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The Dodge Omni and similar Plymouth Horizon was a front-drive, subcompact car introduced by the Dodge and Plymouth divisions of Chrysler Corporation in North America in 1978. It was initially available only as a hatchback four-door sedan. Although the car had substantial European origins (externally, it closely resembled the Yugo and Volkswagen Golf), it was presented as a very significant domestic development, since it was assembled by Chrysler. The company had avoided building a car for the subcompact market up until that time, preferring to use captive imports like the Plymouth Cricket instead.
The Horizon and its corporate twin the Omni (sometimes collectively referred to as the Omnirizon) appeared at a critical time, when Chrysler was desperately looking for government support to survive. News reports indicated that these fresh small cars, which did indeed begin to sell well, helped persuade Congress and the White House that Chrysler had a future worth saving. The Omni was Motor Trend magazine's Car of the Year for 1978.
Early on, the cars had a shaky period after Consumer Reports magazine tested one and reported that it easily went out of control in hard maneuvering. Since front-wheel drive cars were still establishing themselves in the American market, this was a serious charge and was reported extensively by the mainstream media, including a witty heading in Time Magazine: Storm over the Horizon. However, auto magazines reported no problems and indicated that the Consumer Reports test did not approximate real-world driving conditions. The car weathered the tempest and went on to success.
The Omni/Horizon finally left production in 1990, after overlapping for several years with its designated replacement, the Plymouth Sundance.
The Arrogant Worms have a song dedicated to the 1984 Plymouth Horizon.
Variants
Several variants of the platform appeared later, including a stylish coupe known as the Plymouth TC3/Dodge 024 and briefly a small car-like pickup under the Plymouth Scamp name.
These coupes were marketed as sporty cars, although with a modest 94 HP four, even decent aerodynamics and light weight didn't make them very formidable. The TC3 was renamed the Plymouth Turismo, and the 024 the Dodge Omni Charger, then the Dodge Charger. The final Dodge Chargers were remade by Carroll Shelby into Shelby Chargers.
GLH The ultimate Dodge Omni was the Carroll Shelby-modified Omni GLH. 1984 was the first year of the GLH, which carried over most of the modifications that had been made the previous year to the Shelby Charger. 1985 was the debut of the real Goes Like Hell model with the turbocharged Turbo I engine option. The car carried over into 1986 unchanged and production was stopped. The final 500 GLH cars were sold to Shelby, who used them as the basis for the 1986 Shelby GLHS.
See also
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