Will Our New K-Car Make It Through A Snowstorm?
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- čas přidán 9. 09. 2024
- After many years of searching, I (Josh) finally found and bought back my first car! Well, sort of anyway. My first car was scrapped, but after searching for over 10 year's I found a suitable replacement. The car is a 1985 Plymouth Reliant!!! Good ole reliable K-car. Overpaid for it and drove it home in a snowstor, but I could not be happier. Join Anthony and me as we attempt to drive it back home through a snowstorm on sketchy tires!
Complete video walkthrough of the Reliant in the second half of the video.
#Reliant #KCar #Mopar #Plymouth #Chrysler
As I recall, the government and DOD bought shit loads of these K-cars for fleet duty as they were basic, practical, reasonably priced and reliable enough.
I had an '86 Reliant wagon as a company car. It was very reliable, and fun to drive. Two things that I remember about this car were the plastic hub caps. They didn't stay on the wheels very long before they spun off of the metal mounts, and the instrument panel red idiot lights (which were really clear red plastic filters) came unglued, and exposed the white bulbs underneath. But it had alot of room with the rear seats folded down to carry around my computer field service parts.
K-cars were great little cars
I actually own a 85 Dodge Aries wagon with a factory four speed manual. Nice little wagon.
My 1st car was an '84 reliant. Bought it from grandma in 1993. It immediately started falling apart after I got it. Never ran right. Carburetor flooded daily. Leaked oil like crazy. Paint started to turn to rust. Interior was pristine since grandma took great care of it.
Sounds just like my original one 🤣
I had a light blue 85 wagon.
I learned to drive on a 4-door sedan version of a K-car. They were such fun, times were simpler then! Ours had radio only, not even a tape player. I remember the steering being very nice and light. I also remember the little Plymouth logo flipping to one side so you can access the trunk keyhole.
That grill in front is from an Aries. The Reliant's had a different grill.
You can just tell how overjoy he is! It's great seeing him excited about a car most would overlook. That a great first car man, I'm glad you got it back!
Been playing with k cars since the 90s.
that is so cool! It is also very similar to my Dodge Aries! I can't wait to be able to drive my Aries again!!!
The front grille on that car is from a Dodge Aires because it had the signature Dodge "gunsight" grille; I would venture to say it has been wrecked. You can see the rear-window defogger has some elements that aren't working; they were bad about that. I had customers with these things and they were fine until they got about 60,000 miles on the clock. Then headgaskets, transmission issues, CV joint issues, etc. started to go wrong and they started complaining of the high cost of repairs. (We didn't have the warranties we have now....) I just reminded them about all that traction they got in the snow and all that room they had inside the car and all that gas they saved, especially when those things didn't run. Those had either the 2.2 liter Chrysler Corp. engine or the 2.6 liter Mitsubishi "silent shaft" engine with the hemispherical combustion chambers. There was a syndicated cop show on CBS "Crimetime after Primetime" called "Night Heat." They drove a Plymouth Reliant and later drove one with the updated front end around 1985. There was just something wrong with seeing the Police detectives fight crime with a K-car. GREAT VIDEO!
Ironically Chrysler did offer a Police package on the K cars. NYPD had a small fleet of Reliants both as marked and unmarked units. They were not very popular with cops unlike the larger M Body Gran Fury while was the backbone of the NYPD's fleet during the 80's
The assumption that is has been wrecked is probably correct. This wagon definitely spent some time in a junk yard. I didn't mention it in the video, but I had title issues when registering it. I had a green title, but the Secretary of State said the car actually had a salvage title...
Thankfully after some back and forth the guy at SOS was able to title it and give me a green title back.
Also Immediately had CV joint issues as soon as I started driving it... Car ended up parked, but I will be publishing a new video in near future fixing the CV axle and doing some other upgrades.
@@shnorth888 Yes, and at one point there was talk of replacing the Gran Fury with the Reliant. They both went out of production the same year: 1989.
@@redheadgarageI actually had a fwd New Yorker that the tripod bearing actually locked up and was moving the engine from side to side. They were notorious for that.
that looks just like what my parents had when I was growing up, early 90s, same color and everything. Traded it in on a ford escort wagon. I'll be surprised if I ever see either of those in person again in my lifetime.
Leave the “spoiler”. It’s to help keep the rear window clear from mud and grime, since there was no rear wiper.
The 2.5L EFI was an option for 1985
The heart wants what the heart wants. Nice find, rare condition.
Starting to think I might have a heart condition 😅
- Josh
Nice car.
My first car was an 1988 Plymouth Reliant LE model mine must have been the luxury version. Mine had 2.5L 4 automatic PS/PB Cold A/C tilt wheel Cruise Control Rear Defrost Bucket seats condole shifter Power Mirrors Power Locks and Power Driver;s Seat paid 450.00 for it back in 1997. mine had no Power Windows
My original one was also well optioned compared to this one. Had the cruise control and all that, never worked though...
That's not a 2.5 because the 2.5 has a different style head on it. This looks like this was the older version of the 2.2 82 to 85 that originally had a carburetor but had the system switched to fuel injection. U can tell because the shape of the top of the engine. But its cool it had the system switched to fuel injection to make it more reliable
Believe it or not these K-Cars are popular with the teens and 20 somethings as cheap JMD style builds, after all these cars were really nothing more than a Dodge/Plymouth badged Mitsubishi Lancer Station Wagon with a different grille. They were no frills, no b.s. REALLY good transportation, GREAT find.
I recently found out the 4 lug rimmed cars have the same rim bolt pattern as Mazda Miata and BMWs so I can definitely see how kids would make that style build. When I had my original one in highschool I wanted to do a Similar build.
Early bosch tbi 84 85 only
This was the first year for EFI and that is a dodge Aries Front end? This had been wreaked You could have gotten the updated verdion of this with the 1989-1995 Dodge Spirit Plymouth Acclaim were way better.
I think you might be right! The front end does look like a dodge spirit. My original one never had the grill so I didn't notice it was not correct.
Cool
This looks like marge simpsons car.
SRT-4 SWAP
Turbo swap upgrade brakes/suspension
Very possible this is the direction we will be going! Happen to have a Turbo 2.2 lying around our shop from a 1987 Daytona.
High school sucked. When you get older you'll realize that.
We are older and fully aware of how much high school sucked. 😅
Is this a Canadian spec model as it has no A/C?
I honestly have no clue...
what state are you in?
Michigan
@@redheadgaragecool.