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MM Retro Write-Up: 1984 Dodge/Plymouth-Colt/Champ
I never actually owned one (neither did my family or friends), but a small subcompact car that I definitely liked was the Fourth-Generation Mitsubishi Mirage and its rebadged, Chrysler-marketed Dodge/Plymouth versions.....known as the Colt and Champ. Thought I'd do at least a moderate-sized write-up on it. I first got familiar with these cars at my local Chrysler-Plymouth dealership, in the early 1980s. They were sold alongside the American-designed Chrysler products...yes, the very cars that Lee Iacocca, in his slick-talking TV ads, were supposed to be so well-built, but, in fact many of which were junk. Between my notoriously bad Chevy Citation (which I covered in another write-up) and several American-designed FWD Chrysler products I owned, which were almost as poorly-built as the Citation (never mind Lido's ads), my patience was wearing thin. By the spring of 1984, this dude had simply had enough. I had wasted enough time and money. That was it.....FINITO. No more new American-designed cars...at least for the time being (my test-drive of the Pontiac Fiero verified that), until the new plastic-bodied Saturn S-Series compacts intrigued me a decade later.
However, I liked the people that ran the local Chrysler-Plymouth shop that I was using....I knew the owner and the Service Manager quite well (often out of necessity LOL). They had both treated me very well (as with my parents) with several different vehicles...it wasn't their fault, at the dealer-level, that the Chrysler plants kept turning out lemons. (Actually, my 1982 Plymouth Reliant wasn't too bad, but the Plymouth Horizon and Chrysler Lebaron I had had were both classic lemons). And, in their body shop, they also had a superb auto-painter.....couldn't tell his work from brand-new. I later heard he got a really good job doing custom-vehicles. So, if possible, since I had a good relationship with the people there in spite of unreliable vehicles, I thought I'd try and stay with the dealership, and THIS time hopefully get something reliable. By then, I was so sick and tired of mechanical and adjustment-problems that I was willing to even give up a good measure of comfort and refinement if it meant reliable transportation and staying out of the ****** repair shop.
So, the owner asked me: "Mike, why don't you try one of these (Plymouth) Champs? They're well-built, and we have very little trouble with them."........although, in actuality, I was about ready to ask HIM for a test-drive. So, I went out on the lot (I think they also had a Champ in the showroom, if I remember correctly), and seriously looked at one. Yep....small, somewhat cramped inside, and not a whole lot of space even with the hatchback design, but not cramped too badly considering the very small exterior size. And, since I was single, I didn't need something for a whole family. But what really set this car apart from the American-sourced Chrysler products was its quality, which was better than average for a Mitsubishi product (I had also looked at the Mitsubishi Tredia and Cordia, at a separate Mitsubishi dealership, as they were just then starting to sell vehicles in the U.S. under the Mitsubishi name). No, the Champ wasn't a luxury car, but what little it had was assembled like a Swiss Watch...as good, IMO, as the Hondas and Toyotas of that person....and it didn't have the rust-problems that some Hondas and Toyotas of that period had, such as the Accord's front-fenders and Toyota truck-beds. I especially liked the rock-solid (if simple) interior materials and lack of squeaks/rattles.
On the road, a test-drive revealed road-manners that were more or less was I was expecting...some road noise, rather choppy ride, drivetrain-noise, and a slight buzz-feel in the steering wheel over some grainy road surfaces, but neither was more than I could stand...particularly if I was happy at finally getting something reliable. A the time, there was also a much more powerful Colt Turbo, but it had a reputation for very strong torque-steer, and I decided to avoid it. Though I was used to driving automatics, I had not forgotten how to drive a stick (My Citation had had a poorly-designed manual), and I found the Colt/Champ's Twin-Stick transmission quite interesting. A unique feature of this car was the Twin-Stick...a regular 4-speed manual transmission and floor-shifter, and a smaller stick-shifter, right next to it, that controlled one of two different final-drive ratios (Power or Economy). In effect, depending on what you did with the two levers, you had a choice of some 8 forward gears. I sampled all 8 of them (you used the same clutch-pedal for both levers), and all shifted smoothly/crisply/precisely. I thought to myself "No wonder the Japanese are starting to drive us out of the market". Lots of carburetors, though (including some Japanese ones) delivered fuel and ran like crap in those days, but the one on the Champ even ran acceptably smoothly for me. I took the car back to the dealer, and was almost ready to do a deal on one, when something told me to just wait a little more, and check out some more small Japanese cars first. Well, I ended up in a new 1984 Mazda GLC sedan that I bought right off the showroom floor for a minimal mark-up (mark-ups were difficult to avoid on Japanese vehicles of the time, though I don't know if my own C/P dealership would have charged me one or not on a new Champ, since it was a Mitsubishi). The Mazda's non-power steering was almost telepathic in feel, and its "Kansai" engineering made it drive and handle like a Poor Man's BMW. But I was less than totally happy with it (it was not without problems of its own, particularly in the automatic transmission). The automatic transmission in that car was clearly a mistake, for several reasons (I won't go into them all here). I should, in hindsight clearly have gotten the 5-speed manual. Or, perhaps, with even more hindsight, have stayed at the Chrysler-Plymouth shop with a new Champ...though that dealership itself only lasted a few years after that, as the owner retired, the property was sold, and it was bulldozed to make room for a new development.
The Colt/Champ/Mirage was re-designed the very next year (1985) and the bean-counters at Mitsubishi must have realized what a good deal the previous model had been. The new Fifth-Generation version (I looked at and test-drove one) showed noticeable cost-cutting in fit/finish, interior/material-solidness, and resistance to creaks/squeaks. And, of course, the unique Twin-Stick was gone. Even looking back today, 35 years later, I think one of my automotive mistakes was in passing up on the 1984 Colt/Champ while it was still available brand-new.
And, as Always, Happy Car-Memories.
MM
I never actually owned one (neither did my family or friends), but a small subcompact car that I definitely liked was the Fourth-Generation Mitsubishi Mirage and its rebadged, Chrysler-marketed Dodge/Plymouth versions.....known as the Colt and Champ. Thought I'd do at least a moderate-sized write-up on it. I first got familiar with these cars at my local Chrysler-Plymouth dealership, in the early 1980s. They were sold alongside the American-designed Chrysler products...yes, the very cars that Lee Iacocca, in his slick-talking TV ads, were supposed to be so well-built, but, in fact many of which were junk. Between my notoriously bad Chevy Citation (which I covered in another write-up) and several American-designed FWD Chrysler products I owned, which were almost as poorly-built as the Citation (never mind Lido's ads), my patience was wearing thin. By the spring of 1984, this dude had simply had enough. I had wasted enough time and money. That was it.....FINITO. No more new American-designed cars...at least for the time being (my test-drive of the Pontiac Fiero verified that), until the new plastic-bodied Saturn S-Series compacts intrigued me a decade later.
However, I liked the people that ran the local Chrysler-Plymouth shop that I was using....I knew the owner and the Service Manager quite well (often out of necessity LOL). They had both treated me very well (as with my parents) with several different vehicles...it wasn't their fault, at the dealer-level, that the Chrysler plants kept turning out lemons. (Actually, my 1982 Plymouth Reliant wasn't too bad, but the Plymouth Horizon and Chrysler Lebaron I had had were both classic lemons). And, in their body shop, they also had a superb auto-painter.....couldn't tell his work from brand-new. I later heard he got a really good job doing custom-vehicles. So, if possible, since I had a good relationship with the people there in spite of unreliable vehicles, I thought I'd try and stay with the dealership, and THIS time hopefully get something reliable. By then, I was so sick and tired of mechanical and adjustment-problems that I was willing to even give up a good measure of comfort and refinement if it meant reliable transportation and staying out of the ****** repair shop.
So, the owner asked me: "Mike, why don't you try one of these (Plymouth) Champs? They're well-built, and we have very little trouble with them."........although, in actuality, I was about ready to ask HIM for a test-drive. So, I went out on the lot (I think they also had a Champ in the showroom, if I remember correctly), and seriously looked at one. Yep....small, somewhat cramped inside, and not a whole lot of space even with the hatchback design, but not cramped too badly considering the very small exterior size. And, since I was single, I didn't need something for a whole family. But what really set this car apart from the American-sourced Chrysler products was its quality, which was better than average for a Mitsubishi product (I had also looked at the Mitsubishi Tredia and Cordia, at a separate Mitsubishi dealership, as they were just then starting to sell vehicles in the U.S. under the Mitsubishi name). No, the Champ wasn't a luxury car, but what little it had was assembled like a Swiss Watch...as good, IMO, as the Hondas and Toyotas of that person....and it didn't have the rust-problems that some Hondas and Toyotas of that period had, such as the Accord's front-fenders and Toyota truck-beds. I especially liked the rock-solid (if simple) interior materials and lack of squeaks/rattles.
On the road, a test-drive revealed road-manners that were more or less was I was expecting...some road noise, rather choppy ride, drivetrain-noise, and a slight buzz-feel in the steering wheel over some grainy road surfaces, but neither was more than I could stand...particularly if I was happy at finally getting something reliable. A the time, there was also a much more powerful Colt Turbo, but it had a reputation for very strong torque-steer, and I decided to avoid it. Though I was used to driving automatics, I had not forgotten how to drive a stick (My Citation had had a poorly-designed manual), and I found the Colt/Champ's Twin-Stick transmission quite interesting. A unique feature of this car was the Twin-Stick...a regular 4-speed manual transmission and floor-shifter, and a smaller stick-shifter, right next to it, that controlled one of two different final-drive ratios (Power or Economy). In effect, depending on what you did with the two levers, you had a choice of some 8 forward gears. I sampled all 8 of them (you used the same clutch-pedal for both levers), and all shifted smoothly/crisply/precisely. I thought to myself "No wonder the Japanese are starting to drive us out of the market". Lots of carburetors, though (including some Japanese ones) delivered fuel and ran like crap in those days, but the one on the Champ even ran acceptably smoothly for me. I took the car back to the dealer, and was almost ready to do a deal on one, when something told me to just wait a little more, and check out some more small Japanese cars first. Well, I ended up in a new 1984 Mazda GLC sedan that I bought right off the showroom floor for a minimal mark-up (mark-ups were difficult to avoid on Japanese vehicles of the time, though I don't know if my own C/P dealership would have charged me one or not on a new Champ, since it was a Mitsubishi). The Mazda's non-power steering was almost telepathic in feel, and its "Kansai" engineering made it drive and handle like a Poor Man's BMW. But I was less than totally happy with it (it was not without problems of its own, particularly in the automatic transmission). The automatic transmission in that car was clearly a mistake, for several reasons (I won't go into them all here). I should, in hindsight clearly have gotten the 5-speed manual. Or, perhaps, with even more hindsight, have stayed at the Chrysler-Plymouth shop with a new Champ...though that dealership itself only lasted a few years after that, as the owner retired, the property was sold, and it was bulldozed to make room for a new development.
The Colt/Champ/Mirage was re-designed the very next year (1985) and the bean-counters at Mitsubishi must have realized what a good deal the previous model had been. The new Fifth-Generation version (I looked at and test-drove one) showed noticeable cost-cutting in fit/finish, interior/material-solidness, and resistance to creaks/squeaks. And, of course, the unique Twin-Stick was gone. Even looking back today, 35 years later, I think one of my automotive mistakes was in passing up on the 1984 Colt/Champ while it was still available brand-new.
And, as Always, Happy Car-Memories.
MM