Junkyard Find: 1982 Plymouth Sapporo

Murilee Martin
by Murilee Martin
Chrysler began importing rebadged Mitsubishis to North America starting with the Colt in the 1971 model year, with more models being added as the decade progressed. By 1976, Plymouth shoppers could buy a Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste as the sporty Arrow; Plymouth Arrow and Dodge D-50 (later Ram 50) pickups, based on the Mitsubishi Forte, showed up here in 1979. So that those Dodge/Plymouth dealers would have a small personal luxury coupe to sell, the Japanese-market Galant Lambda hardtop was pressed into American service as the Dodge Challenger and Plymouth Sapporo for 1978. Sales continued through 1983, and I’ve found one of those final Sapporos in a yard south of Denver, Colorado.
These machines haven’t been terribly difficult to find in car graveyards, though I certainly saw more of them a decade ago. So far, I’ve documented this ’78 Sapporo, another ’78 Sapporo, this ’81 Challenger, this ’82 Sapporo, and this ’82 Sapporo. Mitsubishi began importing vehicles under its own badging starting in late 1982.
The 1978-1982 Challenger/ Sapporo was a true hardtop, and it came stuffed with the same sort of snazzy features normally found in much pricier machinery. List price on the ’82 Sapporo was $8,043, while the MSRP of the ’82 Chrysler Cordoba hardtop started at $8,258 (about $23,330 and $23,960 today, respectively).
At that price, the Cordoba came with a 90-horsepower Slant-6 engine to drag its 3,315 pounds down the avenue (the 318-cubic-inch V8 and its 130 horses cost a well-worth-it additional 70 bucks). The Sapporo got this 2.6-liter Astron four-cylinder, rated at 105 horsepower, and it weighed a mere 2,410 pounds. That made this car respectably quick by the standards of the time.
The Astron went into so many Chrysler and Mitsubishi vehicles over the decades (including some K-cars that got big HEMI 2.6 fender badges) that junkyard shoppers often grab parts from them. Perhaps this car’s cylinder head now lives on in a Montero or Conquest.
The interior is grimy and the upholstery has become quite crunchy thanks to relentless Colorado sunshine, so I doubt much of this stuff will be sold before the car faces the cold steel jaws of The Crusher.
Mitsubishi was very proud of the MCA-JET high-swirl fuel-delivery system, which was sort of a simplified version of Honda’s CVCC rig, and applied these stickers accordingly.
Unusually for 1982, the Sapporo came with an AM/FM radio as standard equipment. When a company makes consumer electronics (not to mention fighter jets and heavy-lift rocket boosters) in addition to cars, there’s plenty of off-the-shelf audio hardware to put in those cars at a low cost.
The future is here now!
If you’re too cheap to buy winter tires for your rear-wheel-drive car, there’s always tube-sand for the trunk.
Science-fiction robot women with strangely-colored sunglasses agree: 11.9% interest is a steal for this Celica fighter.
Datsun 200SX? Forget it!
The JDM version got some seriously cool package-shelf speakers.
Yes, you could get the padded landau roof in Japan.For links to more than 2,100 additional Junkyard Finds, including lots of Mitsubishis, please visit the Junkyard Home of the Murilee Martin Lifestyle Brand™.
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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  • Jeff S Jeff S on Oct 04, 2021

    It has been at least 30 years since I have seen one of these of the road and during their heyday they were as rare as hen's teeth.

  • Anthony Anthony on Jan 23, 2023

    I purchased a 1982 Gold Plymouth Sapporo as my first “new”car at the age of 19, my Dad co signed the loan! Lol. I loved it! It was very similar to a Datsun 200 in style back then. It did have a 2.6 liter 4 cylinder engine. It also had counter rotating balancing shafts like a Porsche 944 had back then to keep it running smooth. I put Koni shocks, Pirelli tires, and a long tube header on it as well as an aftermarket clutch. It was very quick! I used to chirp tire’s into second and third gear. Unfortunately, I hit water on a curve and hydroplaned into a brick wall, demolishing it. I was totally ok but I loved that car and miss it to this day!

  • CanadaCraig You can just imagine how quickly the tires are going to wear out on a 5,800 lbs AWD 2024 Dodge Charger.
  • Luke42 I tried FSD for a month in December 2022 on my Model Y and wasn’t impressed.The building-blocks were amazing but sum of the all of those amazing parts was about as useful as Honda Sensing in terms of reducing the driver’s workload.I have a list of fixes I need to see in Autopilot before I blow another $200 renting FSD. But I will try it for free for a month.I would love it if FSD v12 lived up to the hype and my mind were changed. But I have no reason to believe I might be wrong at this point, based on the reviews I’ve read so far. [shrug]. I’m sure I’ll have more to say about it once I get to test it.
  • FormerFF We bought three new and one used car last year, so we won't be visiting any showrooms this year unless a meteor hits one of them. Sorry to hear that Mini has terminated the manual transmission, a Mini could be a fun car to drive with a stick.It appears that 2025 is going to see a significant decrease in the number of models that can be had with a stick. The used car we bought is a Mk 7 GTI with a six speed manual, and my younger daughter and I are enjoying it quite a lot. We'll be hanging on to it for many years.
  • Oberkanone Where is the value here? Magna is assembling the vehicles. The IP is not novel. Just buy the IP at bankruptcy stage for next to nothing.
  • Jalop1991 what, no Turbo trim?
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