{"id":47841,"date":"2023-04-20T12:03:08","date_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:03:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=47841"},"modified":"2023-04-20T12:03:08","modified_gmt":"2023-04-20T16:03:08","slug":"junkyard-gem-1979-plymouth-horizon","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/?p=47841","title":{"rendered":"Junkyard Gem: 1979 Plymouth Horizon"},"content":{"rendered":"

While Ford and GM proved to have sufficiently deep pockets to design their own<\/a> US-market subcompacts<\/a> for the fuel-starved 1970s<\/a>, Chrysler had to look to its overseas outposts to create such a car. Turning to Simca, which had become part of Chrysler Europe after Chrysler’s absorption of the Rootes Group, a promising hatchback concept<\/a> was developed into both a European-market version<\/a> and a significantly different American-market version<\/a>. Today’s Junkyard Gem<\/a> is an example of the latter type, found in a Denver-area self-service boneyard last summer.<\/p>\n

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The first of these cars came off the Belvidere Assembly<\/a> line in Illinois as 1978 models (sadly, Stellantis just shuttered Belvidere<\/a> in February). The Dodge-badged version was the Omni<\/a>, while the Plymouth version was the Horizon<\/a>; the generic term for this car is thus\u00a0Omnirizon<\/em>.<\/p>\n

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The Omnirizon was a great success for Chrysler, and many other vehicles were based on its platform. To name a few members of the extended Omnirizon family: the 1982-1987 Dodge Charger<\/a>, the Dodge Rampage<\/a>\/Plymouth Scamp<\/a> minitrucks, and even the Plymouth Turismo of Cocaine Factory fame<\/a>. Astoundingly, production continued all the way through 1990<\/a>, which meant that these thoroughly 1970s cars stuck around long enough to get airbags as standard equipment<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Just as was the case with the Mitsubishi-built<\/a> Dodge<\/a> and Plymouth Colts<\/a>, there never were any significant differences\u2014pricing or otherwise\u2014between the Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

The Omnirizon got a fascinating assortment of engines during its first half-decade or so. For 1978 through 1980, it received the same 1.7-liter Volkswagen straight-four that went into US-market Rabbits<\/a>, Sciroccos<\/a>, Jettas<\/a> and Audi 4000s<\/a>. This one was rated at 77 horsepower and 90 pound-feet.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Chrysler began bolting in its homegrown 2.2-liter four-banger starting with the 1981 Omnirizons, with the hilariously quick Omni GLH<\/a> and GLHS<\/a> getting turbocharged versions a few years later. From the 1983 through 1986 model years, penny-pinching Americans could buy their base-model Omnirizons<\/a> with 1.6-liter Peugeot-built Simca engines delivering 62 French horses to the front wheels.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

This Horizon is absolutely loaded<\/em> by the standards of late-1970s economy cars. The MSRP was just $4,278 (about $18,843 in 2023 dollars), but this automatic transmission would have added another $319 to the cost ($1,405 today). The base transmission for 1979 was a four-on-the-floor manual<\/a>.<\/p>\n

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Once you’ve spent that much for clutch-free driving, why not spring for refrigerated air? The A\/C in this car cost $507 ($2,233 now).<\/p>\n

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The 1979 Omnirizon came with an AM radio as base equipment, which was nowhere near a given in cheap cars of that era, but this one has the optional AM\/FM stereo radio. The cost: 141 bucks, or 621 bucks after inflation.<\/p>\n

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Then we’ve got the bucket seats<\/a>, sport steering wheel<\/a> and everything else. By the time the dust settled, the out-the-door cost for this car must have been well over six grand. To put that into perspective, a new Cordoba<\/a> listed at $6,306 that year. Gas lines and rationing scared car shoppers in 1979<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

It has fender-mounted turn-signal indicators, just like a 1971 Chrysler New Yorker<\/a>. These lights were included with the optional Light Package and Popular Equipment Group, priced at $46 and $279, respectively ($203 and $1,229 now).<\/p>\n

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The best thing about this car is the “Premium Woodgrain Package,”<\/a> which cost $331 ($1,458 in 2023 dollars).<\/p>\n

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Of\u00a0course<\/em> that package included a “wood” shift knob.<\/p>\n

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It appears that this car’s usual parking place had the driver’s side facing to the south, which allowed the fierce Colorado sun to bleach the “wood” to near-invisibility.<\/p>\n

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This car was well-cared-for during its 43 years on the road, and it outlasted most of its Honda Civic<\/a> and Datsun 210<\/a> competitors.<\/p>\n

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The Omnirizon got cheaper and cheaper (in real terms) as Chrysler made its production more efficient. By 1990, the list price for a new Dodge Omni was $6,995, which comes to about $16,518 in today’s money.<\/p>\n\n

Front-wheel-drive was what you needed for those veterinary emergencies. Magazine ads of the era pitched this car as the Blizzard Wizard<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

While Ford and GM proved to have sufficiently deep pockets to design their own US-market subcompacts for the fuel-starved 1970s, Chrysler had to look to its overseas outposts to create such a car. Turning to Simca, which had become part of Chrysler Europe after Chrysler’s absorption of the Rootes Group, a promising hatchback concept was […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":47842,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-47841","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-industry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47841","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=47841"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/47841\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/47842"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=47841"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=47841"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/autosector.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=47841"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}