I really love this car. It’s very useful, practical, reliable, and it has everything you need, and I agree, it really does everything very well. I am very upset that people are hating on these cars. They are just stupid people who think that silly modern cars are better than these awesome old cars even though that modern cars are not that exciting as this cool car, apologies for my negativity. Anyways, this is a very nice car and we can always count on it. Thank you so much for posting it.
I had an '84 Horizon. Probably the best car I've owned. Peppy 2.2 liter 4-speed. Comfortable m, reliable,. At well over 100k miles I decided I should change the timing belt. It was running perfectly, but the belt was more like individual strands. At a time when America was not making good cars, the Omni/ Horizon were the exception.
11:44 You may remember Rambler received Car of the Year for the completely new engineering approach of stamping the passenger cabin frames as a single unit instead of welding several bits together, said award given fifteen years before the Omni came out.
I owned two Omni's an 81 and 88. The 81 VW engine was absolute junk. The 88 had a fuel injected 2.2 and they were bulletproof by then. Great car. Ran it into the ground. Still have a picture of it on my bedroom mirror 30 years later. 😀
This is a really good series of promotional films on the car and its development. I live in Michigan, and I've driven on that stretch of highway that they do the test drive on. I'm so glad highways aren't still restricted to 55mph!
I wish i could get a brand new dodge omni today. Easy to work on and maintain compared to today's cars and using modern oils and transmission fluids that are all synthetic would make the car last a hell of a lot longer then the oil they had back then
If it was NEARLY as good a car as my '82 "plain" Omni, I understand why you would LOVE this car! My '82 Omni was THE BEST CHEAP (used) CAR I EVER OWNED! My '97 Buick LeSabre Limited Edition ($4000 used in 2010) was WORST! That GREAT old Omni was worth a million '97 Buick LeSabre Limited Editions!
I haven't seen one of these since I was in 4th grade, in 2007-2008, somewhere near my elementary school, I seen one but it was maple red, and it was a Plymouth horizon. It's one of my dream vehicles despite how hard they are to find by today.
First car I ever drove on public roads was an '86 Horizon 2.2 auto, my mom's. Later on my own first car (aside from a '67 VW that never ran) was an '81 Omni Miser, 4 speed, bright red with tan interior and I put those aftermarket fake-sheepskin seat covers in front. The neighbors' cat loved those!
My friend had a dodge Omni. We drove it to Niagara Falls from over a thousand miles away. Then it caught fire. Which it was prone to do from time to time. We got to stay a few days extra though which was nice. Thanks dodge!
I had a 1987 Omni mine had the Two Tone Dark Blue/Light Blue with Deluxe Cloth Int 2.2L EFI 4 cylinder Automatic 3 speed PS/PB A/C Factory Cruise Control Infinity 1 Premium Sound with Cassette Rear Defrost/wiper/ I added a 10 Disc FM modulated Cd Player changer to it. and had Power Mirrors added on by dealer of course. It got 40 highway 30 city and very reliable and cheap to fix. Drove it from 1996-2007.
My aunt and uncle had a 78 Omni. Top of the line with a 4 speed manual. It was a really nice car that was driven into the 90's. My parents bought a 1979 Honda Accord 4 door. Even though I really like the Omni, the Honda felt like a much better car.
1:44 Bullet point _M_ The debut year Omni didn't offer a five-speed, and when they finally offered one, it retained the dog-leg reverse pattern with the fifth gear to the far right and forward similar to the VW pattern. I had an '85 Omni 2.2 with automatic (a hand-me-down when my Dad was no longer able to drive) and for use of space and convenience of loading, passenger space, and capacity compared to the road footprint it couldn't be beat, and it was better looking than a lot of its competitors, especiallu when loaded with two tandem and four single bikes on the over-width Yakima roof rack.. The fond memories of the fine design, however, are overshadowed by the cars innumerable faults. It wasn't great on slick surfaces, tending to spin out on off-camber curves taken without extreme caution, and the usual recommended remedies only made it worse. Its biggest fault was the miserable quality of build. The door locks would lock when the door closed whether I pushed the plunger or not, and the key wouldn't unlock the door latches leaving the only ingress leaving the driver's window open. The air conditioning worked well on the rare occasions when it worked, but the compressor died so often that I finally learned to replace it myself and could complete the repair in under a half-hour including relacing the receiver-dryer but not vacuuming the system down and recharging. The electrical system had so many gremlins Spielberg could have made seven more movies. The last straw was when the horn started blowing at three in the morning and I couldn't unlock the door and had to unpack inspection equipment from the cargo bay to crawl in through the hatchback. I finally sold it for a hundred dollars to a crew of migrant laborers who were working on a neighbor's house.
8:38 Simca 1307/ Chrysler Alpine 5 door 'muke', but with US L body coil spring suspension. See the Chrysler Alpine 5 door hatchback 9:36. These cars in original form had longitudinal torsion bar Independent suspension, front and back. US L cars, coil spring suspension at each end, and, of course, the '855' EA827 VW Audi 1.7 liter OHC four.
These cars weren’t cutting edge, but they turned out to be far superior to be later GM “X- body”cars (Chevy Citation, Pontiac Phoenix etc)…. As an example of the typical General Motors hubris, they thought that the Citation and other X-Bodies were going to “push the Japanese back into the sea” 🙄 For some reason, I was always kind of a sucker for those “wood paneled” sides on Chrysler vehicles…. For a while, I thought that a Chrysler LeBaron convertible with the woody look was the coolest thing around.
The small hatchback doesn't look like it has changed all that much. They are very practical. The advantage of newer hatchbacks is better gas mileage and the removal of that hideous faux wood grain. The advantage of the older models is mechanical windows that work when the car is off and won't let you drown in a flood, as well as the lack of unnecessary sensors that break. I hate it when parts that don't need to exist break.
Hideous? No way, that faux wood looks great on this little car. Sure, it may look kinda odd, but I still love it. I hope you aren’t saying that the crap we have today is "better" than great cars like this.
Another thing that limited these early ones - not just the Omni but the Rabbit, Datsun 310 and others along with the older RWD Pinto and Chevette, was that the hatch didn't open all the way down to the bumper/load floor. I brought an old, full size fridge to the dump recently in a Honda Fit and that wouldn't have worked out in an Omni. The fake wood was optional for the first few years but dropped after 1980 due to a low take rate, higher than the vinyl top though - that was only listed for 1978 and I've only ever found scant evidence it ever actually made it to production.
Omni-Horizon sold less than 1/4 of the units Ford sold of the much inferior Escort throughout their production years. Agressive and well targeted marketing resulted in a big difference on behalf of Ford.
What started the chrysler fwd revolution. With out this car they would have never got the loan guarantees 2 years later. While an economy car this should that chrysler can be innovative.
Wonderful cars with comfortable seats, comfortable interiors
I really love this car. It’s very useful, practical, reliable, and it has everything you need, and I agree, it really does everything very well. I am very upset that people are hating on these cars. They are just stupid people who think that silly modern cars are better than these awesome old cars even though that modern cars are not that exciting as this cool car, apologies for my negativity. Anyways, this is a very nice car and we can always count on it. Thank you so much for posting it.
Our school student patking lot was filled with these back in the day
Had a 1981. My first car. Kept all through college.
This little square econocar still looks good today and the DIY features 👌🏽
I had an '84 Horizon. Probably the best car I've owned. Peppy 2.2 liter 4-speed. Comfortable m, reliable,. At well over 100k miles I decided I should change the timing belt. It was running perfectly, but the belt was more like individual strands. At a time when America was not making good cars, the Omni/ Horizon were the exception.
11:44 You may remember Rambler received Car of the Year for the completely new engineering approach of stamping the passenger cabin frames as a single unit instead of welding several bits together, said award given fifteen years before the Omni came out.
I owned two Omni's an 81 and 88. The 81 VW engine was absolute junk. The 88 had a fuel injected 2.2 and they were bulletproof by then. Great car. Ran it into the ground. Still have a picture of it on my bedroom mirror 30 years later. 😀
This is a really good series of promotional films on the car and its development. I live in Michigan, and I've driven on that stretch of highway that they do the test drive on. I'm so glad highways aren't still restricted to 55mph!
I always had big,gigantic cars and loved but i had an Omni in the 90s and loved it,it was fast,comfortable and very practical
I wish i could get a brand new dodge omni today. Easy to work on and maintain compared to today's cars and using modern oils and transmission fluids that are all synthetic would make the car last a hell of a lot longer then the oil they had back then
One of the cars that helped save Chrysler. My family had a Plymouth Horizon.
24:55 min. That backseat looks as durable as second-hand lawn furniture.
Absolutely love this, I remember a kid on block hade one, I thought it was awesome. It had A.C, automatic , stereo. and valoure seats.😮
If it was NEARLY as good a car as my '82 "plain" Omni, I understand why you would LOVE this car! My '82 Omni was THE BEST CHEAP (used) CAR I EVER OWNED! My '97 Buick LeSabre Limited Edition ($4000 used in 2010) was WORST! That GREAT old Omni was worth a million '97 Buick LeSabre Limited Editions!
I haven't seen one of these since I was in 4th grade, in 2007-2008, somewhere near my elementary school, I seen one but it was maple red, and it was a Plymouth horizon. It's one of my dream vehicles despite how hard they are to find by today.
I miss 1970s promotional materials. Advertisers were so into shapes and outlines
First car I ever drove on public roads was an '86 Horizon 2.2 auto, my mom's. Later on my own first car (aside from a '67 VW that never ran) was an '81 Omni Miser, 4 speed, bright red with tan interior and I put those aftermarket fake-sheepskin seat covers in front. The neighbors' cat loved those!
My friend had a dodge Omni. We drove it to Niagara Falls from over a thousand miles away. Then it caught fire. Which it was prone to do from time to time. We got to stay a few days extra though which was nice. Thanks dodge!
I had a 1987 Omni mine had the Two Tone Dark Blue/Light Blue with Deluxe Cloth Int 2.2L EFI 4 cylinder Automatic 3 speed PS/PB A/C Factory Cruise Control Infinity 1 Premium Sound with Cassette Rear Defrost/wiper/ I added a 10 Disc FM modulated Cd Player changer to it. and had Power Mirrors added on by dealer of course. It got 40 highway 30 city and very reliable and cheap to fix. Drove it from 1996-2007.
AC and factory cruise was as loaded as those came in '87!!
My aunt and uncle had a 78 Omni. Top of the line with a 4 speed manual. It was a really nice car that was driven into the 90's. My parents bought a 1979 Honda Accord 4 door. Even though I really like the Omni, the Honda felt like a much better car.
My first car. 1986 Plymouth Horizon.
1:44 Bullet point _M_
The debut year Omni didn't offer a five-speed, and when they finally offered one, it retained the dog-leg reverse pattern with the fifth gear to the far right and forward similar to the VW pattern.
I had an '85 Omni 2.2 with automatic (a hand-me-down when my Dad was no longer able to drive) and for use of space and convenience of loading, passenger space, and capacity compared to the road footprint it couldn't be beat, and it was better looking than a lot of its competitors, especiallu when loaded with two tandem and four single bikes on the over-width Yakima roof rack..
The fond memories of the fine design, however, are overshadowed by the cars innumerable faults.
It wasn't great on slick surfaces, tending to spin out on off-camber curves taken without extreme caution, and the usual recommended remedies only made it worse.
Its biggest fault was the miserable quality of build. The door locks would lock when the door closed whether I pushed the plunger or not, and the key wouldn't unlock the door latches leaving the only ingress leaving the driver's window open. The air conditioning worked well on the rare occasions when it worked, but the compressor died so often that I finally learned to replace it myself and could complete the repair in under a half-hour including relacing the receiver-dryer but not vacuuming the system down and recharging.
The electrical system had so many gremlins Spielberg could have made seven more movies.
The last straw was when the horn started blowing at three in the morning and I couldn't unlock the door and had to unpack inspection equipment from the cargo bay to crawl in through the hatchback.
I finally sold it for a hundred dollars to a crew of migrant laborers who were working on a neighbor's house.
My first car was a 1980 Omni bought in 1986 right after I got my license. It was a piece of junk but I think we always remember our first cars fondly.
8:38 Simca 1307/ Chrysler Alpine 5 door 'muke', but with US L body coil spring suspension. See the Chrysler Alpine 5 door hatchback 9:36. These cars in original form had longitudinal torsion bar Independent suspension, front and back. US L cars, coil spring suspension at each end, and, of course, the '855' EA827 VW Audi 1.7 liter OHC four.
Who would of thought mopar could make the most modern import fighter of the 70s
Given this car was based on a European design that was brought to the US, it's not really as "American" as they would have you believe.
These cars weren’t cutting edge, but they turned out to be far superior to be later GM “X- body”cars (Chevy Citation, Pontiac Phoenix etc)…. As an example of the typical General Motors hubris, they thought that the Citation and other X-Bodies were going to “push the Japanese back into the sea” 🙄
For some reason, I was always kind of a sucker for those “wood paneled” sides on Chrysler vehicles…. For a while, I thought that a Chrysler LeBaron convertible with the woody look was the coolest thing around.
The small hatchback doesn't look like it has changed all that much. They are very practical. The advantage of newer hatchbacks is better gas mileage and the removal of that hideous faux wood grain. The advantage of the older models is mechanical windows that work when the car is off and won't let you drown in a flood, as well as the lack of unnecessary sensors that break. I hate it when parts that don't need to exist break.
Hideous? No way, that faux wood looks great on this little car. Sure, it may look kinda odd, but I still love it. I hope you aren’t saying that the crap we have today is "better" than great cars like this.
Another thing that limited these early ones - not just the Omni but the Rabbit, Datsun 310 and others along with the older RWD Pinto and Chevette, was that the hatch didn't open all the way down to the bumper/load floor. I brought an old, full size fridge to the dump recently in a Honda Fit and that wouldn't have worked out in an Omni. The fake wood was optional for the first few years but dropped after 1980 due to a low take rate, higher than the vinyl top though - that was only listed for 1978 and I've only ever found scant evidence it ever actually made it to production.
I like the wood grain.
Great film - thanks very much for posting.
The outside door handles on those cars were very fragile. I replaced many of them.
My Siister had a ‘79 with that terrible VW engine, it went through countless water pumps and seals before she finally gave up on it
Omni-Horizon sold less than 1/4 of the units Ford sold of the much inferior Escort throughout their production years. Agressive and well targeted marketing resulted in a big difference on behalf of Ford.
A simca designed in France the Americans actually improved it beefed up the suspension but no one could improve the slow heavy steering
Is the mule a Chrysler Alpine/Simca 1307/1308?
Correct!
Where’s Troy Maclure??
But does it have a Hemi?
Notice no use of turn signals I guess these were an option nope he used them a couple of times. 😅
What started the chrysler fwd revolution. With out this car they would have never got the loan guarantees 2 years later. While an economy car this should that chrysler can be innovative.
22:50 “Chrysler Corporation cars have always been known for staying solid and tight and rattle-free after thousands of miles…”
::roll eyes:: 😅🙄
Shameful time in American automotive history.