Dodge
Published on January 14th, 2012 |
by BajaBusta
1972 Dodge Colt Station Wagon Test Drive
The early 70s saw the beginning of the Japanese onslaught on the American Market. The 1972 Dodge Colt was also the beginning of another story. The beginning of Chrysler’s use of captive imports, primarily rebadging Mitsubishi products for sale here in the US that lasted well into the 90’s and beyond. The Colt seen here simply was a federalized first generation Mitsubishi Colt Galant. The Dodge Colt was originally intended to be Chrysler’s answer to the AMC Gremlin, Ford Pinto and Chevrolet Vega but because it came from Mitsubishi Motors and was not a true Chrysler product, the first Colts actually competed more directly with Japanese imports, such as the Toyota Corolla and Datsun 510. Small cars were very new by this time, and did not necessarily work for Mr Bud Lindeman, with comments like “If you want a little car because it’s the ‘in thing’, well this one might be your choice, but if you’re going the mini route because it’s cheap, well, you may want to look around.” & blaming the 100hp 4cyl “as a good excuse for getting home late”.
Tags: 1972, Captive Import, Colt, Datsun B210, Dodge, Dodge Colt, mazda wagon, Mitsubishi, Review, road test, Roadtest, Station Wagon, test drive, Testdrive, Toyota Corolla
Agreed!
I wonder if they’d have been more impressed by the Colt’s performance and economy with a 4-speed manual rather than the automatic here.
Maybe, but who drives a stickshift?
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Bud was not a small car fan. He made fun of almost anything under the size of a Chevy Nova.
Wow! I wasn’t even looking for this. When I was 16, I bought an exact wagon for $50. It didn’t run and rust was so rampant that there were softball sized rust holes in the bodywork. This was 1978, my dad owned an auto parts store and he had an empty barn just past the store where I was able to work on the Colt. I got the car running with a new battery and basic tune-up parts and a friend of my dad taught and helped me to patch the bodywork. Another of his friends sprayed it metallic gold for the price of a case of beer. We got it registered and insured and I used to to practice for my driving test and to get my feel for the manual transmission (45 years later I still only drive manuals). Unfortunately, while dad was borrowing the car as an employee crashed the company delivery van, he threw a rod through the crankcase and that wasn’t economically feasible to fix so the Colt was unceremoniously junked. Dad is now living his last few weeks. He’s 95 and led a good, long life. Thank you for this. I will return occasionally if only to remember the good times.