1993 Dodge Spirit review from North America

Thermostat was shot at around 120,000 miles.

Very very loud belt squeaking noise.

Paint was very poor. This is because of a failed environmentally-friendly paint design Dodge was implementing in the early 90's.

Let me just say, get a Spirit only if you want a cheap, reliable car that is NOT going to turn heads... or in my case, turn heads because it squeaked and squealed.

We purchased this car as a rebuilt bent-frame vehicle with only 18,000 miles on it. It was driven between my mother, father, and myself for over 115,000 miles before trading it in. During that time it was hit by 2 deers. No matter what, it still kept on ticking at kept taking a licking.

The 2.5L 4-banger seems kind of like a sleeper, but push the pedal down and you're going places fast. The only complaint to be made is in the belt department. For some reason (it's very common amongst these cars) it squeaked very loudly from about 70,000 miles onwards. We tried replacing belts, pulleys, etc. and it wouldn't stop.

The car is very heavy and has front-wheel drive, so it was very good in the snow or mud. I drove it to a campsite on some of the most primitive roads I've seen in Virginia and it handled impeccably.

It also is a very easy car to work on. High enough ground clearance for a skinny guy/gal to change the oil without putting it on jacks. Because of the small 4 cylinder, you can reach almost everything under the hood.

Fuel economy is so-so. I got around 23-25 mpg.