Junkyard Find: 1995 Dodge Stealth R/T

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin

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.”






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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  • Flipper35 Flipper35 on Jun 25, 2018

    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.

    • Arach Arach on Jun 26, 2018

      Oddly enough, I have a nearly brand new leather set of these seats... front and rear... in my attic. I wonder if they are worth something now. I pulled them out of my 3000gt in... 1996!

  • Pwrwrench Pwrwrench on Jun 26, 2018

    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.

  • Dave Holzman A design award for the Prius?!!! Yes, the Prius is a great looking car, but the visibility is terrible from what I've read, notably Consumer Reports. Bad visibility is a dangerous, and very annoying design flaw.
  • Wjtinfwb I've owned multiple Mustang's, none perfect, all an absolute riot. My '85 GT with a big Holley 4 barrel and factory tube header manifolds was a screaming deal in its day and loved to rev. I replaced it with an '88 5.0 Convertible and added a Supercharger. Speed for days, handling... present. Brakes, ummm. But I couldn't kill it and it embarrassed a lot of much more expensive machinery. A '13 Boss 302 in Gotta Have It Green was a subtle as a sledgehammer, open up the exhaust cut outs and every day was Days of Thunder. I miss them all. They've gotten too expensive and too plush, I think, wish they'd go back to a LX version, ditch all the digital crap, cloth interior and just the Handling package as an add on. Keep it under 40k and give todays kids an alternative to a Civic or WRX.
  • Jpolicke In a communist dictatorship, there isn't much export activity that the government isn't aware of. That being the case, if the PRC wanted to, they could cut the flow of fentanyl down to a trickle. Since that isn't happening, I therefore assume Xi Jinping doesn't want it cut. China needs to feel the consequences for knowingly poisoning other countries' citizens.
  • El scotto Oh, ye nattering nabobs of negativism! Think of countries like restaurants. Our neighbors to the north and south are almost as good and the service is fantastic. They're awfully close to being as good as the US. Oh the Europeans are interesting and quaint but you really only go there a few times a year. Gents, the US is simply the hottest restaurant in town. Have to stand in line to get in? Of course. Can you hand out bribes to get in quicker? Of course. Suppliers and employees? Only the best on a constant basis.Did I mention there is a dress code? We strictly enforce it. Don't like it? Suck it.
  • 1995 SC At least you can still get one. There isn't much for Ford folks to be happy about nowadays, but the existence of the Mustang and the fact that the lessons from back in the 90s when Ford tried to kill it and replace it with the then flavor of the day seem to have been learned (the only lessons they seem to remember) are a win not only for Ford folks but for car people in general. One day my Super Coupe will pop its headgaskets (I know it will...I read it on the Internet). I hope I will still be physically up to dropping the supercharged Terminator Cobra motor into it. in all seriousness, The Mustang is a.win for car guys.
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