Consumer Reports 1989 Plymouth Gran Fury

MoparDan

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"Production of Plymouth's last rear-wheel drive car ended earlier this year and there were no changes to the 1989 farewell edition. Gran Fury is a 6-passenger 4-door sedan with a standard driver's side air bag. Gran Fury was introduced for 1982 as a companion to the similar Dodge Diplomat and Chrysler Fifth Avenue, but its chassis design goes back to the 1976 Plymouth Volare/Dodge Aspen. This 3600-pound sedan falls between mid- and full-size, and since 1984 has been available only with a 5.2-liter V-8 and a 3-speed automatic transmission. Gran Fury's proven drivetrain is by far its best feature. The V-8 provides satisfactory performance and the sturdy automatic shifts crisply. Fuel economy is poor, however, and Gran Fury carries a gas-guzzler tax. In addition, Plymouth recommends you use expensive premium fuel. Gran Fury's chassis is inadequate in many ways; the power steering is light and imprecise, the handling is sloppy, and the ride is loose and bouncy. The full-size Ford LTD Crown Victoria and Mercury Grand Marquis and the Chevrolet Caprice have larger interiors and more cargo space, while front wheel drive intermediates offer comparable interior room. Look at the big Ford sedans or Caprice if you want...
 

MoparDan

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...a full size car with a V-8; look at a front-wheel intermediate if you want a more economical sedan" I found this with a bunch of Consumer Reports stuff on the Plymouth Acclaim, I used to have an '89 Acclaim and found this stuff in the glove box, even though they didn't seem to like the Gran Fury just remember on another page they recommend the Ford Taurus...so that should say something
 

old yellow 78

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...a full size car with a V-8; look at a front-wheel intermediate if you want a more economical sedan" I found this with a bunch of Consumer Reports stuff on the Plymouth Acclaim, I used to have an '89 Acclaim and found this stuff in the glove box, even though they didn't seem to like the Gran Fury just remember on another page they recommend the Ford Taurus...so that should say something
I remember the CR recommendation of the Ford Taurus. With their recommendation in mind, I bought an almost new '93 Ford Taurus which proved to be the absolute WORST car that I have ever owned, or even known of! The only thing that never broke or malfunctioned was the carpet. To put this into perspective, even the '72 Opel that I bought as a teen during a brief period of psychosis, was a better car. On the other hand, the Aspen's and Volare's I have owned (about 9 or 10 of them) have proven to be the best cars I have ever had, even though many people love to hate them. Go figure.
 

Dr Lebaron

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By 89 it was a old design anyways.
Be like in 1926 comparing a Dodge Brothers to a Model T.
Not that far part, but one is a old design and past it's sales prime.

I 'almost' bought a 92/93 Mercury Topaz
Glad I didn't.
I was ready to buy a 93 Stealth R/T T/T.
Was it going to be red or black and $48,000
Would have taken a bath on the price and need parts cars for parts.
I see nice R/T T/T's for $5000.
Bought a school teacher light blue 80 Volare 2 dr for $500 instead.
Wise decisions.
 

AJ/FormS

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I drove a 1980 Volare Coupe 225/904 from 94 to about 2010, until the seats fell apart. I got me some junk-yard seats and drove it 4 more years, until the body fell apart. I still fire it up occasionally to move it to a new spot in the yard.
That car turned a lot of miles, as our primary DD, as our secondary car,as the teenage daughter's car, the teenage son's car,as our back-up car, as our just in case car and finally,as our just get rid of it already car. But honey, it still runs so sweetly!I put an awful lot of tires on that thing in the 20 years we drove it. It was no speedster, no corner carver, no nothing; but it always got us where we needed to go. She's a good ol' girl.....
She only ever let me down two times; Once when the top-seam in the rad let go, and once when a fusible link popped. Both times I was able to Jerry-rig it and continued to my destination. That rad had so many patches on it already, and then the seam popped. I splurged and gave her a new one.
 

Aspen500

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From what I've seen, if you want to know what NOT to buy (in general, not just cars), find out what CR gives the highest rating. They are clueless..........................
They're the ones that a few years ago (maybe late 2000's?) tested a Dodge 1 ton, 4 door, dually, crew cab, 4x4, Cummins powered pickup. Some of their comments and complaints: "The step in is extremely high, the engine is noisy, it rides harsh", etc, etc, etc. Well, no shit! Imagine a truck like that riding rough and having a high sill height. Geez, who'd have thunk the old 5.9L Cummins would be noisier than a gas engine.
They absolutely despise the Jeep Wrangler and always give it a bottom of the barrel rating (noisy, rough riding, wind and road noise.........) yet Jeep still sells gobs of them. Consumer Reports is a joke. I don't read CR except maybe in a waiting room or something and every time I do, it's hard to not laugh out loud at some of their tests.
 

Aspen500

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They don't accept advertising but apparently the will accept bribes. LOL, they must be politicians!
 

CM360

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Car and Driver herald the Chevy Vega as the car of the year. Leave it to everyday Americans to find a niche for the Vega...Pro Stock. We made VW's into dune buggies, Model T's into hot rods, 1940-50's into lead sleds and right now a 1980 Dodge Aspen into a stock eliminator car and a '81 Diplomat into a 400 HP daily driver. Americans can do anything.
 

LSM360

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They have been busted so many times for taking bribes to get good reports, or bad reports for competition.
Yep. Never liked "Consumer Reports" doing new car reviews. Their title tells what they are supposed to be about. They are full of sh*t.
 

LSM360

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It's funny to look at their used car information from consumers, then at what they "recommend". They often are very contradictory when it comes to Chrysler products. I've seen their little circles show very reliable data from the consumer, yet they don't recommend. Ummm. Biased perhaps? They seemed to like Government Motors alot the last time I looked, but that was a few years ago.
 

MoparDan

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Yah they don't seem to know anything, in fact on the Acclaim they only recommend the Mitsubishi V-6 with the ultradrive transmission that should also say something, wasn't the ultradrive really bad? mine had the Chrysler 2.5 with the 3-speed auto which they didn't like very much and it was a pretty reliable car (the only issue that car had was the gauge cluster would randomly die and you had to hit it to make it work again!) In fact it was the best non-M-body car I ever owned. Plus I wonder how many of those "recommended cars" my Gran Furys outlasted
 
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BudW

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The Ultradrive is the 4-speed computer controlled transmission (A604/41TE/42LE) – which was used, until they went 6-speed in ’09 or something like that.

I’d trust that transmission and have done so for a long time – but the first couple of years did had some teething problems.
 

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Aspen500, I would have to disagree with you completely about Cummins diesel engines in a Dodge PU. That inline six is among the best engines ever built to me. Huge power potential, can be turbocharged up to 75-80 psi of boost without any internal modifications. Been there, done that, a twin Turbo 12-valve Cummins with huge power AND crazy power band. Much better than a TT Toyota Supra inline six gas engine which is great too. I consider Cummins better than the Hemi engines, eventhough the Hellcat really makes me think which is better. I'm not lookin' for a fight, just a difference of opinion.
 

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My "stock" '97 Dodge Pickup Cummins engine and 5 speed weighs in at more than my any of my other vehicles (ie: engine/transmission vs. entire car)

I wouldn't be surprised my truck weighs in at equal to or more than my 5th Ave, wagon and wife's minivan does, combined.

That said and it will; get me 23-24 MPH at 60 MPH (but I have to have cruise on to do that, otherwise my lead foot pushes the petal down further). At 80 MPH I get closer to 16-17 MPH (which is close to Redline - 3,000 RPM).

In town driving gets me 17-18 MPG.

Powerband is 1,800 to 2,500 RPM, but I have to shift at 2,800-3,000 RPM to keep it in the powerband.
BudW
 

AJ/FormS

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Speaking of powerbands;
How about those powerbands than cam suppliers tout? Like 1500 to 5000, or 2000 to 6000. How much like bs is that?
I think guys would have so much better success with picking cams,if the power bands were related to A) the torque-peak,the power peak, and tied to the engine displacement, and B) if a compression ratio range was recommended, instead of gears and TCs and headers.
I mean, let's say you have a 360 with 10/1, and you want a nice street cam. So you open the 360catalog, and look down the compression ratio column for say;from 9.7 to 10.2, and BAM!, there they are; cruiser-cams,street-cams,and race-cams .
Or if you look under 10.7 to 11.2BAM!, there they are; "NOT for cruisers-Fool!", and; "Hardly applicable for street,daredevil",and; "probably best for a drag-race type engine".
Or if you look under 7.7 to 8.2; BAM!, there's just one; "for cruisers only". And in the other columns it says; "your CR is too low, Fool! Stick with the stock cam or close to it."
So basically it tells guys with stock teeners to spend their money right the first time, instead of sticking a 280* into it and then whining about the doughy bottom end.
And if the HYPE says "this cam has an approximate powerband from 4500 to 6000"(which indicates the approximate peaks) how awesome would that be! Instantly you would know that cam is not for a cruiser, cuz it would need a big TC to even get close to the torque peak, and how often does a cruiser see 6000 anyway? But if your shopping for a hot streeter with a 4-speed, instantly you would know that this is sorta the top-end of the scale, and of course a drag racer would see this as totally doable, but maybe on the low-end of the scale.
Imagine picking the right cam in the first place..................Or building the engine for the cam,right in the first place............................Or building a 360 cruiser so you can run that cryuiser cam and boil the hides.....................Or pick a hot cam for your 11.5SCr street 273 and rocket the little A into kingdom come! Shazzam!....................Right outta the catalog!
 
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kkritsilas

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You could just call the tech line at the cam manufacturer's (or Summit, or Jeg's or wherever you would be buying the cam) and ask. Most of them do provide that service. It beats just guessing.
 

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I worked up a long response on this, but figured it wasn’t worth that many words.

My truck idles at 800 RPM and redline's at 3,000 RPM.
How much room is there in that range to have a “useable” powerband as well as a “best performance” powerband?
Note, a response is not needed.

My truck is stock and has 230k+ miles on it. Weighs in at 8,000+ pounds and turned in a time of 15.083 in ¼ mile (see Performance Meter ).

I’d love to put twin turbos (which would be a big turbo feeding an even larger turbo) and add a fuel plate to it (alters the fuel curve). All it takes is $$$ (sigh . . . )
 
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