Quote:
Originally Posted by bennelson
Gotta ask. What exactly is a "K" car?
Also, the red car in the garage there, looks suspiciously like my 93 Dodge Shadow, except that I have the blue one where all the paint comes off.
If you have some good ideas for the red car, let me know, so I can just copy it for my blue one...
-Ben
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The "K" cars ( as I call them ) are any number of Chrysler products from the mid 80's to the mid 90's.
"K" refers to the platform Chrysler used to build the cars on.
Think 1980 ("get in the way-back machine Mr. Peabody")
Dodge Omni/ Plymouth Horizon (the first of a long line of cars)
Most of the FWD Chrysler stuff from that Era are "K" cars.
almost all of the parts are interchangeable.
to a degree where I have been working on a vehicle that says 2.2l on the under-hood decal but actually has a 2.5l in it. (engine swap somewhere in the past) and vice versa.
You have a good eye, it is a 1993 Dodge Shadow, and the paint comes off all the early 90's ones. You can't see under my pile of rubble there is very little paint left on this ones trunk lid.
coulda been a Reliant, or New Yorker, or Spirit, or Caravelle, or Sundance, or I could go on forever.
I am not going to mod the car, much, I got it for free and am going to repair it for re-sale.
I lump all of the FWD Chryslers into that category even though, technically, they are not all "K" cars.
Somewhere in the late 80's the cars began to get a bad rep. Totally undeserved. So Chrysler started giving them different platform IDs.
and yes some were longer or shorter
or 2 door, or 4 door, or 3 door, or hatchback but to me, because they are still the same under the hood, they're still "K" cars.
same engines
same transmissions (I actually worked on one that had a 3pd auto swapped for it's original 4spd auto)(CEL diagnostic nightmare)
same tires
same brakes
same muffler
same radios
I still have a customer who's 1993 Plymouth Sundance came from the factory with a Dodge badge on the grill.
I love the cars
I think they were well designed
They are easy to repair
Parts are cheap and easy to find
and the smaller ones even got reasonable mpg
I will keep building "K" cars, specially the ones i can get for free.
If you opted for a 1996 Chrysler New Yorker with all the trimmings and 3.0 V6 with 3spd auto you probly got 20 mpg.
If you opted for a 1993 Dodge Shadow, stripper, no air, 2.2 L4 with the 5 spd manual you probly got 28 mpg
My mpg numbers are approximate for all you fact types out there.
This all changed with the introduction of the 1996 Neon. and subsequent similar cars.
I don't know what happened at Chrysler.
I know it wasn't good
I think that's when Lee Iaccoca left, he is my hero, he saved Ford and then he saved Chrysler. Go Lee.
I got off on a rant there, so I'll shut-up now.
Hope this helps clear things up a bit. S.