Here’s why the Chrysler Conquest and Mitsubishi Starion are forgotten 80s hot hatches

[Music] is imported from Japan Conquest TSI back in 1982 Mitsubishi began exports from Japan to the United States of a two plus two hatchback called the Starion which was meant to compete with other Japanese Imports such as a Nissan 300ZX Mazda RX-7 and the Toyota Supra a year later thanks to their partnership with Chrysler the Starion was rebadged as the Dodge and Plymouth conquest and then later rebadged again as a Chrysler Conquest yet despite their classic angular 80s design a new collaboration called Diamond Star Motors made the conquest and Starion obsolete by 1989. this is the story of the Mitsubishi Starion and its twins the Dodge Plymouth and Chrysler Conquest this is my old car nice approach if you grew up in the US during the 80s like I did a popular Mopar sports car that you may remember from that era was a Dodge Daytona a car that I was a fan of as well and eventually owned although not until I could afford a new one in 1992. the Daytona was like many Chrysler cars of the 80s and then its platform was derived from the Chrysler K cars that launched in 1981. but Chrysler also heavily dependent on their partnership with Japanese automaker Mitsubishi and imported some of their cars from Japan and simply re-badged them with only the minimum required changes to make them legal on U.S and Canadian roads one of the first successful Imports was the Colt sold as both a Dodge and Plymouth back during a time when the two Brands had little to no unique identity resulting in cars that only varied on the outside by their badging in 1982 for the 1983 model year Mitsubishi released the Starion a two plus two style hatchback in Japan and also exported it to North America the name Starion released according to Mitsubishi advertising of the time was intended to be a combination of the word star and Arion the latter being a horse from Greek mythology Mitsubishi was fond of names that related to horses such as their earlier cult model in response to the popularity of the Ford Mustang although some believe that the name wasn't supposed to be Starry on at all but instead was supposed to be stallion and the Mitsubishi Engineers simply couldn't pronounce stallion correctly when it was translated to English [Music] all the time the mistake was realized it was too late to change so Mitsubishi's marketing team concocted the star and Ariane story as the origin of the Starion name the Starion wasn't based on an all-new chassis but instead it was derived from A variation of the Mitsubishi Galant specifically its higher performance variant known as both a Sapporo and a gallant Lambda the latter having the Greek letter used in the badges this car was also exported to North America in the late 70s and Chrysler rebadged it as a Plymouth Sapporo and more famously or should I say more infamously the Dodge Challenger sadly Chrysler couldn't come up with a better name and instead try to reuse a name from its muscle car past on a car that could never live up to the name Chrysler made up for that mistake by making sure their Replacements would get a new name Mitsubishi also tried to sell cars in North America back then under their own brand name but found it to be a tough sell with a small dealer Network and less brand awareness as compared to Chrysler although Mitsubishi earned more from cars sold under their own name selling the same cars as Chrysler models helper recruit the cost of exporting and so just like the re-badging done on the gallat Lambda the Starion was also sold as a Dodge in Plymouth Conquest starting with a 1984 model year this was also the same year that the Dodge Daytona and its twin the Chrysler Laser was released but from a marketing standpoint the Daytona got far more publicity than the conquest [Music] Daytona was also cheaper than the conquest making it the sales leader among Chrysler sports cars selling over 44 000 in 1984. compared to only 8 000 starions and only around 6 000 conquests across both Dodge and Plymouth such low sales normally would mean a quick discontinuation today but Chrysler was still in its recovery stage from near bankruptcy just a few years prior and likely needed to maintain the partnership with Mitsubishi to stay competitive the conquest rear-wheel drive design also offered an alternative to the front wheel drive Daytona and catered to those who believe that Japanese cars were simply better made which was not uncommon back then as GM would pair up with Suzuki and Toyota in the 80s for the same reason the Starion was initially available in Japan with a 2-liter turbocharged four-cylinder the two liter number being significant as it met the upper limit of displacement requirements in Japan to avoid extra taxes this turbo 4 made 145 horsepower again that sounds really low today but these cars weighed less than 2 800 pounds and 0 to 60 times around 10 seconds wasn't considered all that bad bad back then it also was at least by Mitsubishi's own claims the first Japanese car that was both turbocharged and had computer-controlled fuel injection North American models which weren't Bound by the 2-liter engine limit had a 2.6 liter 4 which provided more torque but had a lower red line so in the end the performance was about the same Japan also put limits on the exterior dimensions of the car and the original Starion was designed to fit just under the limit defined for small cars which was 1.7 meters or 5.4 feet in width prior to 1985 Imports of the Starion Conquest to North America maintained the same width but for 1985 a slightly wider version was offered to accommodate larger wheels and tires so the extra width was primarily in the wheel arches these wide body models also offered an intercooler on the turbocharger which bumped horsepower from 145 to 170 which was enough of a bum to outpace the non-turbo V6 engines available in the Rival Supra and 300ZX later upgrades pushed the horsepower to 188 yet despite the Improvement the combined sales of estarion and Conquest still didn't come close to their Rivals Chrysler decided to drop the conquest from the Dodge and Plymouth Brands and instead brand it as a Chrysler for the 1987 model year which coincided with the end of the Daytona clone the Chrysler Laser the laser sales never came close to the Daytona so the Hope was that moving the conquest to the Chrysler brand may give it a boost for 1987 sales top 11 000 which was better than the combined Dodge and Plymouth Conquest sales had ever been however the Improvement was short-lived as sales had dropped by more than 50 percent by 1989. since it was the 80s another option during the run of the Starion and Conquest was a digital dashboard the transition to digital although common for many cars in the 80s wasn't as well liked as the digital fad didn't last much into the 90s but one feature that remained through the entire run was nearly a requirement for any true sports car of the 80s pop-up headlights and if you're a regular viewer of my channel you know I've always been a sucker for pop-ups as they just looked cool when they went up and down in the days before composite headlamps that allowed for more streamlined look pop-ups allowed for for a more aerodynamic front end although only when the lights were off the Starion was also known in Europe for its rally version that used a 2.6 liter turbo 4. Mitsubishi would also enter the Starion in the scca OR Sports Car Club of America races during the 1980s and ironically would compete against Chrysler models among others there was even a four-wheel drive version developed for Group B rally racing which used a transfer case from the Mitsubishi Pajero however this one ever went past the Prototype stage so a homologated version for Road use was never developed mits although having the conquest in their lineup was beneficial to maintain Chrysler's relationship with Mitsubishi having the same car sold as the Starion meant less cars being sold as Chryslers with import quotas in place which fit limits on all Mitsubishis imported into North America as well as the added costs Imports inherently had over being built locally it became clear that relying on Imports was not a long-term Solution by 1985 Chrysler and Mitsubishi officially started Diamond Star Motors the name was a combination of the two company logos the three Mitsubishi diamonds and the Chrysler pentastar the goal of diamond Star Motors or DSM as it would better be known as was to build a new Factory in Normal Illinois which would also serve as the DSM headquarters here they began the design of three new sport Coupes the Mitsubishi Eclipse the Plymouth Laser and the eagle talon although they were sold under three different brands each model had its own unique styling so they weren't identical cars as a Starion and Conquest were Chrysler Mitsubishi turned their focus on these cars as the future of the Sport coupe collaboration so as a result less attention went towards a conquest in Starion leading to their cancellation after the 1989 model year DSM was a company would later be bought out by Mitsubishi and the DSM Factory would later only build Mitsubishi cars hey guys today well cared for examples of the Starion and Conquest in fact any examples at all are a rare find unlike their DSM Replacements which definitely had a more rounded 90s look the Starion in Conquest maintained a classic hard-edged 80s look complete with the prerequisite 80s pop-up headlamps if you have seen one of these recently or are lucky enough to have owned one or better yet still have one today let us know in the comments thanks for watching if you like this video click the like button and subscribe to my channel if you once owned a car from the 80s to mid-2000s that you rarely see today and when I get featured in a future episode leave a reply in the comments or contact me at the email shown here see you next time if you do that then you translate that touchy legs [Music] foreign [Music] foreign

Channel: My Old Car

Views: 165,284

Keywords: Mitsubishi Starion, Dodge Conquest, Plymouth Conquest, Chrysler Conquest

Id: E9tbFNHK8ZA

Length: 9min 27sec (567 seconds)

Published: Sat Jul 01 2023