This is a 1980 Plymouth Arrow Sport pickup.  Excuse me while I take a moment.  *sigh*  I will get back to that sigh in a while.  For now, feast your eyes on this beauty.  It’s orange, it’s got killer 1980s stripes, and it’s for sale here on ebay in Camillus, New York (a suburb of Syracuse).  You will definitely want to read more.

1980 Plymouth Arrow

See more about the Plymouth Arrow and this gem after the jump.

The Plymouth Arrow, Dodge D-50, and later, the Mitsubishi Mighty Max were all the same truck.  They were built by Mitsubishi and imported by Dodge and Plymouth to compete in the burgeoning small truck market.  Ford had been selling the Mazda-built Courier since 1971 and Chevrolet introduced the Isuzu-based LUV (Light Utility Vehicle) in 1972.  Both Ford and Chevrolet were responding the the unforeseen popularity of the Datsun and Toyota pickups of the ‘60s.  Dodge, as was the case throughout the ‘70s, was years late to the party.  But when they joined in, it was with style.

Explanation of the above sigh:  One month after my 16th birthday, I bought a 1964 Chevrolet Nova SS.  It had new paint, a big V8, and a 4 speed trans. It was quick and fun.  However, it wasn’t economical, nor was it useful, and I worried about it rusting away in the winters where I lived.  So I did what any car-loving 16 year-old would do. I bought another vehicle – a beater – to drive in the winter.  You probably guessed by now that the beater was a Plymouth Arrow pickup.  Mine was orange, like this one, but it was the Plain Jane standard model.

The differences between the regular Arrow and the Arrow Sport were significant.  The standard version had a 2.0l engine and a 4 speed, the Sport a 2.6l and a 5 speed (the one featured here is automatic…yeesh).  The Sport had a tachometer, a floor console with gauges instead of dash-mounted idiot lights, an upgraded steering wheel, bucket seats, door-mounted speakers, carpet, and fancy striping.  Also, the spoked, body-colored wheels shown here came with the Sport option.  Another option was small, molded plastic door mirrors.  This truck has the less desirable truck style door mirrors.

My high school truck was not a Sport.  It was about as plain as you could buy.  (Original sticker price was about $4,800) My dad, on the other hand, had two Sport models.  The first was a fantastic 2WD Yellow ’79, the other was it’s 4WD brother.  They looked just like the one in this publicity photo:

After driving dad’s truck, I wanted a Sport of my own.  I finally located a black one under a viaduct downtown with a blown engine.  $400.  I dragged it home and pulled the engine and trans from my base model and got it running. I did all sorts of things to it and went all sorts of places in it.  Most importantly, I made the better part of my high school memories in that truck.  The Nova has some fond memories attached to it, but when I reflect back on that time of my life, it’s the Plymouth Arrows that hold the sentimental value.

At a later date, there will be a post chronicling the unfortunate series of wrecks involving my Arrows, but for now, I will apologize for the distraction and move on to the ad at hand.

This particular truck is being offered here on ebay with no reserve.  Bidding has been slow and isn’t likely to top $2500 in my opinion.  The truck is a very nice example, body and interior-wise, but it is not currently running, so that should hold the sale price back some.

The truck looks to be in very good shape, although the writer of the ad did a horrible job of both presenting it and describing it.  I suggest you take a look at the ad if only to see how not to write a good ebay ad.  He claims it ran when parked two years ago, and that the body and frame are 100%.  (Whatever that means)  It retains its original wheels and striping.  From the engine photo, it appears to have the rare A/C and cruise options as well.

I think it’s about 15% cooler because of the Plymouth nametag rather than Dodge.  Since the Arrow was discontinued after 1982 when Mitsubishi began selling direct in the U.S, many people don’t know they ever made a Plymouth variant of these trucks. 

Verdict:  You should buy it.  It’ll be easy to get it running and you’ll have one of the few surviving examples.  But don’t spend much.