89 Reliant

[mcmetrooz1]

for 3 months i have been running an 89 reliant. it has 53,000 miles and is spinning like a top. it is light blue and very clean. does anyone have a guess as to how many might still be on the road. it seems that a lot of these are in the golden state. mine happens to reside in the garden state with an affiliation to phila. and not nyc. go phillies! Mike!

[MyDodgeDip]

I'm in NJ too, I have 3 of them in my driveway and one stored away at my in-laws. I see a bunch of them still on the road and in driveways at least every few days.

Where in NJ are you from? I'm in Somerville.

[capev86]

well, the 89's being the newest of the K's will be among the most plentiful but on the flip side the last of the 89's rolled off the line in '88 (really just a half year run) because the A body spirit/acclaim was the new kid on the block that year! also, the 89's were touted as bare bone economy vehicles (no more optioned out LE cars) and likely a lot of them got driven into the ground. i would say models from 1987 and 88 are the most likely to pop up in most areas. but why worry about numbers, just enjoy the darn car!!!!

[88 aries]

not so fast there sunny boy with the 86 wagon... 89's are the most common out of all the K-cars...and are the easiest to maintain since you can rob parts from a spirit or acclaim.. as for numbers, there are prolly a good handfull of them left. Now compare that story against my 1981 and you got a very low number surviving.

[MyDodgeDip]

What parts can you rob from a spirit or acclaim that you cant rob for any 86-88 K? The body and interior stuff is all different. The engine stuff is all basically the same (with slight variations) on any K derivative except for the block it's self depending on year, never mind the fact that just about anything you need under the hood is available from a parts store anyway. Suspension stuff is available too. An 89 is the same to maintain as any other 86-88 k car.

In fact, looking at production numbers, the 89s are the lowest production out of the whole run of 81-89. http://www.allpar.com/eek/k/build-stats.html Therefore, assuming a close to equal failure rate (Since 86-89 were basically the same car with very little changes) it's likely that there are less 89s than the 86-88s. The thing that makes the 81-84s harder to find is that they have carburetors which most idiots can't work on and they're harder to find parts for since they're older.

The same thing happened with Diplomats. Very few 89s were made and therefore you see less of them.