

I always loved Mopars of the 60s. Although contemporary Mopars are great performers, I cannot stomach a four door sedan with a Charger badge on it. Sadly, Mopar has been owned by the Europeans for decades. Steve, as always, your presentations are terrific!

Very fond memories of these cars, had 2 of them, both '84s. Charger and Turismo. Almost nothing interchanges with the K cars (and variants) beyond the long block and transmissions, from the mounts out they are different. My personal experience with this was having parted out a Daytona Shelby and putting all the go-fast bits into the Turismo... lots of cutting, welding, improvising. The factory service manuals for any given thing had 2 sketches, one labeled "E, G, H, J, K, P body" and the other "L body". It was lightweight, fast and a death trap of a car but we survived until the tin worm got her. This segment is completely gone now unfortunately - 2 door economical runaround type car with sporting pretensions but super practical (the hatch was huge with seats folded down). That particular Turismo is a Frankenstein car. The 2-door L's went quad headlight in '84, but it has an 86+ hatch (with CHMSL). Guessing the hatch was swapped, as I did the same myself at one point so I wouldn't give myself tetanus lifting it up.

Fantastic look back Steve! 👍👍💯🇺🇸

I was born in 1972 so I grew up with these cars, so i didn't hate them like you do. Plus with little weight the small engines beat any old charger with a slant 6 in a straight line and theough the twisties, now would i have loved a v8...of course but these little things could move decently for the slow 80's times!

Catchy title Steve. Never wanted to be caught dead driving one of these except the Shelby and Rampage versions. I always thought the baby Ranchero/ElCamino was pretty cool.

I've suspected for awhile Steve was partial to Dodges 🤔

You mentioned "badge engineering". I have an example of what can happen when the two vehicles are too similar for that: In about 1980, a co-worker bought a brand new Plymouth Omni, or was it a Dodge Horizon? It all depended on which direction you looked at it from. One end said Dodge, the other, Plymouth. One side said Horizon, the other, Omni. I guess they weren't quite awake at the factory that day! Another example: I worked in new and used car prep at a Chevy dealer shortly out of high school back in the early 80's. One day, while prepping a new pickup for delivery, I noticed that every badge inside the truck said "GMC".

Wasn't the Rampage and Scamp L body based too? Those were cool little 'utes

I wish you would have linked to the front wheel drive French Chryslers you mentioned. I looked in play list but over 400 videos couldn't find a reference. I take exception to front wheel drive Chrysler not having Rabbit DNA. When I first married in the 80's due to poverty. We had several Rabbits then Omnis/ Horizons finally a 86 Charger. I wrenched on all and found the Chrysler products just 20% larger copies. Junk yard crawl always brings a memory and a smile as we are the same age and saw the same cars

Rode back and forth to football practice in a Shelby Charger blue and found the same model kit and built just like one we had.

Had an 87 Charger like that, 5 speed 2.2. Made just a few mods with the help of the engine man in the dealership I worked at, I could outrun a turbo car with my na motor. It was a fun little car at the time, brings back memories.

I love playing "spot the dog" 😅

Thanks for all the details, Steve

Omni and Horizon were Americanized versions of the Chrysler/Simca/Talbot Horizon designed by Chrysler Europe. Same body, different engine, headlights and bumpers. Once in a while you will see a survivor in the UK or France.

Hi Steve great video of these forgotten bricks in automotive history. My cousin had one of those black and silver challenger identical to the one in your brochure. My uncle bought it new for him as a graduation gift. He later on traded for a Harley-Davidson motorcycle that he still owns today. Nice tattoo Steve 😎. Why didn't you mention the Rampage and Scamp? Speaking of the Rampage there's talk of a new Ram Rampage that may make its way to the North American markets to compete with the Ford Maverick pickup. I think Ford is 2nd to Tesla in the EV market 🙃 (have stock in both companies 💰💰). I forgot to mention I'm here at the Cherokee Bluegrass Festival this weekend in the beautiful Smokey Mts here in Cherokee, NC. There's plenty of music with lots and lots of beautiful women, to match. Come join us.🎉😂 Have a blessed day everyone 🤙🏼 Namaste 🙏🏼

I never seen 1 of those 80s challengers... they probably would have been cool if they had put their 318 in it lol

Always got a kick out of the Rampage and Scamp versions. Yeah the Elcamino was around and not horrible for the time, horrible from what they were but the Rampage could slip around in Town and city traffic fairly easy.

Oh the days! I had a '84 Charger and remember well my quickly squashed excitement upon driving it for a short time.

Hated these back in the day, now I want one. I have one of those 86MPC Charger models.

Woah, a racing stripe! I bet that one was fast!

They were the right cars for the right time.

Correct, the "L" body actually saved Chrysler by giving them a small car offering through the 1979 gas crisis and keeping them "solvent" (albeit with taxpayer help) until the K car could make them profitable. Not entirely correct on the Rabbit and L body cars---they both used the VW designed and built 1.7L engine for a time. Correct, wrong car at the wrong time and the wrong distribution system. Chrysler used a "push" distribution system which as noted previously led to weird combinations of trim, engine, and body color being pushed out to dealers to sell, rather than a "pull" system of "you spec it, we build it". This led to Chrysler having months of unsold inventory which sapped cash flow. One of the first things Mr. Iacocca did was get rid of that system. That's correct, they are both "Sperlich Specials" in that Hal Sperlich who came from Ford with Mr. Iacocca used the K car platform to spin off many variants. While boring as you state, this was what was needed at Chrysler at the time. Correct on the VIN for the win: 1B3 for US made Dodge, B for manual seat belts, 74 for Dodge Charger, C for 2.2L four cylinder with two barrel, 0 is a check digit, F for the 1985 model year, D for Belvidere, IL assembly and the rest is the production sequence. The Belvidere plant operated from 1965 until February 2023 and is on indefinite shutdown as of this writing. The used car dealer that sold it at one time, Leon L. Sirum still operates at 295 Deerfield Street in Greenfield, MA. Correct, the "CHMSL" as it's called in the industry (Center High Mount Stop Light) was a requirement for all cars from 1986 onward (although some 1985 cars had them).

Executive and bureaucratic salaries skyrocketed,while product quality headed south

my buddies Omni started in -40c where my Ford Bronco II did not. I was so impressed.

I had a Dodge Rampage and I loved it, it drove nice and you could haul a nice size sack of potatoes in it. Very good gas mileage as well. Oh and now I have ( Canceled, what do you mean we’re canceled) on my mind now and you didn’t even have to play it. Thank you.

You could get the Colt in either front wheel drive or rear wheel drive in "81 I bought a rear wheel drive 1981 Colt in 1994

I had an blue/silver '84 Shelby Charger (non-turbo). I used to joke that when I turned the air conditioner off I was engaging turbo mode. Joking aside, the car was extremely light and nimble. I can run 16 sec 1/4 miles all day long.

My parents brought an omni 024 and a d250 in 81. That omni went through hell and kept getting it. My mother was sold on dodges after that. In 87 she got an Aries k wagon and that was the end of that. Nothing but problems for a year or so and it was traded for a Honda civic. It went almost 300k on the original clutch and both my sister and I used it learning to drive.

These videos are Awesome... keep it up!!

The Mitsubishi charger was known as the Sigma Scorpion, very rare here in Australia .I found out that the SJ Avenger has the same basic engine with hemisphere head , with twin variable cams a variable runner cold air intake, super reliable and responsive . I own a 2007 SJ SXT fully loaded from the factory .

Morning Steve....

Say whatever about these cars, but I just love them! I am a sucker for these oddball cars !

We broke a hub on a non-turbo Shelby Charger at Mid Ohio back in the day running Showroom Stock. The 5-lug mounting was essential.

4 Headlights came starting with the 1984 facelift.Except for the Shelby Charger which ran the 2 light style until the end.Also the sport model Charger 2.2 came out in mid 1981 model year..4 speed stick only.

Like you said Steve those where the dark times of the automotive industry, specially for the American car companies. But the Shelby edition cars where pretty peppy and quick! I remember getting smoked by one of those back in 1989! I had a New Cavalier z24 at the time, and thought I could take you!! The guy a Dodge Omni Shelby GLH-S! And he smoked me!! I couldn’t even catch him! He was gone! 👋😂👍

One of these with rear wheel drive, and about 250hp, would've been a cool little Mustang eater back in the late 80's.

I bought a new Omni in 1990, the last year for the Omni. 2.2, automatic it had a/c, was a good car, got great fuel mileage around 28 MPG . 😊

I remember that Challenger. Wasn’t a bad looking car. Like the Mustang ll, right car at the right time.

I’ve been lucky enough to own two 024’s. The first had a blown engine. I swapped a 1.6 Rabbit engine into it. The second was a 2.2 and it tried to kill me twice. Once by losing electrics at 65 mph. And finally by losing brakes at 65 mph on the same road. Despite that I miss those cars.

I had the '79 Omni 024 with the VW 1.7l gas engine with a 4-speed... That was a bullet-proof car I bought for $50 in '90 needing a choke pull-off. Never did find the redline! Kept pulling until my gearhead ear said shift. Beyond 9k rpm, easily.

I love that Shane left you hanging during the Motor Trend gag.

I always thought it was "CS" on the seats stood for Carol Shelby, not "SC" for Shelby Competition... Interesting! Thanks for enlightening me!

Great video Steve, informative as always. I had a Grand Prix with an aftermarket sunroof that would piss on your head when I hit the brakes when it was raining. 🙄

I really look forward to your video each day.Thanks as always.

I had a Turismo!!!!! Great car, bullet proof.

I always try to guess at the end of each video what direction Steve will walk out of camera range! He was kinda stuck in this segment. Haha It's a cool trademark. Never miss one.

I loved junkyard gold and I liked your model car show to. I recently found you here and love it steve. My brother had one of those challengers with the Mitsubishi engine, totol pile, always had issues. I like when you bring out the model kits , Im assuming they're all yours. Ive been building model car kits since the mid 70s

I'd love to find one of these today in good shape and do it some justice.