Junkyard Find: 1988 Dodge Daytona Turbo

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

Remember the rear-window louver craze? Thanks to the large numbers of Daytonas and Lasers that clung to life long enough to enter junkyards in this second decade of the 21st century, we can relive the Louver Era!

If I ever turbocharge my A100 van (I’m considering it; there’s plenty of room for turbo plumbing beneath the engine), I’m going to use this genuine Chrysler boost gauge.

These cars weren’t known for reliability, but plenty of them are still around. I saw this ’90 last month, and the Chrysler G-body isn’t particularly rare on the street even after a quarter-century.

Should we refer to the late 1980s as the Louver Era or the Turbo Era?








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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  • GS650G GS650G on May 14, 2012

    If you look at the shit Chrysler was making just a few years earlier these cars were a quantum leap. Sure, the Japanese cars were better in many regards but Mopar was written off as dead in 1980.

  • Kathy Kathy on Apr 22, 2023

    Looking for 1988 dodge datona

  • MaintenanceCosts Poorly packaged, oddly proportioned small CUV with an unrefined hybrid powertrain and a luxury-market price? Who wouldn't want it?
  • MaintenanceCosts Who knows whether it rides or handles acceptably or whether it chews up a set of tires in 5000 miles, but we definitely know it has a "mature stance."Sounds like JUST the kind of previous owner you'd want…
  • 28-Cars-Later Nissan will be very fortunate to not be in the Japanese equivalent of Chapter 11 reorganization over the next 36 months, "getting rolling" is a luxury (also, I see what you did there).
  • MaintenanceCosts RAM! RAM! RAM! ...... the child in the crosswalk that you can't see over the hood of this factory-lifted beast.
  • 3-On-The-Tree Yes all the Older Land Cruiser’s and samurai’s have gone up here as well. I’ve taken both vehicle ps on some pretty rough roads exploring old mine shafts etc. I bought mine right before I deployed back in 08 and got it for $4000 and also bought another that is non running for parts, got a complete engine, drive train. The mice love it unfortunately.
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