Test Drive: Dodge Dart a delightful surprise
AUSTIN -- The 2013 Dodge Dart is significant in so many ways, it's hard to catalog them and move on to evaluate it as just a new car in a fierce field of cutthroat compact rivals.
In the end, Dart is a very, very good compact, if the pre-production test cars flogged around the Hill Country here were representative.
Production begins soon and most of the models will be in showrooms in June. A hot-rod version called R/T and a high-mileage "aero" model both are planned for third-quarter introductions.
What makes a modest-size car with a throwback name, last used on a Dodge sedan in 1976, significant?
•It's the first credible compact from Chrysler Group's Dodge brand since nearly forever. The previous try, Dodge Caliber, never caught on, being a hatchback in a sedan nation, with a junky, hard-plastic interior in a soft-touch sea.
•It's the kind of fuel-efficient, modest-price sedan that automakers must offer to attract and retain buyers. Where would Honda be without Civic, or Toyota without Corolla? A much smaller presence in the U.S., that's certain.
•It's a test of how well the rapidly rebounding Chrysler Group — first-quarter profit was $473 million, up more than 300% from a year ago, and sales are up 40% — can battle the best companies in a segment where many of them do their best work.
•It's the first car based on a model from Fiat, which owns 58.5% of Chrysler, that's been revised to American tastes and standards. Fiat pledged to integrate its small-car, high-mileage expertise with Chrysler in its deal with the U.S. government to take over Chrysler in the 2009 bankruptcy reorganization.
Dart is based on Fiat's Alfa Romeo Giulietta, well regarded overseas for its exemplary driving behavior.
The Giulietta chassis was lengthened a foot and widened 2 inches for the Yank-mobile, and the sheet metal is different.
Dart chief engineer Mike Merlo says development engineers love to take the Giulietta for fast runs on the Chrysler test track, and swore not to lose its wonderful driving feel as they translated the car into American.
If Dart's a market winner, it'll be first of many Fiat-based designs to get slightly enlarged and restyled for the U.S.
•And Dart is the "promise" car. It satisfies an incentive goal set in the deal with the government to deliver a U.S.-made car developed jointly by Chrysler and Fiat that would get at least 40 miles per gallon in the combined city/highway drive cycles in Environmental Protection Agency's testing used to calculate so-called CAFE— corporate average fuel economy — ratings which are adjusted down by about 25% for the window sticker rating to reflect real-world conditions.
The 1.4-liter Dart with manual transmission has an adjusted window-sticker rating of 32 mpg in combined driving, and that works out to about 41 mpg using the CAFE formula, says Mike Merlo, Dart's chief engineer.
And what was that about looking beyond such things and evaluating the Dart as a compact among compacts?
Ah, yes; that. Well:
•The 1.4-liter, turbocharged model with manual transmission test-driven here was a delight. Pep-aroonie, plus a soft-engagement clutch for easy driving both in traffic and on the uncrowded way.
•The 2-liter, automatic was merely pleasant. To raise your blood pressure in that model requires artful use of the manual-shift mode and willingness to slam the gas pedal hard.
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