Junkyard Find: 1993 Dodge Colt Coupe
Chrysler began importing Mitsubishi Colt Galants for the 1971 model year, and Mitsubishis bearing Dodge (or Plymouth) Colt badging streamed across the Pacific Ocean and into American dealerships for the following 23 years.
I spotted this vibrantly decorated ’93 model in a Phoenix self-serve yard earlier this month.
The hatchback Colt disappeared after 1992, and most of the 1993-1994 seventh-generation Colts were four-doors. You could get this car with Eagle Summit badging through 1996, but the Neon replaced the Colt for 1995. It was sort of an anticlimactic end for the Colt Era.
Not quite 200,000 miles on the clock before its demise, but close enough. Colts didn’t hold together quite as well as Civics or Corollas, but they were more reliable than members of the Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon family, which lasted all the way through the 1990 model year.
All the Dodge Ram vinyl decal badging seems out of place on a Mitsubishi, but at least the red leopard-skin interior makes sense.
Some Mirages had marker lights here, so Chrysler saved a buck by filling the holes with plastic badges bearing Dodge emblems.
Power came from the fuel-sipping 1.5-liter 4G15 four-cylinder Orion engine, cousin to the powerplant used in the early Hyundai Excels.
“Colt’s multi-valve engine is a great way to get your kicks.”
Pump up a kei car in Japan and you get a Mirage!
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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The only thing worse than those gawdawful decal graphics is the dealer badge over the trunk keyhole. That would't last 5 minutes on any car I'd own. In fact, I peeled a dealer decal off a friends car with my fingernails when they weren't around. Am I sick or not? Feels good... I'm really struggling to remember seeing these on the road. I remember lots of identical Mirages. Pretty much the same demographic that drives the current generation (tired of getting stranded by 13 year old BHPH lot cars they got themselves a car with a warranty but again at 18% interest)
I bought a 93 Plymouth Colt new. It was a four door with the 1.9L DOHC four valve engine and an auto four speed gear box. It was a fun car around town which is what I bought it for. On the highway, even in OD, the engine revved too high for my tastes. Only money I spent on it over 11 years and 120k miles was routine maintenance. The tranny was getting funny at the end and required manually turning of and on the OD button before it would shift into OD on the first shift. Once you did this , it shifted normally. THe car met it's end when my then 17 year old son lost control in the rain and hit the car ahead of him. No big loss as it didn't owe me anything by then.