Originally Posted By: kschachn
Which were, of course, attempts by Chrysler to clone the already popular Volkswagen Rabbit. Chrysler purchased Rabbits and disassembled them in order to reverse engineer whatever they could. Chrysler didn't have a four cylinder engine they could use at first, so they purchased Rabbit engines for several years until they could build an engine of their own.
I owned a 1979 model, a two-tone green four door. It was without a doubt the worst quality vehicle I have ever owned. Except for the Volkswagen engine, that wasn't too bad.
Originally Posted By: Oldmoparguy1
I have 2 of these, a 1986 GLHT and a 1987 NA. Will run forever on any oil, even used oil in a pinch. Just change the head gasket every 100k miles or so.
The Omni and Horizon were the first front-wheel drive cars in the Dodge and Plymouth lineup, the first front-wheel drive transverse engine production car in the North American market, and among the first American built front-wheel drive cars to sell in large numbers. The Omni almost reached the 1 million unit mark, but production stopped in 1990; with a total of 961,508 Omni/Horizons assembled.
More info at:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dodge_Omni
Wayne
The Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon was designed by Chrysler Europe, the former Simca and Rootes; most of the engineering appears to have been done in France, where Simca made best-sellers and the inspiration for the Volkswagen Rabbit.
(Full story on its development - as told by the design team).
http://www.allpar.com/omni/horizon-c2.html
With the 2.2 liter engine and a manual transmission, they were quick, but as economy cars, they did not have a reputation for speed. The Omni GLH and GLHS would change that - for those in the know.
Check it out. Facts are facts....
Wayne