Our own senior writer, Jeff Lavery, showed us a nice Dodge Raider a few months ago here on Barn Finds, and here’s another one to add to the mix. This 1989 Dodge Raider appears unmodified, and the seller says it has some surface rust underneath, but there are no rust issues otherwise. They have it listed here on eBay in Maggie Valley, North Carolina, home of the famous Wheels Through Time Museum, a must-see. The seller is asking $8,000 or best offer.
The photos are a mixed bag of small and large images, so my apologies that some of them are a bit pixelated as they’re stretched to fit the format here. The seller has done a great job of providing photos of almost every area of this cool little 4×4, other than the rear cargo area. The body of this Mitsubishi-based captive import Dodge, from the era when Dodge and Mitsubishi offered some very interesting vehicles together, looks great, and the seller says there is no rust other than some surface rust. Headlight washers are a nice feature for off-roading.
The underside does show some heavy surface rust, and a good dry ice blast would work wonders under there. Or dare I say, the current trend of blasting and coating it with the black undercoating material that so many truck owners are doing now. What are your thoughts on that process? The Mitsubishi Pajero was the Mitsubishi Montero for North America, and Dodge latched onto it as the Raider from 1987 through 1989. We rarely see them in any color other than red, which is strange as they also made them in black, yellow, silver, blue, and two shades of tan.
The seller says the seats have some splits in the seams and they’re visible here, but if that’s the biggest glitch inside, that’s nothing. It does look good overall, and the back seat area looks perfect to me. The best thing inside, as almost always, is seeing a manual transmission, a five-speed, in this case. They do mention that it’ll need a clutch eventually, but they all will eventually. The underside shows the heavy surface rust they’re talking about, and they’ve uploaded several photos underneath.
The heavy HDR engine photo shows a Mitsubishi G672 3.0-liter SOHC fuel-injected V6 with 143 horsepower and 168 lb-ft of torque when new. Sending power through the 5-speed manual and transfer case to all four wheels as needed, it’s said to run well, doesn’t leak, and smokes a bit at start-up if it’s been sitting for a while. It has new tires and this is a nice-sized SUV compared to most offered today. Have any of you owned a Dodge Raider?
Good looking little units. Four wheel drives w manual trans and lever action transfer case are rare as hens teeth.
Cool! What the hell happened to the auto industry?
This would be a practical little driver. Nice write up too, but I take exception to your comment about all clutches eventually needing to be replaced. If you drive them right, a clutch should last the life of the car. I’ve had at least 40 vehicles, all had manual transmissions and I’ve only had to replace 3 clutches.
You’re most likely right, RexFox. Now that you mention that, I have yet to replace a clutch after 50 years of driving manuals.
I agree, unless it a hydraulic clutch. Replaced every 50k miles in my 88 Jeep wrangler, inline 6 had 300k on it before rust did it in. My 93 Acura legend coupe never needed a clutch, sold it at 240k miles.
In the start of the 90’s I worked as a parts manager at a Mitsubishi dealership stand alone. Yes it was interesting. One summer vacation i borrowed a black 4 door Montero automatic. Started at lower New York drove around Lake Ontario in Canada. Yes i went off road. I wish I had the money to buy one it was a fantastic vehicle to own. I love the seats in this. The controls for the seats like in the Dodge are the same. The arm lever you jack up and down and other controls everything is manual control on these seats and you sit nice and high. Like sitting in a Country Land Rover little above the side widows. (If you sat in one you know what I mean) the Montero, like in the Dodge, has an altimeter.( it comes in handy) These vehicles are worth buying either 2.6 or 3.0 but the manual trans is the way to go. It’s a shame they don’t make them like this design anymore. If you take care of them 300,000 miles is not unheard of. I wish the Dodge was closer to me. I would go a take a look. I can go on and on about this ride. So i will ended saying good luck to the next owner. 🐻🇺🇸
I took my 84 Dodge Daytona in for an oil change back in 86 or 87 and drove away with a blue Dodge Raider 5 speed. Picked up mom and drove to Chicago from Detroit that same day. Kept it for a couple years and traded it for a Honda Accord coupe. Good old days.
From the days when SUVs were for utility instead of overblown lookalike stationwagons with high centers of gravity.
Pretty nice looking SUV. The “surface” rust had gotten through at least a couple of the cross members. Taking a closer look at the dash gauges, it looks like it’s bumping 200.000 miles. No AC is a killer for me, here in the Sonoran Desert.
Karl, I believe those areas are oil on the frame, not rust holes? I could be wrong, but they look like oil to me. Although now that I look at them closer, one looks like an oil stain, and the others look more jagged like rust. Hmm…
Scotty, After looking again, you certainly may be correct and I may be mistaken. I guess the only way to know, for sure, would be to get underneath for a good look-see.
Wheels Through Time was a great TV show that was on one of those car oriented networks, maybe Speed. Dale was a great host and was able to spread his enthusiasm for those historical bikes to the viewer. His son did a great job too.
I wonder if those shows are available anywhere, I will have to look around.
I really like this little trucklet. These always reminded me of Isusu Troopers ( which I had a ’90). I like them both. I’m actually amongst all of you folks here. I’ve had so many manual transmission cars and trucks. All had the original clutches. To me RPMs is the bigest enemy of a clutch. Go nice and easy, it’ll last a long time. This one looks terrific to me as well. I’d love to own one like this, especially with a stick. Great find Scotty and a great write up too. Thank you.
I agree with the clutch comments. I have a ’95 Isuzu P/U with 227K on the original clutch.
A friend had one of these Raiders. He used it off road A LOT while deer hunting. Never a problem.
This little car, badged as a Pajero, won the Dakar to Paris Rally no less than 12 times between 1985 and 2007. It became known as “The King of the Desert.”
Dang I like it too
Scotty,
Thanks for reminding me that I stopped by the Wheels of Time
on my way from California to Virginia in 2015,while driving a Penske
truck.
I asked one of the employees “Where’s your Burt Monro display?”,
“Where’s your Bronson display?”,to which he replied “We don’t have one”
to both questions.
Fun fact – Burt Munro first stopped in Eureka,CA the first time that
he came to America,despite what the movie showed.If you get a chance,
read “ONE GOOD RUN” about Burt’s escapades.
angliagt
‘One Good Run’ is a great read.
It seems the movie featured highlights (and lowlights) of several USA visits rolled into one which kept it interesting and basically gave us a cross section of Burt’s life.
angliagt
‘One Good Run’ is a great read.
It seems the movie featured highlights (and lowlights) of several USA visits rolled into one which kept it interesting and basically gave us a cross section of Burt’s life.
This would make a nice summer sleigh for this Santa!
Nice looking little rig. Back into day a friend of bought one these new. Looked exactly like this one except it was an automatic. As I recall at the the top of the center stack on the dash it had two auxiliary gauges. Maybe one was for ascent/decent snd the other maybe was a compass.