1982 Plymouth Horizon

When I was kid, these things were everywhere. Chrysler sold nearly one million Horizons and identical Dodge Omnis between 1978 and 1990. Yet unlike older low-cost cars from Japan, how long has it been since I've seen one? Maybe ten years?

This car was a breakthrough for Chrysler in 1978. Designed by Chrysler Europe, it was a space-efficient front-wheel drive design introduced at a time when Detroit was still trying to sell small cars that were really just downsized versions of their big rear-wheel drive vehicles. Those cars, such as the Chevy Vega and Ford Pinto, had very cramped interiors and little cargo room (and a lot of other shortcomings).

This car probably cost less than $4,000 new; that would be less than $10,000 today. And man is it bare-bones. Low-cost cars made today are orders of magnitude more comfortable than those made in the 20th century. Final observation: this car was sold virtually unchanged for 13 years. That would become something of a theme for Chrysler: if it ain't broke, don't fix it. The PT Cruiser was sold from 2000 to 2010 with no significant changes, and the Chrysler 300 being sold today is little different from the model introduced in 2004.

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