While not the top dog in the Plymouth Turismo lineup, this 1984 Plymouth Turismo Duster was still a “spirited” performer for the times. A five-speed manual makes it fun to drive, even with just under 100 horsepower on tap. This really nice-looking example, which the seller says is rust-free, is listed here on eBay in one of the great cities of America: Milwaukee, Wisconsin. The bid price is only $2,025 so far, but the reserve isn’t met.
This car is probably not on the wish list of many Barn Finds readers, but I hope a few (thousand) of you can appreciate how nice it is to see a survivor from this era. The 1980s weren’t exactly hot as far as muscle cars went. Things were turning more toward front-wheel drive commuter cars and minivans, and regulations had zapped the willpower out of automakers, who basically threw up their hands rather than buckling down and creating fast, reliable, and good MPG cars, which could have been done if they really wanted to.
I mean, I hate to keep mentioning the whole flying-to-the-moon-landing-and-flying-back-to-earth thing again. Certainly, gigantic automotive companies could have thought outside the box harder to make the incredible, sometimes boring but almost always reliable, fast, and fuel-efficient vehicles that we have today back in the 1980s if they really wanted to dig into it. Enough of that, let’s get back to this Plymouth Turismo, a cousin to the Dodge Charger of the same era.
The small L-body front-drive cars were made for the 1982 model year until the end of 1987 in this body style. There was no four-door, no convertible, no wagon, no hovercraft, etc. The driver’s side seat vinyl appears to have issues after 72,692 miles, but that’s as tiny of an issue as I can imagine if that’s all that’s wrong with this car. For an original owner to have owned and taken care of this car for four decades and to have kept it in this incredible condition is amazing. The back seat looks great, but we don’t see the rear cargo area. We do see a couple of underside photos and the seller says it has “zero rust.”
There were two versions of Chrysler’s 2.2-liter SOHC inline-four, this is the milder example with 96 horsepower and 119 lb-ft of torque. It sends power through a five-speed manual to the front wheels and the seller says it runs and drives, which is never a glowing report, but I’m guessing it works very well. They say all it needs is a new owner. Have any of you owned a Turismo or Charger from the front-drive era?
Yep I had a TC3 pretty much identical.
Car was a ball to drive. 5 speed made the difference auto was a slug. No not a muscle car but peppy enough for the times. 😎
That interior looks rough for 72000 miles. Look at that armrest. And, jeez, lose the bra! They were tacky in the 80s and worse now.
All that said, I’ve always liked these.
This looks pieced together from many different cars. I would be careful here. I agree, removed the bra, if it gets wet, water caught under it will fade the paint.
Is that the VW engine ?
nope that’s the 2.2 all mopar.
i drove one a bit older with that 1.7 german motor and a 4spd stick, for a couple of years. it was no rocket ,but it did the highway fine. right up until i got t-boned one night in lawrence. drove it home. but the right side was all done.
too bad this one is gone already. otherwise i would’ve been wisconsin bound this weekend
No, the VW engine ended as of ’83, and AFAICT the Duster package of the Turismo always included the the high-output version of the Chrysler 2.2L from the original pre-turbo Shelby Chargers.
Won’t keep up to a 340 Duster 😃
Very tidy automobile, 5sp makes it.
“The small L-body front-drive cars were made for the 1982 model year until the end of 1987 in this body style. There was no four-door…”
Um, there was an L-body four-door, the Omnirizon twins. Not this same body style obvs., but still L-bodies nonetheless.
The omni/horizon twins came out as 78 models, in 79 they added the omni 024/plymouth tc3. My dad bought my mom a new 79 024 in dec of 78, right before I joined the navy.
You are correct, sir. I was thinking of this body style. As you know, the Omni/Horizon four-door sedans didn’t come as a two-door, so that’s an odd plot twist.
Believe it or not, and I know you can believe it, I did a Photoshop version of each one months or maybe years ago.
Here’s the Omni version.
Scotty, my parents had a ’79 Horizon 4 door in that same 2 tone brown color. I have not seen one in that color scheme since then.
If you’ve ever wanted to experience torque steer? Try driving one of these slightly fast.
Yes, I remember that from the ’83 that I bought new. 7400 bucks, 5-speed, no air but lots of fun.
Torque steer on my ’86 GLH-T was just part of the fun!
If I was going to cough up money for one of these it would have to be a Shelby. Nice car though.
These were very nice cars in standard form, if you could get over the rubbery shifter and brittle ever breaking door handles. Quite comfortable inside, easy to get in and out of, the hatchbacks were handy. I would hold out for a later fuel injected one, though. Good luck finding one that isn’t a rust bucket anywhere up north. I know, this says Wisconsin, but it can’t have spent any time there in the winter. These rusted out almost as bad as the Hondas and Toyotas used to, and that is saying something.
My first brand new car was an ’83 Turismo with the 1.7 litre VW engine and a four speed. The only option was a radio. It was a tough little car….it put up with me learning to drive a stick, it got incredible gas mileage and the hatch would comfortably carry my bike or three of my friends. That said, it did eat O2 sensors like candy and the shift linkage failed twice. It couldn’t catch cold in January, but that wasn’t the point of the car. For a college student commuting between school and work, it didn’t break the bank and looked pretty slick doing it
I can’t believe no one mentioned this car’s advertising (okay, a year older). It was the infamous cocaine factory with fake Cyndi Lauper!
https://jalopnik.com/it-dont-get-more-80s-than-this-1985-plymouth-duster-360247
Couldn’t get the ad vid to load there, but I did find this version on YouTube:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PiosX1I3GBk
I’m particularly… impressed? …how they managed to work the clumsy great mouthful of “Plymouth Turismo Duster” into the song lyrics. 😄
What a crazy video. I can see why it was run during the 1st MTV video music awards, that’s about as 80’s as it gets.
I was impressed that the Duster she was driving is a manual – things have really changed in that department.
Change the nose out and it looks like it could about be a 5.0 Capri, Weren’t the 2.2 engines also in some of the Omni’s?
Auction is over and there were no bids.
“This listing was ended by the seller on Tue, Nov 12 at 9:06 AM because the item is no longer available”
It was ended by the seller and all bids, if there were any, were removed.
This one takes me back – I had a 1984 Dodge Charger 2.2, rather similar to this Turismo. I ordered it from the factory to my liking, as I was working at the dealership between high school and college. It was a rare one, white with silver and charcoal striping on the outside and silver vinyl on the inside (I had ordered fabric inserts like this example, but, I guess the factory had other plans for me.) The deal was that if I paid for my cars, my dad would pay for the insurance. Like one of the commenters above, I really wanted a Shelby, but dad said the insurance was too much. So, being the smart ass kid I was, I ordered the Charger 2.2 – but with the Shelby engine, which one could do if the boxes were checked properly. My plan was it would end up being somewhat of a sleeper, appearing as the mid-level Charger but with the higher horse engine – and dad would be none the wiser. Except I didn’t know the VIN number would rat me out. Dad wasn’t happy. And I got to pay the difference in the insurance premium (which was worth every penny.)
Listing update: the auction ended early, did one of you make an offer the seller couldn’t refuse?
My wife and I bought an 84 Turismo 2.2 new. Ours was Spice Brown with tan interior, 5 speed. Fun little car to drive, easy to fix and ran really well. When our daughter was born, we traded it in on a new 86 Horizon with a 5 speed and a 2.2. Fun car to drive as well. If this one is what they say, it’s a good find, as Turismo’s are very hard to find in decent shape. If it were closer to me, I would check it out for sure. When’s the last time you saw one of these at your local cruise nights?
Had an 84 Charger. Blue on blue, air, cruise, am/fm stereo, but no spoiler. Looks like this one had a broken tach (like mine) and an aftermarket Sears cruise control, aftermarket sunroof, and fender mounted turn signal indicators that were never available on this model.
We had a 2+2 charger Manuel used eat v8 cars of era stop light to stop light