There isn’t much, if any, snow, sleet, or rain south of beautiful San Diego, where this Horizon is located, but Plymouth’s marketing department said, “Snow, sleet and rain couldn’t stop the hardy Horizon. Neither could the competition.” This 1979 Plymouth Horizon is posted here on craigslist just south of San Diego, California, and the seller is asking just $3,250. Finally, an asking price that most of us can relate to! Here is the original listing, and thanks to Rocco B. for the tip!
In case you clicked on the “Here is the original listing” link to see the original craigslist ad and wondered why it looked a little different, I translated the seller’s description, which was written in Spanish. Speaking of the seller, they get a solid A+ for photos; these are all great photos, and here’s a mind-blower for a craigslist ad: they actually moved this Spinnaker White car around to get photos in the sun, rather than just leaving part of it in the shade. Not to mention they show almost everything, even the engine! Very, very well done! This, my friends, is how to take photos for a craigslist/facebook/eBay listing.
The only thing we don’t get to see is an underside photo, and the missing trim on the front passenger door is about the only flaw I see on the exterior of this otherwise great-looking, rust-free car. A lot of us grew up in the era of seeing Dodge Omnis and Plymouth Horizons everywhere, like ants. They were everywhere, and then they were nowhere. Where did they all go? Clearly, some are still out there, and some, like this example, appear to be in nice condition, so that’s a good sign. This car has new tires and 80,000 miles, and I’m sure it would draw a crowd at your local Cars & Coffee, no matter where you live.
The Horizon and sister car, the Dodge Omni, showed up in late 1977 for the 1978 model year and were made until 1990. They only came in this one four-door hatchback body style, but a while ago, I wondered what a two-door version may have looked like… I think they would have sold a boatload of those, even though the company offered the sleek Plymouth Horizon TC3 and Dodge Omni 024. The seller refers to this car as a Volkswagen Rabbit, and the similarity isn’t just coincidental. Chrysler designers used the Rabbit as something to strive for, and early cars even had Volkswagen engines. For the record, this car would have cost a bit more than their asking price when it was new. I know there are folks out there who think this is a $500 car, but remember, it isn’t 1998 anymore.
Around 2.5 million of these Plymouth/Dodge four-door hatchbacks were sold in a dozen years, and you can see how nice the interior looks in this one. Black vinyl wouldn’t be my first choice for a car in Southern California, but the seats look perfect, both front and rear. You probably noticed that this car has an automatic transmission. That may be its only real drawback for those of us who like to shift for ourselves, especially in small, low-power vehicles. This car has cold A/C, which is another great selling point. The rear cargo area looks clean.
The engine (I think there’s an engine under those hoses and wires?) is a Volkswagen-sourced, transverse-mounted 1.7-cu.in. SOHC inline-four, rated at 65 horsepower and 85 lb-ft of torque for the California market. This one is backed by a Chrysler-sourced three-speed TorqueFlite sending power to the front wheels, and the seller says it runs perfectly, has cold A/C, and everything works as it should. Oh yeah, and there is no rust! This looks like a winner to me; the only thing holding it back is not having a four-speed manual. The four-speed cars were two seconds faster to 60 mph and got another three mpg or so. I don’t know how you can possibly go wrong here for $3,250. Have any of you owned a Horizon or Omni?
There probably aren’t many people on here who don’t have some sort of an experience with a relative, friend, coworker, neighbor who had either a Plymouth Horizon or a Dodge Omni. I’ve been around many. If you needed a decent, reliable, affordable new car, these were a good option. The early ones with the VW engine ( especially with the autoshifter like this one) were indeed a bit slow. But I’ve been in many with the 2.2 and a 5 speed and they were very quick for what they were. This one is in incredible condition, especially since these were literally used up and scrapped. I wonder what happened to that trim piece? And if it could be sourced? Its impressive this even has the original wheel covers too.
Cool, neat unique find Scotty. And I agree, that 2 door may just have sold well, although maybe it would have taken some sales away from.the 024 and TC3.
I had an ’81 Omni Miser, red over beige with the same pattern vinyl seats (which I covered in cheap but warm and fuzzy fake-sheepskin seat covers-whatever happened to those?) as my first car after my mom’s ’86 Horizon was the first cat I ever drove on public roads.
I’m not sure about a 2-door, but at one point early in the styling process (done at the old Rootes studio in Coventry under Spen King) they mocked up a notchback sedan. For whatever reason Chrysler Europe decided they needed a sedan of the Alpine instead, which didn’t appear until the Euro division was sold to Peugeot, and it was likely already a nonstarter for America since there’d have been so much overlap with the coming Aries/Reliant K cars.
Actually VW wouldn’t sell Chrysler complete engines, only cylinder heads and Chrysler cast their own blocks to use that head, at least until they had their own 2.2 engines ready for production.
This looks like a car Avis would have used to get people to upgrade a class or two. “Ok, here’s your car. If you like, for $15 more per day (it was 1979, so that’s not cheap), I can put you in that LeBaron over there.”
Looks like 1979 was a good year for hose & cable manufacturers.
I appreciate when Scotty (or the other Barn Finds writers) take the time to write-up the everyman, economy cars of their day. For me it’s fun to take a look back at them. And, it’s actually the type of car for which many of us had first-hand experience.
This looks like a well-kept Horizon for very little money.
Affordable transportation for modest families 👪
Lovely looking car. Although I was way too young at the time to drive a car, I remember cars like the Plymouth Horizon and the Dodge Omni. I didn’t have a favourite between the two cars.
My folks owned an ’84(?) Horizon that passed down to me in ’86. The only thing wrong with it was it’s POS carbuerator. It never ran right, and after several trips to the shop (including the dealership) it STILL stalled at stoplights. Had they waited 1 more year they could have bought one with fuel injection.
I lived in Ohio and this was the best car I ever had in the snow, didn’t need snow tires.
nothing screams ‘im a real man’ like tooling around in this tin can…
… beeeecause… the vehicle a person drives makes them a “real man”? I would argue the opposite is true: a “real man” couldn’t care less what anyone else thinks about their vehicle.
I drove the snot out of an ’84 Voyager for 189K miles and the most problem I had with it was toward the end when the gulp valve started giving major backfires on sudden throttle closure from high RPMs. Other than that, it was in excellent visual and mechanical condition after sixteen years.
I shortened/tightened the throws on the 5-speed and, with the rear seat out to lighten it up, I would chase expensive German iron ’round the twists and hills of Litchfield County, CT.
Mine didn’t have a tach but I worked out the gear ratios to something like 35, 55, 80 plus a theoretical 130 and 180 MPH at 6K RPM.
Last check on the VIN, it was in Poland!
Oh, the carb (Weber) didn’t have what my Yugos had on essentially the same unit, and that’s an altitude compensator. The Voyager ran rich as a bear in CO’s high territory.
My mom bought a new ’81 Horizon from the local Chrysler/Plymouth dealer, back when there were new car dealers in towns of 1100 people. It was 2-tone blue with a light blue cloth interior, 2.2 engine (1st year for that motor), and auto trans. She traded in her ’72 Satellite, which she had also bought new at the same dealer. That Horizon, IMO, was a nice car and I thought rode better than her very basic 4-door Satellite. Side note: The guy who bought the Satellite ended up in a head-on collision with a ’68 Nova. The driver of the Nova did not survive, but the guy who bought the Satellite did. I guess that Satellite was a pretty safe car.
For the money I would take this thing over that Saturn car that’s also in today’s mail just a ok priced little old commuter where the BMW behind you thinks you probably don’t have insurance so they are more likely to back off when you signal the Lane change.
I love this car. My old boss had this car in blue. He owned a medical supply and was ultra rich back in the day when 1 million was a ton….he had 100 of them. Anyway i got to drive the medical car to take his deposits to the bank and trips to nashville. He sold the medical supply when the blue car had 157,000 on it and still going strong….the new owners got all the vans, and boxtrucks and this car. I agree with Scotty 100% about vehicles not making a man. I am 6ft 5in tall 245 lbs….and was a bodyguard and driver for my boss for 25 years. I rode mopeds, scooters, drove whatever made me happy, and never cared what people thought. Gotta be happy. The farther from the crowd the better i like the vehicle. Thanks Scotty for your amazing writeups!!!
I’ve had four of these….an ’83 Turismo with the 1.7 and a four speed, an ’85 GLH Turbo, an ’89 Horizon and I purchased a ’90 Omni for my height challenged Mum. She loved that car and I loved my three. The Turismo wouldn’t catch cold in the winter, but it did get 40 MPG + all day long. The GLH surprised many a Camaro and Mustang driver and the Horizon put up with all of the abuse that a broke nearly out of college kid could throw at it. I traded the Horizon for my first Saab and still kick myself for doing so.
They were the spiritual descendants of the Valiant and Dart….inexpensive to buy, inexpensive to run and fun to drive….especially the GLH.
Had a ’78 manual. Reliable, affordable car-good basic urban transportation. My mom bought a new Omni automatic. It was a little plusher than mine and had the 2.2 but by then better FWD designs were coming out. GLWA
The first one of these I drove was a pizza delivery car. The company ordered these as soon as they came out because they were slow. My next job was at a car rental where I got to experience hundreds of them over the years. With the exception of one particular car which had an electrical gremlin, they were pretty reliable and far superior to the Pinto and Chevette.
My 85 GH Turbo succumbed to tin worm but I kept all the unique trim pieces just in case I ever find a nice 2.2 powered one.
Back in 1978, we had public school driver’s education classes. I remember driving a brand new tan colored Omni in that class. I recall how the drivetrain made the steering wheel vibrate!
We flew to Hawaii in ’89,& flew back to LA,where we rented
one of these.I was actually impressed with the car – it had decent
power & a comfortable ride & was well finished.
We flew into LA so I could buy & pick up a ’79 Fiesta Ghia
that had twin Weber 40’s,13″ wheels & tires,an about 125 hp.I
called it “An Old Man’s fast car” – you could drive it hard with comfort.
Obviously the Fiesta was much more fun than the Dodge.
I had a 78 horizon and a 80 omni both where great cars . I drove them everyday to work.
My dad bought an Omni new back in 84′. It was a great little car. He traded his bought new 78′ Ford Fiesta in for the Omni. Loved both cars but loved that Fiesta more because my mom let me drive it to work and it’s how I first learned to drive a 5spd.
All ’78 – ’80 Fiestas had 4 speeds.
I stand corrected. Time and age isn’t a positive.
Price is now reduced to $2,950.
One of these was my parents first real economy car, and introduced them to the Chrysler brand. It was followed by many K cars and mini vans.
Theirs was also a ’79 with some sort of exterior package because it was 2 tone (brown and tan), and had a roof rack. Inside was as plain as they came, not a single option.
I have mentioned here before, the interior was so plasticky that it had a unique odor that I will never forget.
I had an 82 horizon with the 2.2 and the 5 speed in SOCAL. It was white and had the fake wood wrap/decals on the side. Never saw another one like it. I liked the rear cargo area – pretty useful. Mine had brown cloth seats. Gas mileage was great and drove it to Seattle a bunch of times to see my gf. It was fun to drive and moved to Colorado with it and it was great in the snow.
it was really cheap on the interior though. Door handle broke off, horn cover fell off the steering wheel, and the clutch pedal cable (like a bicycle) broke. The pedal itself wore the aluminum out so that the cable wouldn’t stay in at the top of the pedal and left me stranded. Had to power shift. Someone broke into my car at the LAX parking lot and ripped out the stereo and broke the plastic dash in half in the middle.
I went thru two cv axles and the engine started smoking at 85k. Traded it in along with a honda CB-400F for an 87 Bronco II.
It was a good cheap car for a young guy out of college. I always compared it to all the honda accords all over the place back then and thought it was a better car even though the honda had alot better quality.
Great work cars…I had one Omni and two Horizons (both broken, I made one good car out of them) and they were reliable and actually handled decently. For a little car, pretty roomy and comfortable. If this thing was for sale close to me I would have to really consider nabbing it!
I wish a car manufacturer would make a nice, basic, simple car for sale now without all the computerization and etc. I think a modern Beetle would be a big seller…
Listing update: someone grabbed this Horizon, the seller has removed the listing.