Not true if driven properly. Yes there was no traction control so a stupid launch would fail. But if done right it would smoke the BFG TAs all the way thru first gear. On the right tires it handled pretty well, but I only got 10K out of a set even with flipping front to back. Even with aero of a brick it would top out in the 120s and gave more than one 944 fits in the curves or highway. For the money (<9K) it was the fastest thing out there and the fastest 4 door american car of the era. I bought one of the last ones in August '86, put an ASC sunroof on and peeled off all the stickers. When my wife went into labor we set a record getting to the hospital 5 minutes before her water broke.
What it didn't do was last. Dead stock at 50K it blew the head gasket. By 60K it needed a water pump and alternator, went thru 5 sets of tires and 3 sets of front strut mounts. It was a noisy rattle prone POS but the most fun I had in a car for a while. Would I buy another? No. Did I regret this one? GLHell no.
Qaaaaa
New Reader
4/20/23 11:34 a.m.
I once dated a girl whose dad had one of these when they were new. While within the warranty period, the transmission failed, so it was replaced for free. The replacement began to indicate imminent failure on the cusp of warranty expiration. So, he unhooked the odometer drive cable and ran it til that one popped, then hooked it back up, and towed it to the dealership. Transmission number three began to make funny noises, so he pulled it and rebuilt it in their kitchen. He's a BMW master tech, but did that one at home for reasons I never fully understood. When he drove his newborn daughter home from the hospital, there was little to no floor remaining; so the Omni went away, replaced by an SN95 Cobra. All that, and he still spoke highly of the car.
The car I learned to drive on was an '82 Omni/Horizon, 4spd with iirc the VW engine. I say both names because our car had an Omni badge on the left and a Horizon badge on the right from the dealer. Fake wood paneling, no tach, and an 85mph speedo. I beat the ever-loving snot out of that car and remember when I was racing against a buddy on one of our local fun roads and he remarked how high I was lifting inside wheels on some turns. What I'm saying is, even the non-GLH cars were a hoot.
When I started driving the Omni to my first jobs I would shift into 4th at 75mph and wrap the needle all the way under the bottom and back to zero. There was this one stretch of road that just begged for you to stretch a car's legs. Good times.
Oh, also did great bootleg turns. Get up to 30 spin the wheel and yank the brake.
You could say, this was rattley, or this broke a 60k, etc. But so did a lot of performance cars of the mid 80s. ZX300s, 944s, Camaros, Mustangs? Yup, all of them had issues. It was the 80s.
I've always, irrationally, loved the Omni.
When I started autocrossing, I remember a dude running a regular Omni in H Stock. You don’t usually see that anymore.
Qaaaaa said:
I once dated a girl whose dad had one of these when they were new. While within the warranty period, the transmission failed,
That seems to be an issue with chrysler cars of that era. I remember my parents buying an Aspen Station wagon, 9 days old the four speed locked up in 2nd gear and had to go back to the dealer for a new trans. Manual transmissions should not get stuck in gear.
The build quality of these was only rivaled by Eastarn Bloc cars. OK maybe not that bad but they were awful....................but they were awfully fun to drive as well.
