Dodge Omni
The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon are subcompact cars that were produced by Chrysler from December 1977 to 1990. The Omni and Horizon were reengineered variants of the European Chrysler Horizon and became the first front-wheel-drive economy cars to be built in the US.

Marketed for eleven years with very few changes, around 2,500,000 Omnis and Horizons were built with the Plymouth badged versions more popular than the Dodge branded models.

These were the first of many front-wheel drive Chrysler products to follow, including the Dodge Aries/Plymouth Reliant and the initial Chrysler minivans.

History

The Dodge Omni and the Plymouth Horizon were front-wheel drive, five-door hatchbacks, introduced by the Dodge and Plymouth divisions of Chrysler in North America in January 1978. The Omni and Horizon were the first front-wheel drive cars produced by Chrysler, and among the first American front-wheel drive cars to sell in large numbers (previous front-wheel drive American cars such as the Cord 810, Cadillac Eldorado, and Oldsmobile Toronado were low-volume luxury cars).

The Omni and Horizon were developed in parallel with the Horizon, a subcompact car designed by Simca, the French division of Chrysler Europe, and built on the then-new L platform. This was Chrysler's first and last attempt at a 'world car'. The Simca Horizon survived in various guises under the successor Talbot name until 1987.

Born largely out of the need to replace the aging Simca 1100, the Horizon was essentially a shortened version of the larger Alpine, giving the vehicle an unusually wide track for its length. The Horizon, or Project C2 as it was known inside Simca during development, was intended to be a "world car" (designed for consumers on both sides of the Atlantic), but, in execution, the European and North American versions of the vehicle actually turned out to have very little in common.

When Chrysler exited the European car market (and sold assets to Peugeot, which subsequently sold the same car in Europe as the Talbot Horizon) in 1978, Chrysler retained the North American rights to the car, and began production at Belvidere.

Chrysler had previously avoided building a subcompact car, preferring to use branded imports like the Mitsubishi-made Dodge Colt instead. Presented as a significant domestic development, the models were initially priced starting at US$2,500. The Dodge Omni was Motor Trend magazine's Car of the Year for 1978, and the related Talbot Horizon was voted European Car of the Year in 1979.

The Omni and Horizon appeared at a critical time for Chrysler, when the company was on the brink of bankruptcy and sought government support to survive. In 1978, Chrysler had beaten out Ford and General Motors to the market with a domestically-produced front-wheel drive car to challenge the VW Rabbit. However, the L-bodies miscarried at first, since 1978 was a year of strong sales for larger cars and demand for compacts and subcompacts noticeably shrank. These initial poor sales of the cars contributed to Chrysler's financial woes at the time, but when the company requested federal assistance, the Omni was an important piece of evidence that they were attempting to compete with imports and build small, fuel-efficient cars and might be worth saving. For the three years leading up to the introduction of Chrysler's K-cars, the Omni/Horizon was Chrysler's best selling model line.

The Omni and Horizon had few interchangeable parts with their European siblings. Aside from the heavier-looking American body panels and bumpers, the OHV Simca engines were replaced with unique 1.7 L SOHC engines sourced from Volkswagen, while MacPherson strut front suspension took the place of the torsion bar arrangement found in the European Horizon. The Volkswagen engine used an enlarged Chrysler-designed cylinder head and intake manifold and produced  and . Originally, only the CARB-certified version with an air pump and  had been available. In 1979 power climbed to , while by 1980 it dropped to  and  of torque in all fifty states.

The climate controls were mounted to the left of the steering wheel rather than in the center stack like in most vehicles, meaning only the driver could adjust the interior temperature. Other Chrysler Corporation products (including the Dodge Charger and Chrysler Cordoba), as well as vehicles from other manufacturers came with instrument panels that placed the climate controls in this general location during the 1970s.

Shortly after their introduction, Consumer Reports tested the Omni and reported that it lost control in hard maneuvering. As front-wheel-drive cars were still considered a new idea in Detroit, the allegation received extensive mainstream coverage, including a piece in Time Magazine. Other auto magazines reported no problems and said the test did not approximate real-world driving conditions. Chrysler made modifications that included a steering damper and a lighter-weight steering wheel.

A special, partially equipped, model with extra high gas mileage also appeared, called the "Miser". Chrysler's 2.2 L K-car engine appeared for the 1981 model year as an upmarket option to the Volkswagen engine, mated to a new four-speed manual with an overdrive fourth. It produced  at first, rising to  and finally  by the end of production. The Volkswagen 1.7 was replaced by a Simca 1.6 L inline-four unit in 1983. This engine produced  and , and was only available with a manual transmission. The Omni/Horizon received a facelift for the 1984 model year.

In 1985, Chrysler entered an agreement with American Motors Corporation (AMC) to produce Chrysler M platform rear-wheel drive cars, as well as Omnis and Horizons, in AMC's Kenosha, Wisconsin plant, because AMC could produce the cars for less money. The 2.2 L Chrysler inline-four cylinder was the only available engine from 1987 onwards. By this point, the L-bodies were consolidated into a single-trim "America" line in the interest of improved quality control and reduced costs. Despite the P-body Dodge Shadow and Plymouth Sundance effectively superseding the Omni/Horizon in 1987, the cars were kept in production for another three years since their tooling had been amortized and each one sold turned a profit.

Chrysler invested in a number of significant changes that ended up being used for only one year; the cars gained larger exterior rear-view mirrors (borrowed from the departed M-body sedans), a driver's side airbag and a mildly redesigned instrument panel, complete with HVAC controls moved to the center. The Omni and the Horizon ended production in 1990, and were replaced by the Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance, which were both introduced for 1987. It outlived the European version by three years; Peugeot had bought Chrysler's European division in 1978 and rebadged the Horizon (along with the rest of the British Chrysler and French Simca range) as Talbots, with production lasting until 1987.

Variants
Several variants of the platform appeared later, including a three-door hatchback known as the Dodge 024/Plymouth TC3, and briefly a small car-like truck under the Dodge Rampage/Plymouth Scamp name.

The 024 and TC3 were marketed as sporty cars, although the  four-cylinder engines were not powerful and the coupés weighed more than the hatchbacks. The TC3 was renamed the Plymouth Turismo, and the 024 the Dodge Charger in 1983. The last 1,000 Dodge Chargers were modified by Carroll Shelby into Shelby GLHSs.

Omni GLH

The ultimate Dodge Omni was the modified Omni GLH. The original name, "Coyote", was rejected, and Carroll Shelby's choice, the initials GLH, which stood for "Goes Like Hell", were taken instead. The 1984 model year 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 GLH-T model with the Turbo I (K) engine option. This engine, rated at 146hp both years, at low boost (7.2 PSi) coupled with the car's very low weight (as low as ), earned this car its name. The car carried over into 1986 unchanged aside from the addition of a hatch-mounted third tail light, and production was then stopped.

The final 500 GLH-T cars (all black) were sold to Shelby, who used them as the basis for the 1986 Shelby GLHS ("Goes Like Hell Some more"). These cars were modified by Carroll Shelby in California and sold as Shelbys. With  and  of torque, the Shelby GLHS featured a modified 2.2 L engine with a Turbo II setup, which included a two piece blow-through intake (the GLH-T was a draw-through turbo design), a Shelby ECU, turbo boost raised to a conservative 12 psi, a T2 turbocharger compressor cover, and a front-mounted intercooler. The short block stayed the same between the GLH-T and GLHS. Further modifications included 205/50R15 Eagle GT Gatorback tires mounted on Shelby Centurian wheels, Koni adjustable struts and shocks, and stiffer springs. Different decals were also part of the package; silver pinstripes down the ground effects along with "Shelby" decals replaced the standard red GLH-T decals. A "Shelby" decal was added to the windshield and a large "GLHS" decal was placed on the driver side rear sail panel.  All GLHS cars came with a numbered dashboard plaque, Mobil 1 valve cover plaque, Momo shift knob and Shelby leather-wrapped steering wheel. A black-yellow overlay sticker was placed at the bottom of the speedometer to read to 135 mph.

Production numbers

Production stopped on February 2, 1990, with a total of 961,508 Omnis/Horizons assembled.

Notes

External links

Allpar's Omni/Horizon page
Plymouth Horizon-o-Rama
Canadian Driver
Front-Runners.net Road Test (PDF)

Omni