We’ve only seen three or four (there was one repeat) Plymouth Horizon TC3s here on Barn Finds over the years, and a few of the Dodge Omni 024 versions. The seller has this regular ol’ gas-powered 1980 Plymouth Horizon TC3 posted here on craigslist in the Langhorne, Bucks County area of Pennsylvania, and they’re asking $2,600. Here is the original listing, and thanks to Barney for the tip!
We’ve only seen about four gas-powered Horizon TC3s, if you don’t count the Jet Industries EV version, the Jet Electrica, which we’ve seen at least twice here over the last decade or so. The passenger side looks almost perfect, at least from a distance. The driver’s side appears to have some fading or missing trim, or maybe it’s just faded graphics on the bottom.
What a great-looking car, though. The seller’s description is a bit of a head-scratcher, as they say there is “no rust anywhere,” but then they show a close-up photo of a gaping rust hole in the lower body panel/s, and you can see other issues if you enlarge the exterior photos and look at the very bottom of the car. So yeah, there is rust on this car, and I’d sure want to see the underside. The rear cargo area looks nice, and this is sure a unique body style compared to the four-door sedan Horizon. The Spinnaker White and Graphic Red color combo is great, and here is a 1980 Plymouth Horizon brochure.
Another thing is reading that “the interior is mint,” but then seeing all of the rips and separations on the driver’s seat. It shouldn’t be a big issue or huge expense to fix that, or just get seat covers; this is a $2,600 car, it’s not like it’ll ever be at Pebble Beach. The rest of the interior does look nice, including the back seat. And not seeing an automatic transmission is nice for those of us who like to shift for ourselves when we can. The Horizon TC3 was made from 1979 through 1982.
Sadly, the engine was replaced by a box of wires and hoses… No, somewhere under there is a Volkswagen-sourced 1.7-liter SOHC inline-four with a mere 65 horsepower and 85 lb-ft of torque. Backed by the 4-speed manual, power is sent to the front wheels, and the seller says it’ll get 44 mpg on the highway (although most reports say somewhere between 25 and 35), and everything works as it should. If it runs as well as it looks, it’s hard to go wrong with a $2,600 commuter car with a 4-speed. Have any of you owned a Horizon TC3?
According to the rear cargo mat, this appears to be one of the rare, very limited TC3 Sentra Edition models.
Haha! I saw that too! Lol
I learned to drive on a 1983 Dodge charger which with previously called the Omni 024
5 years newer than this one I had an iteration of one. The car had really lousy Construction quality. This one seems like a perfect restoration project though, making it better along the way. Good price. The pick up truck version was the sweet spot.
The version you’re describing came out in 1984 were the front end was redone Make it look like the upcoming Dodge Daytona.
I haven’t seen one of these in the wild since my high school days. Most of them either succumbed to the tin worm, or were driven into the ground & junked. Nice to see one in this condition after all this time.
It’s amazing that one of these is still up and running. It would be neat to see it restored, or cleaned up. I’d like to look more at that rust though. But if it isn’t bad you’d have a great, fun weekend runner.
Love the front end. And 44mpg, talk about a fuel miser ⛽️ 🇩🇪 🇺🇸
With rust that bad, I certainly hope that isn’t the nicest one left!
“Relax, Horizon can handle it”, and handle it they did, to the tune of almost 2.5 million units( including Omni). They sold about 185,000 TC3s, so not a wash out by any means. This was for folks that didn’t want the standard looking “econobox”, so prevalent at the time, but was really just sheet metal. It’s a swing and a miss, in that, it was only $160 more ( $5681) over an Omni( $5526), yet clearly an econobox is what people wanted, not this.
Not sure about the engine swap, I mean, there’s a few of the 2.2s around, like a million, and 44mpg is optimistic. I’d believe mid 30s, with the hammer down. Odd to see one, while it did steer 2.5 million buyers away from imports, after these were kaput, most went with Asian cars anyway. It’s a nice find, they were good cars.
My father bought a used TC3. He thought it was awesome and fast. I drove it a few times. It was alright.
the hybrid vw engine/north american tranny was a flub in alot of vehicles whether like this or in other cars. Funny as same engine with all vw drivetrain would feel like a power house! Only speaking in terms of power and reliability (at least from my experience WAY back when). the 2.2 was a boon compared to these and lots of hop up parts
I have the ute version (dodge rampage) for sale but that is another kettle of fish gord [email protected]
I miss Plymouth…but not the Horizon.
I learned to drive stick in my dad’s 1980 Omni 024, so this car is very interesting to me. The description vs the pictures is concerning but for the price, if it runs I suppose it may be worth the risk. I’ve been looking for an 024 with the wing, stripes and a stick and they seem not to exist
My first new car purchase was an 80 silver TC3. Got 2-3 mpg more with premium fuel. Put 100k miles on it, then sold it to my dad who loved hatchbacks. Could bury the 85mph speedo with four people on board. Pretty much 30mpg driving like a nut the whole time.
Wish people would get realistic about their descriptions. The interior isn’t mint. It has obvious rust. And the cars on the highway would get about 32mpg. I own a 1979 very much like this one and it is mint (bought it new for $6565. It’s been in dry storage since 1985. This one is far from that. The truth is that for the day, they were a pretty nice car. They drove nicely and were reliable. They weren’t up to Japanese standards, but we’re far, far better than prior American builds from any of the Big Three. The sad fact for this guy and myself is there’s not much demand for these cars from collectors. Mine truly could be put on a showroom floor, but I’d probably be wildly blessed to get $3k for it!
I bought a new TC3 in 1979 drove it for seven years and it could in fact hit 40 mpg. The Plymouth took all the abuse I could dish out and it hung in there. It would be an excellent car to commute to work with todays gas prices. I sold it to my cousin, he totaled it a week later.
I owned one in ’82-’87 time period. Found it fun to drive then, quite short of engine today but stick helps. I never got 30 mpg, though I did cover 350 miles on the 13 gallon tank
My first new car was an ’81 TC3 Miser. Ginger in color like the lower portion of this one. Ordered it with rear defrost, lift off sunroof for the added head room and HD battery. I figured that if it only achieved the 30 mpg city rating I could make the payment on the gas savings over my Oldsmobile 88. Not perfect but gave me six years and over 100k miles service until I hit an illegally parked truck. l drove it home, took the hood off and drove it some more. Sold it for $300 and bought a 83 Aries.
An ex-GF had a ’80 O24. Daddy was a Chrysler pencil pusher, so his little angel had a new car to drive to college. Little things fell off regularly, but it never let her down through 4 years of commuting, then 4 more years of bar hopping. The car lasted longer than I did…
I spent 6 yrs riding in the back seat of one of these in the 80’s. One of the guys I carpooled with had one identical to this, minus the VW engine. With four men in it, it rode like a buckboard, only worse. The owner always ran 40 psi in the tires, claiming it got better gas mileage. I don’t know if that was true, but it sure made it ride like crud.
Transmission linkage fell apart many times, the drivers door had to be lifted to close, the car stranded my wife when it stopped running several times resulting in tow truck rides. Dealer could not fix anything.
We traded our new car after about six months.We lost a ton of money but we did not care at this point.
We traded it on a white 1980 Honda Civic like the one in Pulp Fiction.
The Civic ran forever and changed hands in our family three times.
It is hard for me to believe that there is even one TC3 on the road now.
Skip I got 80k out of mine before I moved on to an Acura Integra. Faster, more fun, more reliable
I bought an Omni 024 new. Drove it 130,000 miles. The unibody frame was completely rusted and done. I absolutely loved every mile I drove it. The engine was still getting 50mpg with zero oil consumption. Simple to maintain and perfectly performed it’s commuter mission. Wish I could get a 2026!
GONE. It was a steal, like the seller says.
$2,600 doesn’t buy much in a car lately, and this is one that runs, drives, and you will never see another one.