Why is that lame?

Which compact has more horsepower in a non-performance version?

Let's see ...
Focus 160 hp
Elantra 148 hp
Civic 140 hp
Cruze 138 hp
Corolla 132 hp
...

 

Well if that's max hp? So sad. But I doubt it. You'll probably see an srt-4 that's competitive with the focus st and Chevy uh... Toyota um... Honda eh........ You know what it's nice being a ford fan lol.

 

Honda has Civic Si, Mazda has MazdaSpeed3, Volkswagen has Golf GTI and Chevy is working on the turbocharged Cruze SS.

 

The civic si is disappointing like usual. I know about the others I was just being a douche bag lol.

 

GTI is becoming irrelevant. When's that Golf R coming? ...crickets...

 

Now, but IIRC it's $32,000 base. Way too much for that.

 

I think the golf r and the gti werent to far from eachother track wise.

 

I had a '75 Dart for my first car, it was fun but not great.

My GF has owned a 2000 Neon (second Gen) since new, 81K miles now and it'll be 12 years old in May. Good car, and I've been trying to talk her out of a Versa for her next car and into this one. If I needed a Compact car for whatever reason, right now it'd be a toss up between this and the Focus.

And I'm leaning towards the Dart (even though I think they could have used a different name).

But I don't need it, I'll keep my Mustang and drive her car (whatever it ends up being).

 

Id rather roll it a beat up Feather Duster with the slant six.

 

get a fiesta

 

then again none of those are named after classic performance cars

 

I agree with you, I was against Dart name for Fiat's FWD compact ...

 

I like it, but I'm not a fan of the name either, should have broght back the Neon name IMO, but that had a lot of negative connotations for many people, especially those with the plain-jain automatic rental car spec versions, and the early ones with headgasket issues.

I like the original Neons, but only when spec'ed out with manual transmissions, the hotter of the two engines, and the sport suspensions. My first new car was a 1996 DOHC Neon Sport Coupe. I autocrossed it, drag raced it, ran a track day and a rally with it, travelled to more than 30 states in it, and just enjoyed the heck out of it for 9 1/2 years and 116k miles. I also owned a 2001 Neon ACR for 3-4 years that was a great car too, part of me still regrets selling both of them.

I wish them well with this new attempt at an entry-level car, the Caliber was an abomination and a very poor replacement for the Neon. I can't see myself buying one of these or any other Chrysler/Dodge products though, except maybe a used Viper in a few years.

 

+1 on the Neon.

I had a '95 ACR Coupe. It was a great car. Ended up selling it with 120k to a guy that raced it for a while.

 

They did a nice job on this car, probably one of their recent bests actually. I knew several people with Neons that were junk. Multiple transmissions, falling apart the list goes on. Hopefully this will be a reliable little product for them because it LOOKS nice.

Name = fail. They should've gone with something new.

 

If you take the classic muscle car era image out of the equation, I think Dart is a good name choice for this car. It's just hard to do that.

Interesting alliterations the big 3 are using for their compact cars...

Ford Focus
Chevy Cruze
Dodge Dart

 

Ha good catch

 

+2.

I never owned the Neon, but my best friend bought a brand new '98 Plymouth Neon which he still drives. 180,000 miles on the odometer and very few issues.
My brother's girlfriend has a 2002 Neon, also very few issues so far. Very reliable car.

 

All I have to say is nice fiat

 

I rented a Neon once and I hated it so much I probably would have run screaming from anyone who offered to give it to me for free. Of course part of the problem was I had to shuttle 5 people around in a 2-door for a week.