Junkyard Find: 1984 Chrysler Laser XE Turbo
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 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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0-50 times. Depressing.
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.