The Dodge Colt was among many cars of that era to become known as the captive import. The Colt was introduced in 1971 along with the Ford Pinto, although it wasn't nearly as popular. Since the Colt was Japanese made, it competed favorably with the Toyotas at that time. The Colt would span 5 generations throughout its lifetime and undergo many changes, but it still stands as one of Dodge's longest running names; the Colt name went on for 24 model years total. The Colt would be discontinued in 1994 model year for the Dodge Neon.
When the Colt was introduced, Plymouth debuted a similar model called the Plymouth Cricket. The Colt was a solid presence for Dodge, reaching 125,000 in 1975 and didn't suffer the rust issues like so many other cars like the Colt had. It started as a rear-drive model and was available in 2 and 4 door options, as well as a 5-door wagon. A 4-speed manual, and 3-speed automatic transmission. The Colt very strongly resembled the Toyota Corolla and made it through 1978 without many changes, other than larger bumpers in 1974 for the federal impact regulation updates.
In 1979, the Colt was redesigned as a smaller car and gained an identical Plymouth version called the Champ. This was a front wheel drive design, and initially was available only as a 3-door hatchback. With the new design weighing in at only 2,000 lbs., the Colt and Champ were quick cars and got very good gas mileage. This ended up being a very good thing since the United States was in the middle of the fuel embargo and gas crisis.
In 1983, Plymouth dropped the Champ name and Plymouth's version of the Colt was now named the Plymouth Colt. Hmmm. To be fair, they were identical cars. Plymouth probably didn't see the point of spending extra money on Champ badges, so the public had the Dodge Colt and Plymouth Colt. The Colt was redesigned with a larger body and moved out of the mini-car class and became a subcompact. In 1986 you could get a Premiere 4 Door turbo Colt; which was faster than the most popular fast compact of its time, the VW Rabbit GTI.
An all-new Colt would be introduced in 1989. They were redesigned again, dropping the 4-door sedan style and left only the 3-door hatchback and 5-door wagon. These Colts were now rounder, longer, wider and taller than the 1985-1988 generation. 1991 dropped the station wagon and GT model. The Colts were upsized again from the previous generation and had no more hatchback models this time around Anti-lock brakes became the norm, but by 1994, the Colt was no more.
The Colt will live on forever in the Dodge community!