Dodge Colt
The
Dodge Colt and the similar
Plymouth Champ and
Plymouth Colt, were
subcompact cars sold by
Dodge and
Plymouth from
1970 to
1994. After the Colt's demise, they were replaced by the
Neon. They were
captive imports from
Mitsubishi Motors and, initially, were twins of the
Mitsubishi Galant, before shifting to the
Mitsubishi Mirage in
1979.
The
Plymouth Cricket nameplate was used on Galants from
1974 in
Canada, after Chrysler pulled the plug on the unhappy
Hillman Avenger-based model sourced from the UK.
The
Plymouth Arrow was offered from
1976 to
1980 as a rebadged version of the Mitsubishi Lancer Celeste.
From
1979, the Dodge Colt and Plymouth Champ nameplates applied to the
front wheel drive Mitsubishi Mirage imports into
North America.
In
1989, the
Eagle Summit joined the array of nameplates describing a Mitsubishi Mirage, as did the
Colt Vista designation for tall wagon versions based on the
Mitsubishi Chariot in
1984. The Colt minivans/wagons continued until
1995. The Colt minivans briefly took over from the
Dodge Caravan and
Plymouth Voyager as Dodge/Plymouth's entry-level minivans.
Since the demise of the
Dodge Omni/
Plymouth Horizon in
1990, the Colt was the only subcompact in the Dodge and Plymouth lineups.
The last Colt Turbo was on
Car and Driver magazine's
Ten Best list for
1989.
|
1993 Plymouth Colt 2-door coupe |
Not unlike the related Mirage, the Colt and other similar vehicles were well utilized in
rallying, both in the United States and abroad. The Colt was the most widely utilized of these variants, appearing in events through the 1970s and 1980s. A Colt was run to a third-place finish in the first ever
Sno*Drift rally in
1973, and repeated the feat the following year, as well as a third time in
1982. A Plymouth Arrow was driven to third place in Group 5 of Sno*Drift in
1999.
*
Colt/Champ/Cricket infos on Allpar
