This is one nice starship. The 1983 Mitsubishi Starion LS seen here is listed on eBay and is located in Ventura, California. It has an unmet opening bid of $3,000 and a Buy It Now price of just $4,500! There are eight days left on the auction but I can’t believe that it’ll last the whole eight days before some forward-thinking individual snaps this beauty up.
This great looking Starion was stored for 25 years – in a barn – by the seller’s mother-in-law – the original owner! This is not a car that I picture most mother’s-in-law driving. The seller has “done ALL necessary maintenance to get it road worthy. It has passed the California “Smog Test”.” They don’t show a photo of it, but they mention that there “is one very small scratch/dent on back of right rear panel,” But, overall this car looks fantastic for being 33 years old. The LS version included “Air-conditioning, 6 way adjustable seats, digital display, and 8 speaker sound system standard.”
The Starion was available in North America from 1983 to 1989 and it was also marketed by Chrysler for both Dodge and Plymouth as the Conquest from 1984 to 1986 and by Chrysler from 1987 to 1989. This is an early “narrow body” car. The cars from 1986 on are my favorite bodystyle of the Starion and Conquest, the wide-bodies, when it received fender flares, I think that’s a killer design.
This car only has 56,000 miles on it so cosmetically it’s as close to looking new as you’ll probably ever find. The seller does mention that because of just being 33-years old there is some cracking in the leather but there are no rips at all. It indeed looks perfect from the photos. Even the rear compartment looks perfect. But, they do mention that there are some “coffee stains on the carpets. The driver side sun visor bracket is broke, but I have the visor. The adjustment mechanism for the manually adjusted exterior mirrors needs some work.”
This is Mitsubishi’s 2.6L G54B inline-four cylinder with 145 hp and 185 ft-lb of torque. I had this engine, sans the turbo and fuel-injection, in my mid-80s LeBaron convertible and with the balanced-shaft it was as smooth as could be, much more so than the rest of the car was.. This is an inexpensive way for someone to get into the collector car market. Yes, it’s a Japanese car from the 1980s, but it’s 33-years old and that’s probably older than a decent percentage of Barn Finds readers. Plus, this car is in great shape and you simply can’t argue with the price. I think this is a winner, are there any other fans of the Starion of Conquest out there? Can you picture your Mother-in-law driving a car like this?!
We had three Starquests in my family. Loved all three. My mom died recently, or I guarantee you this one would be coming to NC on a transporter. Her favorite of the three was a black ’87 that she bought new; it was a Conquest, but someone had made a mistake and put the Mitsubishi emblem on the nose. It got totaled when an unlicensed driver ran a red light and almost killed her; he was lucky I wasn’t around when it happened. Fantastic cars and some of the most comfortable seats I have ever had in ANY car. Good luck to the seller!
Jamie, I’m sorry to hear about your mom. Sounds like she had great taste in automobiles. These narrow-body cars are a rare find, and I could picture one of these parked next to an Isuzu Impulse Turbo in my perfect 80’s Japanese garage – with a first-gen CRX Si in the third bay!
Thanks, Jeff. That sounds like a fun garage :-)
I owned a gold one with the turbo for awhile. Good little car, and they’re rwd!
Had a first year 83 and an 85. Nobody knew what they were at the time but everyone loved them. The 83 only style hood with the scoops is a wanted item since it fits all years. The Starion, along with the Supra and Datsun Z cars were the cars to own or just be seen in at the time. These early flat body cars are very hard to find anymore. Great cars!
I had an ’87 Conquest. Hell of a car for sure, and with some turbo mods, was quite nasty. I took it to get it smogged one morning and the kid tech put the front wheels on the rollers and was about to hop in it and give it the business. I calmly walked out of the hut and advised him otherwise….and we all lived. Fun car.
A friends girlfriend had one of these and we went up to the mountains and the next morning after it snowed all night she proceeded to put her snow chains on the front tires. I asked her why she put those on the front tires ? Her reply was ” because that’s where I always have put them on” . I replied ” really ? must steer great in the snow then”.
It’s remarkable how often people don’t know the most basic facts about the technology they use every day. That’s not intended to be critical. I think it’s because so much of the technology is so reliable and so plentiful that people just don’t need to know much about what’s under the hood or hidden in the chassis.
But an example that I see these days more often than I might expect is guys with an upscale car like a BMW selling it in a CL listing as having a V6 engine. Call me biased, but that could be a seller to avoid, especially if it’s an older car that might not ever have had the hood open.
Had a friend selling her BMW 4.4 X5 listing it on craigslist as having a 4 cylinder engine. Months later I asked her if she ever sold her X5 ? Nope was her response.
I’ve seen that many times, and have come to the realization that some people simply call all 6 cylinder engines ‘V-6’.
Very limited production for Australia – super dooper expensive when they came out in 1982 (20 000 AU$) – haven’t seen one for years – if I have, been bombs – great find
I remember the Starion as the chaser of voice by the NSW Police Force. The had a couple of them working out of Goulburn on the Hume HWY.
Didn’t Jackie Chan and Jaws drive one in cannonball run ????
I had an 85 1/2 Dodge Conquest: narrow body with intercooled engine. Loved it for 150K miles until I grabbed the last of the Alfa 164LS’s to arrive here.