The Dodge Dart and the Plymouth Valiant were primarily low budget high volume family compact sedans that were sold in the 1960's and 70's. There were not exclusively muscle cars by any means. They competed with other budget friendly compact sedans like the Ford Falcon and Maverick, Mercury Comet, Chevy II/Nova, Pontiac Tempest and Ventura, Buick Apollo and Skylark, Olds Starfire and Omega, AMC Rambler and Hornet.

It's just really annoying when people object to the use of a car's name just because a small percentage of them were ever optioned Hi-Po. People reacted the same way to the 2000+ Impala... Hello??? Another long history of being primarily a high volume family sedan...

 

Even that small percentage should be a reason enough not to use the name on a Fiat based compact.
I mean, what is Dodge's reason for using the Dart name again? Its not like anyone will buy it because of its past, majority of people don't even know that the Dart existed in the 1960s and 1970s.
Plus, I just like Hornet name better than Dart.

 

many upcoming dodge cars will be fiat based... no?

 

Yep ... majority of smaller cars and SUVs (mid-size and smaller) will be Fiat based.

 

Marchionne: 2013 Dodge Dart will have optional 9-speed auto, hit 40 mpg

http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/07/m...peed-auto-hit/

Dodge might have teased us with a few images and some initial powertrain details on the 2013 Dart, but Fiat and Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne has provided even more in an interview with Reuters.

According to Marchionne, the Dart is one piece of a larger puzzle for Chrysler in 2013, and the all-new Dart – based off a widened and stretched Alfa Romeo Giulietta – will hit 40 mpg thanks to a host of new engines and transmissions.

As previously reported, the turbocharged 1.4-liter MultiAir fitted to the Fiat 500 Abarth will grace the top of the Dart range, but Dodge also plans to fit modified versions of the 2.0 and 2.4-liter World Gas Engine, comically rebranded as the Tigershark.

When the Dart debuts, a Fiat-sourced six-speed dual-clutch transmission will feed the front wheels, but later in 2013 Dodge will reportedly offer a nine-speed automatic gearbox supplied by the ZF Group and manufactured in South Carolina. ZF officials claim fuel economy will be boosted between 10 to 16 percent over the dual-clutch 'box, and that should put it handily in the 40 mpg range.

And that last bit is important, as Fiat will receive its final five percent of Chrysler stock from the feds when it produces a vehicle with a 40-mpg rating.

 

9 speed?

Soon cars will have more gears than 18 wheelers ...

 

C segment and below is Fiat's home turf so to speak, and they are known for building some compelling cars. Personally I am more interested to see how they retool the Grande Punto for US consumption when that comes to pass, but this could be yet one more very competent entry into a segment already full of competent entries.

IMO Ford's biggest weaknesses with the Focus that will directly compete with this are

1: Options packages that are too restrictive even in an age where options packages are restrictive.

2: The dual clutch 'automatic'. Shift quality isn't nearly as bad as some portray but it does have a difficult time making up it's mind on occasion. The fact that you can't shift it yourself seems like an odd choice as well considering that this is one of the advantages of this design...especially since manual transmission availability is so restrictive even in mid level trim packages.

And by far, I would rate number one as the bigger of these two issues. Literally, some curious options issues are the only reason my wife and I have yet to buy a Focus, and I'm not typically difficult to please in this regard.

 

This is actually the newest Fiat which will be imported to the USA.
I heard a lot about plans for this car since it will be made in Kragujevac, Serbia at the former Yugo factory.

 

OT: I would like to see more companies heavily invest in Eastern European manufacturing, the benefits are just too promising to ignore.

 

Very true, however there's also a surprisingly large residual stigma attached to Eastern European manufacturing by some of the less-progressively minded. Personally, I own a gun made in Croatia so I like to think I don't share that mindset.

 

You are just speaking from your own opinion and narrow scope of awareness. I have witnessed plenty of people who remember exactly what Darts were. You cannot possibly know what the "majority" of people think or know. I have already visited numerous non-Mopar message boards recently where the discussion of this new Dart is taking place. I have found the majority of the reactions positive. Many people are also recollecting their experiences with the indestructible and reliable old Darts and Valiants that they used to own. Sure most of them were conservative basic affordable cars but the Dart name has never been associated with failure. Matter of fact, it has been stated that they were one of the most reliable and durable vehicles ever built and that the Dart and Valiant should have remained in production instead of being replaced by the very poor quality Dodge Aspen and Plymouth Volare' twins.

The Dodge brand is in global markets. Darts were produced in other countries such as Mexico, Brazil, Columbia, Argentina and even Spain. With the influx of people in the US from Mexico and South America there is more recognition of the Dart name as they remained in production and in physical use there much longer than in the US. Once the original Darts went out of production the name was applied to locally built Aspens and later various FWD K-Cars. Such name recognition is beneficial for reaching a wide demographic in the current US and other global markets.

Anyway it makes perfect sense to me that Dodge would want to use a name that has historical recognition with "old timers" 35+ just as they have done with the Challenger and Charger names which have been successful as resurrected on Mercedes based platform designs. In the case of the Dart name being unknown to the youth market, the new Dart will make a name for itself if it is an attractive good quality product with positive reviews.

Fiat owns Chrysler so it can use whatever platform design it needs to use to bring a compact to the US market. The new Dart will sit on top of an existing but expanded Alfa platform, no worse than the current Ford Fusion is sitting on top of a reworked Mazda 6 platform. The new Dart will be produced in Belvidere, Illinois where the Dodge Dart was produced from 1963 to 1976. This yields jobs for Americans. So yeah maybe the Dart name has great meaning to people in Belvidere.


As far as the Hornet name goes, that has a definite association with American Motors products and absolutely no association with any production Chrysler products or the Dodge brand. The first Hornet was a 1951 Hudson Motors car. In 1955, Hudson was taken over by American Motors and Hornet production was continued. Production of the Hornet was dropped in mid-1957 along with the Hudson brand with American Motors cars being rebranded as Ramblers. In 1970, the Rambler brand was dropped to become AMC and the Rambler American was replaced with a new compact named the AMC Hornet. The Hornet name was used until 1977 until it was restyled and renamed Concord for 1978.

 

I have a mutual fund comprised of "Developing markets" Go Europe!

 

I'm very aware of both Dart's and Hornet's history.

My only problem with the whole story ... Dodge stopped building Darts in the USA in 1976. So even people who bought them as used cars are probably close to 50 years old by now. People who bought new Darts are even older.
It's just one of those cars that yes, it was very reliable, but just too boring to remember. And younger population under the age of 40 knows nothing about it.
The main difference between Charger/Challenger and Dart name recognition is that Charger and Challenger were the cars that people remembered. Plus they're very popular with restoration. When was the last time you saw a Dart at the classic auto show? I actually never saw it in person and I attend at least 10 classic auto shows every year.
Second, there is also a huge difference between the original Dart and the new one. They're not even built by the same company. One was RWD with I6 and V8 engines developed by Chrysler and the new one is FWD with Fiat's engines and developed by Fiat.
Oh yes, and another thing: haven't they learned anything from Avenger that big cars design (in this case Charger) doesn't really work on smaller cars?

 

You sure it's Croatia?
There's a pretty big weapons factory in Kragujevac, Serbia, but I wasn't aware that there were any in Croatia.

 

Hey, I had no idea you own an XD.

Yeah, I'm pretty sure he is referring to the Springfield XD, previosly sold here as the HS2000, and manufactured by HS Product in Croatia. As for Kragujevac, I knew about the automobile connection with this part of Serbia but was unfamiliar with the small arms history there. I'm going to have to take a look into that.

 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Zastava_Arms

 

Yep, I'm sure.

 

You know what? In the whole scheme of things it's not important who remembers the old Dart, nor is it important what wheels drives the new one or whether it has an I-6 or V8. It's not even important that Fiat who owns Chrysler engineered the car and supplies parts for it. Chrysler took over building and engineering Jeeps and I don't remember that ever being an issue. Dodge needs a quality compact sedan like yesterday. It's not like Chrysler would ever consider bringing another I-6 or V8 powered RWD compact vehicle to the market with the Dart name especially since the Challenger and Charger are as large as the old school compact proportions. Chrysler owns the name and they are going to use it... Boo hoo hoo hoo!

 

If they did an AWD SRT-4 2 door version they could call it the Swinger

 

Nah, probably more likely to resurrect the "GTS/GSS" for a performance version, should they actually offer one in the future.

Only problem I have with the Dart name is, the slant six is/was a tough and reliable engine. With this car primarily being a FIAT... they better hope it doesn't mean "Fix It Again Tony" like in the past.