1987 Dodge Conquest - 9800 Mile Car

I'm fascinated by old cars that have very low mileage on them. Especially ones like this one, which, while a very good car, is not a Ferrari or some other car that someone might reasonably assume would appreciate in value. It's a Dodge Conquest. They sold a lot of these under various names. Why buy it if you weren't going to drive it? I can't imagine anyone bought one of these thinking that they were going to make money on it 20 years later...

Anyway, it doesn't matter why this car has low mileage, it does and it might be the nicest stock Conquest in America, maybe the world.

The Conquest is a Mitsubishi Starion. It's a RWD, 2+2 coupe. It was a fairly expensive car in its day, one that was meant to compete with cars like the Supra, RX7 and 280ZX. The Conquest TSi's turbocharged, intercooled engine put out 176 HP, enough to get it to 60 MPH in 8.0 seconds and give it a top speed of around 130 MPH. It was a fairly luxurious car and, typical of Mitsubishis, it came with, or could be ordered with, all sorts of electronic gizmos.

The Conquest body design has aged fairly well. It doesn't look modern and it doesn't look "classic", like older RX7s, but it doesn't look as dated and tacky as many older Japanese cars do. Inside the car the dashboard looks dated, but at least the gauges are analog and everything is well placed. Everything else still looks good and the seats look extremely comfortable.

The condition of this car is absolutely amazing. It looks new. I'm not a fan of dark tint windows, but they look good on this car. (They would also be 100% illegal here in Massachusetts and many other states.) The seller painted the wheels black, repainted the front spoiler to cover some stone chips and installed a new exhaust from the cat back. The rest of the car is completely original and stock.

The price of a new Conquest in 1987 was around $17,000.00. The price of this one, which as close as you'll find to new in 2010, is roughly the same. That's about $12,000.00 more than you'd spend for a very good higher mileage, well taken care of Conquest, but if originality and low mileage are your thing, this might very well be your one and only chance to buy a Conquest in this condition.

Located in San Diego, CA, click here to see the eBay listing.

Click here to see a Hemmings article about the Starion / Conquest.