New Dodge Dart? Yawn.

that is my big question. While I have driven more powerful cars.. the more powerful I have owned only had 185.. and that was more than fast enough. My current Daily only had 140 when new.. and I have rarely wished for more HP in it. Not everyone is Mario Andretti in the stop light grandprix

that thing is fugly.. but then so is everything else with a Dodge badge these days, so i guess it fits in the lineup..

now, to slightly divert this thread.. according to that video, Pastrana is driving a Dodge Dart rally car with Discount Tire on the quarter panel.. but he's currently the co-owner (with Michael Waltrip) of a team in the NASCAR Nationwide series that races Toyotas.. Dodge has an all new car coming for NASCAR next year, but no teams to field it since Penske is going to Ford- one of the current Dodge teams (Penske) has a car sponsored by Discount Tire. here's my prediction- Michael Waltrip Racing and Waltrip/Pastrana racing will switch brands to be the flagship Dodge team in NASCAR next season, with maybe a couple of other smaller teams switching to Dodge, too.. you heard it here first- not that anyone here will admit to caring...

I seriously don't get why so many people are taking a crap on the thing's styling. Have you looked at the competition lately? To be fair, Ford is really trying with the new Focus (though I don't like the front grill Triforce thing), and you can give a nod to Hyundai, but look at the Corolla/Civic/Versa/etc!

Too many car companies are stuck in this weird stylistic "we can't decide if it's curvy or angular so we'll just go for both" schtick that just, well, sucks. Kudos to Dodge for making an entry-level economy car that doesn't look like mashed potatoes. The Alfa platform is just icing on the cake, and I sincerely hope it drives as well as it looks.

I don't get the hate either. I probably won't be looking at this car myself, but there's something about it I like, and the figures and performance look market and segment appropriate to me. I like the looks of the white one in the press photos, I think its the "Limited", a little more mature and subtle looking. I could live without the red dash surround, too, but the interior looks pretty good too.

The Dart is on the short list to replace my neon in 2 years. And I am tempted to cover it with old neon badges.

i don't know why i hate modern mopar, i just DO

SlickDizzy wrote: I seriously don't get why so many people are taking a crap on the thing's styling. Have you looked at the competition lately? To be fair, Ford is really trying with the new Focus (though I don't like the front grill Triforce thing), and you can give a nod to Hyundai, but look at the Corolla/Civic/Versa/etc! Too many car companies are stuck in this weird stylistic "we can't decide if it's curvy or angular so we'll just go for both" schtick that just, well, sucks. Kudos to Dodge for making an entry-level economy car that doesn't look like mashed potatoes. The Alfa platform is just icing on the cake, and I sincerely hope it drives as well as it looks.

all new cars are fugly.. it's just how it is.. but Dodge seems to do "fugly" to a higher degree than other companies do.

i even like ugly. i just don't respect the material quality and engineering maybe?

I drove one today. I really wanted to like it, it was a demo with 4500 km for a stupid cheap price. I like the looks, its comfortable, and handles reasonably well in the short drive I had with it.

But it has one glaring fault that killed it for me. The 1.4 is just an awful, awful motor. It's dead until 3K rpm. I could not get the car accelerating with anything close to smooth and reasonably quick (6 speed manual). The throttle response is bad; you're trying to get to 3K as quickly and smoothly as you can, but unless you rev and dump the clutch, there is no smooth way to do this. The shifter is notchy and I didn't like the clutch feel.

I really wanted to drive this home today. But after driving it, I couldn't.

novaderrik wrote: that thing is fugly.. but then so is everything else with a Dodge badge these days, so i guess it fits in the lineup.. now, to slightly divert this thread.. according to that video, Pastrana is driving a Dodge Dart rally car with Discount Tire on the quarter panel.. but he's currently the co-owner (with Michael Waltrip) of a team in the NASCAR Nationwide series that races Toyotas.. Dodge has an all new car coming for NASCAR next year, but no teams to field it since Penske is going to Ford- one of the current Dodge teams (Penske) has a car sponsored by Discount Tire. here's my prediction- Michael Waltrip Racing and Waltrip/Pastrana racing will switch brands to be the flagship Dodge team in NASCAR next season, with maybe a couple of other smaller teams switching to Dodge, too.. you heard it here first- not that anyone here will admit to caring...

looks like i was way off in my prediction- Pastana is driving a Ford in NASCAR but still showing up in commercials for the Dodge Dart...

Schmidlap wrote: How often does the hot-rod version of a car come out at launch? The Focus SVT came out a few years after the Focus launched, the ST is coming a year or two after the new one came out, the MazdaSpeed 3 came out a few years after the 3 launched, the Abarth came a couple of years after the 500 came out, the ACR and RT Neons a few years after the Neon came out, etc, etc, etc. Wait a year or two and a 300hp SRT version will come along, until then the 182hp will do just fine.

Or... when they put the Dart on the A-body platform in 1963, you couldn't get a V8 until mid 1964. All indications I've seen, including some comments from the Mopar Performance reps, suggest they have something hotter in the works here too.

I haven't driven one, but it looks so far like they've got a solid alternative to the Civic. The only way I'm going to complain about it being a bad follow up to the Dart is if they can't get the same level of reliability relative to the competition.

I like it, but would wait for the inevitable srt4 version if I were buying.

Jeff wrote: I drove one today. I really wanted to like it, it was a demo with 4500 km for a stupid cheap price. I like the looks, its comfortable, and handles reasonably well in the short drive I had with it. But it has one glaring fault that killed it for me. The 1.4 is just an awful, awful motor. It's dead until 3K rpm. I could not get the car accelerating with anything close to smooth and reasonably quick (6 speed manual). The throttle response is bad; you're trying to get to 3K as quickly and smoothly as you can, but unless you rev and dump the clutch, there is no smooth way to do this. The shifter is notchy and I didn't like the clutch feel. I really wanted to drive this home today. But after driving it, I couldn't.

While the Turbo motor sounds good on paper, I think I would rather the 2.4L Tigershark motor.

If anyone at Dodge is listening I would buy a Hemi Dart today to replace the Cadavalier

I like the new dart surprisingly. I'd rock one for autox or for like scca t4. I can't wait until they are under 5k in a few years. I'd buy one new for my wife if she wanted one but she needs more space because she thinks we are having more kids. That's about as likely to happen as me owning a ZR-1 in the next two months.

I like the new dart surprisingly. I'd rock one for autox or for like scca t4. I can't wait until they are under 5k in a few years. I'd buy one new for my wife if she wanted one but she needs more space because she thinks we are having more kids. That's about as likely to happen as me owning a ZR-1 in the next two months.

The 2.0L tigershark is as powerful as the 1.4 turbo. The R/T is the one to get when it comes out. It will have the turbo tigershark. My guess is the R/T will be the FWD and the SRT will be 2.4L turbo AWD to pull all the rallycross Pastrana fans in.