“… never, never, take it home to meet Mom.”
Though 1984 was the debut year for the Dodge Omni GLH, 1985 was the first year that Chrysler’s Turbo I 2.2 liter/135 ci turbocharged inline four was available with it (for an additional $872). Packing 146 bhp and 170 lb-ft of torque, the turbo delivered 0-60 times in about 7.5 seconds. Standard power on the GLH was the High Output 110 bhp 2.2 liter/135 ci inline four and both engines came with a five speed manual transmission.
Mileage for the turbo was from 21 city/30 highway (18/27 by today’s standards) on premium gasoline. Giving up the turbo took you to 25/34 and let you run on regular fuel. Range with the 13 gallon gas tank was almost 300 miles with a 10% reserve.
The base price for an Omni GLH was $7,620 (about $16,600 in 2015 dollars). For that money, purchasers got a front air dam and side skirts, both finished in black, as was the grille. Distinctive aluminum 16-hole “pizza” wheels rolled on low-profile 195/50R15 tires—now considered a tiny size, but still available. Power steering, power brakes, and a sport suspension were standard and fog lamps completed the “sporty for a 4-door compact” look.
Inside, a GLH was pretty basic. You did get cloth high-backed bucket seats, rallye instrument cluster, dual remote mirrors, intermittent windshield wipers, and an AM/FM stereo radio.
The GLH had few exterior add-ons available. Inside, buyers could add options such as air conditioning ($643), automatic speed control ($179), and an AM/FM stereo radio with cassette.
Dodge sold 6,513 Omni GLH models in 1985, including 3,004 normally-aspirated models and 3,509 with the turbo, making the GLH about 9% of total Omni/Horizon production for that model year.
GLH‘s rarely show up in either the Hemming’s Motor News classifieds or on eBay Motors; I don’t think many of these cars lasted even a decade. Make mine black, please—so the ground effects match.
Eighties Cars 