I find it odd to imagine that any vehicle from the 1980s other than sports cars or full-sized trucks is “collectible”, but apparently someone in the southern United States does not, and has recently released this car from their garaged collection to be sold here on eBay out of Clearwater, Florida. It’s at a bid of $4500 at the time this is published. Let’s look a little closer at this pocket-sized pickup…

In the late 1950s, GM and Ford introduced Americans to what our Australian friends call a “Ute”, or two-door car-based pickup. I use the term “pickup” here, since they weren’t quite as capable as a traditional truck per se, but they did do pickup-stuff well. As time went on, the El Camino and Ranchero went through many changes and saw sales successes, even in the face of increasing competition from more-economical foreign alternatives like the Rabbit-based VW Caddy and Leone-based Subaru Brat – but all the while, Chrysler had nothing comparable on offer to the public. Granted, Chrysler did start working on such a thing in the 1970s, while designing the Horizon/Omni in Europe, but by the time they got their act together to manufacture and sell the Charger/Turismo-based vehicle, Americans were turning away from the idea of a Ute. Rampages (and Plymouth Scamps) were only made and sold for three years (1982-1984), and they were somewhat capable vehicles, but as Hemmings said in this article from 2013, they were largely “…too little, too late…”

Even with their half-ton payload capacity and fuel economy in the 30-mpg range, they all came in front-wheel-drive with an anemic, carbureted 2.2-liter inline-four and choice of three uninteresting transmissions. Chrysler essentially took their existing L-platform vehicle and put a pickup bed on it. We’ve seen others like that since then, mainly the Outback-based Subaru Baja, but none have been successful in the U.S. in the same way that El Camino and Ranchero were.

But enough about that, let’s look closer here. This vehicle is one of only 11,700 made for 1984. The seller tells us that this car was in a private collection, but we don’t know for how long. We’re told that it has traveled 77,000 miles, and from the looks of it, that’s probably true. There’s a split in the dash, the paint is chipping around the factory fake hood scoop, one rear-bumper end cap is missing, and the bed has seen at least a few things hauled in it over time. It apparently runs and drives, it is allegedly clean underneath, and I don’t see signs of rust or body repairs.

These cars, like many other sales flops or out-of-the-ordinary machines, have a decent enthusiast following nowadays, however small and niche they may be. On the other hand, we’ve seen a recent resurgence in popularity of the Malaise-era vehicles, so a decent example like this one might surprise when the auction hammer falls. I myself am one of the weirdos of the world who owns and daily-drives an older niche-market vehicle, so I get why someone would want this. What do YOU think of THIS compact cargo carrier?