The hot collector cars these days are from the 1980s as today’s 40-something year olds want to relive their childhoods spent in the back of cars like this fine 1984 Plymouth Reliant wagon. And here it is, at Eugene’s St. Vinny’s donation lot, with an asking price of only $1995, but that’s highly negotiable. Yes, it runs, but the guys in the office said “it could use a good tune up”. And the interior is in great condition; seriously. It’s even got a front bumper hitch!
And of course there’s one in the rear too. Hopefully they only towed a little dinghy with it and not a 26′ cabin cruiser. I’m going to guess it’s got the optional 101 hp 2.6 L Mitsubishi four instead of the standard 96 horse 2.2 L Chrysler four, so plenty of grunt for towing.
Here’s a closer look at that front hitch. Makes maneuvering a trailer so much easier, and there’s more traction for pulling out of a steep boat ramp, which can be a shortcoming with FWD.
Check out that pristine interior. The odometer reads only 38K miles, but I suppose it’s possible that it’s rolled over once. But who knows?
Doesn’t look like kids vomited or spilled lots of sugary drinks back here. This was grandpa’s car, which he bought after he got tired of spending too much of his Social Security check in gas for the former 440-powered fuselage wagon he traded in on this.
Well no; there’s no warranty; that expired in 1989. But these K-cars are golden, in more ways than one. So give them a call from wherever you are and have them hold it; then fly into Eugene and drive this baby home. The St. Vinny’s Lot is conveniently located on Hwy. 99 not far from the airport.
This was just the highlight of my recent stop at this purveyor of many fine curbside classics; I’ll be doing a full tour of the lot shortly.
Related CC reading:
Curbside Classic: 1983 Dodge Aries — The K-Car Saves Chrysler
Curbside Classic: 1984 Dodge Aries — When A Compact Sedan Was a Savior, Not a Coffin Nail
Curbside Classic / Jason’s Family Chronicles: 1983 Plymouth Reliant — The Lioness Feeds Tonight
That would be a 2.2 liter car. The 2.6 cars had a badge on the front fender.
I was thinking this too – the badge read “HEMI” – but most of the badging is mysteriously missing from this car. The Wikipedia entry on the Reliant says only 1981 models had the Hemi badge.
Also, this looks like a 1984 model – the ’85s had rounded-off front and rear clips.
(oops, it’s correctly sold as an ’84, I misread it)
Ward IIRC the 2.6 Big Blocks even sported a little HEMI badge.
Replying to myself to say woops, my open page had not been refreshed so I didn’t see the other badge comments when I replied. There appeared to be only ONE comment posted when I replied.
But nice to see my frail memory still gets it right sometimes 🙂
I’m guessing those 38k miles are the original ones. The Montgomery Ward whitewalls likely date to 2003 with plenty of tread left, Grandpa couldn’t take his backrest cushion with him into the hereafter, there looks to be zero wear on the interior and the paint is in fine-ish shape for sitting outside under Eugene’s healing rains for 40 years. And you’ve never seen it before around town, so a leisurely 20 miles a week checks out.
Well spotted and I’m very much looking forward to the joys of the near future if this was the highlight!
It ‘s has the 2.2L four (pic from St. V’s website). The 2.6L has the carburetor just behind the radiator. Only the 81 model year had the Hemi badge. I had an 83 with the 2.6 that did not.
When I see vehicles with a rear hitch (outside of trucks and BOF SUV’s), I run the other way. Sorry, but I don’t want to buy anything that’s been towing.
When I see a car such as this, no matter the brand, with a rear hitch AND a front hitch, I would run 2X faster the other way.
My guess is it worked at a marina. That would explain the low mileage. It would have spent most of its life in reverse or low.
A working car of some sort sounds like a pretty good guess. The only question is why they chose a Reliant wagon for such duty. You’d think something like a compact pickup (i.e., Ford Ranger or S-10) is what they might have used (particularly if it was 4WD).
I wonder if it had to do with the flat bumper surface upon which it’d be easy to slap on the front hitch bar.
Nice .
I’d rock this .
-Nate
It’s been a long while since I saw an Aries/Reliant wagon in Quebec. More harder to find would be its sibling the K-car LeBaron Town & Country like this one or some 1980s Ford Escort wagon with the Squire version and/or front vent windows.
https://www.showdownauto.com/vehicles/746/1985-chrysler-town-and-country
https://clickamericana.com/topics/culture-and-lifestyle/cars-trucks/ford/1980s-ford-escort-wagons
About six years ago, I saw an M-Body Town and Country, in downtown Ottawa. The faux wood was faded, but the Chrysler was otherwise, in great condition.
(Not the one I saw.)
For an “84 K car”, the price needs to come down. lol Doubt it will but that model year was still quite “problem plagued”.
Starting with the “85’s” ((really “86”)), things got some better.
Another thing I find interesting about this ’84 Reliant wagon is that it was made for the first model year the novel Voyager minivan was available. No doubt, if this was grandpa’s car, the newfangled minivan was not what he was looking for. The Voyager was probably too expensive, and too experimental.
Nice-looking interior. Reminds me of the Mark Cross LeBaron interior.
Chrysler had some attractive earth tones happening, during this era.
Oh? Got any examples?? LOL!
My 2 Daytona Turbos were Black and Electric Blue…..IROC blue if you will 🙂
Both sticks and the newer one (blue) was a Shelby Intercooled. That thing flew.
I’m trying to get my mind around that front hitch being mounted to a 5mph bumper. Unless you had the energy-absorbing mechanism welded solid, wouldn’t that pull the bumper off? Unless you only used it to push…
As of 1983 model year with the weakened (2.5 mph) bumper standard in effect, the energy absorbers were removed from the K-car bumpers and replaced with fixed brackets.
Aha! I was trying to remember what year they did that. So, not a problem for this car then.
I would guess that this car towed a very small boat. The front hitch would be ideal on long steep boat ramps that were wet. Once up the ramp the boat goes on the back for the ride home. I loved K wagons. My brother had two. Both were great.
Currently I’m 43 and Paul is right. I miss the 83 cavalier wagon my mom bought in 89. Never been a fan of Chrysler products but I did look at a K car wagon when I was stationed in Utah. I passed and bought a leftover 05 Hyundai accent to settle a fight with the other half as I planned on giving my dd to my mother to replace her 83 camero
Never buy a car to settle a fight 🙄
If folks are looking for the lock button inside the doors, it’s right there in front of the door opener handle. It was neat, just toggle it forward to lock and back to unlock, I think. It was an attempt to move away from the button to press on the upper ledge of the door card, as an anti theft measure.
If only things were that simple today.
Well if you want one you are not going to find it in California. Been at least a decade since I saw a Reliant in person. Rarely, if ever, on Craigslist and I always check Craigslist for Northern CA.The nearest I have been to one, driving wise, was an 87 Caravelle SE. On sale for $1500, in 2017, and thought of it but was failing smog repeatedly. I knew it was the TBI and offered seller $1K to take it off his hands but he said no. Testing cost him almost as much as the haircut offer I gave him.
Front hitch would be for maneuvering a trailer into tight parking spaces, I pull a 1.5 tonne caravan with a FWD no wheelspin even on grass.
To their credit, Chrysler made very durable interiors in the mid 80s, as evidenced by my mom’s 85 LeBaron T&C or my dad’s Reliant SE. Every so often I still see one and both the cloth and vinyl interiors look great.
The front hitch makes perfect sense. Uphill on a wet ramp with even a small boat on a rear hitch in a fwd car is asking to become the guy everyone is pointing at as his car slowly backs into the water despite the spinning front wheels.
I like these better every year, the wagons especially. And I agree with Robert above that Chrysler was turning out very nice interiors then.
Does Oregon have the biannual smog check, as well as the smog check for sales requirement?
I sometimes complain about the smog check for cars from the late ’70’s to early 1980’s, but at least the buyer knows that the car doesn’t burn too much oil, have bad valves, a blown head gasket, or other expensive to fix emission issues. I bought my ’77 Datsun Z from Goodwill in San Jose.
I would have liked that Mark VII pictured from your first visit.
Only in Multnomah County (Portland) and Medford.