CM Series
The CM was released in November 1978, and was little changed bodywise from the CL model. Only sedan and wagon models were produced.
A sports sedan called the GLX (option A16) was released as a replacement for the discontinued Charger and earlier the Pacer. Its features included a Charger grill and dashboard, special cloth trim, Cheviot Hotwire mag wheels and black door frames. It was advertised as the car "For People Who Like Their Cars Rare", as it was the last of the sports models and the jewel in the CM series. The GLX could be optioned with a 4.3 L (265 cu in) Hemi-6 or 5.2 L (318 cu in) V8.
The computer-controlled Electronic Lean Burn system continued giving favourable fuel economy; when Wheels performed an economy test in 1979, they found the ELB-equipped Valiant 4.0 L (245 cu in) used less fuel than a 2.0 L (120 cu in) Ford Cortina. A Valiant achieved over 30 miles per imperial gallon in the Total Oil Economy Run.
Production of this car continued after Mitsubishi's takeover of Chrysler's Australian operations. Mitsubishi could build the car profitably even in small numbers due to its high 97% level of local Australian content and amortised tooling. However, the car was still badged as the Chrysler Valiant, not as a Mitsubishi. The profit from the sale of one Valiant was equal to the profit from 3 Mitsubishi Sigmas- by this time the Company's main seller.
Valiant production ended in August 1981 with production of the CM reaching 16,005 units out of 565,338 units of all models. Full-sized Chryslers were not marketed again in Australia until the 2005 release of the Chrysler 300C.
Read more about this topic: Chrysler Valiant, Chronology
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