GTP Cool Wall: 1981-1989 Dodge Aries

[FoRiZon]

To be fair we didn't have a GTP car of the year so far this year.

It will now join the ranks of the 2.2 Camry and the 3.1 Sunbird and be forever in our minds.

Dont forget the Honda Oddysey while you there.

 

[SlipZtrEm]

Okay, before I do my explaining, I'm just going to let everyone know that I'm not going to go on a tirade and fight people if they question me, I will handle it properly. And I have worked on my "logic".

Okay. I'm willing to accept you've improved on the whole logic thing.

I am going to be honest here, I'm quite surprised in the high number of Uncool and even Seriously Uncool votes. I was expecting people to vote at least cool, maybe even SZ.

Oh. Never mind then.

Remember, this car saved Chrysler from bankruptcy. If the Aries had never been born, that would mean there'd be no Viper, rebirth of Charger or Challenger, such thing as a minivan, Jeep would be extinct, Fiat would never reach America, tens of thousands of jobs would be lost, causing poverty and the rust belt to get worse. The list goes on and on. The Aries is clearly not a fast, showy car, but one of the most influential and important cars of Chrysler history, and the eighties itself.

• Saving a company from bankruptcy is not necessarily cool.
• Fiat had already been here. You mean again?
• I'm not sure how building crap products just to keep people employed is cool, either.
• "Influential" must mean something else in your neck of the woods.

But the Aries isn't a piece of crap, junk, beater, whatever derogatory term you want to call it. Too many go by the stereotype "all 80's American cars are junk, and FF is junk."

I'm not going by any stereotypes. It's a crappy 80's econo-box.

The Dodge Aries was a cut above other compact cars of the time (Cavalier, Escort, etc).

No, not really.

Chrysler spent three years mastering the design of the K-Car. It was excellent on gas, comfortably seated six, a smooth ride, and so reliable that Plymouth even named their K-Car the Reliant. Under the hood it was nice, too.

• "Mastering".
• The Civic utterly murdered the K cars in that regard. Even the Escort was considerably better. This is working under the assumption gas mileage is somehow cool.
• "Comfortably" is a stretch.
• I distinctly remember riding in two different models of this growing up. Both rode like crap. I have to question what you're comparing it to.
• You do realize they named the car before they had any idea on long-term, real world reliability, right? Mitsubishi once called a car Carisma: do you think that suddenly injected it with a personality.

Some trims had more horsepower than the Ford Mustang, which was considered to be a muscle car, even with it's below-100 horsepower base engine.

You can buy a Camcord with nearly 300hp these days. It doesn't make an Elise or Miata less of a sports car.

The Aries was stylish too, styling was clean, conservative in a good way, inoffensive, and far less boxy than GM's J-Car.

If you remove the front and rear clips, the first-gen J-Body and K-car are essentially interchangeable.

(but the most stylish compact you could purchase in the 80's)

Nope.

One might think it looks kind of average, but it's actually a lot better than average.

Nope.

but an Aries is far from junk and has exceptionally high build quality.

You keep saying this, but there's multiple reasons the K-cars are not remembered in automotive history as shining examples of build quality or reliability. Those reasons hail from Japan, and it's why finding a K-car in clean condition is nearly impossible.

As for all of this talk about being more knowledgeable than any other member: didn't you just recently refer to the Spirit R/T as a six cylinder, after blindly championing it for multiple posts?

I get liking a car for personal reasons. I totally buy that. But liking a car doesn't automatically make it cool. If you can't see that, then you don't really understand the spirit of the Cool Wall.

 

[FoRiZon]

Holy ****, this thread got more angry at someone then the one where @JMoney based his vote entirely on the presence of wire wheels, I never thought I'd see that.

Anything can happen.

Can you even argue the Internet, honestly?

 

[TB]

angry

It's a lot less angry and a whole lot more

 

[FoRiZon]

I'll say this slowly:

Video.

Games.

Aren't.

Real.

You know whats worse?

Standard

Cars

Are

Actual

Thing

In

GT5/6

I stop. Just pointing out.

 

[Eh Team]

You know whats worse?

Standard

Cars

Are

Actual

Thing

In

GT5/6

I stop. Just pointing out.

You know what though, this thing is about as close to a PS2 era GT car as any production car could pretty much be.

K car

Meet Nissan Sunny

The Sunny is arguably one of the most boring/bland cars of all time, yet in my mind it's better than the Aries K car because it has alloy wheels and not hubcaps.

 

[GTracer125]

You know what though, this thing is about as close to a PS2 era GT car as any production car could pretty much be.

K car

Meet Nissan Sunny
View attachment 528906

The Sunny is arguably one of the most boring/bland cars of all time, yet in my mind it's better than the Aries K car because it has alloy wheels and not hubcaps.

But does it have a interior though?

 

[Sage Ages]

Background prop in an 80s movie. Meh.

 

[Eh Team]

But does it have a interior though?

Only just, about as minimal as an interior could be.

Spoiler

 

[TB]

Background prop in an 80s movie. Meh.

Well, you're not wrong.

 

[Aesthetics]

Even the Aires constellation is pretty lame compared to the rest of the zodiac:

It's practically the leftover parts bin of the ecliptic.

And also, according to google some characteristics of an Aries are "impatient, moody, short-tempered, and aggressive", which I think fits very well with what's happened here.

 

[Dagger311]

I would rather have an equivalent year Cavalier, no questions asked. At least the Cavalier is boxy enough to be kind of sorta eye-catching sometimes if the observer is bored.

SU, the only thing I can think of that was ever cool involving this car, was a man probably five times older than me parked at a stoplight. It was two in the morning, I was 15, mom was driving me home from the hospital, because like most 15 year olds, I did something stupid.

This guy was listening to Metallica. And headbanging. In his Aries. It was a total piece of crap, but he was into that song (Sad but True). Goes green, he hits it, makes this horrid ticking noise, white smoke pours out of the exhaust, muffler probably had a hole rusted in it...

But he was having fun in his piece of crap.

 

[niky]

My word... just one day and nearly a dozen pages?

-

I mean, guys... this car is uncool, but not that uncool.

-

(after reading the thread)...

Like, wow.

We owned an '83 Ford Escort back in the day, and while I loved that car to bits, I don't think I would show this much dedication to that suspension-handicapped little rustbucket. And that's a car that's at least mildly cooler than this.

-

Some fodder for your book,
@The87Dodge - http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/2010/08/curbside-classic-1983-dodge-aries-original-k-car/

Surprisingly, I had that Sentra, too, and it was crap (I thought it was fairly good at the time, having only ever experienced four cars prior). But if it was actually better than the K Car, that doesn't bode well for the K Car.

Financial success and technological innovation (never mind the innovation only brought it halfway up the totem pole the Japanese had started to erect in the 80's and 90's) don't make a car cool. The Toyota Corolla is the most successful car of all time and it barely musters a "meh" from most people here.

A car is cool if it's cool. And the K Car misses that boat by more than a few degrees.

 

[LivingWithGames]

I admit - I did not expect a thread like this get 12 pages almost. IN A WHOLE FREAKING DAY. If someone else mentioned this car, it wouldn't of been a mess but considering it had to be *him* it was inevitable fate.

And for the Ford Escort, the american version is just absolute bollocks, screw that thing. What we had here in my country, was the european version of it and, any year of that for that car, was good. Even some 80's/90's european Escort looked cool. It's sad that most american 80's/90's cars happen to be bulky, slow, uninteresting. Europe? 80's and 90's were somewhat solid, ofcourse inevitably a few cars did land on bad zones but some, were at least neat to look at.

Also, I dare say this: As much this Dodge Aries is SU and all that, the front of it, reminded me of a certain Mercedes-Benz car. The headlights/grill made me think of that yeah. The front is nice to look at, everything else, not standing out, at all.

 

[RandomCarGuy17]

Well, those last few pages were certainly entertaining to read.

Okay, I think either that guy is really closed minded to other views or is trolling everyone. Because honestly, I never imagined anyone defending a car such as a 1980s econobox this much.

 

[eran0004]

Luggage rack. Sub-zero.

Honestly, it doesn't look too bad, especially when it comes to the late years:

Typical 1980's design. Call it PS2 boxy if you want, it's okay. Everyone doesn't have to like it.

 

[JockeP22]

The Aries has been in a lot of movies. Even Beverly Hills Cop II.

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Dodge&model=Aries

 

[FoRiZon]

Id rather have a Kei Car than a K-Car

 

[ToyGTone]

What the hell happened? What did i missed while i was sleeping? Why we are already in the 11th page? All of this for an 80's boxy american car?

Also admins and moderators, can you change my vote, i was tired when i saw this thread at first and some reason voted U instead of SU. Thanks

 

[niky]

The Aries has been in a lot of movies. Even Beverly Hills Cop II.

http://www.imcdb.org/vehicles.php?make=Dodge&model=Aries
View attachment 528945

One star on IMCDB means the car was seen in the background fleetingly, and was not a significant part of the movie in any way.

Three stars is where a car features more prominently. Four is where it's a significant part of the movie.

The only K Car to be featured significantly in any movie was this:

In Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

And it was significant only because of this:

And nothing else.

 

[RACECAR]

This is just amazing.

Also, SU. Rode in this as a child and had older members in my family that owned this, all of which have said how terrible it is. There are cars I like that I know not everyone likes but dear god, the lengths gone to just to defend a car everyone else hates reminds me way too much of 9 year old me blindly defending the Dodge Viper against everything else.

Me being not alive in the eighties doesn't prevent me from knowing a lot about 80's cars. In fact I know more about 80's cars (not motorsport or race cars) than probably all active members on the site.

There is no way that is even close to factually true (Considering there's likely a lot of these members that were around in the 80s). Don't write checks you can't cash.

 

[-Fred-]

The only K Car to be featured significantly in any movie was this:

In Ferris Bueller's Day Off.

And it was significant only because of this:

And nothing else.

Whoa, whoa, whoa.

There's this baby that plays a huge part in Planes, Trains and Automobiles. It's not an Aries, granted, but it's a K-Car.

 

[ZeroTheNorth]

Was wondering what all the fuss was about. And what is it ab- Oh.

 

[ScottPuss20]

Oh, it's not that bad people. Look, it may not have the best build quality, interior, exterior or engine, but the fact is, it's trouble free motoring for the masses who are not car nuts. To people who are car nuts, it's nothing to rave about and is therefore uncool. Although that wagon isn't too bad...

 

[GT'S BiG FaN]

@The87Dodge I refuse to believe that you are serious. There is no one that is this delusional.

 

[GTP_Ingram]

Holy ****, this thread got more angry at someone then the one where @JMoney based his vote entirely on the presence of wire wheels, I never thought I'd see that.

I completely disagree with that. I don't see any anger in this debate at all.

Most of us here find @The87Dodge's lofty opinion of what is a completely underwhelming car confusing (and so far, without a strong argument for its coolness put forward), and his claims about an encyclopaedic car knowledge laughable. But to give him credit, he hasn't taken the huff with the situation, nor has he started slagging off other members just because they don't share his unpopular opinion (the car itself is getting plenty of abuse, but then that's to be expected). In other words, it's pretty much completely unlike any JMoney debate.

Back to the car...

A quick Google search picked up a review, of sorts, from a former onwer (well, a guy who leased one for a couple of months). I suppose the key quote from the article, when comparing the Aries to the Nissan Sentra he owned before and the Mercedes 300E he owned after:

the Aries was bound to disappoint. It did.

 

[FoRiZon]

I feel we're on a very thin line between actually trying to broaden his horizons regarding cars and actually going for personal attacks...

Strike the subject matter. Not the man itself.

 

[CSLACR]

Bench seats were no longer cool in the 80's. They still aren't. That alone stops the car going past uncool.

 

[TheCracker]

Unpretentious transport. Meh.

 

[SVT Cobra GT]

Jesus, 11 pages in the space of a day over a cool wall post. These threads make me laugh.


Anyway as for this slice of American motoring history. Solid uncool. It's not as bad as some stuff made in the '80s and it's quicker than walking.