Junkyard Find: 1984 Chrysler Laser XE Turbo

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

The K-platform-based Dodge Daytona was built for the 1984 through 1993 model years and sold pretty well; we’ve seen a few of them in this series. The Daytona’s Chrysler-badged sibling, the Laser (not to be confused — though many do — with the Mitsubishi Eclipse-based Plymouth Laser), was sold only for the 1984-1986 model years and is a bit harder to find.

In fact, today’s ’84 Laser is only the second Laser Junkyard Find, after this non-turbo ’85 XE. Of course, the word TURBO was a synonym for “good” during the middle 1980s, so true K-Car players (technically, the Daytona/Laser were on the G platform) made sure to get the cars with TURBO badges emblazoned all over the car.

The Laser could be had with a fancy digital dash and a futuristic voice-alert system.

This one appears to have every possible factory option, including a rear amplifier — just the thing for your favorite synth-heavy Billy Squier songs!

Radio-station presets are classier when their numbers are written out, rather than presented as numerals.

Is this Soft Corinthian Leather? You bet! Actually, this could be the Mark Cross leather option, though I didn’t find any Mark Cross badging anywhere on this car.

Darth Vader pitching the Laser? Who else could do it?

The Malaise Era was over by 1984, technically, but car companies still talked about 0-50 acceleration times.








Murilee Martin
Murilee Martin

Murilee Martin is the pen name of Phil Greden, a writer who has lived in Minnesota, California, Georgia and (now) Colorado. He has toiled at copywriting, technical writing, junkmail writing, fiction writing and now automotive writing. He has owned many terrible vehicles and some good ones. He spends a great deal of time in self-service junkyards. These days, he writes for publications including Autoweek, Autoblog, Hagerty, The Truth About Cars and Capital One.

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  • Danio3834 Danio3834 on May 06, 2016

    0-50 times. Depressing.

  • And003 And003 on May 08, 2016

    I remember reading in an issue of Mopar Action magazine about an auto dealer who had a Chrysler Laser converted to RWD with a 360 V8 under the hood. I could see myself doing something similar, but with a 3G Hemi from the SRT line-up. A Hellcat engine comes to mind.

  • Corey Lewis Think how dated this 80s design was by 1995!
  • Tassos Jong-iL Communist America Rises!
  • Merc190 A CB7 Accord with the 5 cylinder
  • MRF 95 T-Bird Daihatsu Copen- A fun Kei sized roadster. Equipped with a 660cc three, a five speed manual and a retractable roof it’s all you need. Subaru Levorg wagon-because not everyone needs a lifted Outback.
  • Merc190 I test drive one of these back in the day with an automatic, just to drive an Alfa, with a Busso no less. Didn't care for the dash design, would be a fun adventure to find some scrapped Lancia Themas or Saab 900's and do some swapping to make car even sweeter. But definitely lose the ground effects.
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