Way back at the 2012 Geneseo, Illinois Trains, Planes and Automobiles car show, I ran across an endearing oddball. It certainly stood out amongst the dime a dozen red Camaros and Mustangs and streed rods. How about a 1989 Dodge Omni with less than 30K on the clock? And it was for sale too-yours for $3500!
These things used to be everywhere. It helped that they were in production for over a dozen years. But until I saw this silver time capsule, the last time I’d seen one of these was at the local junkyard. One on the road? I honestly can’t remember. No wait…I DID see one in traffic last summer, but it was pretty rough, missing the rear bumper.
I remember that the local family pizza place, Happy Joe’s, used them as delivery vehicles. By 2011-12 they were using a fleet of red Ford Rangers, and these days they seem to favor Ford EcoSports. But I digress.
The interior was equally mint. You can click on the picture to read the For Sale sign better, but it says this car has only 29,600 miles on it. Wow. I’m picturing a librarian or frugal grandmother as the original owner. Let’s face it. These-along with Escorts, Chevettes and Tracers-typically had the bark beaten off them at an early age. Usually by the first owners.
I think the price was (at the time) high enough to keep this car safe from someone buying it cheap and then ruining it. But hey, even ten years ago, who would daily drive an ’89 Omni? At any rate, it was quite the time capsule! Wonder if these are worth more or less now?
This was the next to the last year for these, the final ’90 models, oddly enough, added a driver’s side airbag, only to be axed in ’91. The early ’94 Neon more or less took its place. And now that I’m thinking about it, I haven’t seen a Neon in probably ten years too!