15th Apr 2004, 14:57

I bought a '91 Sundance America yesterday from a friend for $650. The entire car is in great shape, and after checking Kelly Blue Book, found out the car is worth around $1600. My friend replaced the headgasket a year ago, had the front brakes replaced and tires rotated last fall. She has about 116,000 miles on her. Great looking car! Runs great!

15th Apr 2004, 19:32

Kelly blue book price is the dealer's ASKING price for a car in good condition.

Actual selling prices especially from private owner sales are often far less than book value.

At $650 for a 116K mile example you got a good deal, but not a "steal".

26th Jun 2004, 22:52

I bought my little white '91 Sundance America 4-door hatchback a little over a year ago, for $1500.00. She had only 57,000 miles at the time, but hadn't been very well maintained. Rust seems to be a common problem with this car from the reviews I've read, and in my case it ended up being throughout the fuel system, and three months ago I had to have everything from the gas tank all the way forward through the lines to the injectors replaced. Other than the fact that the fuel mileage could be better - it only averages about 22mpg, but then again I do mostly short trips, city driving.

I love my little car, she is the most reliable vehicle I've ever owned. Starts right up, runs like a champ, good power even on steep grades. Going to need to have a little more work done on her, but she is definitely worth it.

One thing I really love about this car is that the body is built higher off the ground, so there's plenty of clearance between the chassis and the road. Speed bumps are no longer a problem.

At only 87,000 miles now, I expect to have this car for many more happy years together.

6th Jul 2004, 11:50

I found a white 91 Plymouth Sundance for my high school daughter about Feb 2003 and I am jealous. Paid $1500 but it only had about 81k miles. Oil light kept coming on until I had the oil pan cleaned along with the screen on the oil uptake tube. Ran great until now. My daughter says it shakes and turns off, like it's struggling to get gas. When I checked it, it wouldn't crank. After I loosened the gas cap, it cranked and ran with no prob. After that I couldn't duplicate the problem again. It's only happened to her twice so far. Still can't narrow it down. Any suggestions? Could it be fuel injectors?

12th Jul 2004, 21:28

Hi, to the person who bought the car for their daughter - I would have the whole fuel system checked, front to back, as these are the same symptoms I had when my fuel system was rusted out. Even the part about removing the gas cap! The most significant problem I had toward the end was that after traveling a few miles, I could floor the accelerator and the car would completely lose power. The reason was that it was getting NO fuel delivery whatsoever so it was starving for fuel.

Just a thought, although what you're describing could be so many different things that have the same symptoms.

10th Aug 2004, 19:53

I bought my 91 Sundance 1 1/2 years ago, and it has treated me great. It had 82000 miles when I bought it, and now has over 100000.

The only problem I had was the ignition switch failed, which I had a shade tree mechanic fix for $75.

For a 4 cylinder, it doesn't get awesome mileage. I use to get 18mpg, then I changed spark plugs and air filter, and now I always get 21-22 mpg.

It just starting rusting on the rockers, but I haven't washed it since I acquired it (snow belt).

All in all, by far my most reliable car of 73 Plymouth Satellite, 77 Pinto, 81 Chevy pickup, 79 Caprice wagon, 74 Caprice, 73 Impala, 91 Geo Metro, 82 Olds Cutlass, 83 Buick LeSabre, 88 Dodge Aries, 86 Mercury Grand Marquis.

It starts every day, AND WAS ONLY $1,000.

7th Oct 2004, 17:07

I gave my Late Fathers 91 Sundance to my Daughter (with 42k miles), Just recently I discovered that the left signal light and brake light are dim and intermittant.

I replaced ALL 4 bulbs except for the front side corners and the problem still persists.

The signal blinker sound is coming from the middle of the dash behind the radio and I can't find it.

Anyone have any input on this???

Please reply to---

Jeff4570@aol.com.

27th Sep 2005, 02:58

Hi - I agree with you all in that the 91 Plymouth Sundance is such a great and reliable car! I love it even if it was pretty cheap.. I got her for about $1600 and had the 02 sensor replaced (twice cause the first time the guy didn't do it right) and new fuel filters, air filter, spark plugs and caps, but she starts every morning and although not very fast, is great moving about... I do have one problem though - I turn off my car and my lights, but the high beams seem to think they are on (although the signal is off) and will stay on... I didn't notice this till hours later (of course after the battery slowly drained) and it's a puzzle to me why they are staying on when the lights are off... could it be with something with the signal?

16th May 2006, 10:46

I bought my little red 91 Plymouth Sundance brand new in the fall of 1990. Had 31 miles on it. Now pushing 270,000 miles.

For 15 years I have driven it 4-5 mos of the year on bad forest roads up to the top of a steep fire lookout mountain (where I work in summer). The roads are rough, but it has enough clearance it will go many places most passenger cars wouldn't. (about 4-5000 miles a year on these kind of roads) Even drove a mile to the top of my 6208' mountain in 5" fresh snow without chains and it went right up. Of course it has had by now a lot of maintenance and repairs, but considering how I drive it, you'd have to expect that. Replaced the pickup coil around 180k (this will cause the car to just die when driving, or have intermittent starting problems) Its easy to replace though. Replaced radiator and fuel pump somewhere in that range. Head gasket blew and replaced engine 212k. It has had of course many new sets of tires, a few batteries, and brakes replaced a couple times. Last year replaced starter and then alternator. Also the turn signal switch in the steering column had to be replaced.

Lately it was having some oil leaks; replaced Valve Cover, oil pan gasket and rear main seal. Now something is still strange. Still some intermittent leaking or losing of oil and the oil light sometimes will start flickering when the car is idling or when I drive over a bump. It was a little low on oil and I added some, but this intermittent flickering still happens sometimes even though the oil stick reads full.

And when this happens the oil stick and valve cover seem much hotter than they should be. If anyone has any idea what is up with that I'd appreciate it. Overall the car runs great and has been very reliable, especially considering how hard it is driven. It is still running on the original transmission. In the area where I live there are 150,000 or so people living in the main town and outlying rural areas and smaller towns. I had noticed an unusual number of cars on the road just like mine (Plymouth Sundance or Dodge Shadow, some shade of red, made somewhere between 1989-95). So just for fun I started writing down the license plates and found over 40 different ones! Not so many of other colors, but a lot of these red ones. Considering these cars are 10-15 years old that seems to me a lot of them still driving around; sure don't seem to see that many of other models that age. Would like to keep it running, a great car!