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1985-89 Plymouth Reliant sedan

1985-89 Plymouth Reliant coupe

The Plymouth Reliant (or Reliant K, as it was sometimes called) was one of the first two so-called "K-cars" (the other being the Dodge Aries) the Chrysler Corporation introduced for the 1981 model year. The Reliant replaced the Plymouth Volaré/Road Runner, which was the short-lived successor automobile to the highly regarded Plymouth Valiant. Though technically a compact car, the Reliant's spacious interior and six-passenger seating gave it a mid-size status from the EPA. Image File history File links This is a lossless scalable vector image. ... Image File history File links No higher resolution available. ... Automakers, also known as carmakers, automobile manufacturers, motor manufacturers, or the automobile industry are companies that design and manufacture automobiles. ... The Chrysler Corporation was a United States-based automobile manufacturer that existed independently from 1925–1998. ... Main Street is the commercial heart of Newark. ... Detroit redirects here. ... Toluca (formally: Toluca de Lerdo) is the state capital of México State in central Mexico, located at . ... The Dodge Aspen (model years 1976–1980) was a midsize car from Chrysler Corporations Dodge division; its badge-engineered counterpart was the Plymouth Volaré. It was launched as a two-door coupe, a four-door sedan, and a unique-for-the-segment station wagon. ... Plymouth dealers gave away this promotional windbreaker in 1970. ... The Plymouth Acclaim was a mid-size sedan produced from the 1989 to 1995 model years. ... Car classification is subjective since many vehicles fall into multiple categories. ... The Rambler American introduced in the late 1950s was an early compact car. ... Cars can come in a large variety of different body styles. ... A notchback full-size luxury sedan. ... 1995 Buick Riviera coupe A coupé (from the French for cut) or coupe is a two or four-seater car with a fixed roof and two doors. ... Estate car body style (Saab 95) A station wagon (United States usage), wagon (Australian usage, though station wagon is widely used) or estate car (United Kingdom usage) is a car body style similar to a sedan car but with an extended rear cargo area. ... In automobile design layout is the place where both the engine and driven wheels are. ... Sketch of FF layout In automotive design, a FF, or Front-engine, Front-wheel drive layout places both the engine and driven wheels at the front of the vehicle. ... An automobile platform is a shared set of components common to a number of different automobiles. ... 1987 Plymouth Reliant K The Chrysler Corporations K-Car platform of the 1980s ranks as one of the most overt uses of platform sharing in automotive history. ... The 2. ... The straight-4 or inline-4 is an internal combustion engine with four cylinders aligned in one row. ... The 2. ... The straight-4 or inline-4 is an internal combustion engine with four cylinders aligned in one row. ... For information on Mitsubishi brand computer monitors, see NEC-Mitsubishi Electronics Display of America Inc. ... The Mitsubishi Astron engine or Mitsubishi 4G5 engine, is a series of straight-4 internal combustion engines first built by Mitsubishi Motors in 1972. ... The straight-4 or inline-4 is an internal combustion engine with four cylinders aligned in one row. ... “Gearbox” redirects here. ... A manual transmission (also known as a stick shift, straight drive, or standard transmission) is a type of transmission used in automotive applications. ... TorqueFlite (also spelled Torqueflite) was the trademarked name of Chrysler Corporations three-speed automatic transmission, which was introduced late in the 1956 model year. ... TorqueFlite (also spelled Torqueflite) was the trademarked name of Chrysler Corporations three-speed automatic transmission, which was introduced late in the 1956 model year. ... The automatic gear selector in a Ford Five Hundred vehicle An automatic transmission (commonly abbreviated as AT) is an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, thus freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually (similar but larger devices are also used for railroad... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Kerb (sometimes mis-spelled as curb by Americans) weight is the total weight of a vehicle with standard equipment, all necessary operating consumables (such as motor oil and coolant), a full tank of fuel and not loaded with either passengers or cargo. ... Chrysler introduced the LeBaron model in 1977 as its lowest priced model, and the name was used on various Chryslers until 1995. ... 1947 Chrysler Town and Country convertible In 1941, Chrysler debuted the first woodie wagon with an all-steel roof. ... The 400 was Dodges compact K-Car coupe/convertible in the early 1980s. ... The Dodge Aries was an automobile sold by the Chrysler Corporation from 1981 to 1989. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 463 pixelsFull resolution (2288 × 1324 pixel, file size: 260 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... Image File history File links Metadata Size of this preview: 800 × 463 pixelsFull resolution (2288 × 1324 pixel, file size: 260 KB, MIME type: image/jpeg) File historyClick on a date/time to view the file as it appeared at that time. ... This article or section does not cite any references or sources. ... 1987 Plymouth Reliant K The Chrysler Corporations K-Car platform of the 1980s ranks as one of the most overt uses of platform sharing in automotive history. ... The Dodge Aries was an automobile sold by the Chrysler Corporation from 1981 to 1989. ... The Chrysler Corporation was a United States-based automobile manufacturer that existed independently from 1925–1998. ... The Dodge Aspen (model years 1976–1980) was a midsize car from Chrysler Corporations Dodge division; its badge-engineered counterpart was the Plymouth Volaré. It was launched as a two-door coupe, a four-door sedan, and a unique-for-the-segment station wagon. ... Plymouth dealers gave away this promotional windbreaker in 1970. ... The Plymouth Valiant was an automobile manufactured by the Plymouth division of Chrysler Corporation in the United States from 1960 to 1976. ... The Rambler American introduced in the late 1950s was an early compact car. ... A mid-size car, frequently referred to as an intermediate, is an automobile with a size between that of a compact and a full-size or standard-size car. ... EPA redirects here. ...

Overview

The Reliant and Aries are largely credited for helping Chrysler recover from bankruptcy. They also raised the standard for quality for American automakers in general. Sometimes in marketing, the Reliant was advertised as the "Reliant K", to emphasize the importance of the K-platform. A small "K" badge was also added after the word "Reliant" to the rear of the car. The Reliant was Motor Trend magazine's Car of the Year for 1981. It was built in Newark, Delaware, Detroit, Michigan, and Toluca, Mexico. For other uses, including the Chrysler Brand, see Chrysler (disambiguation). ... Motor Trend is one of the oldest automotive magazines still publishing. ... Motor Trend magazine was the first to give a Car of the Year award, doing so to a Chrysler in 1949. ... Main Street is the commercial heart of Newark. ... Detroit redirects here. ... Toluca (formally: Toluca de Lerdo) is the state capital of México State in central Mexico, located at . ...

After being launched in 1981, sales of the Reliant and Aries got off to a bad start; this can be attributed to Chrysler's inadequate preparation. Early advertisements for the K-cars promoted the low $5,880 base price. Rather than honoring that by producing a sufficient amount of base models, Chrysler was producing a larger number of SE and Custom models. When consumers arrived at Plymouth (and Dodge) dealers, they were shocked to find that the Reliant they were planning on purchasing would end up costing hundreds or thousands of dollars more. As a result of this, Chrysler corrected their mistake and began building more base models. After this, sales of the Reliant skyrocketed.

The Reliant was available in standard "base", mid-level SE, and high-end Custom (later renamed LE) trim levels. Unlike the coupe and sedan, the station wagon was not available in base trim. "Custom/LE" Reliant wagons came standard with exterior woodtone siding, although it could be deleted if the buyer wanted it to be. All models except base, also had the option of replaceing the front bench seat with bucket seats. 1995 Buick Riviera coupe A coupé (from the French for cut) or coupe is a two or four-seater car with a fixed roof and two doors. ... A notchback full-size luxury sedan. ... Estate car body style (Saab 95) A station wagon (United States usage), wagon (Australian usage, though station wagon is widely used) or estate car (United Kingdom usage) is a car body style similar to a sedan car but with an extended rear cargo area. ...

Changes through the years

No major changes occurred on the Reliant in its first few years. For 1985, the Reliant received a major restyle, with new, rounder front and rear fascias. This included new head & tail lights, and a new grille that was the same height as the headlights (rather than going all the way up to the hood as with previous model years). The base engine was a transverse mounted Chrysler designed 2.2 L (135 cid)in-line four-cylinder with an electronic 2 barrel carburetor (later replaced by a fuel injection system in 1986), rated at 82 hp (61 kW). Transaxles were a 4-speed floor shift manual or a 3-speed automatic with either a floor or column shift. A Mitsubishi motor was optional, and cars bearing this motor for 1981 were badged as 2.6 HEMI With this engine, The car accelerated 0-60 mph in the 13 second range. The Mitsubishi 2.6 L G54B engine was a popular option, but driveability problems led the Mitsubishi engine to be replaced by a fuel-injected Chrysler 2.5 L I4 for 1986. For 1987, the coupe's fixed rear windows got a small pivoting vent at the trailing edge of the rear doors. Also for 1987, the base model was renamed America in the U.S (this was later done to the base models of the Horizon and Sundance). Only minimal changes occurred after that. The straight-4 or inline-4 is an internal combustion engine with four cylinders aligned in one row. ... A manual transmission (also known as a stick shift, straight drive, or standard transmission) is a type of transmission used in automotive applications. ... The automatic gear selector in a Ford Five Hundred vehicle An automatic transmission (commonly abbreviated as AT) is an automobile gearbox that can change gear ratios automatically as the vehicle moves, thus freeing the driver from having to shift gears manually (similar but larger devices are also used for railroad... The Mitsubishi Astron engine or Mitsubishi 4G5 engine, is a series of straight-4 internal combustion engines first built by Mitsubishi Motors in 1972. ... 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. ... The Plymouth Sundance was a compact car produced from 1986 (as a 1987 model) to 1994. ...

The last Reliant rolled off the assembly line on December 9, 1988. The 1989 Reliant was a carryover from 1988. Only the America trim was available on these models. No station wagon models were sold for 1989. The Reliant was replaced by the Acclaim for 1989. is the 343rd day of the year (344th in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. ... Year 1988 (MCMLXXXVIII) was a leap year starting on Friday (link displays 1988 Gregorian calendar). ... The Plymouth Acclaim was a mid-size sedan produced from the 1989 to 1995 model years. ...

Trim levels

• base - 1981-1986
• Custom - 1981-1984
• SE - 1981-1988
• LE - 1985-1988 (replaced Custom)
• America - 1987-1989 (replaced base)

In pop culture

• The Christian pop punk band Relient K was named after this car, but deliberately misspelled the name to avoid copyright infringement.
• In the Barenaked Ladies' song, If I Had $1,000,000, the narrator indicates that he would "...buy you a K-Car, a nice Reliant automobile."
• Ed Rooney drives a Reliant in Ferris Bueller's Day Off

This article is about the Christian rock band. ... Barenaked Ladies (often abbreviated BNL or occasionally BnL) is a Canadian alternative rock band currently composed of Jim Creeggan, Kevin Hearn, Steven Page, Ed Robertson, Tyler Stewart, and formerly Andy Creeggan. ... If I Had $1000000 is a song by the Canadian musical group Barenaked Ladies. ... Ferris Bueller redirects here. ...

External links

Wikimedia Commons has media related to:

Plymouth Reliant

• [1] - Links for Plymouth Reliant on Allpar.com
• Using stock components, Gary S. Donovan modified a 1985 Plymouth Reliant to run the quarter mile in 10.41 seconds at 132 mph (212 km/h).