The Plymouth Reliant and Dodge Aries are mid size cars introduced for model year 1981 as the first "K-cars" manufactured and marketed by the Chrysler Corporation.

Chrysler was facing a grave financial crisis due to poor business decisions, lack of investment in new products during previous years, and external factors outside of their control as the 1970s ended.

Lynn A. Townsend, chairman from 1967 to 1975, had pursued a hands-off policy of running the company, refusing to spend more than the minimum on new drivetrains or platforms as long as the existing ones continued to sell.

Soon, they were left with a backlog of unsold inventory which cost money to store and had to resort to the money-losing tactic of rebates to get rid of these excess cars.

He argued that thousands of American jobs would be saved and the company had been consciously attempting to build modern, economical cars such as the Omni, but fate had dealt them a bad hand.

Congress approved the bailout after Chrysler detailed the plans for their new FWD platform and the first handful of K-cars trickled off the assembly line at Detroit's Jefferson Avenue plant in late 1980.

The Reliant and Aries were downsized replacements for the six-passenger Volare and Aspen, which in turn were modernized version of the original Valiant and Dart compact cars of the 1960s.

Based on experience gained with subcompact Omni/Horizon of 1978, the roomier K-cars set out to build a family sized car with a front-wheel drive design powered by a four-cylinder engine.

While the Chevrolet Citation introduced front-wheel drive in the 1980 model year to replace the Nova, its unusual styling and problems with recalls hampered its success.

Initial advertisements for the Aries were done in red, white, and blue and emphasized American industry's desire to answer the challenge of Japanese products and also promoted the low $5,880 base price.

When consumers arrived at Plymouth (and Dodge) dealers, they were shocked to find that the Reliant they were planning on purchasing would end up costing hundreds or thousands of dollars more.