Chilton's Omni Horizon 1978 - 1980 Dodge Plymouth Repair & Tune Up Guide Manual on 2040-parts.com

The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon were subcompact cars produced by Chrysler from December 1977 to 1990. The Omni and Horizon were badge engineered variants of the Simca Horizon, and were the first of many front-wheel drive Chrysler products to follow, including the Dodge Aries/Plymouth Reliant and the Dodge Caravan/Plymouth Voyager/Chrysler Town and Country.

The Dodge Omni and the Plymouth Horizon were front-wheel drive, five-door hatchbacks, introduced by the Dodge and Plymouthdivisions of Chrysler in North America in 1977 (for the 1978 model year). The Omni and Horizon were the first front-wheel drive cars produced by Chrysler, the first front-wheel drive, transverse engine, production cars in the North American market,^{[citation needed]} and among the first American front-wheel drive cars to sell in large numbers. (Previous front-wheel drive American cars such as the Cord 810, Cadillac Eldorado, and Oldsmobile Toronado were low-volume luxury cars.)

The Omni and Horizon were loosely based on the Horizon, a subcompact car designed by Simca, the French division of Chrysler Europe, and built on the then-new L platform. It survived, in various guises, in Europe until 1987.

Born largely out of the need to replace the aging Simca 1100, the Horizon was essentially a shortened version of the larger Alpine, giving the vehicle an unusually wide track for its length. The Horizon, or Project C2 as it was known inside Simca during development, was intended to be a "world car" (designed for consumers on both sides of the Atlantic), but, in execution, the European and North American versions of the vehicle actually turned out to have very little in common. When Chrysler exited the European car market (and sold assets to Peugeot, which subsequently sold the same car in Europe as the Talbot Horizon) in 1978, Chrysler retained the North American rights to the car, and began production and Presented as a significant domestic development, the models were initially priced starting at US$2,500. The Dodge Omni wasMotor Trend magazine's Car of the Year for 1978, and the related Talbot Horizon was voted European Car of the Year in 1979.Chrysler had previously avoided building a subcompact car, preferring to use branded imports like the Mitsubishi-made Dodge Colt instead.

The Omni and Horizon appeared at a critical time for Chrysler, when the company was in bankruptcy protection and sought government support to survive. In 1978, Chrysler had beaten both Ford and GM to the market with a domestically-produced front-wheel drive car to challenge the VW Rabbit.^[2] Unfortunately, the L-bodies miscarried at first since 1978 was a year of strong sales for larger cars and demand for compacts and subcompacts noticeably shrunk. These initial poor sales of the cars contributed to Chrysler's financial woes at the time, but when the company requested Federal assistance, the Omni nonetheless was an important piece of evidence that they were attempting to compete with imports and build small, fuel-efficient cars and might be worth saving.

The Omni and Horizon had few interchangeable parts with their European siblings. Aside from the heavier-looking American body panels and bumpers, the OHV Simca engines were replaced with a 1.7 L OHC engine sourced from Volkswagen, while MacPherson strut front suspension took the place of the torsion bar arrangement found in the European Horizon. The Volkswagen engine used an enlarged Chrysler-designed cylinder head and intake manifold and produced 75 hp (56 kW) and 90 lb·ft (120 N·m).

The HVAC controls were mounted to the left of the steering wheel rather than in the center stack like in most vehicles, meaning only the driver could adjust the interior temperature. Other Chrysler Corporation products (including the Dodge Charger and Chrysler Cordoba), as well as vehicles from other manufacturers came with instrument panels that placed the HVAC controls in this general location during the 1970s.

Shortly after their introduction Consumer Reports tested the models and reported that it lost control in hard maneuvering. The allegation received extensive mainstream coverage, including a piece in Time Magazine. Other auto magazines reported no problems and said the test did not approximate real-world driving conditions. Chrysler made modifications that included a steering damper and a lighter weight steering wheel.

Chrysler's 2.2 L K-car engine appeared in 1981 as an upmarket option to the Volkswagen engine. It produced 84 hp (63 kW) at first, rising to 93 hp (69 kW) and finally 96 hp (72 kW) by the end of production. The Volkswagen 1.7 was replaced by a Simca 1.6 L inline-four unit in 1983. This engine produced 62 hp (46 kW) and 86 lb·ft (117 N·m), and was only available with a manual transmission. The Omni/Horizon received a facelift for the 1984 model year.

Chrysler invested in a number of significant changes that ended up being used for only one year; the cars gained larger exterior rear-view mirrors (borrowed from the departedM-body sedans), a driver's side airbag and a mildly redesigned instrument panel, complete with HVAC controls finally moved to the center.

The Omni and the Horizon ended production in 1990, and were replaced by the Dodge Shadow/Plymouth Sundance, which were both introduced in 1987. It outlived theEuropean version by three years; Peugeot had bought Chrysler's European division in 1978 and re-badged the Horizon (along with the rest of the British Chrysler and French Simca range) as Talbots, with production lasting until 1987.

As production was being wound up, all tooling needed to produce the vehicle was sold to the Tata Group in India, and the car was produced there for several more years