Welcome back to the only place you can get two mediocre cars delivered hot and fresh to your browser every morning. Today we’re continuing our march through the alphabet, celebrating the letter P with two remarkably clean yet highly undesirable cars.
Friday was all about General Motors, with an Opel and an Oldsmobile. From the comments, I expected that nicely-restored Olds Cutlass to run away with the vote; a lot of you felt like the Manta wasn’t nice enough to justify its price, and shied away from its tainted title – though, to reiterate, that is only because some idiot sent it to a junkyard and it had to be rescued.
But as it turns out, the Manta won! I was pulling for it. The Cutlass is a beautiful example of a car I have no desire to own. I’d love to see it in person, and I wouldn’t pass up an opportunity to drive it, but I don’t care enough about it to be responsible for keeping it that nice. The Manta is exactly how I like my cars: mechanically tip-top, but a little scruffy around the edges.
All right. We took a look at both Plymouth and Pontiac a couple weeks ago when we were doing dead brands, but I thought these two were worth our time. They’re both very clean, low-mileage cars, probably because nobody really wanted to drive them much. But what the hell; let’s give them a shot.
1976 Pontiac Astre – $4,500
Engine/drivetrain: 2.3 liter overhead cam inline 4, four-speed manual, RWD
Location: Rocky Mount, VA
Odometer reading: 62,000 miles
Operational status: Starts and runs, but needs fuel system cleaned out
Raise your hand if you never knew, or completely forgot, that this car existed. Yeah, me too. This badge-engineered version of the Chevy Vega was sold in Canada for two years before it appeared in the US. Apparently, Pontiac was developing its own small car before the GM brass axed the idea and gave it the Vega instead. The good news is that, like a lot of GM corporate cars, Pontiac took the base material and made it cooler than the original.
The Vega’s engine is infamous; it’s a classic case of GM making things far more complicated than they needed to be. It has a cast aluminum block, a bare wisp of a thing that’s too clever for its own good and is absolutely intolerant of overheating or low oil levels. This 1976 model is supposed to have been greatly improved, but the real improvement came a year later in 1977, when the Astre ditched the Vega engine for Pontiac’s then-new Iron Duke four-cylinder. This one starts and runs, but it has been sitting a while, and the fuel tank is full of rust. The seller says it also needs a new fuel pump, which means someone probably tried to revive it without cleaning out the tank.
Inside, it’s in near-miraculous condition. GM economy car interiors have never been known for their durability, and in the 70s they were especially flimsy. Even with only 62,000 miles on the odometer, I would expect at least some wear and damage. Someone took good care of this car.
Part of the 1976 update to the Vega and Astre was greatly improved rustproofing, and on this car it seems to have worked. Even the undercarriage photos in the ad don’t show anything concerning. The paint is original, and it looks like it could benefit from a good waxing.
1981 Plymouth Horizon TC3 – $6,000
Engine/drivetrain: 2.2 liter overhead cam inline 4, three-speed automatic, FWD
Location: White Stone, VA
Odometer reading: 26,000 miles
Operational status: Runs and drives fine
Let’s get it out of the way right up front: yes, the asking price is six grand. Yes, it seems high to me too. Especially since I once got this car’s sister model, the Dodge Omni 024, for free. Well, almost anyway; it belonged to a friend of mine in college, who told me that it kept stalling, and if I thought I could get it to run, I could have it. I installed a manual choke cable to replace the defective automatic choke, the car ran like a top, and she demanded it back. At least she paid me back for the choke cable.
The TC3 is the Plymouth Horizon’s sleeker, cooler cousin. It’s a good-looking two-door coupe, though it never had the power to back up its looks until Carroll Shelby got his hands on it. This one at least has Chrysler’s 2.2 liter four; the 024 that I almost owned was powered by a 1.7 liter Volkswagen engine and couldn’t get out of its own way. From what I’ve seen, these early Omnis and Horizons are about a 50:50 split between manuals and automatics; this one has an automatic. It has only 26,000 miles on it, and has had a bunch of recent service work done.
It’s at least as clean inside as the Astre is, and completely stock and original. You don’t see many cars like this that still have their original AM/FM radio. Too bad radio stations are all crap these days. It has air conditioning, but the seller says it needs to be “serviced.”
It’s almost spotless outside as well, with only a couple of bad spots in the paint on the back bumper. I could do without the tinted windows, but that’s easy enough to undo. It’s weird to see one of these early L-body coupes without all the added-on stuff they accumulated over the years: no block-out panels over the quarter windows, no lower skirts like the Shelby Chargers had, not even a rear spoiler. It’s about as close to the body in white (or in this case, body in off-white) as you can get.
I can already tell, as I write this, that a lot of you are going to complain ahout these. They’re too expensive, they’re too boring, they’re crap, blah blah blah. But just try to appreciate them for a second; they’re both very rare cars these days, and they’re a fascinating look at how things used to be. And, personally, I think they’re kinda cool. Which one strikes your fancy?
Astre…I miss Pontiac! That’s just more my type of car even though it’s malaise, plus it’s stick and in decent shape. I’d throw a different engine in and fix the fuel issues, etc. No thanks to the Horizon, they’re pretty much junk to me, plus it’s auto and overpriced. Since it has low miles and has had work done, it’s still ok for someone who likes these
I wonder how hard it would be to transplant a Pontiac Solstice drivetrain into the little guy.
Interesting idea. Grab the takeout parts at giveaway prices from a Solstice LS conversion. Of course a direct LS install in the Astre is another option.
Sounds awesome to me!
The Horizon will basically last forever with the healthily ego’d workingman’s ghost of Lido nodding in approval over your shoulder rather than the hubristic mad men machismo of John DeLorean’s Vega baby just sayin
TLDR I’d rather have a reliable Plymouth than the remnants of GM execs’ coked out 1969 fever dream
I’m surprised the Astre escaped the dirt track fate as most of them around here ended up.
Yikes! Two well-preserved cars that never should have blemished our fine planet with their presence in the first place. The overall shape of the Astre isn’t all that bad, but front and rear treatments destroy any advantage that might have given it. That red interior is an immediate no-go for me. I couldn’t sit in it for more than ten minutes. Also, ad states the person placing it is “listing for a friend”. Suuuure – I’d be embarrassed to be attached to this thing, too. Plymouth is pretty ugly all the way around, and it’s an auto, so that’s a huge negative on its own. It looks incredibly clean, so it’s a really great example of an awful car. First thought was to take the Astre and then to do the world a favor by dismantling and responsibly recycling everything in it. Decided to go with the Plymouth, though. I could at least handle sitting in it while bemoaning the auto trans.
Oy the moonshine in rural Virginia is still strong. Prices are nuts. Somebody will take the Astre and put a small block in it. If it was something I had to drive I’d pick the TC3.
Not even a LS, probably a 305.
Ok, I kinda low-key want a Vega. I’d buy this Astre —but the price is pretty high.
note, Rocky Mount is maybe 35 minutes away from me: if anyone wants an opinion/ pictures, I’d be glad to do it just to see one in such decent condition
The interior on that Astre! Wow! And I love the notchback bodystyle on these cars.
Dad had versions of these both as his drive to work car in the 80s. He went through a couple of Vegas and a couple of TC3/Omnis. I drove the TC3 to college for a little while. I’m going with the Astre though. (side note, my computer is certain that is a misspelled word!) Put in a supercharged 3800 and have fun.
I would have gone with an SBC, but i like the idea of taking a supercharged 3800 from a wrecked Grand Prix and giving it a new home in the Astre. 300hp would be more than sufficient in such a small car.
I’m a Ford guy at heart. I don’t like the idea of sticking a SBC in EVERYTHING!
3800 is the Lord’s engine, praise be to thy holiness.
One thing to know about cars of the past is that the automatics sucked greatly.
And thus, if it had the manual with that 2.2, then I would have gone with the Horizon. I’ve driven a Horizon with the slushbox… and I can say with confidence that I’d only want one with the manual.
So the Pontiac gets my vote.
Same. A manual Horizon was up for some stupid fun. An automatic was barely an appliance.
I’m picking the Astre because the photo of the interior exemplifies GMs of that era. Specifically, the plastics seatbelt retainer is broken off of the passenger seat, as was pretty much every one of them within a few years. That, more than anything else brings back memories of my teen years.
$6000 for that?!
*heavy laughter fades to sobbing*
Their computer should have prevented that may 0s in the price when they typed up the ad.
I have lived long enough to see these mistakes foisted on the American public, and see them fade away into nothing.
Please, no.
Note: This is what trade protectionism does. Mediocre product, fewer consumer choices, high cost.
The gray Equinoxes and CR-Vs that clog our streets are boring – neither of these are boring.
If just randomly saw an Astre it would be the best thing to happen to me that day.
It got my vote. It is RWD and dead stupid simple. Any kind of entertaining engine swap can’t be hard.
Oof. Which one do I hate less? I guess the Plymouth? At least it’s running?
I always love when the Iron Duke is presented as an improvement. The one that come in my Fiero was the pure definition of it will run poorly longer than most things will run. Mine made a weird noise that I discovered was someone replacing one of the push rods with a rod of nearly the right size. I went to the junk yard and my estimate is there were 1 trillion correct pushrods available for $5. I bought 4 just to be safe, and paid the same $5 they would have charged for 1. We think the only thing that killed mine was the ECU.
Pontiac: We Build
ExcitementExcrementThat being said, an automatic TC3 is about the thing that could be worse.
Both are rarities, but neither one is particularly valuable.
Astre because why not?
I bought a used 1981 Omni 024 way back in the day and it was what I used to learn driving a manual. It was relative crap, but it got me around for a few years until I crashed it. The story of the Omni/Horizon twins is quite interesting. The older ones had a VW motor but these were based on the Talbot Horizon.
And, the VW 1.7 wasn’t that great. When I pulled the one (running: for an 8v ABBA swap) out of our 82 Rabbit bought new—and with a stack of receipts from local VW specialists—I couldn’t give it away in the VW community.
-I finally found it a home, but it was just as a backup in case he completely fried his 1.8
So we’ve got a FWD auto for $6k, or a RWD manual for $4500. No brainer, Pontiac all day.
When I was a preteen my parents got divorced, dad went out and promptly bought a Goldwing as his sole source of transportation. He kept that for about 2 years putting both me and my sister and our suitcases on that bike for his weekends. This wasn’t the most practical and eventually he agreed that he needed a car. His coworker liked his Goldwing and had a sister who was trying to sell a car and they struck up some sort of deal where dad traded the Goldwing for a Plymouth Horizon TC3.
I was convinced TC3 stood for “Total Crap Crap Crap” and we also joked it stood for “Torque Control Crap Can” because it had absolutely no torque. His was the 5 speed and it would stumble and stall unless you feathered the hell out of the clutch. It stalled in a pothole once, a rather deep pothole, and didn’t have enough power to climb back out of that pothole so we had to get out and help push it out.
The one neat feature though is the TC3 had keyless entry decades before any other cars. It didn’t use RFID or anything, it’s just that the doors were designed so poorly that they jammed shut and tug on the handle all you want they would never open. The trick is you had to throw your hip into the door panel at the same second you pulled up on the handle and then the door would click open. Nobody knew this trick so there was never any reason to lock the doors on the TC3.
I typed all this to say I voted for the Pontiac.
My brother had a Horizon just like this, but silver. I was driving it and evidently the shifter bushing had taken leave so when I rolled up to a stop light the shifter just flopped over onto the floor. It was still in 3rd gear. Had to pop hood and manually move trans link hoping for better gear. 2nd was enough to get home.
My brother later ripped the oil pan open on a raised manhole while driving through an unfinished subdivision at night.
This. You can see the shadow of the rear quarter panel on the driver’s door.
My 1980 Dodge 024 also liked to eat the outside door handles, such crap…
The Pontiac Ashtray is the obvious choice, as any number of better GM engines and tranys can be made to fit, and it’s a notch back, which is pretty rare. Plus, it’s RWD.
The Plymouth THX 1138 is a lackluster attempt at a “sports coupe”, and it has an effing automatic, FCS.
Both are overpriced for what they offer, though.
lol ashtray. I agree, the Pontiac should not stay original… pay for the good-condition rolling shell and for probably less than $10K all in you could have a miniature muscle car.
The price for both of these is largely due to the “go find another” effect. Any Ashtrays left are either returning to the earth or are restorations with solid five-figure price tags. And the TC3 is probably now a 1-of-1.
Upvoting purely for the THX-1138 reference!
“They’re too expensive,
they’re too boring, they’re crap”This minor alteration sums up my opinion on these vehicles. They are lousy and comically overpriced, but I don’t think they are boring in 2025 given their rarity. I would look at either if I saw them in a parking lot or at a car show.
For voting purposes, I went with the Astre. I am going to be honest: I like how this car looks. It looks like they econoboxified a Trans Am. It appears Pontiac put effort into making this car look good, even if they knew it was going to be a disposable transportation appliance unloved by most of its owners.
For those that say this car is boring (i.e. probably damn near all of you), would you rather have an econobox that looks like this or a modern bland interchangeable transportation box CUV? If reliability and safety were equal, I would much rather drive this car than something like an HR-V or Escape.
The auto shop teacher at my rival high school (who also coached at my high school) had an Astre that over the course of several years had been built up by the kids as a street/strip performer. It had a 383, T-5, and Ford 9″ with a four-link setup. My junior year the kids did a bunch of body work and painted it hugger orange metal flake. That car taught me to appreciate what the Vega platform could be, at least with a fair amount of work and money. For nostalgia’s sake, the Pontiac gets my vote.
Problematic powered, pristine photocopied paprika Pontiac presses past pale pampered pricey Plymouth
I can’t image even if you get that Vega engine running that it will continue doing it for very long.
These are good examples to demonstrate how imported cars that had always been shunned made their way into the American market not because they were especially good but because domestic cars were just that bad. (among many other reasons of course)