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Illinois’ newest car

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* The new Dodge Dart was unveiled this week at the Detroit Auto Show. It’s not exactly my kind of car, but I’ll bet my daughter would like it.

I only mention this because the Dart will be manufactured in Illinois. Have a look…

You can click the pick for more images.

* More info…

Adapting DNA from corporate parent Fiat and sibling Alfa Romeo, the all-new 2013 Dodge Dart goes on sale this summer with a choice of three engines, three transmissions and a host of cool features.

Built in Illinois, the front-wheel-drive Dart is based on a lengthened and widened version of the platform that underpins the Alfa Romeo Giulietta, which corporate parent Fiat now refers to as its CUSW (for Compact U.S. Wide) architecture.

Four-cylinder engine choices include a 160-horsepower Tigershark 2.0-liter, a 160-hp turbocharged 1.4-liter Multiair and a 184-hp Tigershark 2.4-liter. Six-speed manual, six-speed automatic and six-speed dual dry-clutch (DDCT) transmissions are available. […]

Chrysler also has focused considerable attention on the Dart’s interior, which is said to have the roominess of a midsize sedan and comes with 10 standard airbags, dual-zone climate control and keyless push-button start.

* The interior…

* AP…

Some versions of the Dart will get 40 miles per gallon on the highway. Its starting price is $15,995, at least $500 below its closest competitors, the Ford Focus and Chevrolet Cruze. The Focus starts at $16,500, while the Cruze base price is $16,720. The Toyota Corolla, the sales leader in compacts, starts at $15,900. […]

The company knew it had to overcome an image of chintzy, hard plastic interiors from its leaner years. As a result, it paid close attention to the inside, says Bigland. Chrysler gave the Dart a soft-looking dashboard and doors, and developed switches that open and close vents like in a luxury car.

Dart buyers also can get touch-screen controls and can pick their own interior accent colors. There’s a choice of three engines, including a Fiat-designed 1.4-liter turbo reserved for the muscle car edition.

Also setting the car apart is the tail lights. The Dart borrowed the trademark horizontal LED lighting from the tough-looking Dodge Charger.

* The rear view…

Thoughts?

posted by Rich Miller
Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:19 pm

Comments

Will it be made in Belvidere?

Comment by TD Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:24 pm
Yes.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:24 pm
Meh.

Comment by Confused Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:28 pm
It sounds to me like you just committed to help the Illinois economy and buy one for your daughter. Good job!!

Comment by Fan Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:30 pm
===and buy one for your daughter.===

LOL. No. She has an automobile at the moment. Can’t remember what it is, but I have gotten to know the payment size.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:35 pm
Glad to see my buddies at the Belvidere plant have a new production line. You just can’t kill that plant, though many have tried before.

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:44 pm
If my wife sees one of those she is going to want it.

Comment by RMWStanford Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:46 pm
I can’t decided whether it is weirder to see the Dart’s name on a new car than it was 25 years ago when Chevy resurrected the Nova. Here’s hoping this relaunch is more successful.

Comment by Boone Logan Square Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:47 pm
===You just can’t kill that plant, though many have tried before. ===

No kidding. Some truly awful cars were made there.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:47 pm
I have many fond memories of my buddy’s ‘67 Dart in high school. He bought three Dart wrecks and spent a month combining them into a single functioning vehicle. Never hooked up the speedometer specifically so he could answer truthfully “Officer, I have no idea how fast I was going.”

Compared to the Charger relaunch, I give this one a C-. I don’t see any resemblance between the new incarnation and previous. I like the look of this one, but it doesn’t have an ounce of muscle to it, none of that menacing Dodge front end.

Comment by Colossus Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:48 pm
Decent-looking enough car, but doesn’t really look worthy of the Dart nameplate to me….

Comment by Thoughts... Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:49 pm
Colossus, my wife loves the new Charger. She rents it whenever she travels. To me, though, it looks cheaper the closer you get to it.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:52 pm
===but doesn’t really look worthy of the Dart nameplate to me===

I dunno. The old Darts looked like farmer cars to me, even the souped up Darts.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:54 pm
This Dart looks very much like a sporty Dodge Neon.

Comment by QBRNST Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:54 pm
Looks way better than other economy car competitors.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:54 pm
And, of course, no offense to farmers. I love farmers, just not their cars.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:55 pm
I just tweeted a link to the people who buy my cars (I-Go carsharing). I know they’re interested in buring local, cheap, and easy on the gas gauge.

Comment by Cheryl44 Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:56 pm
Doesn’t look like any Dodge Dart I have ever seen..

Comment by Stones Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 2:57 pm
Certainly looks more appealing than the new line of hybrid Mitsubishi sedans that are being promoted with Normal, IL, as the backdrop.

Comment by Dirty Red Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:02 pm
Only Dodge/Chrysler could take the beautiful Alfa Romeo Guilietta and turn it into a Dart….

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:03 pm
The new Dart looks great compared to the stoggy
old Dart. Italian design Made in America, better yet Made in Illinois, looks like a chic magnet.
I’m sure the girls of all ages will dig it.
I wish them well. No more junk from Chrysler what relief.I’m glad the taxpayers saved the former BIG
Three. No snark.

Comment by mokenavince Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:06 pm
Surprised nobody so far has mentioned the famous push-button transmission of the old Darts.

Comment by Dave Dahl Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:15 pm
I thought it was a Chevy when I first looked at the pic, specifically the front grill.

Comment by Been There Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:15 pm
Thank you for doing more to promote Illinois business then anyone at the Civic Committee.

Comment by Obamas Puppy Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:17 pm
The Alfa Romeo history makes me think the new Dart is a secret jobs plan for American mechanics. Alfas spend more time in the shop than on the road. I hope Fiat/Chrysler made this version reliable and cheap to repair.

Toyotas, love them or hate them, tend to be reliable and easy to fix when they do break down. It helps that there are lots of spare parts available, but it also helps that Toyota builds their cars to last 20 years. Affordable cars don’t have to be cheap, disposable junk.

But great news for Belvidere and the employees there. That’s always welcome news.

Comment by 47th Ward Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:19 pm
Rich, I haven’t gotten the chance to get up close and personal with a Charger but I have loved the retro inspiration to that line and the Mustang revamp. Yeah, the Mustang look is getting a bit long in the tooth but it’s still 1000% better than anything from the early 90s.

~sigh~
And tonight I’ll be driving home the ‘97 Accord with 220K miles.

Comment by Colossus Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:21 pm
i wonder if my wife would put off buying a new car until this one comes out?

Comment by bored now Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:22 pm
I just don’t think you should use the name of an older version when the new models are so drastically different. Seems more like an updated version of a Ford Torino.

Comment by Wensicia Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:26 pm
=== junk from Chrysler ===

Vince, apparently you don’t remember Fiats from years past. I had a Spider. Those cars looked good but were crap.

I bet the few dealers that still carry Fiat are thrilled to have competition from … Fiat.

Comment by Joe from Joliet Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:37 pm
But can you jump it across a ditch, land it on it’s roof in the fence line and walk away without a scratch? #1970DartSwingerMemories

– MrJM

Comment by MrJM Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:47 pm
Wonder if Tom Dart will start riding around downstate in a new DART to promote his potential statewide race …

Comment by NW Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:50 pm
Hey, it means jobs. I hope it turns out to be reliable transportation and they sell a lot of them.

Comment by Aldyth Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:51 pm
–Hey, it means jobs. I hope it turns out to be reliable transportation and they sell a lot of them.–

Good, UAW manufacturing jobs.

Where is the U-Haul, Mitch Daniels is so dreamy crowd, anyway?

If you can’t say something bad, you say nothing at all?

Comment by wordslinger Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 3:55 pm
Now if we could only bring back the Plymouth Barricuda!!

Comment by D.P. Gumby Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 4:12 pm
First, though, you’d have to bring back Plymouth.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 4:17 pm
I thought that Dodge was limiting itself to trucks in the future.

Glad that they changed their mind, and are building smaller cars for the American market — and in Illinois!

Comment by Capital View Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 4:17 pm
What Aldyth said. Good for Belvidere! (Yay!)

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 4:49 pm
And what Obamas Puppy said, too.

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 4:50 pm
I would wait one or two years to make sure they have all the kinks worked out.
It does not say how it compares in price to a Civic.
I would also have to drive one. I end up with Accords because a Civic does not ride as nice as an Accord. But I would like an American car, even though a lot of Honda’s are made here.
I am hoping one of the places they will be made is the old Neon plant off of the Jane Adams right before Rockford.

Comment by 3rd Generation Chicago Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:03 pm
When buying a new car I try to at least stick to a U.S. nameplate. We will not go into where they are actually built because the last one we got although a Pontiac was assembled in Aussie land based on a German Opel platform.

The two contenders at that time were the Dodge Charger and the Pontiac G8. We liked the Charger but the inside was very cheap. Still feel GM should have kept the G8 in it’s lineup. It is a fine road car.

For retro looks I think Dodge has done the best job. The Charger and Challenger are sharp. I like the new Mustang but not so much the Camaro. I was a fan of the old Dart Swinger and the Dart GTS. This Dart is retro in name only. So we will see how it works out.

I’m more of an old car guy. My last purchase was a 1975 Opel 1900 this summer. Makes a great grocery getter. The wife refers to it as the “Cracker Box”. Wanna guess how many more of them you see in town. Oh and you can work on it without a computer.

Comment by Bemused Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:08 pm
Looks like a great car as long as you are under 6 feet tall.

Comment by zatoichi Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:08 pm
I think Mopar is doing a nice marketing job of coming up with products that mine their image of years past while also seeming contemporary. This car looks like an OK design and expands into some new ideas too with the Alfa/Fiat tie ins (bearing in mind that neither of those marques has had great success selling in the US, or for reliability). I wish they would lose the 1960’s Detroit idea that you make the engine sound more powerful by using a meaningless word like Tigershark.

Comment by Excessively Rabid Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:11 pm
A nice looking car with some great features for the new driving generation.

Just wish we could really work toward significantly jacking up the gas mileage.

It would really be nice to see it in candy apple green!

Comment by Sunshine Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:13 pm
That’s great for Belvidere.
Any word on how much work the plant will need to prepare it for the new vehicle? In the past, that’s been great for construction jobs.
J.S. Alberici (St. Louis) used to get that work. It would be nice if an Illinois based contractor got this one.

Comment by Skeeter Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:22 pm
===Just wish we could really work toward significantly jacking up the gas mileage.===

In 1981, my dad had a Mini Cooper that got almost 50 mpg. Of course, it had no amenities. The side windows were sliders. The door handle was a rope. The fear that accompanied driving that car on the Autobahn was super-intense. Dad bent the axle by driving up on a curb.

But it did get good mileage.

Comment by Rich Miller Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:23 pm
to Joe from Joilet
Of course I remember my son’s fix it again Tony
special.But the FIAT’S of today are no longer the trash they once were. I think since they will be made in Illinois we ought to cut them some slack.

Comment by mokenavince Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:36 pm
Here’s to anything being made in Illinois….other than hard time.

Comment by Sunshine Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 5:40 pm
” riding around downstate in a new DART”

Worked for Adeline GeoKaris in parades with her Geo..

Looks like a neat little car, time will tell if it drives as good as it looks and whether it will be reliable.

Comment by Plutocrat03 Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 6:24 pm
It’s too nice of a car for me.

I need one that is a bit smaller, painted by youths with spray cans, and a dozen or so precinct workers come out of it with clip boards and seltzer water spray bottles.

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 6:28 pm
This just in …

Pongee Not Happy Sharing IL Spotlight

Springfield, IL (AP) - Pongee, upset at the press the new Dodge Dart is getting, tweets, “When you get your own Facebook page, Beep!”

The Dodge Dart, just a car, was as expected, mute.

###

Comment by Oswego Willy Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 6:36 pm
As a certifiable car nut and long time owner of an old Dodge SUV, it’s a decent enough looking car. Interior pictures look nice … but I would have to see the headroom / legroom specs, probably doesn’t match my old daily drivers.

The horsepower specs aren’t too bad either for the size of car it appears to be. Wonder how soon the tuner boys will have improved chips for the car, a more aggressive front / side air dam kit, and some vinyl graphics.I can already visualize the hood recesses flat black and two-tone paint scheme above/below the belt line.

Where’s the tape measure? Can we shoehorn in one of the Chrysler V-6’s or even the small Hemi …

Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 7:48 pm
Oswego Wilie,

You just need an old Rabbit with non-working AM radio and authentic rust

Comment by Retired Non-Union Guy Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 7:50 pm
Dodge Dart: “Eat my dust, Pongee.”

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 8:01 pm
“…Pongee–whoever you are…if THAT is even your real name.”

Comment by Anonymous Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 8:03 pm
I just hope it’s more nimble than the Stratus I have driven a couple of times. It certainly looks great in press photos.

Can’t say as much for Mopar, but GM and Ford have really stepped up their quality in the last generation of cars and the only thing that keeps them beneath Honda/Toyota is old perceptions.

Comment by Shemp Monday, Jan 9, 12 @ 10:14 pm
Shemp, good point.

When I bought my BMW SUV a few years ago, I strongly considered the GM products. In many ways the GM was a better vehicle than even the BMW. Price was the problem though. Legacy costs have really made it tough for GM to compete with BMW.

Comment by Skeeter Tuesday, Jan 10, 12 @ 5:38 am
This could be the ultimate Illinois vehicle - car made in-state and get a license plate made by a former gov!

Comment by BigDoggie Tuesday, Jan 10, 12 @ 9:00 am