We've been able to buy new Dodge Chargers and Challengers, complete with rear-wheel-drive and powerful V6 and V8 engines, since the 2006 and 2008 model years, respectively. Back in the 1960s and 1970s, of course, the original versions of those two models established themselves as genuine Detroit legends. In between the B- and E-Body Charger and Challenger and the ones we can buy today, however, came front-wheel-drive Chargers with European ancestry and Mitsubishi-built Japanese Challengers.
I've found quite a few 1982-1987 Chargers and 1978-1983 Challengers during my car-graveyard research, as you might expect, but I never expected to find one of each parked side-by-side in such a place. That's exactly what happened a few months ago, at a self-service yard located on the highway between Denver and Cheyenne.
I coined the Malaise Era term nearly 15 years ago, adapting the term from the "Malaise Speech" label slugged by disapproving commentators on Jimmy Carter's fascinating "Crisis of Confidence" speech back in 1979. Some charlatans will try to tell you that the Malaise Era spans from the year the last Baby Boomers were born (1964) until the dawn of OBD2 engine controls (1996), but pay them no mind. The Malaise Era began in model year 1973, when horsepower levels plunged and OPEC shut off the oil, and its final year was 1983 (after which modern electronic fuel injection and turbocharging finally brought back real engine power), period. The Mitsubishi-built Challenger (and its Plymouth Sapporo twin) was sold entirely within the bounds of the Malaise Era, and it was a fairly rakish car by the lenient standards of its time.
This '82 Challenger has the 2.6-liter Mitsubishi Astron four-cylinder engine, rated at an even 100 horsepower and a strong 137 lb-ft that year. Turbocharged versions of the Astron powered the Mitsubishi Starion, while numerous members of the Chrysler K Family received the naturally aspirated "2.6 Hemi" version you're looking at here.
Mitsubishi put some fabulous interiors in their sporty cars during this period, and the Challenger (known as the Galant Lambda Hardtop in its homeland) was no exception. Every single hue on the beige-to-brown palette may be seen in this car. List price was $8043, which comes to about $23,780 in 2022 dollars.
The 1983 Dodge Charger has a more convoluted history than the straightforward exercise in badge engineering that was the Mitsubishi-made Challenger. This generation of Charger was based on the "Omnirizon" (Dodge Omni/Plymouth Horizon) platform, which was developed through a combination of Chrysler Michigan and Chrysler Europe talent. You could say that the 1982-1987 Charger can trace its ancestry back to Simca and call it a French car… and you wouldn't be entirely wrong.
Only the first two model years of the Omnirizon-based Charger come from the Malaise Era, and some of the later ones were quite powerful. In 1982 and 1983, though, Charger buyers had a choice between a 1.6-liter Peugeot engine (yes, Peugeot!) making a grim 62 horsepower or the all-Detroit Chrysler 2.2 rated at the same 100 horses as the Challenger). Late in the model year, the Shelby Charger and its 107 horsepower appeared (turbocharged Shelby Chargers had to wait until 1985).
The Galant Lambda was a prestigious luxury car in Japan, and so its interior was much snazzier than the dolled-up-Omni (actually, Dodge Omni 024) confines of the Charger. On the other hand, the 2.2 Charger had a slightly better power-to-weight ratio and it cost a lot less than the Challenger: $7303, or about $21,590 today. Today… well, they're worth about the same.
1982 Dodge Challenger In Colorado Junkyard
1983 Dodge Charger in Colorado Junkyard
