Whether you love or hate the Japanese import tuner culture, you have to hand it to the manufacturers for being able to do more with less. Subaru, Honda, Toyota…they all made some stout powerplants that didn’t have to be a V8 design to rock worlds. Outside of Subaru’s funky flat-fours, inline fours and sixes ruled and turbocharging is the replacement for displacement. Size also matters…smaller and lighter is better for smaller engines. You can dislike the brightly colored, stickered-up, vape cloud crowd all you want, I’m right there with you, but the cars themselves can be brilliant. I’ve got no trouble admitting that there’s a small collection of foreign cars that I’d love to own, such as an A70 Supra or a Mitsubishi 3000GT, GTO, or the kissing cousin Dodge Stealth.

What I would struggle to admit to is that this 1991 Dodge Colt is on that list as well. I grew up hating anything that was called a Colt. Root that to two very ill-fated early 1980s Dodge Colt RS Turbos that certain family members wrapped around telephone poles while hammered. The Colts of the early 1990s were simply updated hatchbacks to my eyes, a shrunken hatch with an “Imported for Dodge” badge somewhere on the body. Blech…give me a Mustang or Camaro on blocks instead. That was youth and ignorance at it’s height though. I hadn’t had my eyes opened to what a 4G63 with a turbocharger could do yet. That wouldn’t happen until my first ride in an Eclipse in high-school, as I watched a one-armed girl rip through traffic like a mad surgeon with scalpel in hand. Begrudgingly, you have to admit that a tiny little pocket rocket could be quite fun.

So, for $3,000, you get a Dodge Colt, the engine that is supposed to be out of an Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution, and the promise of go-fast good times. What would we do? Easy…the Colt can use the all-wheel-drive system from a first-generation Mitsubishi Eclipse or Plymouth Laser. You know what to do from there…

Craigslist Link: 1991 Dodge Colt