Junkyard Find: 1990 Dodge Daytona ES Turbo
I see many Dodge Daytonas at high-turnover junkyards, even 20-25 years after the last of the crypto-K-body examples rolled off the line. This means that many of these cars lasted much longer than anyone expected. Here’s my latest find, a 1990 Daytona ES Turbo.
The base ’90 Daytona listed at $9,795, but nobody actually paid that. Here we see the magic of rebates in action.
Chrysler said the ES Turbo cost $12,895, but I’m pretty sure that this one sold for considerably less.
These things were actually quite fast, even by today’s standards. The turbocharged 150-horsepower 2.5 liter engine was pretty potent in a 2,600-pound car.
Why don’t hatchbacks have louvers these days? Bring back the louvers!
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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I know I have stated this out here before, but even as a Honda/Mazda guy, the most reliable car I ever owned was my 1993 Dodge Spirit with the 2.5/3spd auto. Simply bulletproof, had a formal sedan design that resulted in plenty of room, especially headroom in the back seat, and would get 32MPG on the highway all day long. By today's standards it is probably a tractor but it was a BULLETPROOF tractor. Sold at 196K with plenty of life left in it.
the owner was supposed to remove the DOD sticker, just sayin'