Europe was sold to PSA Peugeot Citroën in August 1978. As part of the sale, Peugeot phased out the Chrysler brand in Europe in favor of a revived Talbot marque; the rebranded Horizon continued production (nearly unchanged) through 1987. The sale of Chrysler Europe ended further design work on the C2 project; at the time, the company was seeking to expand the model line to a four-door sedan and a shorter-wheelbase three-door hatchback. Transition to American design During the mid-1970s, Chrysler held no presence of its own in the subcompact automobile segment. Following the unsuccessful introduction of the Plymouth Cricket (captive imports of the Hillman Avenger), the company shifted to the Dodge/Plymouth Colt (captive import of the Mitsubishi Lancer). At the time, the front-wheel drive layout was largely reserved for low-volume luxury cars (including the Cadillac Eldorado and Oldsmobile Toronado). By 1976, Honda (with the Civic and the Accord) and Volkswagen (with the Rabbit) became the first manufacturers to offer competitive front-wheel drive economy cars in the American market. To further develop the C2 project for the American market, Chrysler Corporation purchased nearly 100 Volkswagen Rabbits in the United States for the purposes of reverse engineering. At the end of 1977, the C2 project entered production in both Europe and North America, with Chrysler Europe sharing the Horizon nameplate (as the Chrysler-Simca Horizon) with the American Plymouth division. While Chrysler had trailed the AMC Gremlin, Ford Pinto, and Chevrolet Vega to market by eight years, the $2,500 ($ in dollars) Omni/Horizon provided the company an extensive headstart on its American competitors (which were released in 1981 and 1982, respectively) with the adoption of front-wheel drive, transverse-mount powertrains. Following the 1978 sale of Chrysler Europe, Chrysler Corporation retained the design rights to its version of the C2 project, continuing production in Illinois. Model overview The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon are five-door hatchbacks sold in North America. Introduced in January 1978, the model line was developed in tandem with Chrysler Europe, leading to the namesake Chrysler Horizon. Chrysler also sold multiple variants of the model line derived from the same chassis, including 2+2 coupes and coupe utility pickup trucks. Produced nearly unchanged from the 1978 to the 1990 model years, Chrysler had beaten out Ford and General Motors to the market with a domestically-produced front-wheel drive car to challenge the VW Rabbit. Chassis The Dodge Omni and Plymouth Horizon use the