Junkyard Find: 1995 Dodge Stealth R/T
Chrysler started selling Dodge-badged Mitsubishis all the way back in 1970, then built plenty of Mitsubishi products in North America under the Diamond-Star Motors flag later on. The Mitsubishi GTO (sold as the Mitsubishi 3000GT and Dodge Stealth on this side of the Pacific) was built in Aichi Prefecture, Japan, and was one of the more interesting sports cars of the 1990s.
Here’s a 1995 Stealth R/T, photographed in a San Francisco Bay Area self-service wrecking yard.
In 1995, you had three flavors of Stealth: base, R/T, and R/T Turbo. This one is an example of the mid-priced Stealth.
Power levels were getting pretty good across the industry by the middle 1990s, and this car came with a 222-horse version of the extremely widely-installed 6G72 3.0-liter V6.
A six-speed manual transmission was standard, but that didn’t mean most American buyers wanted three pedals. I see plenty of 3000GTs and Stealths during my junkyard journeys, but few of them have manual transmissions (strangely, the only one I had photographed prior to today’s Junkyard Find was in a Reykjavik junkyard). I’ll need to document more of these cars, since I think they’re interesting.
So close to 200,000 miles, but not quite there.
This one didn’t seem very banged up, given the high odometer reading, so it’s a safe bet that it just wore out after 23 years of California commuting.
The narrator pretty much spits on the ground when he utters the words “Nissan 300ZX Turbo.”
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I have a pair of seats out of one of these in my roadster. They are comfy but need recovered after all these years (registered 1995) with no top but they are in far better shape than the ones in this car.
Yes, Emission tests (of the California type, some other States have similar) will often get cars junked. The price of an EGR valve and a CAT(s) can be $1500 or more. If it also needs general maintenance (spark plugs, air filter, timing belt) and fix vacuum leaks, you will quickly hear, "That's more than the car is worth!". So if it's on its 3rd-5th owner the car will go to the scrap yard.