1986 Dodge Colt Reviews, Pricing & Specs

My brother had the misfortune of buying one of these over 20 years ago. At the time, it seemed like a good idea. After all, it's a Japanese car. So how bad could it be? Well, REALLY bad. Although this car probably handled every bit as well as any other small car at the time, the BIG problem was power. Or, shall I say, lack thereof. Now you might say that this isn't a sports car. So power shouldn't really matter. But the problem is that it had SO little power that it was unsafe. Merging was just plain scary. You could almost feel like you are about to meet your maker while passing. And you better get into the slow lane while climbing hills. Other small cars of the day (like the Honda Civic) literally felt like Ferraris compared to this thing! But to add insult to injury, the reliability was just plain HORRIBLE. This thing ate up brakes like they were going out of style. Brake jobs would be required at least TWICE a year. Also, the transmission gave out at somewhere around 60000 miles. And at a little over 100000 miles, the car had basically had it. It started hard, needed to warm up for several minutes before driving away, ran like crap, and smoked from the tailpipe. When climbing a hill, it just wanted to quit. Needless to say, it failed smog. And my brother basically gave the thing away on a trade-in for a Honda CRX (a MUCH, MUCH, MUCH better car!). In this day and age, I would be REALLY surprised if someone was actually considering one of these cars. After all, you almost never, ever see them on the road anymore (and I can see why). But if you have found one and ABSOLUTELY need a dirt-cheap small car, look elsewhere. Good used Honda Civics of the era are also dirt-cheap, perform and handle MUCH better, are MUCH more reliable, and look MUCH better.May 19, 2010