THE CAR WHO STARTED IT ALL. FROM THE OLD PAGE

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THE CAR WHO STARTED IT ALL. FROM THE OLD PAGE

Postby 89ARIES » Fri Nov 11, 2011 5:45 am

The Car Who started it all!







Picture date: Fall 2005. No, that is not my house. Somewhere in Sylmar, California



Well, this is the car that started my addiction with Chrysler K Cars. At 103,000 miles and almost 19 years old, this youngest of K cars is still my daily driver and first car. I learned to drive in fall 2002 at the age of 21 with a beat up 87 Toyota Corolla. This Toyota my family still has and still has its problems at 315,000 miles with flood and car accident damage. I was employed and am still employed as a tax preparer and my boss told me I needed a new car. I thought about it and thought, why not. My boss had twenty cars and took immaculate care of them. I could not afford a new one so I thought why not buy one of his used ones? Not a bad idea. My boss wanted to sell me his 90 Mustang for $4000. Price was too high. Plus, the roof was to low. My boss loved his sweet roomy Dodge coupe (Aries) and offered to sell it to me for $1600. This was in Summer 2003. I accepted and the purchase was sealed. At first, I was not used to the smooth front wheel drive and touchy brakes. I soon got used to it, as this was the largest car I had ever owned, and only one. I loved it. It had a four way sound system. Then, the repairs began. I had a limited income. I had problems with a check engine light and leaking coolant hoses. This car had belonged to an old lady for many years and was rarely driven. It had only 50,000 miles with some neglected maintenance. I drove friends in my car to Mexico with water added to the coolant system from the sink. Something had to give. A year later in 2004, the head gasket cracked at a mere 62,000 miles. I caught it early. The engine valves and its compression survived intact. A mechanic I will never go back to then went ahead and overhauled the engine for $1300 without telling me. I paid that back in six months. Since that day, I have had a few minor things fail prematurely despite my meticulous maintenance. The mechanic had probably taken short cuts. Since then, I have become wiser and now know to a small degree how my car runs and what pitfalls to avoid. I have ironed out most of the neglected maintenance and repairs and the car still runs like dream. I get better gas mileage than most vehicles at 25-28 mpg. The car has never left me stranded and always starts immediately on the first crank. My car is 98% solid rust free and looks new from a few feet away. The only give away is the sun faded and surface fractured trim from where bad LA drivers have bumped the car and the sun has weakened the marginal assembly. The interior is still holding together, but now creaks more since I had a new headliner put in. The installer guy had to remove the interior trim pieces to install the liner. He only snapped one fragile ceiling panel that is still held in place. As for accidents, this car has survived many. I hope it never has another. I found out later that the original owner of my car had had two fender benders where the second one almost totaled out the front-end. In 2004, I had my car completely repainted its original factory color as it was starting to fade. Then, it was badly damaged in two parking lot fender benders. A few months later, my car was rear ended on a public street at a red light by a drag racer going 75-80 mph. Fortunately, he braked so hard that only the bumper took the impact as his car leaned toward the ground during the crash. The bumper was only slightly misaligned and pulled back out. You can see in the picture the slight misalignment of the plastic bumper cover to this day. I keep it as a badge of honor due to stupid drivers. I went to a inexpensive body man who made the car look restored. However, he still has to redo some of the paint job as it has tiny problems, especially around the trim and door. I drive this car 160 miles a week in the worst of LA traffic. I have avoided numerous near collisions. If nothing else happens, I will keep this car forever unless it becomes impractical. When it becomes too old, I will retire it and reserve it for car shows. They only made a few hundred K coupes for the last year and mine is one of them. To love the K car, you have to be satisfied with what you have. You can’t worry about what people think about your ride. Your ride doesn’t have to be a Ferrari and you don’t have to be poor to have a K car. Shame on those who judge people on what they drive. I love all cars thanks to my boss getting me involved with his hobby. I am a hardworking student who just appreciates the K car for what it is. It is classic 80s solid reliable economic transportation. The K car’s reputation and survival has been endangered enough with people demonizing it and destroying it on movies and home videos. Don’t you miss those pre85 sedans and coupes? There aren’t many left and the ones left are not being maintained or preserved. Only the convertibles are gaining some respect. I wish more people liked the K car as I do as they are disappearing at an alarming rate. They are solid reliable boxes. Below are some specs on my ride. Long live the K car!



Model: Dodge Aries LE Body style: Coupe Year: 1989

Production date: September 1988

Place of manufacture: Chrysler auto factory in Toluca, Mexico

Current mileage: 103,200 miles

Engine: Original 2.5 liter 4cylinder 100hp peppy reliable 25-28mpg motor with throttle body fuel injection

Tranny: Original automatic.

Color: Gold with red accent stripes

Features: Original four speaker sound system with 80s Chrysler radio and cassette player. Digital clock flickers on and off once a week. Radio cuts out once a month. Sometimes radio cannot be turned on but will stay on if kept on.

Cigarette lighter that is useful as a cell phone charger

Manual doorlocks and everything manual. Needs to be accessed by a key.

Center console for storing stuff.

Aries lettering on right side of dashboard

Map light still works as well as trunk illumination lights

Interior is all original with very little wear. Inside is completely red cloth and velvet. Cigarette ashtrays below opera windows and manual pull handles on door. Manual self adjusting door mirrors and rearview mirror.
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89ARIES
Chysler K Car Club Founder
 
Posts: 1851
Joined: Fri Aug 17, 2007 2:04 am
Location: Sylmar, California
Car Information: 1989 Dodge Aries

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