Every now and then I see a Mitsubishi on the road and wonder why they never seemed to catch on in the U.S., much the same as when Suzuki offered four-wheeled passenger vehicles here. They both were the basis for several captive imports, which is the case with this 1978 Plymouth Arrow GT. The seller has this nice-looking example posted here on Facebook Marketplace in Bakersfield, California and they’re asking $5,000. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Bruce F. for the tip!
Bakersfield, California: home of the late, great Merle Haggard and Buck Owens, and the current country star, Dwight Yoakam. As an incredibly dry place with only around six inches of rainfall a year (!), it could explain how this 46-year-old Arrow looks as nice as it does. Having only traveled a reported 70,000 miles, or an average of 1,522 miles a year, that could be another reason it looks so nice. I don’t see a single flaw on the exterior of this car, or at least from the three lone exterior photos that the seller posted. I know, just three and just four total photos.
“Arrow GT – The little car that makes a big hit.” The Mitsubishi Celeste was the basis for the Plymouth Arrow in the U.S., cousin to the similar Dodge Colt at the time, and the Dodge Arrow in Canada. They offered some cool graphics and this example is missing some of the fancier GT side stripes, but there appears to be a GT badge and it has black side mirrors and blacked-out upper door trim and grille, so it must be the real deal. And, it’s Spitfire Orange, a very nice 70s color. Green and Black were the other two colors available on the GT. Plymouth offered the Arrow from January 1976 through the end of the 1980 model year. There was also a Plymouth Arrow pickup from 1979 through 1982, similar to the Dodge D-50 Sport pickup, and that’s what I’d really want. Maybe the stars (to keep with the celestial theme) will align one of these days and I can add one as a stablemate to my D-50.
The last photo is this one, which is a nice photo showing what appears to be a very, very nice interior for being over four decades old and living in a dry climate that gets over 100 degrees for weeks on end in the summer. I don’t see any dash cracks and I love the black and white “Check-Mate” cloth seats. But, I do see a console shifter for a three-speed automatic rather than the standard five-speed manual that the GT would have had. That’s a crying shame, but then again, it may mean that a hot-rodder/teenager didn’t own this car so maybe it’s been babied rather than beaten to death. Although, the power brake pedal pad is missing and I’m sure they’re available on eBay for hardly any money so that’s a shame. We don’t even know what engine is here, a standard 1.6-liter OHC inline-four with 77 hp or an optional 2.0-liter OHC inline-four with 93 hp, but they say that everything works perfectly, so that’s a good sign. If anyone is interested in this great-looking car, you’ll have to get in touch with the seller for much more info than they give in their ad. Any thoughts on this Arrow GT?
I’ve owned a ’79, an ’82 and an ’89 Dodge Colt. All had manual transmissions, got crazy good gas mileage, and were dependable as heck. The ’79 was probably my favorite as it was a bright yellow/green color with a tan interior and had the twin-stick manual transmission. It was my college car and I could get between 38-41 mpg with that little car.
Mopar Doug.. I had orange with black interior twin stick .but…with headers and Weber carburetor and change the springs to made it tighter around the corners. Straight out exhaust Italian muffler with dual Chrome tips. That sounded wicked and That baby really hauled the mail!! Also put on the Turbo spoiler on the hatch. I won a trophy at a Mopar meet racing it. But I got lucky when I got home I split the cluster gears! I order another one at Dodge since I worked in the parts department. Fun times..🐻🇺🇸
I owned a new 79 Champ and a new 81 Colt, both twin sticks. Great cars for autocross and did get in the 40’s for gas mileage. Wish I could find one now. Anyone remember the Fire Arrow?
A schoolmate of mine in the high school days had one. White with red trim. It was a good-looking car. Never got to ride in it, though. He traded it for a third-gen Firebird his senior year. Damn. The things that stay with you…
In H.S. I did an errand for a teacher using his 5spd version of this & thought it was a lot better than our family Chevette of the same vintage.
Chevette you say? A high bar indeed.
Almost anything was better than a Chevette! 🤣
A long long time ago when I was 18 ( in 1978) I drove one for about 30 minutes.
A friend of mine was buying a car and needed someone to drive back his Arrow home.
I don t know if it had the 1.6 or the 2 liter engine, but it was a manual transmission, and at almost every green light if I was not gentle it would spin its wheels a lot, which was a big surprise to me.
The car could spin its wheel so easy it felt like it was much faster than it really was. And it was fun !
I later found out the car was lighter than most, barely over 2000 lbs which is very light, and which explains why it spun its wheels as if it had a lot of horsepower even it did not.
I did not like the look of the car but it was a lot of fun to drive because it was so damn responsive.
it was a 30 minute drive, never drove one again. Fun car to drive. Light cars are more fun in my opinion.
Arrows with the 2.6L engine (std. w/ the Fire Arrow package, optional w/ other trims) had one of the best power/weight ratios on the US market at the time, so that (and/or perhaps poor tires) may explain that wheelspin you found so entertaining.
I’ve got a different approach for this car. Tube chassis 392 hemi narrowed Ford 9inch full cage leave the paint.
I worked at CPD dealer in 79&80. The hot ticket was the Fire Arrow with the 2.6L. Those and the aforementioned D50 sport with that same 2.6. Drove the heck out of those whenever we had the chance. And as long as I can drive a stick, the slushbox won’t cut it. Nice write up as always, Scotty.
We got them over here, either badged, Chrysler Galant, and latter Mitsubishi Galant.
They were such a fun car to throw around, but now there collector’s items.
We never got the 2.6, just the 1600, but still fun in a manual.
Bakersfield – I spent a week there one day.
Of course it’s an automatic,as almost all of the good survivors are.
Would look so much better without those red wheels.
When I ran SCCA Showroom Stock in a Fiesta,there was a racer
who ran one of these,& he told me it was a huge disappointment on the
track.
Every once in a while a once popular car shows up that I’ve completely forgotten about… and this is one. I never owned one, but I knew a bunch that did… Solid, dependable, disposable, Celica alternative… affordable by mere mortals. Living in the northern tier it’s been years and years since I’ve seen one, as they all turned to dust long ago. Amazing to see one in this condition…
Ah, the 70’s. The time when every US manufacturer brought over some type of tin can from Japan.
I like these Dodge badge Mitsi’s I have a 87 Dodge Raider i drive it alot, especially when it snows, its a worker, skid trees up with it, pulled so many folks up dirt hills hete in ice n snow. It’s sought after by most of the people here especially the 2 kids working at scrapyard just up from my place.and gets tons of remarks. But the best part is I got it for free, under 100k miles and keeps on giving. Needs lots of grease on the zerks up front. Doing that RN.
These were great fun little cars. Held up well in a wreck too.
I had one of these in high school. Let my sister drive it once during winter in Ohio. A coolant hose popped, it overheated, and her boyfriend poured in frosty tapwater-engine off-and cracked the block. It was a good car with good fuel mileage.
Ooooh, nice, but I think we’ll hold out for the rarer Dodge Challenger version.
Or rarer still, the Plymouth Sapporo.
The Challenger/Sapporo twins were a different, larger model entirely, both a rebadged Mitsubishi Galant Lambda, whereas the smaller Arrow was a rebadged Lancer Celeste, differing by about 7″ of wheelbase, 5″ of width, and 15″ of length.
My ex had one 40 something years ago. I liked her car so much that when she came by to harass me and bust out my Dodge van window I paid her back by zeroing in on her Arrow with my van and hit it doing 35mph.. She never came by again.
I owned 1979 Arrow. It was silver, stick, black vinyl interior. It was a rust bucket. My buddy and I rebuilt the rear lower quarters out of soda cans and bonds. It looked great until one of the rear tires blew out and through it’s tread into our handiwork and ripped out amazing work
Have a picture of my “ex” besides this car as her “demo” … she sold cars back then and she said she loved that car …
I saw a picture of a drag car one of these just the other day and thought that it had been forever since I saw an Arrow.
Let alone one for sale in the condition it’s in! 😁
I would like a price on the arrow.