The Curbside Classic Cohort has an absolute wealth of amazing finds and it’s very, very easy to spend a very, very long time looking through it. But of all the treasures therein, this innocuous econobox stands out as one of the most remarkable finds (thanks, Nifty43). When did you last see a 1970s Japanese economy car in this condition?
The ’77-78 Colt was yet another example of the Colt nameplate being tossed around haphazardly. First, it was used on Mitsubishi’s larger Galant. Then, for these two years it was used on the Lancer, before switching to the Mirage… but also reappearing concurrently on the Galant wagon, and then later on the Chariot/Nimbus and then the Lancer again! Never mind the fact that it was used simultaneously by two Chrysler divisions, and was even used in lieu of the Mitsubishi nameplate for some time in some European markets. So, for a while, you could buy a Colt Lancer in Europe and in North America buy a Lancer called a Colt but not called a Colt Lancer.
The British Columbia plates indicate this Colt dwells in a climate more conducive to classic car ownership, but even in rust-free Queensland I have never seen a 1970s Japanese car in this condition. Has it been resprayed? After all, it’s not in the usual sage/gold/orange/brown of the earth tone-crazy decade. The paint is lustrous but the car just looks so stock, down to the wheelcovers. Usually, the resprayed old Japanese cars I see have had other modifications done to them. That, and they are usually cars with some enthusiast appeal, like Datsun 1200 utes. But a mild-mannered Plymouth Colt in concours condition? A delightful surprise, absolutely, but just what is the story here?
Related Reading:
CC Colt Chronicles Part 2: 1974-1977 Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi Galant) – The Colt Gets Americanized
CC Colt Chronicles Part 3: 1978 Dodge Colt (Mitsubishi Lancer): The Little Colt
Great memory, thanks!
These had a lot more character than Corollas and B210s back in the day.
With the optional 2.0 liter, they were also brisk for the era.
I thought you were in Canada.
In the US, it was the DODGE Colt.
Starting in 1977, there was the PLYMOUTH Arrow in the US. Same platform, but it was a 2-dr fastback hatchback.
The both had great dashboard/instrument panels too!
That it’s a Plymouth Colt makes it an ever rarer find – this generation of Colt was badged as a Plymouth only in Canada.
In this era, in the U.S., the Colt was a Dodge exclusive, and the Arrow was a Plymouth exclusive. In Canada, both models were sold as Dodges and as Plymouths.
A female school teacher associate of my dad’s traded a ’72 Barracuda (non-Cuda) on a new ’76 Arrow.
Doh!
So sorry to hear!
The additional body side molding added to the front fenders and rear quarters tells me the owner is very anal about his or her little car. Its possible the paint is original and with the car residing in British Columbia I wouldn’t be surprised if it was. This is why so many people like to buy older cars from BC. The climate is gentle and the lack of harsh winter weather in the Vancouver area doesn’t east away at the underside. Plus, you don’t have road grit sandblasting the front of the vehicle.
By the way I always used to see Colts in this shade of blue back in the day.
Now there’s a blast from the past! My brother’s first car (in 1988) was one of these in Pea Green Metallic (I’m sure that’s not what it was called). She was immediately christened “Sweet Pea”. She had a manual transmission and a carb that just could never be adjusted right, so she required a heavy foot on the gas to get going or to accelerate, which was ultimately her downfall. Sweet Pea ended up entangled in a neighbor’s split rail fence when my brother tried to accelerate up a grade and around a slight curve on wet pavement. As she was always rather light in the ass end, she was prone to spinouts. Due to an already rusty body and a dearth of parts available to put her back together again she was replaced after the fence incident, with a slightly newer front-drive version of the Colt, with the dual stick transmission. That one didn’t fair well either, but that’s another “It wasn’t funny at the time” chapter out of family lore.
Good heavens! That car hasn’t even left the factory, let alone the showroom! No scratches on the plastic parts, no stain under the gas filler.
WOW! That car proves that not all 70’s Japanese cars started rotting on the showroom floor. Please do a follow up if you find out the story of why it is so well preserved.
Wow! That is in truly remarkable condition. I haven’t seen one on the street in too long to remember. Did see one at a show that was done in an unexpected Pro Street custom theme, which was memorable…but this one wins as a rare survivor.
Seems like Plymouth Arrows and the Galant based Colts sold more around Chicago, don’t remember seeing these Lancer based ones too much*. The ’79 FWD Mirage based ones were a hit, due to gas crisis.
* edit: Checked and saw that these ‘little’ RWD ones only were sold for 3 model years. Barely a blip here.
Back in the mid 70s friends of a friend had one of these and since I always HAD to drive every car I could get my hands on, I got to drive this car one sunny day. The one I drove was white with a red vinyl roof and a stripe of red that was fairly wide ran around the middle….about halfway between the rockers and the bottom of the side windows. (About where the rub strips on the pictured car are.) Dodge also sold the same car in white with a blue vinyl roof and with a blue stripe. IIRC, there was a very similar Special Edition Dodge Coronet 4 door sedan at the same time that the Colts were being sold.
Anyway, the one I drove had the 1600cc engine and an automatic transmission that did a credible job of driving like a VERY shrunken Coronet or Satellite….right down to the vague steering feel.
Incredibly, these small cars were available as 2 door and 4 door sedans, and even station wagons (which the U.S. market never got, IIRC.)
What an amazing find! I’d love to see more pictures or somehow hear about this car’s story, and I wonder if the white vinyl seats are in as good condition as the car’s exterior.
Thanks for posting this — I had missed in on the Cohort.
Here’s a 1977 Colt ad for this same car — same color blue, and even the same narrow whitewall tires. $2984 was a good deal, especially since the Colt came with a simulated woodgrain dash!
Bright blue with a white gut was fairly common on Arrows, probably on these too but I don’t remember as many overall.
I recently read on another blog an owner’s assertation that all the gen2 Galant-based wagons sold in the US as 1978-80 models arrived in a single shipment from Japan.
I remember when these were still fairly new, and yes there were quite a few with white interiors. I remember there was a bright yellow colored Colt, though (almost the same shade as those B210 Honey Bees) and that yellow Colt had a black interior with white or silver vertical stripes on the edges of the seat back and seat cushion….almost skunk-like.
And the wood-grained plastic used in these cars looked like it came from plastic trees.
What a nice lil’ car. I wonder if it’s still on its 1st owner? Looks like a lock on the gas tank, too. Indicative of its era of fuel thieving, I reckon.
The Japanese were quite “big” on gas tank security from the factory. These locking gas doors preceded remote releases, again, with locking release handles.
For some reason, U.S. car companies never went heavily for fuel tank security.
Probably had to do with the relative price of fuel; before the ’70s Fuel Crises, gas in America was too cheap to be worth stealing. Even today it’s probably not on the radar of many petty thieves.
Very nice and rare example of the Lancer lineage. Oddly enough, the car was already 4 years old before it was sold on North American shores, and was preceded by the Plymouth Arrow, a platform mate, the year before. Tough as nails, these were. Japanese spec GSR sedans won the Safari Rally in 1974 and 1976. Andrew Cowan and Joginder Singh both claim this car to be their favorite car to drive in competition during their careers.
Back in 81 I used the front struts and disc brakes from one of these to upgrade the front suspension on my 66 Dart. Even though the Dart was so much bigger, the discs stopped the car in half the distance.
How did you convert a Torsion Bar SLA suspension to a coil strut? That would be something to see.
Easy, cut out all the rusted Mopar subframe, construct a new tube front chasis, add in a couple of strut towers, use a Pinto rack, swap the struts side for side so the arm is in the front, make an adapter so the steering geometry is correct, and make sure the wheels are in the right place. Easy piezy. This was back in the 80’s before all the stuff was available and I had no money to buy anything else.
Except for the Chrysler Torqueflite equipped automatic versions, which were slugs, those bigger, RWD Galant-based ’78-’80 Colt wagons were great cars – so long as you changed the oil religiously, and had someone who could deal with the lazy choke on the Mikuni carb fitted to the 2.6 Mitsubishi engine. The choke would run so rich for too long, and dilute the engine oil with gas. Not good if maintenance was ignored, which seemed to be traditional in the US then and now. Like many similar engines, the 2.6 overhead cam turned in bearings cut directly into the aluminum head, and I’ve seen one seize up and shear off the end that held the timing gear!
With advice from me about oil-changes, and a choke repair kit, my brother’s 5-speed ’80 Colt wagon survived over 200K miles, until 2 or 3 of the tranny gears didn’t work anymore!
Happy Motoring, Mark
I bought a ’79 Colt in 1988 as my very 1st project car. It was a red 2dr with a 1600 and a 4 spd. The alternator belt was so loose I barely made it home. Mileage was 97K and it ran like a top when it was fully tuned—the exhaust burble made me think of a Saab 4 cylinder. I sold it to a friend who drove it for 4 years and 60K more miles.
“rust-free Queensland” – – – are we talking Australia?
I thought Australia was hot and dry. Yet I keep hearing about rust issues there. Why?
The coast is very humid cars rot out fast, inland they last forever unless it floods which happens regularly.
No salt on the roads, but you have coastal cars plus it does rain where most people live. Some areas are better than others where that is concerned. Also cars of this era weren’t terribly well protected against rust.
A friend had one of these (well the Mitsubishi Lancer version) in school, and another friend later put a 2.6 in his which was decently quick. Plus there are a couple on the historic rally scene. Good solid cars for their time.
My first car was one of those, and it looked like just that. It was an automatic and by far the slowest car I’ve ever owned. My parents bought it for me when I turned 16 in 1991, and it had really low miles. Owned by an old lady. Never gave me any issues but it wasn’t the coolest car for a 16 year old.
Steve, you clearly never drove a Pinto.
I saw one quite recently near the place we stay at in Welly 70s brown with all the badging redone in gold a Galant version it looked mint, these were an ok drive in their day I had a new rental for a week or so it went and handled ok for what it was.
Didn’t the Pro stock crowd use these with 440’s in them?
Scrolled past this a couple days ago but didn’t read it until now because I just saw this car in my Vancouver neighbourhood on my way home from Safeway less than an hour ago! Despite its pristine appearance, it sounds a bit agricultural. I remember Colts being very popular in their day. More reliable than Pintos and Vegas, it’s too bad Chrysler could never get it together to build them in North America. Come to think of it, if FCA should re-body the Fiat 500 and sell them as Dodge Colts to give that division a broader vehicle lineup. Unless of course they plan to kill Dodge and turn all the Dodge plants into Jeep assembly sites… nah, that’ll never happen 😉
Hey! That’s my baby!! Thank you for the beautiful post of my car 🙂
I am the third owner and unfortunately do not know much about it’s history and maintenance secrets. I know it is the original paint colour, as it says “Paint Code: Bright Blue” under the hood. I do however believe it was repainted due to there being a few blemishes and bumps.
In regards to how it goes, it runs beautifully! I bought it at 95,000KM and have owned it for a year now with no repairs required.
I guess the only secret is to keep her in a garage as much as possible.
Please let me know if you guys have any further questions! I would love to help 🙂
95000 KM on a 39 year old car? That’s remarkable in and of itself! Glad you take such good care of the car and that it’s found an owner who knows how special it is.
I have one of these lil cars ! Still has the original paint too ! ’79 2 door coupe 1.6 liter 4-speed . Beige with white vinyl top . I’ve owned it for 26 years ! Bought it from an estate for a little old lady that passed away . You hear those type of stories , but it actually is true ! People always ask what it is and if I might sell it ? I tell the story and say ” Nope , I’m keeping it ! My mother ( who since has passed ) when first seeing my purchase of the Colt named it ” The Keebler Car ” . Cuz she said the colors reminded her of a cookie ! Great Little Car !! Still drive it from time to time also !!