Good morning! I am, once again, writing to you from the past, not knowing whether you enjoyed yesterday’s nasty Corvettes or not. As I write this, you haven’t even seen them. This is weird. We’re in totally uncharted Shitbox Showdown territory here, people. Anything could happen. Best keep your wits about you.
Today, we’re going to talk a little bit about dead cars and how they got there, what constitutes an “old” car versus a “classic” car, and then take a look at a couple of old dead cars that may or may not be classics. Both of today’s choices come from the era currently celebrated by RADwood, which has morphed from a car show into something of a Renaissance Festival for the Reagan/Bush era. And I’m not sure how I feel about that. As a wise philosopher of my generation once said, “All the great themes have been used up, turned into theme parks.” Alex P. Keaton won, it feels like, and figured out how to sell our own nostalgia back to us for a hundred bucks a pop.
On the other hand, I have a deep affection for the cars, music, and movies from this era, and I probably always will. As annoying as I found the Baby Boomer obsession with 50s and 60s culture growing up, I get it now: the more things change, the more you feel like staying the same. You look back fondly at a Cavalier Z24 not because it was a great car, but because you remember it. You smile when you see one, for the same reason you smile when a Debbie Gibson song plays in the grocery store (this actually happened to me not long ago). Nostalgia, as they say, is a hell of a drug.
The danger, of course, is overdoing it, trying so hard to cling to the past that you forget to live in the moment. Pulling up Technotronic on Spotify is one thing; collecting a yard full of broken ’80s cars is another. When I was growing up, the guy who lived across the street from my grandparents had a similar yard full of cars, mostly early-mid-50s Fords, all slowly rotting away in the weeds. They were “classics,” he told me and anyone else who would listen. I think about him sometimes, when I look at my own collection of model kits and RC cars from the 80s and 90s. Is it so different? Well, yes; it takes up a hell of a lot less space, for one thing, and my risk of tetanus and spider bites from it is nil. But am I just doing the same thing, gathering up relics from a bygone era to help me cope with the modern world?
I don’t know. I can’t figure it all out today, sir; I’m just hanging with your daughter. Let’s look at some cars.
1986 Dodge Daytona – $2,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter OHC inline 4, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: Mesa, AZ
Odometer reading: 162,000 miles
Operational status: Has not been started in 15 years
The Dodge Aries and Plymouth Reliant may have saved Chrysler, but they were, to put it mildly, frumpy. Both GM and Ford had upped their pony-car games at the start of the 80s, and Chrysler hadn’t really had anything to compete with them since the E-body Challenger and Barracuda a decade earlier. That changed in 1984 with the introduction of the Daytona, and its sister model, the Chrysler Laser. They had sleek styling that was more than a match for the Camaro, Firebird, and Mustang, a modern turbocharged engine, and a hero-car spot on a popular TV show.
Of course, just like most Mustangs weren’t GTs and most Camaros weren’t Z28s, most Daytonas weren’t the Turbo Z model. This car, with the plain old 2.5 liter four, was a lot more common. It certainly doesn’t live up to the promise of its flashy styling, but remember that both the Camaro and Mustang’s base engines were also four-cylinders, with about the same power. You could liven things up a bit by ordering it with a manual transmission, but the original purchaser of this one opted for the automatic. It has been parked since 2010, but that’s all we know about its mechanical condition. Sounds like a good excuse for a turbo/five-speed swap, if you can track down the parts.
Daytonas and Lasers were available with a wide range of interior trims. This one looks pretty plain, with crank windows and cloth seats, though it does have a fancy stereo in it. I miss the days when options were available ala carte, and you could get a car with just the stuff you wanted and nothing else. This Daytona has Chrysler’s Electronic Message Center in the dash, but I don’t think it still talked in ’86. It looks like it’s in reasonable shape, just dirty from sitting.
Back in 1986, we had no idea that the base color for Chrysler’s plastic bumpers was yellow, but it didn’t take very many years to find out. Paint flakes off all of them eventually; flexible paint coatings hadn’t been perfected yet. Worse, on the nose of this one, there’s a weird melty hole next to the driver’s side headlights. Hopefully you can fill that in and patch it up with something; I can’t imagine replacement front bumper covers for four-eyed Daytonas are easy to find. At least it’s an Arizona car, so it isn’t rusty.
1992 Jeep Comanche – $2,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.5-liter OHV inline 4, five-speed manual, RWD
Location: Louisville, KY
Odometer reading: 52,000 miles
Operational status: “DOESN’T RUN!”
I’ll probably catch some flak for saying this, but the Jeep Comanche always felt to me like a solution to a problem that didn’t exist. If you already have the Ford Ranger, Chevy S-10, Dodge Ram 50, Mitsubishi Mighty Max, Toyota Pickup, Nissan Hardbody, and Isuzu P’Up to choose from, do you really need a Jeep pickup based on the Cherokee too? I guess some people did, because Jeep sold quite a few, and the Comanche still has its followers today.
This one looks like a really basic model, with AMC’s 2.5 liter four-cylinder, a five-speed stick, and 2WD. The suspension on all Comanches was basically the same regardless of the number of driven wheels, which means this truck has a straight-out-of-the-1950s solid axle in the front, unlike the independent setups on all its competitors. Does that mean these can suffer from “death wobble” too? I wonder. You’re not going to find out any time soon; this truck does not run, though the seller couldn’t be bothered to tell us why.
Inside, it’s much more like its competitors, with crank windows, a straightforward dashboard layout, and a bench seat with a notch in the middle to clear the floor-mounted shifter. It does have air conditioning, which is a nice bonus on a plain-Jane truck like this. It’s in really nice shape inside, which makes me think the low mileage listed might be original. So why hasn’t it been fixed and put back into service?
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again: Stripe packages on trucks need to make a comeback. Gotta break up all that plain white paint somehow. This one’s stripes are admirably funky and look like they’d be right at home on a Dixie cup. The truck looks rust-free and straight, which again begs the question: why is it being sold as non-running? What happened to it?
Someone, somewhere, is salivating at the thought of bringing both of these cars back to life. There’s an ass for every seat, as they say, and I know folks who are enormous fans of both the Dodge Daytona and the Jeep Comanche. Are they worth two grand just for the starting point? I guess that depends on how much you want them. You tell me. Which one of these Rad-era Rip Van Winkles would you wake up?
While I was reading about the Daytona out in AZ, I suddenly pictured a silvery beige Dodge Durango with a U Haul auto trailer bouncing along behind it steaming onto the I-40 West in Wilmington, NC headed into the rising sun at extralegal speed, the Dopplered strains of Jerry Reed twanging “East Bound and Down” briefly lingering in the air. Brain’s a funny old thing.
Anyway, I vote Comanche.
That Comanche is begging for a TDI swap.
Nothing, and I mean nothing, beats hearing A-ha while in the dairy section.
Especially the tweedly part of Take on Me when everything suddenly looks rotoscoped so you can’t tell what brand of milk you’re getting.
I voted Daytona. It’s irrational and I recognize that. I’ve had an irrational love for the Daytona since I was a teenager. I was the right age to have one as a high schooler or young college kid, and I had two close encounters that told me it was a bad idea. Years later I still kind of want one. Just so you know the history… here are the two close encounters:
Still. Kind of want. Yard art is the safest bet here.
I also had an irrational love for the Daytona, and I bought one brand new in 1990. Six months later I sank further underwater by trading it in on a new 1991 Mazda Protege.
If I could go back to that day I purchased it, I’d be walking across the street to buy a new Civic Si. I might still have that car today.
I highly respect your choice.
Hmm The Jeep is nearby ………..
I was thinking the same thing.
Please beat me to it so I won’t be tempted and will just lament the one that got away.
Ha ha, unfortunately no tow rig to get it back home.
Like they chanted in Thunderdome, “Two go in, one must (buy it).”
I had a Comanche in the shop once, engine bay just coated in oil. It hadn’t had an oil change in 40,000km. I gave up after an hour and just left it overnight, because the oil was draining at about the same rate as that 100 year old oil drop experiment. I’ve never seen so much thick goo, and that wasn’t the end of the flow, it was all of it. I could move the sludge noodle to and fro with a magnet. The air cleaner box was full of oil. Oil was everywhere. It did run after the oil change, but it did not sound good.
So I gotta go Daytona for mental health, too many trauma memories.
Someone on my driver’s ed training route had 4 Laser / Daytonas in their driveway that we drove past all summer. I get the nostalgia element because even in the mid-90’s these had some kind of draw for 15 year old ShifterCar. Even so a rough non-turbo automatic against what looks like a super clean Comanche really isn’t fair and I had to go with the small truck. I expect this to be a blowout assuming all of us who are looking forward to the Slate have consistent logic in acknowledging our truck desires.
I’ll take the Jeep. The last time I saw one was Only in my dreams.
Growing up in a Conquest/Starion I’ve always seen the Laser/Daytona as a cheap imitation and still can’t take them seriously. I’d rather have a proper XJ but I voted Comanche today. When’s Moab?
I’m gonna go against the grain here, that Daytona is gonna be a BIG project, but will rule ALL when I’m done. I’m thinking K Swap and full suspension update to make it scoot and plant like my Si, then I’ll gut the interior and recreate the whole thing in nice Alcantara and leather. Those plastics are gonna be roached, but should hold up enough to cast molds for carbon fiber replacements.
It’s the SEMA build no one wants, but a fever dream that only I can fulfil.
This is the hero we deserve.
I had to pick the Comanche, just to keep David Tracy from adding to his fleet. Sorry, DT, you need to save your money for diapers and the “right” preschool.
He’s already cutting down his fleet, otherwise I’d suggest selling both the J10 and Chevy and buying this to replace them since once running it’ll burn less pricey SoCal gas and take up less space.
Comanche for me. I have owned a few and want another as a runabout general use kind of truck. Don’t need 4wd as I am not an off roader and I somehow survived on with an open diff 2wd in Chicago winters. Throw a LSD or locker in the rear for a little extra traction if need be. The 4 cyl should be easy enough to get running assuming there isn’t a hole in the block.
Comanche. It’s not going to be hard to get it running, and it’s in good shape (CA parts car = creampuff in the northeast)
You speak the truth.
Jeep, please!
The main reasons are that it is a small, single-cab pickup and it has AC. Seller says it doesn’t run, but there is stuff in the bed and the pics appear to have been taken in at least two locations, so that would require some clarification.
Aside from that, I’ve owned a Daytona (2.2, 5MT). It was basically an car, and – as it turned out – was quite fragile. I had a low-speed accident with a Saturn sedan and the rad, battery box, and strut tower were all pushed back. The Dodge was totaled but I didn’t mind too much.
This is going to EASILY go to the Comanche. Even non-running, it’s the better car.
Comanche, as I have always wanted one to build with an LS-swap and 1-ton axles, so this is a great starting point since I’d be chucking all the drivetrain anyway.
for two grand, that Jeep’s in pretty nice shape. Whatever’s keeping it from running, as long as the block isn’t seized it couldn’t be that difficult. Forget the lack of 4wd (you don’t need it as much as you think you do), just use it as a chore truck.
Have 4WD truck. Only use 4WD to park in the snowbank.
You really don’t need it.
If you chose to accept it, your mission Mr. Tracy. Is to take the company credit card. Buy the first flight from Burbank to Louisville. And retrieve this fallen truck. If you, our any member of your IMF team are caught, or killed. This website will disavow any knowledge of your action. Good luck, Agent Tracy.
Manual makes the difference.
having owned a Commanche I had to vote for it for nostalgia. Mine was a ’87 4wd 4cyl/4speed. Blue/Grey with “Sport Truck” stripes. Snow was no match for that thing!
My dad had a white one with yellow stripes and black accents, and all the locals knew it was him driving that bumblebee. He offered it to me, saying there was something wrong with the transfer case so I declined. I kind of regret it now though.
Aw yeah you should have grabbed it, they were dead simple to work on. But hindsight as they say!
Fake internet money says Both. Objective reality says neither. But rules are rules, so… Jeep? It should be easier to work on. In theory, anyway.
It’s missing a serpentine belt, for starters.
I really want to like that Daytona. But long periods of inertia in the Arizona sun means that whole interior is roached, not to mention anything else made of rubber or plastic. And that block of wood screwed to the accelerator pedal feels like a yellow flag at least.
So we’ll take the Comanche. Whatever’s wrong with it can’t be that hard to fix, right? Maybe I’ll find some Cherokee Country seats for it, too …
I wanted to go Commanche, but a 2wd 4 cylinder in that platform is a tough sell. I like the idea of swaparooney’s and making it an offroader, but I don’t think I would want to spend that coin on that thing in the end.
That Comanche looks CLEAN! I agree, stripe packages need to make a comeback.