The new Dodge Dart has piqued my interest ever since I saw it at the 2012 Chicago Auto Show. For the longest time they were unavailable, but they finally started appearing last fall. On a visit to the local dealer this past Sunday, I saw that buyers are spoiled for choice; there had to be twenty on the lot. There are some pretty cool colors, too. So, for those of you a little woozy from our land yacht brunch earlier this morning, how about something nice and light–like this Key Lime Dart?
I know this Rallye version looks yellow in the photos, but trust me, it was lime green in person. Think 1970 AAR ‘cuda and you’ll know the color.
Ah yes, another drab interior, but at least the seats have racing stripes! And really, what other color but black would go with lime green paint?
If bright lime green isn’t quite your style, there was also a bright orange one. Remember when you could get orange cars? Back in the ’70s, you could get anything from a Volvo 240 to a Corolla in this hue. This one certainly stood out in a row of silver, black and white Darts.
And is that a white interior? I think the sun is partly to blame, but this looks quite a few shades lighter than the garbage-can gray you see in many other new cars. I kind of like it, but I imagine this cloth upholstery would be a pain to keep clean.
Really, if you’re doing a Dart revival you should have white vinyl upholstery. And a pillarless hardtop with a concave backlight. And a vinyl roof! And a Special Edition model with color-keyed wheel covers! For that matter, how about a two-door GTS?
I mean, it’s great that Dodge brought the Dart back, and it looks nice, but it really doesn’t have a lot in common with past Darts–or with current Dodges for that matter, save the mini-Charger taillights. I look at this side view and think “new Neon,” not “Dart”.
Although most Darts seem to be found on dealer lots and not on the roads around here, I have to give Chrysler a thumbs-up for returning a storied name to the lineup–not to mention a bright palette of interesting colors. Who knows how many folks will pick the cool colors, though.
The Dart seems to be a nice compact in a sea of reliable compacts. But will they be collected in thirty years, like the 340 Swinger and 1967-69 GTS? And will they enhance or tarnish the Dart/Valiant’s stone-reliable rep?
I have to agree ,that side view does look like a Neon
They honestly should have called it the Neon. The Neon had a bad rap, but at least it had a rap. Nobody under 40 remembers the Dart name.
That was my first thought too, I headed right to the comments so I could make my own snarky remark. 😛
I’m fine with the Dart name, but I want a Slant-6 in mine!
Wasn’t ImpeachMint one of the post-Watergate Mopar colors?
Plymouth = Sublime
Dodge = Lime Light
It’s also unofficially known as ‘gang green’.
Like ‘panther pink’, whatever the year/car, those ‘high impact’ colors were/are a hard sell. When a similiar shade of green was available on the Neon, I recall one Dodge dealership sales manager ordered up five of them. Two years later after they came in, they were still sitting on the lot. Likewise, the manager had long since been fired.
That’s hilarious! 😛
You might be thinking of Anti-Establish-Mint, which was a Ford color in 1969 and 1970.
Yeah, that’s right … I think ImPeachMint was actually an ice cream flavor (maybe apocryphal).
Chrysler’s High-Impact colors might be more memorable, but Ford sure had some wild names from 1969-70, as well:
Anti-Establish-Mint
Original Cinnamon
Three Putt Green
There She Blue
Freudian Gilt
Young Turquoise
Indian Fire
Thanks Vermillion
Dresden Blue
Final score: Function 10, Form 0.
+1. I really, REALLY want to like it, but they totally half-assed the front facia, bears too much of a resemblance to recent, unlamented Dodge products.
How hard would it have been to do a modern take on, say, the Demon?
In the market place it’s getting creamed by the Focus and the Cruz.
That’s because Dodge screwed the pooch pretty thoroughly with the new Dart launch. First mistake:only having manual transmission models available at launch. Second: the much-hyped DDCT is just plain awful to live with, something even Sergio himself has admitted.
Factor in high sticker prices, reviews noting subpar interior build quality and materials, and the Fiasler stigma for some, and it appears the Dart will be a perennial also-ran. That’s too bad, because given its heritage it should be an interesting little car. It would have made an excellent third-gen Neon, if only that brand wasn’t irrevocably sullied by the first two.
The manual transmission story is just an excuse. As soon as the Dart came out, I started checking my local dealers’ inventories. They have only had token numbers of manual cars, just like any other compact store. The sad truth is that people looked at the Dart and chose competitors instead.
Another thing who didn’t helped, is the prices. For a full-equipped Dart, you could check an eye on the Avenger.
I dunno, CJ. I also checked my local dealers’ inventories when the Dart first came out, as well as online. Manuals outnumbered automatics by something like 3 to 1 for the first month or two the car was on sale.
In addition to limiting the retail market for the car, those manuals also killed any chance Dodge had to build Dart numbers with fleet/rental sales. I know Fiasler is actively attempting to reduce its fleet numbers, but they’re also a helpful means of getting butts in the seats of brand new models.
All that said, though, I agree that buyers may have checked out the Dart anyway, then moved on to other cars. There seem to be numerous reasons not to buy one.
I test drove one back in Nov, it developed an annoying dash rattle a few minutes into the demo ride. The engine really had to be flogged to get any work out of it.
The Cruze Eco struck me as a better vehicle.
Tim,
Any chance of photoshopping one of the ’13 Darts into a full Special Edition with vinyl top, whitewalls and full wheel covers?
I thought about that already! How about a Demon 340….errr 3.40?
(My old car, well a photoshop to LOOK like my old car)
How’s this? Just did it real quick, I know my photoshopping skills aren’t as good as the pros but I think it’s a decent enough visual.
And it’s even the Bill Blass version 🙂
Here’s my new Demon coupe LOL
That looks pretty good in orange with the white stripes 🙂 Now Mopar needs to bring back Plymouth so we can have a Duster 340 and ‘cuda too!
a few changes
That would look good if they made it.
I’ve only seen one of these on the road so far here in No. Virginia. I know the Focus has been on the market longer, but I see those everywhere, and not all of them say TED BRITT FORD LOANER in giant letters on the rear window.
I like the idea of the Dart. Of course I am one of the few people who really liked the second generation Neon. My 2000 example was a fantastic car with the upgraded interior and 5spd. The Canadian pricing on the Dart doesn’t seen to be all that competitive though. If I am buying a Dodge it better come cheaper than a comparable competitor especially since resale values don’t hold up as well. As a used 2-3 year old car I bet it will be a fantastic choice. Harder to choose your colour combo used though …
Last summer, I saw a new Dart at a local golf course. It was the usual gray with black interior. A Neon with a facelift, in my opinion.
I’d rather have a vintage Swinger 2 dr ht, like the maroon one with the white top. It’s hard to imagine a well dressed couple getting into a new Dart for an evening on the town. It’s hard to imagine anyone well dressed today.
Bring back the 1970’s!
I kinda like that I was a fan of the old Valiants though we vever saw the Dart badge. I wonder when this will surface here all the other Fiatsler stuff is here why havent I seen this yet.
I doubt you’ll see this anytime soon down under, this is a give me a free car company, special. One of the stipulations for Fiat to be given more of Chrysler after, they were paid to take the first portion, was that they brought a mass market 40 MPG car to market that was built in America.
Pretty sure they are still getting rid of Dodge Calibers out here, so who knows? The car looks like it would fit right in with the Hyundai Accent etc and it would have to do better than the Caliber, which sold a grand total of 410 units nation-wide last year!
My bet is that they will be harder to move than the rest of the slow selling Darts and those bright color options will likely disappear from the options list pretty quickly, but not from the dealer’s lots.
I’m afraid that this version will do no good for the Dart’s reputation as a durable car. In the FIRST robotics world there are a few mentors who are Chrysler engineers that worked on this project. They had 18 months to slice, dice and expand the Alfa platform wrap it in some new sheet metal and get it on sale. Now they are all great guys but there basically was no time to do proper durability testing.
At least the kids they’re mentoring will be able to fix them when they pick one up as a cheap newish car five years from now.
Hopefully, it is surprising how many kids come to our team that can’t even operate a screwdriver.
Right now on Ebay, several old Darts are listed. Prices range from cheap to what are they smoking? I guess it’s a sign of approaching old age, but I’d rather have a old decent, dependable car rather than a new one. Years ago, I got to talking to an old retired dentist, and he extolled the virtues of his beat up 68 Sedan deVille. As a twenty-something at the time, I thought the guy was nuts.
Now I understand what the guy was saying.
In 1981, I had a chance to buy a mint 1968 LTD 4-door sedan for a grand. Nothing fancy, just a 302, but it was a prairie farm car that had never seen salt, and the paint still shone. Not near cool enough for a 20 year old, though. I’d jump on it today.
That first interior shot looks like it could have been something from GM in the 90s. The rest of the car is a little better, looks about 10 years old.
As for the wide spectrum of actual colors, I noticed the same thing in the front row of a Ford dealer in Martinsville, Indiana: several very colorful Focii. It is a nice change from the usual silver, white, black and gray with a few red ones thrown in.
I have seen a handful of these on the street, but not many. I want to like it, but I have not read many good things about the powertrain characteristics.
It’s the same thing here. The only Dart I’ve regularly seen is parked across from ICC, at the federal courthouse. It is a nice shade of bright metallic blue though–not unlike the original Viper GTS’s color.
Out here on the western slope of Colorado, I’ve seen one on the road, and believe me, I’ve been looking. This is surprising (and potentially a bad omen), as Big Three products seem to be in the majority in this part of the state.
Houston checking in. I’ve seen grand total of two since it went on sale months ago, and both of those were in the past week or so.
Do they do a panther pink/moulin rouge model?I’d love one to match an early 70s Dart,’Cuda or Superbee(Think I’m the only fan of the 70 Superbee)
I’ve only seen a tiny handful of these locally so far. But they won’t stand out in traffic the way, say, a Fiat 500 does, (especially if most of them are painted in bland non-colors) so it’s likely I’ve overlooked a few.
There’s also a light blue (Laguna Blue) that looks like something that would have been used on ’50s British and French cars. The interesting colors will no doubt disappear before long. I’ve yet to see a Dart on the street yet.
Same old no choices on a base model SE: token red, blue so dark it may as well be black, and various shades of non-color. Hate to go up to at least the SXT trim level to get any real color options.
How about this? You can get white leather on the Limited model. I like it! I think the last U.S. cars with white interiors were the ’02 Town Car and ’04 Mustang.
(image from leechryslerdodgejeepflorida.com)
I like the new Dart (Neon 2.0) styling- interior and exterior. It sounds like the powertrain choices are what keep it from being truly competitive.
Give me a Focus ST any day! Even base vs base the Focus has more power and handles better.
Kearny Pearson Ford here in SD has a killer deal on Titanium Foci………$9K off! A Focus with leather, moonroof, parking assist, Navigation, Sync……..everything for right around $20K.
The Focus ST is pretty nice. I saw a black one last fall at the dealer:
oops now it’s $5000 off an SE (1)
http://kearnypearsonford.uptracs.com/media.php?type=New
Really want to test drive a the highest HP version when it finally comes out.
I’ve become convinced that yellow and orange are the official colors of malaise. They were immensely popular their the dark days of the ’70s, and, today, they only appear on bad Detroit products, emasculated A/B segment hatchbacks, and midlife-crisis-mobiles.
New 2012/13 and old 69/70 Boss 302s in Grabber Yellow and Orange are the official CURE colors of malaise!
I dunno, I’ve always associated brown, brown and brown for cars of that late-’70s period. Bright colors make me think of the tail end of the muscle car era circa 1969-71.
Brown, olive green and light gold were simply the ’70s equivalent of today’s gray, silver and, uh, light gold. People seem to prefer their cars to be the same color as their refrigerator.
My observation was the bold oranges and yellows are a (mostly futile) attempt to combat malaise, both automotive and personal. That’s why cars painted those colors are almost always particularly terrible or completely over-the-top awesome.
The general consensus on the Dart is that it’s mediocre. Hence the flashy colors to make it seem more appealing. For similar reasons, miriad GM products…especially Pontiacs…were available in a metallic orange/bronze through the ’00s. Ditto on yellow Cobalts and Neons. Nobody else offered these colors on a non-sporty model.
FromaBuick6, I really agree with the refrigerator correlation. Taking it back to the 50s works too with the pinks and turquoise colors. I love period colors for cars and architecture. A tr-tone Packard Caribbean with pink, or a Lime Frost 67 Cougar are more interesting than a USUALLY tacky updated color. They just look “Right” for their era. Ironically my brother painted a 56 Chevy 4 dr HT, originally Turquoise and white…..to Avocado green, back in the late 60s. THAT didn’t work. But looked right on a 71 Mark III.
I love yellow! They went from creamy in the 40s to pastels in the 50s/60s to “Grabber/Twist” in the late 60s/early 70s. Cadillac had a nice “Butter” yellow in the 80s. Kitchen appliances are, by their nature, more conservative. Appliances last longer typically. So we didn’t see the really bold colors unless it was a custom mod kitchen. My 80s kitchen is almond, brown, black, chrome and stainless. Not unlike my dad’s LTD CV.
There are very few on the roads here in Windsor, and we have a goodly portion of the population that qualify for the Chryco family rate due to the minivan factory. They advertise the thing for $15,995, but that doesn’t include air or automatic, which most people can’t live without. The properly equipped one goes for around $22k, with most folks opting for a Chrysler 200 priced about $4k less. There’s really too much competition in this type car niche not to have given more thought to price/equipment points.
I wonder How Many Avengers and 200s are sold to People curious to see The Dart, only To find The Larger Avenger To be More car for The money. It May Be worth it To keep both alive if one feeds the other.
I want Pink and Purple Models next year.
How many Avengers are actually sold new at retail? Every one I see is a former rental – various colors but all identically equipped with the 18″ wheels (they’re actually very sharp),
It was Dodge’ top selling car last year oddly enough. But then so was the 200 over the 300 by a good margin. I’m all for a fuller model range than they are working with now. I also Have Hope they Will branch out with a Chrysler ‘Cuda in the next couple years.
Dodge’s website vehicle configurator is horribly borked. Bad design options and randomly unresponsive. And like many others I’ve seen, unable to do any sort of meaningful screening of local inventory. Want to search for a manual transmission model? SOL. Configurator won’t let you block automatics. You have to check each individual “near match” to see if it’s manual or automatic. Or the color you want. Or the options you want. Etc…
It looks like an updated , downsized , 2013 “Intrepid” IMO.
Does no one else see many of the lines of the 1998-2004 Intrepid in this?
Put Another way, It looks like they chopped off a foot of my trunk.
That said I actually Like it a great deal. Would it hurt to put a few more well placed chrome accents?
I hope They get it right before they let it wither on the vine.
I think the Dart is a sharp little car. I sat in one at NAIAS and I really liked it. I don’t know why everyone complains about the interior, I found it to be very nicely done.
Even here in Michigan, these are a rare sight on the roads, and it’s a shame, as it appears to be a nicely done car.
In order to acquire my Oldsmobile, I traded in my Chrysler PT Cruiser. While it was far from perfect, it did not sour me enough on Chrysler products to never consider another one. In other words, down the road when the time comes to look at another car, I wouldn’t be opposed to considering another Chrysler.
Concur; interiors seem to to be the big topic re cars now… BFD.
Our 2002 Caravan boogies on, and I also would consider another Fiasler…
I like The Orange. I’d want to make sure that green did not turn yellow eventually.
These have color coordinated interiors which is nice. I Like Fords “Gotta Have It Green” more than this Lime but Maybe it just photographs weird.
I always use ONLY SYNthetic OIL and I think that has helped me not have usual 2.7 sludge clog. i Had more fun in my $500 Lebaron, so yes I’d drive a 3rd Chrysler.
I like Greens too LOL (see pic above). I loved the “Legend Lime” (a nod to Lime Frost in 1967) on a 05 Mustang GT, and the color shifting “Gotta Have It Green” is Grabber Green with a twist 😉 but it’s real hard to photograph! Even in ads it changes a lot.
Shifting quality of GTHI Green in ads is evident here.
It seems that the in late 1990s (Mystic SVT Cobra) to now, color is a changing technology that is visually different that the opaque (50s) or metallic (60s).
Hell, in the late 80s with water born paint it was difficult just to keep the paint ON the car! It either flaked off or the clear coat got a case of glaucoma.
The colors are welcome but this car needs more exterior pizzazz. The side view looks Korean like a Forte from the previous generation. Too plain and dull. If you replaced the badge and grille nobody would know if it was a foreign or domestic car. Such is the price to pay for the global car. Change the front and rear, add your badge and arrange your interior a little different from the others and your XYZ car is born. Even the interior colors are the same- charcoal, light charcoal, gray or light tan. Only on the Limited trim can you order an off white leather setup for a princely sum. The power trains leave a lot to be desired also. The 1.4 Turbo which recommends higher octane fuel and much more frequent spark plug replacement would appear to provide a real benefit to customers with it’s higher fatter torque curve on paper but something was badly lost in the translation onto pavement. The upcoming 2.4 should hopefully help in this regard but 184 HP is hardly enough to elevate this 3200 LB plus car to sport sedan territory.
I’ve seen exactly…none..in the wilds of central Virginia. I can deal with the exterior but the interior is very 1995 Cavalier, agreed.
And I’ve seen ZERO of these on the road in SE PA. And, I’ve been looking. Absolutely astounding in a populous area like this. Something isn’t clicking obviously with this car.
Incidentally, while I was happy to see the return of a fondly remembered historical name for this model (Dart), I agree with previous comments that this should have really been called a Neon. But, American auto manufacturers are obsessed with changing the names of car lines for no reason (other than to run from the previous car’s reputation; ie: Vega, Pinto).
Doesn’t really long term name recognition and brand continuity mean anything? How come I could buy a small car from Honda in 1973 and it was called a Civic and forty(!) years later I can still buy a small car from Honda and it’s still called a Civic?
Seen three or four here in LA. Surprisingly none were rentals. One was bright red and looked pretty nice. The other was black.
Really think they should have called this the Neon, past Neons be damned — they would have gotten some free brand recognition. I’m 29, and nobody my age remembers the original Dart, so it’s like starting from scratch. They could have done a really cool ad campaign (not unlike the ads they produced for the Dart) where they resurrected the name and tagged it with “The Neon shines on” or something.